Art and Conflict Resolution Workshop

This is the cover sheet for my Art/Conflict Resolution Workshop entitled "Accessing the Ancient Wisdom of the Shamans through Power Animals." It is designed for use with juveniles in the court system and incarcerated or formerly incarcerated juveniles and adults.

No More Black Umbrellas

Just say no to black umbrellas!

Interview @ Brooklyn DA's Office 10.8.09

I'm really proud of my sticker from the Juvenile Crimes Unit of the Brooklyn DA's Office. I got it at my interview with Ms. R. of the DA's office. We talked for two hours. I enjoyed talking about myself and my life. (I love a captive audience!) After the interview, I felt really good. I felt like my life work had begun. Of course my life purpose also includes art, so I guess one can have more than one life purpose. In fact, I seem to get a new one every couple of years or so!

I haven't actually started volunteer mentoring yet. So it's not a definite. When I do, probably in the beginning of November, my mentee will be a woman or girl 13 - 25. Formerly incarcerated for violent crimes, usually directed toward a mother, boyfriend, etc., perhaps incarcerated more than once. Ms. R. said "stranger violence" is rare.

Artist Statement – first draft

I'm tasking myself with writing an Artist Statement right now. Here's my first take:

In my digital renderings, I examine the place where science and spirituality meet. To say that I use my work to explore the mysteries of nature would be an understatement. Perhaps some examples will serve us here...an angler fish perches in a tree, the glow from it’s headlamp illuminating a book on meditation. A Tibetan demon peers through a window where a Buddha wearing an apron is busy in the kitchen.

In my series of nine planet images, “The Planets and Planettes” I envision these heavenly bodies in an entirely new way. Each exists in a world of its own, involved in the arcane activities of his or her own private mythology. These images can be enlarged to mural scale, 5 feet high by 11 feet wide. The addition of Sedna, the Sun, and the Moon would make for a set of 12.

The enormous amount of of detail in my work imparts a sense of otherworldliness to everyday objects, whether a planet, a mole, or a petunia. Though the work is figurative, each area of minute texture and pattern becomes a world of abstraction all on its own that draws the eye inward providing a glimpse of the world of spirit at the quantum level. I seem to be looking at my subject through a microscope, getting closer and closer, till we merge together into one entity.

Whether it’s an orangutan in a dressing gown with a lollipop in one hand and Mao’s little Red Book in another or a “Buddhess” bathing a passel of axolatls (amphibious pink animals often used as pets) in a fifties-style kitchen, I leave my the viewer with a feeling that the the universe is a benevolent and far more humorous place than we ever dared to imagine. In a world such as this, anything is possible, and nothing can be taken for granted.

I have questions about this: length? Should it include any biographical info or info about projects I have worked on? Art exhibitions? What motivates me (for example my interest in science). I'd love to hear any suggestions or comments!

Happy Autumn everyone!