HOODOO SHE BREW by D. Knight

A friend of mine invited me to her poetry/spoken word at Rust Belt Books on Tuesday evening. I managed to remember to go and be on time even with work. I enjoyed her performance. And we even had a book to take and remember the experience.

I shopped around finding wonderfully priced books on a subject matter I was thinking about due to the previous weekend vacation. My stomach rumbled for attention and I was aimlessly walking up and down Allen Street to ponder dinner at Jim's Steak Out. Deciding that I should not just ponder but partake, I ordered my usual favorite with a twist. I picked up the Art Voice and found an article explaining the Infringement Festival. I also found out a friend of mine was going to be reading at 8pm.

Around 8pm I headed back to Rust Belt Books and sat in on the previous reader and really enjoyed her memory work storytelling technique. Being a visual artist can be kind of cruel. I see pictures of the things as words and vibrations occilate through the air to create a entirely new environment, just as happens for most people when reading a book. It pulls you into that world even if only for a moment. How long is a moment really? Can it be measured? I think of a moment as an open ended question with a multitude of possibilities. And then she realized her time was up and though it was only five minutes of her life that I shared every part of that moment and I was taking an old worn photograph of her life experience with me. Definately, something to cherish.

WIERD TALES and TALL COINCIDENCES by Janna Willoughby

Now, the audience changed preparing for the next artist to take the stage. A friend I have not had the pleasure to see in a few years ascended the stage. Her warm presences easily filled the back room making it continued cozy. I moved from the back row to the front. I love to hear Janna. We traveled with her on her families' strange experiences, it was very magical for me. I discovered we had some stange things that had happened to both of us. I listened intently.

Before I knew it the hour had passed. Still digesting I waited to say hi again after a long time. We traveled to Days Park to enjoy an evening with fire in the park displayed by a group called Pyromancy.

At the end I was debating on heading home when I ran into other friends surprised to see me out. Before I knew it we were deep in discussion and having a beer.

Time really does fly when you are having fun... the next time i gazed at my watch I realized why I was yawning, 10:30pm had become 2:00am. I was headed home and dreams from every land and nation to dance across my brain as I slept.

“Why do Artists sometimes take years to complete a work of art?”
    
    I was asked this question shortly after graduating from college with my completed bachelors degree. I was personally at a loss for the answer to the question, because of lack of experience. Art was always something I wanted to do and no one ever really had to force me to complete any of my assignments in art. I too, had asked myself the same question about some artists that are considered masters in the art world. Still the answer to which I had no real comprehension of the context that can create the tides of an artist’s life, as I was still a student.
    My life offered me many opportunities this one comes with becoming an art educator. I began to look at how, not just what information is disseminated to the student. What does the student need to know? What does the student need to learn? What would the student identify with? I began to research for my students and not just for myself on each lesson I brought to my classroom. Each lesson plan had a life of its own, exploring artists as people, the context of their lives, and what they inspired through their artwork. Art History has always been a thorn in my side, my Achilles’ heel if you will. I decided to take a spoonful of sugar with my regular dose of art history and find out the beauty of the artist as well as the beauty of the product the artists creates.
    Life being the thorough educator, also gave me an experience of my own which gave me many answers to the question above. The experience of an injured spine that, by itself can continue to fill pages and volumes of my own personal journals, so we will leave the details of that aside. Several things have to be considered when asking about why did it take so long to create?
    â€œIt will be finished when it is finished” is what Michelangelo said to the Pope while working on the Sistine Chapel. Art is the equivalent of conceiving, incubation, delivery, raising and educating a child into an adult. Only the art knows for sure when it has reached completion. We have trouble with this context, because most main events in our lives are determined by an outside source. Age, Gender, Race, Religion and Economics all ingredients in the mixture, for example we start school by the age of five. That does not mean we as an individual is ready to start school at five, some maybe ready earlier or later, this is the mean or guideline as to when a child should begin to start school. These rules and guidelines are there to help us live in society. I am a girl and therefore I should wear a dress and learn to become a lady. I am a boy and therefore I should wear pants and learn to become a man. And each label give a set a rules or standards to live by. Anthropologically speaking art is a bi-product of a civilized society. When we have time to reflect about how we live about our daily lives culture becomes refined and the Arts are born within that social structure. Art lives outside of the box.
    Sometimes the reason is within the artist, unbeknown to him or her, they have something that must be learned, experienced or mastered before the art can reach completion. Sometimes it is a skill, or a new perspective, most of the time it has to do with living and coming to an understanding. These abstract concepts are much harder to perceive, learn and possess mastery of before completing the product of that education.
    â€œI Spy With My Little Eye A Butterfly?” is an acrylic painting that was started in 2003. I completed the painting in 2009. I still do not think it is finished, but that is my humble opinion. It is finished for the moment and is hanging on my bedroom wall. Every morning I do not work at my job, I ask myself is it finished? And the answer is no. Yet, when I ask myself what I need to do next? The answer is the same, I do not know. SIGH. So I wait until the answer comes and the desire to complete what has yet to be finished tells me to get my paints and complete it.

Friends of the family asked for some artwork on the threshold of the entrance to their home. I decided to reacquaint myself with the glass painting process. I started when I was in grammar school. I did a Mickey Mouse on a glass square with the art teacher at my mom's former school. He then told me to keep it up. So I got into some experiments, here they are:

I went with a lightning veiny design to color, using more negative space to complete the design. I was amazed at how dark the colors become once they dry. I will have to try to remember to take pictures while I am working to show you the differences.

I did a large lightning with a small. The red does come off as red, but it went on looking like bright pink. The blue is darker than I thought.

I like the pearlescent white. I like the finished product.

This design started with the bubbles of the fish and then I added the fish and the grass.

Here fishy, fishy. I had two different kinds of paint. The primaries were opaque and the others are more traditional stain for glass.

There goes the fishy. See I do not need pets.

Here's the frst view of simple swirly design.

Scond view of same bottle.

A side of tall jar. Which could be used for pencils and pens.

N side of tall jar.

D side of tall jar. I did not color in the next two I thought it gave a cool view o the other side of the jar. What do you think?

I side of tall jar. I am currently doing research to bring Glass Painting into my classroom. I think the students would enjoy learning a new kind of painting project.