Mural research

To conduct research for the mural and the Corn Hill, Plex, SWAN and other local Rochester area history we have been using the Special collections at The University of Rochester. The librarian there have been very helpful. They know a lot about the neighborhood having lived there.

We have looked at many photographers works from the 1950s and read a collection of articles from that time period.

William Bub documented via photo events that occurred during the race riots within the neighborhood. Two boxes worth of articles from paper such as The Ganett and Times Union. Some of these articles even document what was going on here but were printed in papers from LA.

Paul Hoeffler who photographed the live Jazz scene has 11 boxes of catalogued photos in the U of R collection. He photo documented musicians at the Pythodd club. The Eastmen School of Music, The War Memorial and other locations as well. He shot many many, photos of Chuck Mangione, the trumpet player, and gives a rather personal account of his life in photos.

We also spent some time looking at photo shot by Rocky Simmons depicts some scenes of local history in the 1950's and shows images of ELKs club members.

Soup can wind chimes

So I have been saving these Campbell's soup can lids for awhile. We eat a lot of soup. I am partial to the Campbell's Chunky soups. I like to use recyclable materials in my art.

We also pick up trash in the neighborhood we we go out to walk the dog. There is a lot of it in our neighborhood and I like to do my part.(Don't worry we pick up after her too.)

So I found this rim the other day.(For some reason I find a lot of those. I decided to use it and the soup lids to make a wind chime. It makes a nice sound!I may still add more lids and paint symbols on the lids. But there it is so far.

All the jobs

The five different jobs I had posted is actually more like 6 sometimes more

1. AM morning program before school ages 5-10.
2.Substitute teaching in 8 different districts primarily for art.
3.Running the Etsy shop.
4.Teaching children's art classes and coordinating the summer camp.
5.Occasional after noons at an after school program for children
6. Working on the mural

then we have ongoing studio work, submitting to art shows,applying for teaching jobs then ,eating and sleeping.

Magnolias at Highland

The magnolias are in bloom at high land park. inspired by their beauty the other day while walking the dog we went back with the camera and took some shots.I will let the photos say the rest. I want to print some t-shirts inspired by these.

Impermance

On Friday while I was coordinating the students were to understand impermanence in art.I was not the teacher, I got to learn from what the teachers shared with their students. They did yoga and learned mudras. They looked at and talked about the meaning behind Buddhist art.

I learned more about Japanese costums and various versions of the Buddha myth then I had known previously.

When I do labyrinths walk or other forms of meditation I other see a flower Whig looks similar to a louts blossom. Here I have made one out of clay. The children did not fire their clay pieces, They focused more on the process then product. I have always been inspired by earthworks and wanted to make tiny clay installations in public gardens for people to find.
Here I have placed my clay flower in the garden outside our house to share with others and allow to return to the earth. I will photograph its process of decomposition each day and see what new things it will become.

mural update

I have been spreading the work about the Commnity mural project to be painted on the Flying Squirrel. I have made phone calls, posted flyers and had many emails.

Here are some images of my progress with the sketch.

Artist trading card collbaration

I have been looking at artist trading cards for a number of years. I enjoy making small works of art. I used to work at an art supply store and we were selling these pre cut cards there. I made a few as samples.

I had some left over matte board scraps and some chip board scraps that I cut up to create Artist trading card size pieces from. I will admit they are not all cut perfectly square or to the correct Artist Trading Card size but we are experimenting after all.

I went to my friends house for brunch this last Sunday,we sometimes try to spend our days off together taking photos or doing other creative things.Most of my friends will tell you that if you are inviting me over you should expect bags or bins of art supplies to come with. Rarely do I come over to hang out without bringing a project with me. This is even true when I go out to eat.

So my friend invites me over for brunch and I have all these cards cut.

I started to add something to each card then passed it on to the next person to add one thing to it. Our boyfriends joined us as well.My boyfriend Ed, is meticulous with detail and does not always work well on the spot. My friend Erica's boyfriend work randomly and often works with found objects and photography.He is runs a computer repair shop so he added some drawing and computer parts from a recycled mother board he had.Erica,my friend is a photographer and a trained visual artist. These days she works as a florist so this was a great chance for her to get out some of her old college art supplies.