I am writing from a beautiful city...Nashville. I was unable to meet up with Kathy Mattea but have had a wonderful visit with my brother Ed and his wife Leigh; she is a wood worker who creates wooden totems of her muses and designs gifted in the depth of the wood itself. This journey is one of trust and perseverance in the actual creative journey. I will add a photo or two of her works at the end of my blog. Several other artists have been concerned because I have not been on line at my usual regularity but I have been physically writing in a new journal that has allowed me to recapture the joy of pen and ink and hopefully I will add color and texture in my collage/quilted approach when we arrive home i a few days. I am always amazed when I travel to once again discover how much I learn about myself. The separation of the familiar and new environmental landscapes opens and widens my peripheral vision of my existence here on this planet and is renewing my spirit for the renewal project with my patient friend Seth and others. The gentle unfolding of secrets hidden in the open and often too busy to pause to see the gifts of the present moment. I am trying to hold onto this important lesson in making an authentic artist's life.
We were on a quest to find a matching gallery for Leigh to share her arts in this area/community. Finally when we arrived at the destination we were saddened to learn with this economy the gallery had been forced to close six weeks earlier. The website was filled with a group of artists from all over and they were diverse in their applications and techniques so the opportunities were so plentiful. Well make plans and watch the gods laugh. We then headed downtown to the Frist Center for the Visual Arts to see a Chuck Close collaboration with paper collages and self portraits; with incredible print makers...little did I know I would meet an old friend...Keiji Shinohara who had been a resident print maker at Denison about ten years ago and now he is collaborating with Chuck Close. I felt a warm rush of renewal and a need to renew our friendship when I get home. The six degrees of separation is alive and well on this planet Earth. I had been explaining to my brother about Shinohara's processes and walked into the room to see his work in this incredible collaboration of artists.
When we came home I was way over stimulated with impressions and images and the heat knocked me out for a couple of hours. In my dreams my subsoncious wove images of the power of the printed/collaged images. Tonight I watched Ovation... what a treat since we do not have it at home. I witnessed a documentary about an artist named Ryan Larkin who is living today on the streets of Montreal as a homeless but genius man. He was a recognized film maker and illustrator from the 1960's and 1970's before cocaine destroyed his relationships and career as a professional. One of his most recognized works may be on you-tube called "Walking" which is totally illustrated with his personal drawings...it is not a computer animation that we have grown so familiar with in the last couple of years. He now fills his days with making portraits of those he meets on the streets and has been documented in a film short by another contemporary in film animation and this is called "Ryan". I am hoping to find it and save it on the computer when I arrive home because I did not give the film my undivided attention.
Tomorrow we have a whole day to explore another couple of museums and galleries so I need to get some rest so I can keep my energy up. Nothing like living in the present moment. Thank you for your patience as I make my way home to my cabin in the woods. Imagine and Live in Peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart
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