Uncommon Threads
Random thoughts about the unexpected connections uncovered while living the creative life.
Thursday, August 5, 2021
Monday, May 31, 2021
Learning To Follow My Bliss: part one
Double Rainbow, barely visible |
Medicine Sticks for the memorial |
Yesterday, while I was still in the thrall of my bliss, I did my meditation at my studio. After a morning of sorting through my brother's belongings, a parting gift from his former landlord as I left my childhood home to return to my current one, I needed a place to put my feelings of peace and joy and connection. I took with me a stick my brother had started to work into something, the dark one second from the left, along with some deer hide lacing he had wrapped around the stick. Both the stick and lacing reeked of cigarettes that will eventually dissipate, even as they carry the energy of my brother's hands. I put on my new Spotify playlist, and got to work with my drill, the stick beginning to smoke from the friction of the drill bit going deep until it emerged on the other side and I thought of my deep joy. I finished with sand colored waxed linen, carefully wrapping it tightly around the surface, imbuing the beautiful beach stick with my wishes for dear Denny: Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
We are, each one, on our own path. |
Monday, May 24, 2021
Full Circle, Beginnings and Endings
My brother Denny and my mom in the 1950s |
Working on the exhibition interfered with my grieving process. Because I am an artist, I was grateful to be able to begin finding my way again through sitting quietly and making art as I prepared for it. I mentioned one of the new pieces, Traveler, in a previous blog post, which I finished and dedicated to my brother. Following the gentle rhythm of my ideas and trusting the process, I kept working.
I finished a second piece, Talisman, that ended up being a trip down the rabbit hole back into my childhood family and my own childhood. The eggs at the bottom are my siblings; the five of us, now down to three. There are many childhood references, address numbers, birthdates, toys, moving parts, game pieces, a clock face, a broken Swiss army knife. A whiff of the past that pulsed through my veins into the present, as I let it come out in the work. It's one of my favorite pieces. Value the process.
Talisman by Gayle Pritchard, 2021 |
So, I go 'round and 'round, my head and heart spinning and breaking as I try to return to joy. This is the energy of the week of an total eclipse, the psychics and astrologers say, a week where it is time to be quiet and reflect while the full circle is completed. Clear the way for the future, make room for what is coming.
Grief and loss can consume a person. The path to living, however, is digging your way out from the abyss. That takes resilience, a highly undervalued skill developed through adversity; a skill that allows humans to completely lose their way and still come back, full circle, once again, to brings their gifts back to the world. What I am truly grateful for, as always, is that I know how I will heal; it will be the same way I have always healed: picking up the bits and pieces, fragments of memories and conversations, glimpses into another's soul, while I wait for what is mine, a gift from the universe.
This last artwork says it all, which is why I bought it from my friend Jill Milenski when it spoke to my heart. I have it hanging in my home where I can see it several times a day. It will be my new mantra for now.
Thursday, April 29, 2021
Art and Meaning
She Found Her Voice by Gail Crum from the exhibition Uncovered Stories |
If you are a member of the viewing public as opposed to being an artist, you may not know that one of the many beautiful things that art does is bring meaning to the times. Artists have a way of looking at the world differently than most people. That quirky way of seeing gets combined with the tools of expression, and the end result, the piece of art, is what you see when you visit an exhibition like my current one, Uncovered Stories.
In this three-woman exhibition, the fourth one presented by Gail Crum, Jill Milenski, and me in as many years, much of the work presented was made during the pandemic last year. Artworks, such as our trio of altered books made to keep us going and connected, reflect what was happening just as a contemporaneous journal written during the Civil War would. You just need to open your heart to connect to the artwork.
The artists created altered books, which they shared in a round robin during the pandemic, to stay connected with each other when they couldn't meet. |
Gail's piece, shown above, finds meaning in uncovering the beauty in a cast-off cloth doll, which she placed in a glass case she lined with delicate handmade paper. She recasts the broken-down figure, ennobling it with beauty and grace. Indeed, she found her voice.
In her piece, below, Jill combines drawing, painting and collage to create Doorways Into the Past, a piece that contemplates the joys and perils of raising a teenager during the pandemic. It's both fraught and wistful at the same time, and certainly something any parent can relate to.
Doorways Into the Past by Jill Milenski, as seen in Uncovered Stories. |
Jill has made nearly two dozen pieces in this series, exploring the rabbit hole of feelings, finding new expressions every time. This is another beautiful aspect of art, this time reserved for the maker of art. Yes, the viewer reaps the benefits of the rabbit hole journeys, but for the artist, long series such as this one, lead not only to deep personal meaning, they create breakthroughs in one's work that forge new paths and create new challenges. It's an exciting place to be.
One of my own series relates to home and houses. I started both drawing and constructing them as assemblages about five years ago, when we were working on an exhibition entitled Memories Evoked: Circling Back Home. In addition to teensy little oil pastel drawings of houses on top of boxes, I added sticks stitched in place. I even created one large piece from an old dresser drawer. Called Pink House, it was almost a 3-D diorama of my childhood home. I put legs from an old television on the bottom and an old rabbit ears antennae on the top. I love that piece, which I still have.
Traveler by Gayle Pritchard, as seen in Uncovered Stories. |
Thursday, April 15, 2021
Uncovered Stories: Open Through May 14, 2021
Installation view, Uncovered Stories |
Gayle and Jill relax on the patio in their Gudrunjodens dresses. |
Gail Crum, Gayle Pritchard and Jill Milenski at the opening of their exhibit Uncovered Stories. |
Thursday, April 8, 2021
New Year, New Art, New Opening
In Our Studio |
Spring has arrived, along with vaccines, we have a new studio space, new artwork, and a new exhibition.The opportunity to exhibit our new work, and some made just at the beginning of the pandemic, came about suddenly. In the past three weeks, we have been working like crazy to finish up pieces and install the show. It opens this Friday. Here's the information:
Uncovered Stories
featuring the artwork of Gail Crum, Jill Milenski and Gayle Pritchard
BAYarts, Playhouse Gallery
28795 Lake Rd., Bay Village, Ohio 44140
Thursday, September 24, 2020
Women in Conversation reopened this past Tuesday for the final four viewing days, and we couldn't be happier. The opportunity to show a body of work is rare enough, but in these times, it is truly soul-stirring. As an artist, it is a rare moment to sit in a large gallery space and see the work you have created over years installed, living and breathing, interacting with the other artworks and the viewing public. It leaves me breathless.
As Ben Johnson observed in the opening line of his article in The Chronicle, "Time stood still...". Indeed, our work has been in place since February, and stayed in place over the ensuing months, bravely waiting for our return. We are so thrilled to have a few more days to enjoy the work in situ. Here's when you can see it:
Thursday, September 24, 2 p.m. - 7 p.m.; Tuesday, September 29, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Closing day: Thursday, October 1, 3 - 8 p.m. See the gallery link above to read the safety protocols.
You can also choose a time slot for the the closing event on October 1 and view a map CoolCleveland.
Can't make it to the show? You can still see it at the Beth K. Stocker Art Gallery Women in Conversation online. Check it out, and thanks for your support.
In these crazy times, it's wonderful to have a 'rainbow day' as my family calls it. I get a few extra ones this month. Stay well.