Photos

Some of the art activities that the residents at House of Ruth Maryland have done recently:

BIRDS (3-5 year olds)

HOUSES (collograph plates ages 4-12)

PRINTMAKING (inking the collograph plates)

SCARECROWS (all ages)

The moms really took charge with the scarecrows. YAY MOMS! These are so awesome in person. The residents also wrote some of the things they wanted to scare away. Some of my favorite include: raccoons, giants, aliens, people, birds, violence, failure, mice/rats.

I love my job!

p.s. this is my three-hundredth post!

Pocketful of Posie

So the MACAns and I made a group "quilt" (very loosely based on materials, not so much structure).

One of the pieces, by Alexis Iammarino was participatory. We all put an arm in a "sleeve", linked hands with the person across from us and did this tension/spin. We bent our knees and leaned out from the circle, and our weight was balanced by the person across from us directly. Then we started moving. Alexis is a dancer, so much of her art is either based in movement or is very theatrical in some way. Our professor for this class took some photos, and here they are...

'Critique' was a pleasure, as always.

Be My Guest

Here is a link to The Pixel Project's blog, and a post that I was asked to write recently, based on my "survivor story". I am very pleased that I could contribute in this way to such a fine, inclusive organization...
http://www.thepixelproject.net/2010/10/26/survivor-story-my-love-is-more-powerful-than-violence/

The Other Side

My paintings will be in this exhibition soon enough! Alicia Porter's curatorial debut...

Check it Arizona!

Milwaukee...

 

My installation, Passageways will be available for viewing at this coming event!

Terry McCormick Gallery

Contemporary Fine and Folk Art

A Reception: Featuring Fondé P. Bridges

Gallery Day, October 16, 2010, 12 – 5 pm
2522 North 18th Street
414.264.6766

Fondé P. Bridges will share his poetry at 1 & 4pm.  Luminous, Fondé's new inspirational audio elixir comprised of selected inspirational sayings from his sold out self-published book 101 Simple Suggestions for Better Living, will be available for purchase.

ABOUT FONDÉ
Fondé P. Bridges is an expert dynamo motivational speaker and inspirational author with a wonderful over flowing gift of words. He promotes and emphasizes the need for self‑efficacy and has found that people respond deeply to the power of encouraging words and the instant impact words have on self-esteem. One of his pearls of wisdom is "You were born with what you need to succeed, the rest you'll get as you grow!" Hire Fondé to host your event, present in-service teacher workshops and work with k-12 schools. Visit http://tiny.cc/k1y7y to hear Fondé discuss the Terry McCormick Gallery with Adam Carr on 88.9 Radio Milwaukee.

TESTIMONIAL
On a 2700-mile road trip from Milwaukee to San Diego, I listened to this fellow Libra’s words through most of my journey and it gave me a kind of peace. It was just what I needed to guide me. I could not have asked for any better companion. Everybody really likes the action part at the end of each statement, like "Do it!" Nothing could be…more resonating than the endings. The endings are the catch!
                                                 —Painter, Writer, Musician, Eddie (Fazz) Ngwa

Link to Evelyn Patricia Terry's background as a new contributor to the Portal Wisconsin Blog:

http://portalwisconsin.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/how-this-all-started/

New(s) II

Yep. Just enough time for a few links:

My mural was recently (August) featured in the JSOnline's Milwaukee Murals slide show!  Two photos are in there, the next is a close-up. I was happy to see mine (faded but untagged) amongst the lot of fine public murals featured, and I was happy there were a lot more from the Art in The Alleys Project 2008.
God only knows why, but murals in general, happen to be a very big issue in the Milwaukee community. People still have very strong opinions on Public Art of all kinds within the city, as evidenced by the related article on JSOnline's Art City blog. You can reach that through the slide show as well.
The home of Art in the Alleys, Tru Skool's recent controversial muraling, the Blue Shirt at the airport, the Bronzed Fonz downtown, and more and more....Milwaukee is a hotbed of conservativism in public art. They often seem to think they've chosen an inappropriate piece, or have put the piece in an inappropriate place. They seem to hate art by youth or "outsiders", and often hate art by well-renowned artists too....you can never tell, and you never win as an artist in, or dealing with, Milwaukee.

From my experience, Baltimore is nothing like that...just sayin'. In Baltimore, there is so much public art available for viewing. The more I see it here, the more inclined I am to appreciate the plethora offered to me. As I said recently in the piece I wrote about my work for My Creation in The Urbanite Baltimore, it's constant artistic eye candy here in Baltimore. Every two or three blocks you can find a piece of public art, no exaggeration. If they didn't like murals here, I doubt I'd see so many. My two cents, and a link to one of my favorites in Bmore...click the link, and use the thumbnails at the bottom to see the different locations that this absolutely striking image was painted...the Baltimore Love Project.



One more topic:
I was mentioned in The Pixel Project's blog about the recent Paint it Purple campaign, and I will soon be writing a guest blog post for them. I am currently trying to decide what issue, specifically, to write about. And if it will be addressing art or art therapy or just domestic violence. Will it be my story, or someone else's...? All are questions I will be thinking about in the coming week.

That's all from me...Cheers!

New(s)

Good news all around...I was recently featured in the Urbanite Baltimore's, My Creation section! Link is here.

And I am currently in another show. This weekend is ArtWalk in Riverwest Milwaukee. I have a few of my pieces in the All-Members' Show at The Jazz Gallery. You can see them here, in this post. And can I just reiterate...I strongly dislike missing my own exhibitions...? I do.

To Tell Her Story

"Love is stronger than violence."
-Hermann Hesse

I have been working and THINKING about my new piece for about a week now. There have been elements other than the piece itself to consider. Namely, The Pixel Project's Paint it Purple Campaign for which I am a part of. I feel that my art should follow suit, because that's what I'm meant to do, rather than bake cupcakes. Their campaign name is "Paint it Purple" so how could I not actually paint something? I created a visual 'response' to their 'call'.

I decided awhile ago that I would work larger. In general, I have not gotten much opportunity to work this big, I hadn't the equipment. But now I do! I made this piece a 24" x 50". I would say it rivals some of my largest pieces ever made. And certainly the subject matter does as well.

I am not usually so direct, but everything I needed just fell into place for this, and I believe I can over-think a subject such as domestic violence, it's so complex. However, sometimes things are about being economical. I know I have spoken about economy of movement and language before, and this is much the same: economy of thought.

I was set on using the quote above, and I realized that in order to tell my mother's story, I had to tell mine as well. I have used and manipulated the quote into: "My love is stronger than your violence". I am pretty happy with this piece, and separately, the actions I took to support the Pixel Project.

 My Love Is Stronger Than Your Violence

To see the other post I made for the Pixel Project's campaign, please go here: http://artinshanaty.blogspot.com/2010/10/painting-it-purple.html

Painting it Purple

Hi all! I have been busy baking, and making a general mess out of my kitchen and myself today. "Why?", you ask? It's because I am supporting the Pixel Project this year in their campaign to end violence against women. I have recorded a PSA endorsement for them on youtube, as well as baking and decorating cupcakes for this very blog post. Global web campaign, here I am!

Here is my youtube video...



(or a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc41Ik_mSRw)


And here is my weird-looking cupcake. If you'll notice, I had a food coloring explosion of sorts...

and since I am clearly no baker or cake decorator, I created a corresponding "response" painting which you can find here: http://artinshanaty.blogspot.com/2010/10/to-tell-her-story.html

With everyone's help, we can end violence against women.