In The Clouds in the Blue Ridge

A Cloud has settled over my mountain home this morning, the midst is velvety and humid, the light is soft and full of mystery, and the smells are of the forest and wet dew heavy upon the leaves and undergrowth.  I walk out on the deck with my morning coffee and sit silent in natures cathedral.

The Art of Memory and Other Discussions

The Art of Memory

The is an interesting article on looking at memory in all its facets and how we utilize memory in our lives.  For artists it gives an insight in to how art and memory are linked.

The Importance of Memory(click for article)

My Mother Lela, and me with Coke
a time captured in cultural history and family history

Memory is an important part of what keeps society together, what shapes our culture, and what shapes us as individuals.  Everything we know is part of our memory: all our past experiences, all we have done. However, sometimes memory poses some problems- unpleasant memories can make us bitter, cold, vulnerable, angry, depressed, or scarred. We might get nightmares, have regrets, or have lingering antagonistic emotions from these memories. But think about this on a larger scale- the power that a nation's memory has. This includes present events, a culture's history, and anything associated with the past of a society. Learning about a civilization's history gives you great insight as to why a society is the way it is today. That said, what would happen if suddenly no one was able to access their history, and people stopped teaching it? Would the society change? Just as memory gives us wisdom as individuals, as a culture knowing about our past and our present gives us wisdom to see into the future. Memory of information and memory of experience allows people to advance on an individual and societal basis. But sometimes memories and histories come with negative aspects as well- sometimes people resent how their people have been treated in the past, and treat people unfairly or try to 'right' it by starting fights. This has led to wars and discrimination.

A society is based on its history and its present- this is memory.  If each individual goes through similar experiences, is taught similar things, chances are these people will be able to relate to each other on some level.  Being able to relate to each other and the things that connect us - news, media, current events, is what makes us a society...read for more of article

Art Through Time/History and Memory(click for article)

My cousins Betty and Linda and myself at age 6
Memories of a Mississippi Summer 

Quotes on Memory

How we remember, what we remember, and why we remember form the most personal map of our individuality. (Christina Baldwin)

In the making of the last two art works my memory of events 40 years ago resurfaced in an amazing way.  One memory triggered another and another.  I began to visit a time and place that was in my distant youth.  Who I became as a person the rest of my life was greatly influenced by this time and these events.  It was a formable time of my life, I was young, adventurous, and idealistic. Looking back I now realize how much this time shaped the person I would become the rest of my life.  It was fortunate that I was on the front porch of world history and the events that happened in the three years I lived in the Philippine Islands put me at the epic center of world events. l

Rabbit's Moon Favorite Glass Artist Joseph Cavalieri is on the Move!!!

 JOSEPH CAVALIERI

1. GALLERY TALK UPTOWN IN MANHATTAN

La Maison d’Art Gallery (259 W 132 st.) present the gallery talk for Motown to Def Jam: Respect Yourself, focusing on art inspired by the Chess and Stax catalogs from Chuck Berry to the Staple Singers. Join us for an evening of stimulating art, conversation with expert panelists, networking and more.

Panelists: Jamar Chess, grandson of Leonard Chess (co-founder of Chess Records) and co-founder of the Sunflower Entertainment Group a specialty music publishing house and co-founder of Revolution Songs, a synch driven music licensing company

Dr. Syleecia Thompson, co-star of TV One’s “R&B Divas,” founder of DYG Management Group, LLC, college professor, author, daughter of legendary soul singer Syl Johnson and older sister of Grammy-nominated R&B singer Syleena Johnson 

Chris Mooney, Senior Director Artist Promotions and Strategic Partnerships at TuneCore

Exhibiting Artists:
Joseph Cavalieri, Chomponutt Mayta, Aanisah Hinds, Brian Kirhagis, Harry Spitz, Matthew Namie, Adam Lowenbein, Jeffrey Allen Price, Jonathan Hull,Musa Hixson, Fernando Carpaneda, Brian Einersen, Nzuji De Magalhaes

The Role of Memory in Art

American Prisoners of War Leaving Viet Nam , February 1973

How Memory Influences Our Art

The previous post about my experience with Vietnamese refugees flooding in into Subic Bay were the impetus for an art piece I did for the Morean Art Center Members Show.  After completing the piece it triggered other experiences I had during that time that I was a young art teacher for the Department of Defense in the Philippine Islands.  Much that happened during those three short years were events that were very historic in the history of the United States and the Philippines. I knew it at the time, but with the reflection of time and maturity I am now seeing more clearly than ever the importance of the events I lived through and participated in. Through the past forty years I have flash backs triggered by sight, sound, taste or touch that will transport me back as quickly as time travel would to that time and place. I know this will be the basis of a new work of art, but I am not yet sure what form it will take nor if it will be a series or a single piece.  I am beginning to feel a series is forming in my mind, that will take a variety of media to convey. Travel back in time with me for a bit and see how you might take this into a creative expression in your own mind if you were the artist.

American Pow's Arriving at Clark AFB on the Hanoi Taxi, 1973 if  

Memory is fluid, it is amorphous in shape shifting and changing, it can be deceptive, and it can be painfully acute or like shadowy ghost lingering in the corners of our minds.  We all experience memory differently yet the same. 
 I remember reading that eyewitness accounts can be very unreliable because what a person focuses on or remembers can be based on an emotion, a sound or a feeling that triggers a response in their mind and not actual facts.
  People can remember the same events quite differently, I am almost certain my brother and I were raised in completely different families! Our memories of the same family events are as different as day and night. Though I am quite sure my recollections are the right ones! 

Pow's being greeted by all Force Commanders as they step on to the tarmac
at Clark AFB. 

 The sound of a car backfiring can put a Viet Nam veteran under a car waiting for the next bomb to explode.  A feeling of damp clinging fabric can trigger memories of the many miserable hot tropical Philippine nights when brown out after brown out  shut down the air conditioning in my off base apartment in Olongopo. The taste of lumpia can bring back nights of sharing meals with Filipino friends.  The smell of diesel oil can have me walking along the docks of Subic Bay watching the giant grand carriers like the Enterprise  and the Independence, that were cities unto themselves, coming in to dock.  A slight breeze can take me back to Coconut trees waving in a tropical wind, lined up along highways, as our jeep bumped along heading to a new adventure in the Philippines.
As the memory of processing Vietnamese war refugees triggered a strong memory that changed my life so did another event during those years at Subic Bay Naval Base.

Planes arrived one after another late in to the night with Pow's coming home!

It was perhaps a year or so before the fall of Saigon and the refugees flooded into Subic Bay that I was called in once again to volunteer to do something on the behalf of victims of the war.  This time the commanders wanted teachers and children from a state or city that a prisoner of war came from to be the first people them came in contact with after getting out of the horror of Vietnamese repressive prisons where many we tortured either physically or mentally.  Several teachers and their classes traveled from Subic Bay Navy Base, to Clark Air Force Base.  We lined up on the tarmac of the runway waiting for what later was called the Hanoi Taxi.  That day there was a steady train of flights arriving, one right after another, all day into the night.

A young Senator to be, John McCain is greeted as he takes
his first steps to freedom after 6 years of imprisonment
 Clark AFB, 1973

 Our soldiers that had been held in Vietnamese prisons were coming home.  Operation Homecoming was underway.  We waiting anxiously as the plan landed and taxied in front of us.  A carpet and microphones were laid out, and the military brass all gathered with journalists, photographers, and civilians lined up.  As the men stepped off the plane, the children began yelling and cheering, and the whole crowd burst out in exuberant applause and cheers of joy.
We were then taken area where their were  picnic tables and we waited to meet the men assigned to our group.  I was assigned to meet a prisoner of war from Orlando, Florida, my home state.   We would be there first societal contact with the world outside Viet Nam these men had had.  February 12th was a humid tropical day, as most days in the Philippines are.  The air seemed still, some where in the distance  air force blue buses drove up toward us, all time seemed frozen in that moment. An official walked over with a thin pow from Orlando, Florida who was still dressed in the outfit the Vietnamese army had issued him.  We, my elementary students and me, were the first Americans he would talk to other than his military debriefers, since leaving prison in Viet Nam! What an incredible honor we were experiencing! 

I chose this last picture to share with you because I think it incapsulates visually what memory can be like.  It can be hazy, blurry, a flash of a moment out of the corner of your eye, a feeling, a sense of movement and lighting.  It is not always crystal clear and sharp in focus.  Memory floats in and out of our minds at times like ghostly images and shadows, but if we allow ourselves to not dismiss those feelings and sensations, if we allow our brain to capture and relate what it does then we can fully feel the moment and time we once occupied in space and time. And in the final sense an artist is an empath, a feeler, an experiencer, and a conveyer.  We, as one artist put it, a shaman of our time in that we absorb the culture and feelings of our time and translate them back to others.  

The Influence of Experience on the Creation of Art

Vietnamese Boat Refugees coming in to Subic Bay, Philippines, google image

The impetus for my assemblage began in an experience I had in the Philippines in 1975 and my life long reflection of what home meant.

The year was 1975. I was a young art teacher in my twenties working for the Department of Defense in the Overseas Education program that serves American Military personnel and their children. My assignment was Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippine Islands.  The first year I arrived Subic Bay was still an active war base; it was the last year of the Viet Nam war.  Much happened during the three years I taught art there; Marcos, the President of the Philippines declared Martial Law and virtually became a dictator, Imelda counted her 7,000 shoes, and then came the fall of Viet Nam.  At first the wealthier people flew out holding gold bars and people with connections were helicoptered out the last few days. The common person got on anything they could that would float and took out across the South China Sea in desperate hope of escape from war and tyranny. They floated on boat and raft into the bay of Subic Bay by the thousands.  The Philippine Government was sure that Viet Nam would bomb Subic Bay Naval Base that housed all the armaments for the Navy for the war.

Boats so over loaded, they seemed impossible to still be
afloat.  google image

 They would not allow the refugees to come on the mainland but  they did come to Grande Island sitting right off the coast of the base.  Teachers were asked to help process the refugees as they came in.  In a period of three weeks we processed 70,000(I have found varying numbers reported, from 39,000 to 60,000, the 70,000 is only from my memory of what I was told at the time) people who were then sent on to refuge centers in Guam and the USA.

  

This was one of the most formable times of my life.  I remember clearly asking people questions with an interpreter while they were standing in long lines waiting so quiet it seemed erie.  Frozen in my memory is one woman holding her most prized possession, her tin wash basin! The children cried constantly, and I asked one of the mothers, why they were all crying so much.  She said all their lives they had heard the explosions and gun fire of war, and it was too quiet for them. 

That time marked me deeply, seeing people lose what had been their home, having to leave everything behind they knew and loved.  I began to think about how it would  be if that happened to me, if I were torn from my family, my mother, my home and all I cherished, the desperation and courage it would take to risk every thing to leave not knowing where home would be next.

  

Vietnamese Refugee arriving in Subic Bay
google image

A year later I returned to the United States and returned to teaching in St. Petersburg, Florida.  It was not long after that I was asked to teach at a school that was a center for Vietnamese refugees we were now calling boat people.  The center was to assist children who spoke little or no English in their education and help them adapt to a new culture.  Many of the aides assisting were Vietnamese as well.  It once again threw me into a world of these engaging people that were torn from their country to build a home in a new place and culture.  Many of the teachers aides had been principals, teachers, doctors or lawyers in Viet Nam, but our teachers did not always ask and  just assumed because they could not speak English well, they were uneducated and lower class.  It frustrated the aides greatly, the children were puzzled and I was amazed at the lack of understanding of the American staff.  I think the aides and I began to understand this was going to be the typical reaction they were going to receive in this new culture.  The children were immediately given the message their adults were not respected and therefore they were not worthy either.  

All these experiences left me with the life long pondering of what it would be like to lose one's home and have to build another life. And it also led me to think deeply about the ideology of what home is. Is it a place? Is it people? Is it more complicated than all of that?  The journey is difficult, and acceptance is not guaranteed.  Our country is a country of immigrants and we are a nation of people who have left behind a home we knew to a home we chose.  I remember reading a quote recently written by a British author who when he came to America noticed all Americans had a lonely look and he thought it was a genetic memory of lands and home.  It struck me from this quote, are we inherently unsettled people, who generation after generation have a national unconscious mind of lost people.  It is something to think about.  

In this Surrealistic assemblage you will see many references to home through symbols of different kinds. I will leave it to you to interpret these symbols as your experiences bring you to them. Mine will be different, but I wanted to crack open a door to give you insight into the creation of this piece...Home in many languages.

Elizabeth Gordon

The Grand Finale is a Celebration and a Letting Go

THE GRAND FINALE

Understanding when you are finished, when anymore would be over doing, and knowing when to stop is the last phase.  You see it is time to stop, and feel it fits as a whole, that you feel it fits with you.  That is when I know I am done and nothing else I do will benefit the work. It is almost an audible clicking in my mind, done!  Now is the time to let go.  I have raised my child, we have grown together, and now we have competed our journey...I must let go now and send my piece I have struggled with and loved out into the world.  Will it do well, will it be understood, will it be received with thought.  That is mainly what I ask, whether you like a work or not, observe and think.  It is not my responsibility that you like my art work, only that you will interact and give consideration.  One artist I know says this gut wrenching for her to do, to put your most vulnerable inner self out for all to see the critics as well as the art lovers.  And being an artist means one must continually do this.  But in the letting go is the showing, it is an important process for an artist.  I know many artist who will never show their work, they get to this last stage but give their work away or hang it at home, give it to family or friends, or put it away.  The inherent risk of criticism and exposure is too much, but there within lies growth also.  It is critical to show, to share, to talk to people about your art. 

Finished Assemblage on Mountain studio steps

Side view

Detail shot of front upper section

Side view

The Coming Together/Convergence

Stage 4

The Coming Together

In this stage one has moved through the doubts, weathered the storm of negativity and self distraction/sabotage coming out on the other side of darkness to light.  I have faced my fears and stopped feeding them.  Now I am focusing on how the piece will work as a whole, what elements will tie it together for the finishing touches.  I still have the assembly and the practical parts of making the sculpture in  all its various parts stabile and durable for shipping and showing and handling. But now I can see all the elements working together, and I have found elements to unify the piece as a unit.  Now I know I can direct the viewers eye from one section to another and convey a unified message with many individual triggers of thought and meaning, like subtext. So if we think of this in literary terms, there is the body of the work, the title, the central theme, and then the chapters and sentences.  

photo of hand with world spinning resting precariously on man's finger tips
photo by Elizabeth Gordon of Elizabeth Gordon's art work.

I once worked at a writing focus school where I learned to team with writing teachers using art and writing to support each other.  I learned many of the art elements and processes parallel those in writing.  I thank those writing resource teachers for helping me to see the creative process in a different discipline.

science vials with insects and image transfer

Wasp nest on rusty disk

You will never know these wonderful women, one has passed away at a very young age to cancer. Janie 
Guillbalt you will always be in my heart.  Mary Osborn, who continues on fighting the battle in making writing important to a doubting bureaucracy.  To Christy Curran, an innovative teacher and writer who went on to work in the larger world of NYC and making a difference on a wider scale.  To all of these strong vibrant women I am thankful, for it enriched the lives of children and exposed them to importance of art and writing, but also it enriched me as an artist to have a clearer vision of my own art and the process of creation.

The Doubting

If you read Julia Cameron's books on artists and writers, The Artists Way or the book the War of Art by.....Then you will read about the artists block and the many ways artists block and sabotage their own creativity and art projects.  It is inherent in the process.  "I will never make the deadline I might as well quit", "I shouldn't have put that there and now it is to late", "this is no good, no one will like it", "this is no good, it is the crappiest piece of art I have ever done", "why did I ever think I could do art", "maybe everyone will find out I am really no good and the last award was just a fluke", .......it goes on and on-a thousand negative thoughts that are meant to sabotage your efforts all manufactured by your mind.  Then there are the delaying tactics, I need to clean the house(when you know you don't), I need to wash my hair, I need to take go to the store, I need to watch paint dry(I threw that in for the ridiculousness of it) and so on.  Then we often enable friends and family members to sabotage us by asking leading questions, "don't you think this work is a piece of crap?", "this is not the best work I have ever done", or when we choose a family member or friend who we know doesn't appreciate our style of work and then ask their opinion, in that way we subtly invite negative remarks to sabotage our own feelings of doubt to re-enforce our own need to block ourselves.  

This is a dangerous phase because even the best of artists and the most experienced of creative people will fall pray to its temptations.  If you think Leonardo Da Vinci or Michelangelo or Manet or Sargent did not have these devils you would be wrong, all you would need do is to read their biographies and you would find the same struggle all artists have gone through over time.  Van Gogh is one of the most dramatic of examples, his mental illness magnified his struggles and doubts.  But the point here is it is a step in the artist process as well as any other, and one we must all weather through to get to the other end of success in our work.  

Last night my doubts began and my mind filled with negative thoughts about my piece.  Much the same as I wrote above...this is a crappy piece of work not worthy of my effort, they are going to think it is ridiculous and look at it and know right away I am a failure, the cows are the wrong color, I should have glued the evil eye charm down I should have tied it, shit I got glue on the plastic now the piece is ruined, the top works, but the bottom belongs to another piece, I am not conveying the theme Home,  I started in one direction and ended up in another maybe that is too confusing, I can't enter this and show it hundreds of people, and on and on and on.  

Then at some point the doubts quiet down if you stare them down and restore confidence in yourself.  Ah, if I put this here or it really does look good, that flows better than I was thinking, the blue cows with added lettering in gold work, I have put in many elements, but it is a conceptual piece and I want people to think, and in the end I realize I must do the work for myself and  create for myself..how others perceive it is their own business.  Andy Warhol said it best, just do art and let others figure it out, but the art must get done. 

I am a Surrealist at heart, it took me half of my art lifetime to understand that, it is an intellectual, conceptual way I work.  I put many subconscious triggers throughout ever work, each to be interpreted in a variety of ways by the person viewing them.  So I know from the outset my work will be viewed differently by the experiences a person has in their lives when they view my work.  For example if I put a snake skin in a work, some people may thing evil or danger or the shedding means getting rid of the old to be born anew, new life or many other meanings.  So much depends on our experiences, our education, our culture, our age, our childhoods, and so many other things.  The next time you view a piece of art, whether conceptual or not....there is always an intent the artist is trying to convey to you, even when you think they are not, take time with the work, let it seep in to your senses, and then open your mind to all the images and possibilities that come.  That is what the artists, the creator would want. 

And for the artist who are experiencing the doubting phase I say weather through, it is only one of the steps, but it is necessary to go throughout the tunnel to get to the light.

The River

Stage 3

The River

letter blocks

 I f you have ever played a card game called Texas Hold 'em you may know this term, it is the last draw before the hand it over.  You have three previous cards before this one is dealt.  As you receive your cards you are waiting to see what kind of hand you can put together. 

Statue of Liberty Transparency with colored piano key pads,
and words of home in varying languages

 I think of the term River as an actual river also, where there is a flow and the water is running downstream. The water runs over rocks, around bends, and though eddy's may form the constant gathering flow builds from a tickle to a small stream to a river, mighty and flowing.  This stage of the artistic process is like that where all the bits and pieces I have gathered are coming together, first a trickle of an idea, then a stream that is growing clearer and clearer in my minds direction until the idea flows and comes together like the Mighty Mississippi as it becomes the glorious river it is. 

varying type sets of letters and numbers

Porcelain glove mold hand with image transfers

Rear view of suitcase with ceramic round disc with ceramic ink transfer in
multiple overlays 

The flowing also takes place in ones mind, runner's call it a runner's high, Zen masters call it meditation, for me it is like a floating place where there is no sense of time.  In this step one minute can be one hour or all afternoon, time stops and there is just no sense of time at this point. 

Test tubes with cicada's, cocoon, and leaf bug 

 Once can sense there is a coming together and it feels right, things are beginning to make sense and fit, but the end is not yet in sight, as I am still swimming in the flow of the water like riding a crest of a wave....I can feel the power of the movement below me and I am riding its motion.

THE GREAT PONDERING

2. The What If Stage?
     At this stage in the art process I have gathered everything me that draws my interest for the project at hand.  The media is not a factor at this point.  I need to look and process in my mind the direction I might take.  It is like a giant jig saw puzzle, what if I put this here, what if I join this with that, what if this texture works with this element?  And it goes on and on, a constant questioning, and moving of one object to another place or another, taking an image out, leaving one in, does idea flow in my mind. If we wanted a more technical name for this process it would be called divergent thinking. I am not concerned at this point about how things attach, even if it is possible, only that it brings a possibility or interest. 

image transfer on porcelain glove form, ceramic ink on clay, washers, nuts 

Building the base of an assemblage, wooden box, old typewriter case, test tubes
insects and cocoon. 

Glue, jewelry tool, transparent line, rusted metal ribbon, and disk

close up of rusty disk with rich oranges and brown tones

snake skin, honest nest, and elements from nature

Ceramic ink transfer on white clay body, moths

The Disparate Parts and The Journey

In my collage/assemblage art there are always many parts that must come together.  It is my process to surround myself with all the interesting, intriguing pieces of ephemera and rusty worn objects I can.  

Most I have collected over months and in many cases over many years and they wait patiently until they find a home in a piece of art work.  I often wonder about my chosen way of work, but it is the only method that flows and feels right to me.  There are projects I plan in detail ahead, but more often I have a general idea, a direction in which I head, and then I turn myself over to the journey, for it is in the experience of creating that ignites more and more creativity.  It takes a great deal of trust in the inner artist or what ever we might like to call that guiding force, but I have learned when I can do this my best work comes. For me if I plan too much ahead, I over think, I over critic and I let doubts creep in...if my conscious mind is more active than my sub-conscious mind.

Many non artists find this difficult to understand, and want to know what you are thinking when you do a piece of art, and how you do this or that.  I think it is a bit like how I cook.  I read tons of cookbooks and recipes, but when I enter the kitchen it is without books or recipes, for it is time to create.  If you have to stick to a recipe or a plan you have dedicated yourself to a limited range of outcomes and therefore pre-constrained your own creative results.  This way of work is not for everyone or every artist, it is my way, it is what I have found works for me and the only way I feel comfortable and right with doing art.  For me it is like the runners high, I enter a world of Zen like concentration, a world of intense concentration and a world where time stands still-one hour is one minute. or several hours pass by and it seems as if it I just blinked.  

The piece I am working on now is an assemblage for a members show for an art center I belong to.  The theme is Home.  I will take you through some of the process as I go through it and try to describe some of my choices and challenges as I proceed through each step.  Part of the challenge of this piece is  it must be shipped to another state, and it will be in at least three main sections in the central body and many small pieces on the outside surfaces.  It will also depend on the gallery that receives it to do some assembly, due to the fact it is less likely to be broken if shipped in three sections.  The other challenges are many different materials that call for differing adhesives and methods of attachment, to achieve as much stability and durability as one can.  I am an artist who, if a work sells, is concerned about the quality and longevity of the work I sell.  So as we begin I will start to photograph stage by stage to take you along this trip of creation and struggle with me.  I hope you will enjoy the journey as we enter this world of the artistic process.  

STEP ONE: CHAOS 

                     There is no order at this stage only an idea and the gathering of interesting elements. This first stage for those who love order, is most disturbing.  Some people thrive on order and a need to plan ahead, the idea of letting go is too frightening to conceive, it is the jump from a high dive into a cold pool that is not even in site! But it is in the letting go that the beginning of creation happens.

JUST GET IT DONE, MAKE ART

"Don't think about making art, just get it done.  Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it.  While they are deciding, make even more art."

Andy Warhol    Pop Art Marilyn Monroe     from google image for educational purposes

Title of Show: Strong Women Bright

JOSEPH CAVALIERI

Joseph is an outstanding glass mixed media artist

Location: The Lounge at Dixon Place Theatre, 161a Christie Street, New York City 

Dixon Place presents the work of Joseph Cavalieri a local east village glass artist and educator. The work features illuminated portraits of strong and powerful women from Queen Elizabeth II to Maude (Bea Arthur) and New York drag icon Lady Bunny. All works are silkscreened enamel, kiln fired on stained glass and set in an illuminated light box.

Stop by - the show continues to June 24th.

THE MAGICAL HISTORY OF BLACK MOUNTAIN CENTER OF ART

Black Mountain Drew the Finest Creative Minds of Its Time

Black Mountain Art Center

Robert Rauschenberg  at Black Mountain                       from google image for educational purposes only

"It was one of the most engaging, risky, and romantic seed-enterprises in the history of higher 

education." - Alexander Eliot, former student 

". . . it really became kind of recognized [at BMC] that art could be anything, and could be made out of anything, and that it didn't necessarily cross boundaries -- they thought - between theater, the visual arts, dance, music, etc., that you could mix all this up and make a multi-media - or . . . environmental art." - Kenneth Noland, former student 

"BMC was a crazy and magical place, and the electricity of all the people seemed to make for a wonderfully charged atmosphere, so that one woke up in the mornings excited and a little anxious, as though a thunderstorm were sweeping in." - Lyle Bonge, former student 
- See more at: http://www.theartstory.org/school-black-mountain-college.htm#sthash.0xrwMtRI.dpuf

The Big Glitch!

Rabbit's Moon Studio has been down for almost 10 days due to technology issues in change of locale from Florida to Asheville.  Our DSL line at our mountain studio is due to be reconnected within the up coming week and our computer system has now been repaired.  It just shows how vulnerable we all are to technology.  It allows us to communicate with great ease across the globe on one hand, and on the other when things are not connected and working it is really down!  So thank you all for your patience and soon we will return with wonderful articles about art and artist around the world.  We also are due to update you on the happenings of one our favorite artists here at Rabbit's Moon, Joseph Cavalieri.  His wonderful mixed media glass art continues to be new galleries and upcoming workshops for the fall in Germany.  Exciting news for Joseph!

Computer Glitch                                                 from google image

Mohibul Limon, Photographer of the Common Man, Bangladesh

Innocence in Time                                Mohibul Limon, a photographer of  Bangladeshi 

There are some things a person cannot fake, it is the simple things that  show your true feelings.  But a photographer is like a lens to the soul, what they see you see.  Their eyes, their brain, their emotions and experience frame the shot and through the filter of their being you experience what they see.  I think people do not always understand that...a photograph is not just a picture that was in front of the person.  It is a scene from thousands of possibilities one could choose, the lighting, the angle, the composition, the relationship to the subject, the choice of that moment out of thousands, that one click, is taken by another being on this Earth that has assimilated his experiences, emotions and views into that one click on the camera.  And it is then we see through his eyes in a way only his lifetime can offer.  So I challenge you to think...how would a tourist have taken this shot, how would an advertiser taken this photo, how would a woman or man...or would they have even taken this shot.  Was it just Limon's love of his fellow Bangeladeshi people, the love of the simple innocence of his country that produced this picture.  As you look at more of Limon's work, I think you will see what I see...a man who has deep love of his people, all his people, a deep sensitivity into the soul of what makes the Bangladeshi special and different from all other peoples on this Earth.  Limon has the soul of a poet, a sensitivity so acute it makes one feel deeply for his people and hurt when he hurts viewing poverty or unfairness.  I will continue to post Limon's work as I process it.  The sending of one computer to another, with different operating systems and software programs has slowed the sharing some, but we will get it done so you do not miss this wonderful view of one mans love of his country and people.

The Photographs of Mohibul Limon

Photo by Mohibul Limon                                Ferry Seller                                 Bangladesh

Bangladesh through the Eyes of Someone Who Loves Her and Her People

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Photo by Mohibul Limon                  From the series, the Man Who Cared

As we look at Limon's photo's closer, it is almost as if he has provided us a view of his county and people as if we, also, had grown up in Bangladesh and loved the simple things...the common man, the everyday, the gentle beauty of the land caught in time.  Limon offers us a lens, a filter in which we see Bangladesh with old eyes and fresh eyes at the same time.  Bangladesh is changing rapidly, but there are some things that are timeless and innocent like a boat ferrying a Mother and her children on a gentle bay.  Limon's photo's seem to  tell a story.  We want to know more...where is the boat going, who are the family and what is their story.  We want to see more and know more, just on the other side of where the photo ends!

Postcards from Bangladesh

Bangladesh Ferry       by Mohibul Limon

Moving on and Cleaning Out...The Feng Shui of Art

THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS ARE CALLING..... COME TO ME!

photo by Elizabeth Gordon       Asheville 

Photo by Elizabeth Gordon   Asheville 

It is time to pull up stakes and head to the mountains for the summer which precipitated cleaning out my studio car (the trunk) and cleaning up the studio itself.  It is amazing how liberating to finally do something I have procrastinated on for a long time this winter.  

As I was cleaning, decided what I did need and didn't, discovering things I had forgotten about with delight I realized how freeing the whole process was.  As I was doing so, art ideas began to flow.  It is almost like in the act of clearing out stuff, I was clearing out the cobwebs in my mind as well.....the clutter I had allowed to gather and weigh me down. 

Now I can re-organize. let go of old project that were not suiting me, and look to welcoming new creations.  I am excited about improving and expanding my mountain studio.  It needs much more lighting and shelving.  It also needs big fans and screen doors for the garage doors to let the light and mountain coolness in.  

I have always read about Feng Shui (click) and admired the idea, but I have been so much of a collector it is hard for me to actually achieve minimalism in my environment.  I do like the thought of energy not blocked and moving in a way that generates more creativity and prosperity.  

I think it is good for us as artist to do this once and a while, a big spring cleaning and a clearing of the cobwebs in our thoughts and take new steps.  We need to let go of the old and what seemed secure, but no longer serves us.  Perhaps all of life is that way, but we artists need to constantly renew ourselves for our art.