getting prompted

After a couple of days of holiday merry-making (eating, drinking & lounging around), my brain is feeling a bit sleepy, so I'll continue using the previously-mentioned 'blog prompts' to churn out a new post.  Rest assured 2012 will see the return of new insights care of once-again-functional synapses and cognitive ability!  Hope everyone is enjoying reminiscing about 2011 & getting ready for a new year.

on the tracks, manitoba - mrl 2010

A Few Favorite Quotes:


The real challenge is not to survive.  Hell, anyone can do that.  It's to survive as yourself, undiminished.
- Elia Kazan

You are not dead yet,
it's not too late 
to open your depths by plunging into them
and drink in the life that reveals itself
quietly there.
- Rainer Maria Rilke

Creative work needs the whole sky to fly in,
and no eye watching it 
until it comes to that certainty which it aspires to
- Mary Oliver

...You step delicately into the wild world
and your real prize 
will be the frantic search.
Want everything.
If you break
break going out not in.
- Michael Ondaatje

...If you could only stop 
shimmering for just one moment,
you would see your own reflection
mirrored in the stars:
glittering serenely,
only occasionally exploding
while waiting for that promised dawn.
- Karen Hayes

self-portrait

I recently read a blog (I can't remember the name of it unfortunately) where the author had posted suggestions for 'prompts,' to help bloggers get started on new posts.  I thought her list was really helpful, so I'm going to give it a go following it.  She suggests daily posts, which I think excessive, but maybe I can get into a weekly swing, we'll see :)

The first thing on the list is a self-portrait, so here goes:


10 random things about me
1.  I think too much.  Sometimes my brain feels it's overheating, the way my cheap cellphone does after a long call.
2.  I love music.  I really love it, sometimes so much it's overwhelming.  I can't imagine life without it.

[An aside:  this past summer, a guy named Kris Ellestad played a show in Picton, where I was staying.  I didn't go to the show because I was tired or whatever, and I guess hardly anyone went and he talked between songs about what a rough tour he'd been having & how he was a bit down about it.  So then I heard his album afterward and have ever since regretted not going.  Please give him a listen.]


3.  I am very particular.  That's a nice way of saying I am stubborn :)
4.  I meditate every day.  I'm also a certified Yoga & Meditation Instructor.
5.  I have a great sense of humour. 
6.  I have a ridiculous amount of dietary restrictions due to a very sensitive tummy.
7.  I love to run.  I forget that I love it sometimes, but when I get going, I'm happy as a clam.
8.  I'm afraid of heights, even after taking a trapeze/aerial silks course to try & overcome it.
9.  I'm half Italian.  And yes, I speak it.
10.I'm really good at keeping in touch.  Write me a letter and you can bet I'll write you one back.

me in my studio, just now, on my fuzzy webcam

leaps & bounds

untitled (paris - ml 2011

Well it's been a busy & eventful couple of weeks!   Many good things happening, and I couldn't be more thankful.  I guess I'll start with my biggest news:  I got engaged!  It's something my partner (now fiancé!) and I have talked about for a while, but now it's official and we're really excited.

In career news, I had grant funding approved for the L.E.A.P. program, which provides funding to Seniors organizations to bring in artists to teach workshops or classes.  I'll be doing 8 weeks of Felting with them starting in January!   I also had a really great studio visit from someone who happened to see my work online & had contacted me to come see it in person, which resulted in some great conversation about art and a sale!  I now have a few pieces at Details Past & Present Art Gallery in Charlottetown - my first commercial gallery - so that's exciting too.  And I've been invited to participate in a printmaking show in the new year at Gallery 78 in Fredericton!  Whew!  Busy times!

shakespeare & co. - ml 2011

I think that, even with all that good news, the thing I really feel satisfied about, is that I, just now, after 2.5 months, have finally finished editing my photos from my trip to Paris!  Perseverance rules!
Here are a few of my faves:

carousel at Parc La Villette - ml 2011

omnimax theatre at Parc La Villette - ml 2011

marché aux puces Saint-Ouen - ml 2011

the paris catacombes - ml 2011

books for sale - ml 2011

creatures at Saint-Ouen - ml 2011

montmartre - ml 2011

rest - ml 2011

another door opens - ml 2011

montmartre - ml 2011

rodin's The Kiss - ml 2011

 

 

 

procrastination is an art form unto itself

pei farm day - ml 2009

If a gal's not careful she could find herself waking up with the best intentions to get some productive work done in her studio, make herself coffee, and then head to her computer to "catch up on some email real quick," only to then find that it is lunchtime already.  It's hard though, because now that we have access to everything-in-the-world-all-the-time, it is hard for someone with an innate burning curiosity to turn away from all that. Or is that just something I tell myself to justify procrastinating?

This morning I found myself getting sucked in/riveted by a few of the blogs I have bookmarked, most of which I fully intended to follow when I found them, and then the list slowly grew to several dozen...here a few of the ones that are distracting me today:

http://www.unruly.ca/
http://www.nowness.com/
http://arthound.net
http://thecreepycatacomb.blogspot.com/
http://www.instructables.com/

Anyhow, aside from all the web-diversion, I'm also torn between working on editing the hundreds of photos which have piled up on my desktop in folders marked "to edit," puttering away on a new painting, working on some soft sculpture, watching the new episode of Pan Am and getting outside for some exercise.  Hmm...how to choose...

In other, more productive news, I just returned from a week in Halifax for a workshop on Natural Dye techniques with India Flint at the NSCAD Port Campus.  My commute was one of the best parts:  I stayed in Dartmouth with a friend and biked each morning to the ferry, took the ferry across to Halifax with the sunrise over the city, and then biked along the waterfront to the campus.  Delightful.  The workshop was neat too - did you know you could make dye from maple leaves?  Well it's true!  Nature is amazing.  I think I just made up my mind - outside!  - and hopefully that will motivate me for all the rest :)

bundles in goldenrod dyebath - ml 2011

magical sea sculpture - ml 2011

bundles with onion skins and scallop shells - ml 2011

point pleasant park, soaking our cloth - ml 2011

bundles with iron and windfall leaves - ml 2011

vocabulary

graffiti, charlottetown - ml 2011

For a small town, there is an awful lot that goes on in Charlottetown.  A friend of mine had a couchsurfer staying with her last night, and in the space of just a few hours we all went to Pecha-Kucha style talks at the library about sustainability, and then had mad group art-making at the bi-monthly City Nights event.  The theme of the night was 'meat,' so several of us collaborated on a rather hilarious cardboard slaughterhouse, complete with blood splatters, a pasture and miniature cows.  Hopefully the resolve of the vegetarians in the group was only strengthened by the experience :)  
You can watch a short video from a previous City Nights here. 

celebrate - ml 2011

This past spring I decide to venture into the world of video, naively thinking "oh, this will be fun and relatively easy!"  Since then I've been engaged in a mighty stand-off with video-editing software, and we had reached a stalemate until a gifted filmmaker friend graciously took the time to show me the many, many ropes of Final Cut Pro. 


The experience of struggling through a new medium had me thinking a lot about vocabulary.  It seemed to be the main reason I was having trouble - because I didn't understand the terms.  Perhaps that is the essence of understanding a new concept/language/process - building a vocabulary.  For instance, when the categories/terms of body, mind, and spirit were first used, it wasn't that the actual experience was new, it was that now there was vocabulary to help us understand it.  And that new vocabulary allowed for abundant growth and change to happen in human consciousness.  I wonder if, with all the rising tides, both literal and metaphorical, that we're faced with right now, if maybe what we really need is a new way of understanding what is happening; a new vocabulary.  Just a thought...


"There is no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening. "  - Marshall McLuhan

being at home in a storm

seating at Saint-Germain-des-Prés - monica lacey 2011

I've noticed an interesting phenomenon lately when I meet new people:  we introduce ourselves, exchange a bit of small talk, and then when we come to the what-do-you-do-in-life question and I say I'm an artist, the response is, "really?  Like a working artist?  You do that as a job?"  This response is usually accompanied by a facial expression that is a mix of wonder and disbelief, as though I've just announced I am actually a unicorn.  Sometimes I wish that I had begun my professional career as an artist earlier in life, mainly so that I didn't feel such urgent pressure to 'get somewhere,' now that I'm in my thirties.  Mainly though, I'm thankful for the decade or so that I spent doing other jobs that didn't really mean anything to me, because it gives me perspective, and helps me to be empathetic when these people I meet follow their incredulity with, "I always dreamed of being an artist!" or, "I went to art school years ago, but I didn't pursue it."  It also makes me incredibly thankful for the people I met along the way who encouraged me and inspired me to dig deep and find the courage to commit to this path. 

It hasn't been easy to work lately, as I've just moved into a new apartment with my partner Devon, but I did manage to get a submission sent to Papirmasse, and I was honoured to have two of my photos accepted!  Papirmasse is a really neat subscription-based art-in-the-mail operation where you get art and writing sent to you each month.  You can see my issue here, and I did an interview with them as well.  I also have a mixed-media piece in the Dark Arts themed show (up until November) at GGGallery in Charlottetown.   

sunflowers, montparnasse - monica lacey 2011

As I write this, Hurricane Ophelia is doing her act outside my window, all dramatic gestures of flung branches and sideways rain.  The storm has me feeling both agitated and thoughtful so I'm listening to the Lost in Thought playlist on Stereomood.  Although we returned to PEI in June, it only feels just now like we've fully arrived, now that we have a home of our own, where we can stay as long as we like.  I'm looking forward to getting my studio set up and to get cracking on the extra-large canvas I just ordered.  Oh but it's good to be home.

community can save your life

So, without getting into too much detail, let's just say I had a rough week.  A few things that I was really hoping would work out did not, in fact, work out, and I was feeling kind of bummed.  Kicking the dirt a bit, as it were.  Speaking as I am presently, from the other side of that particularly murky river, I have to say:  If you are feeling down, and therefore feeling like retreating further and further into your cave, don't do it!  Get out of your house and engage in a community activity!  I assure you that it is the right thing to do, if you believe that the 'right' direction is toward the light.  I believe that it is. 

The event I went out and participated in tonight was the PoeARTry Playoffs at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown.  The event was put on by the Art Gallery and the PEI Writer's Guild (who also have a great series of events - the Pen & Inkling Festival, Sept. 27-Oct.2.  The event was also part of a really wonderful alternative student orientation called Community Roots, which, hopefully will be a part of the fall fabric from now on here in PEI. 

Anyhow, the night was pretty darn great:  there were 4 teams, each with a team captain from UPEI,  an artist, a poet, and then two other team members chosen from the audience.  There were 4 rounds of stunts/challenges we had to perform, and then a panel of 2 judges who gave us a score.  We wrote haikus, created clay sculptures, and responded to exhibits with wu-tang style raps.  And it may be partly the adrenaline talking here since my team won (go Team A!), but boy did this event ever lift my spirits. 

I think that by nature we tend to retreat when we don't feel our best, but tonight was a great reminder that we're all in this together, we really are, and we need to support and uplift each other; to share our experiences; to be reminded that there is nothing we can feel that another human being somewhere has not also felt.  A sense of a larger community is long what the arts have been about, and it was so exciting to see that in action tonight.  All problems solved.  :)

sandbanks - monica lacey 2011