Artist Date, Week Three ~ The MIM Music Theater

The Artist's Way 12-week course written by Julia Cameron only requires you to go on one Artist Date a week.  You are not required to go every week to some cultural event, museum or artist venue. It could be as simple as going to an antique store and browsing around.  The main purpose is to have a date with yourself.  But I just can't HELP myself.  I went on my third Artist Date this week, and I had two different dates in one day.  I absolutely love where I live; there is so much to do here, even when it is over 100 degrees.

Today I went back to the Musical Instrument Museum for their Wednesday Morning Interlude.  The free concert this morning featured John Ericson, associate professor of horn at ASU accompanied by pianist Yi-Wan Liao for a program of works from the nineteenth century performed on a variety of period horns.  Thank goodness I got there early, I was still the 225th person to enter the auditorium.  There were no empty seats, and they had to put up some folding chairs on the side.

I think a lot of people might have a problem going to events such as this by themselves.  I actually prefer it going alone.  The reason is when you go with someone you don't usually talk to anyone else there, because you have your companion with you.  When you are alone, everyone tends to talk to you and you can strike up the most interesting conversations.  Today I sat next to a woman from Gilbert and we had such an indept conversation that I actually was telling her the story about why my grandfather was banished from the continent of Europe back in 1914.  And, she gave me a few tips on some artist type projects that I may enjoy.  This exchange would not of happened if I went with someone to the concert.

After the concert I spent some time in a bead store buying a few tools I need, plus searching for beads in order to make myself two bracelets.  Since I am still in the practice stage of jewelry making, I did not spend a fortune on beads.  I came home, sat down and made two  beautiful bracelets that I will actually wear.  Life is GOOD!
                  

The Universe will reward you for

taking risks on its behalf.

SHAKTI GAWAIN

Genuine beginnings begin within us,

even when they are brought to our

attention by external opportunities.

WILLIAM BRIDGES

The words that enlighten the soul

are more precious than jewels.

HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN

                                                                                            

 

Artist Date, Week Three ~ the Gallery @ the Library

This is my third week of Artist Dates and the third week of football for my hubby.  Since his beloved Chicago Bears are playing on Monday night football tomorrow, he did not go to Goldies Sports Bar today  to watch them, but stayed home to watch other teams like the Arizona Cardinals on TV.  I on the other hand got the heck out of the house.  Since it is still a bit warm here in sunny Arizona, I decided to go on another Artist Date in cool air conditioning.  So I ventured down to see the new art exhibit at the Gallery @ the Library which is housed in the Civic Center Library. Scottsdale Public Art in partnership with the Civic Center Library present exhibitions and educational programming that strengthens awareness of the arts and stimulates community dialogue. 

The current art exhibition is When the Water Came: Evacuees of Hurricane Katrina.  This art exhibit is a collection of poems by ASU professor and poet, Cynthia Hogue culled from interviews with twelve evacuees of Hurricane Katrina, and photographs by Rebecca Ross which depicts their experiences.

Cynthia Hogue and Rebecca Ross shared a concern that the actual voices and photographs of ordinary people from all walks of life be part of hurricane Katrina’s final story.

When the Water Came gives form and voice to the resourcefulness of individual evacuees expressed through their own words and in the photographs of faces, rescued possessions, and lost homes.

I also watched  an autobiographical video essay called EMPTY HOUSES (23 min.) by Noah Saterstrom, following four road trips to his home state of Mississippi in which he gives a guided tour of vacant spaces including an abandoned family home, a ruined plantation, a suicide house, and a demolished coastal town.  Empty Houses is a brief investigation into the grief, fascination, horror, and romance of vacated spaces.



While I was at the library I also picked up some books on beading which will help me with my new venture into making jewelry for myself.

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.

DUKE ELLINGTON

What doesn't kill me makes me stronger.

ALBERT CAMUS



Artist Date, Week Three ~ Jewelry Making Classes

Today I did something that I have wanted to do for the past decade, and that is to take a jewelry making class.  If it were not for this Artist's Way course I may have never gotten off my butt to take a class.  So today I took two classes.  In the morning I took a Basic Stringing class, and in the afternoon I took a Basic Wiring Wrap class.  I made two bracelets somewhat similar to the ones pictured here.

Basic String Bracelet

Basic Wire Wrap Bracelet

I did enjoy the Basic String class much more than the Wire Wrap class because wire wrapping is much more labor intensive. I have always been more visual and love designing things, so designing jewelry resonates with me. I relish going into a bead store and picking out what beads should be in my design. I just do not relish the actual labor part of putting it together. Now if I could just design the jewelry and let someone else put it together then I would have it made. :-)   Wire Wrapping also is not my cup of tea because it has be to very precise and perfectly done to make it look good.  I am more of the "color outside the lines" kind of person.  I don't like to be so precise and perfect in my creations.   I have never followed directions very well, I always try to make it my way.

I will definitely keep practicing making bracelets, and then move onto necklaces and earrings. It is easier to design jewelry to perfectly accessorize an outfit, than try to find in the stores what you visualize.

After spending six hours in class today, my hubby and I went to Fountain Hills for their Oktoberfest. We ate brats, sauerkraut, drank good German beer, had some delicious apple strudel and listened to the music of the “die echten Wald-Baum” from Germany. All in all, a very pleasant day. Life is Good!

Artists who seek perfection in everything

are those who cannot attain it in anything.

EUGENE DELACROIX





Artist Date, Week Two ~ Ballet Arizona

Ballet Under the Stars

Last night I blew off my monthly neighborhood Bunko in order to go see Ballet Arizona perform in Fountain Hills.  This was a great decision to see Ballet Under the Stars.  The night could have not been more perfect for an outdoor performance.  The evening air was cool and Ballet Arizona performed next to the illuminated Fountain Hills water fountain with a full moon rising behind them.  They did not need an elaborate stage since the surrounding scenery provided an exquisite backdrop for their performance.

Ballet Arizona performed excerpts from Divertimento No. 15, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Four Temperaments.  Also, children from Four Peaks elementary school danced to music from The Nutcracker.

I truly enjoy watching people who are technically "working," like the ballet dancers, but are operating from another dimension of divine inspiration.  It is obvious that they put in many long hours of hard work to get to the level they are at, but their finished product, their dance seems effortless, like child's play.

The noun of self becomes a verb.

This flashpoint of creation in the

present moment is where work and play merge.

STEPHAN NACHMANOVITCH

Artist Date, Week Two ~ Phoenix Art Museum

This is my second Artist Date of the week and I cheated a little with this one by bringing my hubby with me to the Phoenix Art Museum.  There were no football games for him to watch on Wednesday, but have no fear he just signed up for the hockey package with Cox so he can start watching his beloved home town Chicago Blackhawks real soon. :-)

I wanted to go to the Phoenix Art Museum to see their three temporary exhibits.  First we saw Cézanne and American Moderism, the first exhibition to examine fully the influence of Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) upon modern American artists from 1907 to 1930.  The exhibition explored the critical function American artists and others played in establishing the reputation of Cézanne, who has been universally acclaimed as the definitive bridge between late 19th-century Impressionism and the modern art movements of the 20th century.

Bathers, 1890 - 1900

Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from the Bibémus Quarry. c. 1897

The museum offers an audio handset you can rent to listen to the decription of the paintings and sketches.  You can listen to an adult or kid version.  I started off listening to the adult version, but found it way more informative than I needed.  So I switched to listening to kid version which was still very informative, but more entertaining and fun.  The kid version was presented like being on a game show, where a host would ask you questions about what you learned and observed, then you could dial in again to your handset to find out if you answered the questions correctly.  The kid version definitely resonated more with my inner-child.

The second exhibit was Extending the Runway: Tatiana Sorokko Style.  The exhibition features a collection of more than 60 garments and accessories from Sorokko’s extraordinary couture wardrobe.  Tatiana Sorokko was the first Russian model to achieve international success. Moving from Moscow to Paris in 1990, she walked the runways for major designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy, Karl Lagerfeld, Miuccia Prada, Issey Miyake, Alexander McQueen, Marc Jacobs, and Calvin Klein, among many others. For over a decade, Sorokko graced the covers and editorial pages of European and American magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Elle and Cosmopolitan. Her influence as an international style setter and taste maker extends well beyond the runway; Sorokko was named to the International Top 100 Best Dressed list by American Vogue in 2000 and the Best Dressed Women of All Time list by Harper’s Bazaar in 2007.

 

 

Tatiana Sorokko

Balenciaga

Alaia Coat

Feather Opera Dress

Westwood Gown

 

 

The third exhibition was Creative Continuum: The History of the Center of Creative Photography.

 

The year was 1975. Gerald R. Ford was president, a little company named Microsoft was founded, A Chorus Line opened on Broadway and Jaws was making a big splash in movie theaters. And in Tucson, a lifelong dream was realized.

 

Aaron Siskind, Terrors & Pleasures of Levitation, No. 99, 1961

Founded by legendary photographer Ansel Adams and then University of Arizona President John P. Schaefer, The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona was the vision of two men who wanted to create an institution dedicated to collecting, preserving, interpreting and managing all materials that are essential to understanding photography and its history. Today, 35 years later, the Center has acquired more archives and individual works by 20th century North American photographers than any other museum in the nation.

Max Yavno, Cable Car, San Francisco, 1947

Creative Continuum charts the Center’s dynamic evolution, beginning with the inaugural exhibition of works by Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind and Frederick Sommer through today’s contemporary artists that are reinventing the medium. This special look at the Center’s history is an exciting and engaging “who’s who” of American photography and features works by Richard Avedon, Lola Alvarez Bravo, Louis Carlos Bernal, Tseng Kwong Chi, Imogen Cunningham, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Roy DeCarava, Andy Warhol and Edward Weston.

Rosalind Solomon, Bananas, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, 1980

In addition to nearly ninety photographs, Creative Continuum also includes a sampling from the Center’s Voices of Photography video oral history project, rare archival objects from the vault and examples of past exhibition catalogues.

Edward Weston, Nude, 1936

After spending the afternoon at the museum we headed to my husband's favorite place, AZ88 in Old Town Scottsdale.  He thinks they make the best martinis and burgers anywhere.  We both get a kick out of their art installations.  They are constantly changing the art on the walls and what hangs from the ceiling.  So we love to see what they will have on display every time we visit.  That is the art...the art of surprise. 

The painting has a life of its own.
I try to let it come through.
JACKSON POLLOCK



Artist Date, Week Two ~ The Musical Instrument Museum



I had been reading a lot about The Musical Instrument Museum in the paper ever since it opened up this past April.  Since it is still pretty hot outside, I decided to have another Artist Date in an air conditioned venue.  All I can say is WOW!  This museum will not disappoint.  This was also a great Artist Date to go on alone since you are given a wireless headset to wear throughout the museum. As you approach different displays, you can hear the instruments being played, either solo or as an ensemble.   Video playing on high-resolution flat screens gives you an opportunity to see instruments being performed.

The museum includes instruments from around two hundred countries and territories in the world. Some larger countries such as India, China, Russia, the United States, Congo, and others have multiple displays with subsections for different types of ethnic, folk, and tribal music. The instruments have both historic and artistic merit and many are more than fifty years old.

The Orientation Gallery showcases the artistry, diversity, and movement of musical instruments from around the world. The upright Steinway piano on which John Lennon composed his anthem Imagine in 1971 is on display.



The museum offers a unique hands-on Experience Gallery where guests of all ages are invited to touch and play exotic instruments from cultures around the world.  Here you can pretend you are a Japanese taiko drummer.



Music is something all humans share, a source of beauty and comfort in our daily lives, a means to give voice to our joy in times of celebration and a powerful force that brings us all together. Music is the lifelong friend that we all have in common. The Musical Instrument Museum celebrates music as all of these things—a sustaining human gift and wellspring of global culture.





Music is the language of the Soul, and I could not have picked a better place to go to than this magical and enchanting place to help me journey to my creative heart center.

Develope interests in life as you see it;

in people, things, literature, music -

the world is so rich, simply throbbing

with rich treasures, beautiful souls

and interesting people. Forget yourself.

HENRY MILLER







Artist Date, Week One ~ Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art

I went on a second Artist Date this week to the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.  There were three professional art exhibitions there, plus the young @ art gallery exhibition at the Scottsdale Performing Arts Center.

The first exhibit I saw was titled, Architecture+Art: 90 Days Over 100 Degrees.

The second exhibit I saw was titled, Spyhopping: Adventures with Sue Chenoweth and the permanent collection.

The third exhibition was Thirty Years of Collecting: A Recent Gift to the Museum. 



The last exhibit which was not done by professional artists, but High Schools students from around the state of Arizona blew me away the most.  All the artwork in the young @ art gallery is operated by the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art’s education department. The gallery is devoted to the creative work by youth.   SMoCA's VISIONS program, now in its twelfth year, brings together ca. 40 high-school art students from diverse Phoenix metropolitan-area high schools for a year-long series of activities designed to cultivate artistic skills, collaboration and civic engagement.  If you truly want to be inspired and really feel very optimistic about today's youth and where they are leading us, then you should go see these works by these creative and talented local youths. 



                                                                            

                                                                

                   Every time you don't follow your inner guidance,

you feel a loss of energy, loss of power,

a sense of spiritual deadness.

SHAKTI GAWAIN



Artsist Date, Week One ~ HEARD MUSEUM

                    MORE THAN CHILD'S PLAY:  AMERICAN INDIAN DOLLS EXHIBIT

I went on my first Artist Date on Sunday to the Heard Museum in North Scottsdale to see the American Indian Doll exhibit. I thought it was a great first play date to help bring out my inner artist, and what a better way to bring out your inner child than looking at dolls. Playing house with dolls has always been fun and extremely imaginative, and viewing this exhibit took me back to many happy childhood memories.


“More Than Child’s Play” showcases about 80 dolls, some meticulously crafted by contemporary Native artists to serve as historically accurate fine art works for serious collectors, others crudely fashioned and timeworn, as if long-ago children dropped and dragged them across vast plains or high plateaus.


“They are an echo of life in miniature,” says Janet Cantley, the show’s curator. “Their clothing is significant. The detail in the beading and the face painting and even the hairstyles are significant. It’s all of life in miniature. Important ceremonies and cultural values are all represented.”


The dolls come from native communities across North America, among them the Akimel O’Otham, Apache, Cocopah, Tohono O’odham, Yaqui and Zuni in the American Southwest; the Seminole in the Southeast; and the Aleut, Inupiat and Tlingit in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

Depending on their origin, some are made from corn husks, palmetto fiber, tree bark, reindeer horn, walrus tusk and animal hair. There are also dolls made to sell to tourists passing through reservation land and to teach tribal customs and values to children.

“They have an extraordinary level of detail and range of material, coming from northern Mexico all the way up to the top of the world in the Arctic,” says Cantley, noting an 1870 Cheyenne doll made partly from bison fur and braided porcupine quills.

    The most potent muse of all
is our own inner child.

STEPHAN NACHMANOVITCH

More photos of the American Indian Dolls after the jump.

Recharging My Creativity

The Artist's Way is a twelve week course written by Julia Cameron in 1992 to help unblock and recover your creativity. There are two pivotal tools in creative recovery, 1) Morning Pages, and 2) The Artist Date.

Morning Pages is simply journaling three handwritten pages of your thoughts each and every morning. These pages are for only you to read and no one else.

An Artist Date is a block of time set aside each week and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness.  The artist date is an excursion, a play date that you preplan, and do not take anyone on this date but you and your inner artist, a.k.a your creative child.

I just started The Artist's Way today and I am writing this blog completely for my own creative expression and to chronicle my weekly artist dates.  This is a great time to start this 12-week program now that my husband has college and professional football to keep him busy.  :-)

The position of the artist is humble. 

He is essentially a channel.

PIET MONDRIAN