north by northwest

Last night we watched North by Northwest. It was pretty good, and reminded me of my teacher from Museum School, Patte Loper's paintings. She was inspired by the mid-century modern decor and instead of people, she imagined a situation where all the people have disappeared and the animals, specifically deer are left. Check out Patte's work, it's beautiful.

adventure guides?

It seems as if kids today won't have the same kind of childhood memories as I did in the YMCA Indian Guides. After the name and many of the practices of the Indian Guides were deemed racist and offensive, the YMCA has changed and renamed the program. It will now be called the YMCA Adventure Guides, and kids will be called explorers rather than guides or princesses. Although I loved it as a kid, as an adult I agree that many of the practices are utilizing stereotypes. I think the Native American influence had a big effect on kids, and at least generate interest fo future research into the culture. My biggest issue with the change is not the reason, but the result. Instead of making it their goal to work with the Native American communities, the YMCA extracted the Native American culture from the program altogether. Here is an excerpt from the article Y Programs Shed Indian Trappings now Deemed Racist from 2003 in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

"Ronn Wilson, who traces his heritage to the Willamette tribe, said if done appropriately, the use of Indian themes in such parent-child programs can be valuable in spreading cultural awareness.

'As long as the Indian is not used as a sort of mascot, I think using Native culture as a platform to teach respect, reverence and strong family values is only a positive thing,' said Wilson, who has consulted with the Eastside YMCA's Guides and Princesses programs for more than 20 years.

But consulting with Native Americans to ensure Indian themes are accurately portrayed is 'more the exception than the rule,' said Keith Officer, a Y-Guides parent volunteer with the Shoreline-South County YMCA."

Why can't this be the RULE? I feel like people are too afraid of offending anyone these days that they are depriving children of learning about other cultures. It seems as if the Native Americans wouldn't mind having jobs teaching kids about their culture, so why don't we initiate something of this nature?

soft bunny years, too cute

I finally feel like I have the drive to create something I care about. Sean was invited to work on a project for his friends artist collective in LA. He encouraged me to make an animation that follows their theme of reconstructing memory. I have been meaning to incorporate the influence of my participation in the YMCA Indian Guides into my artwork. I have found that this might be an outlet for me to deconstruct the memories I had as "Soft Bunny" my Indian Princess name. My close friends in elementary school and I were so enthralled with our experiences that we created our own club called the camping clique, and kept our own "Indian Guides Files." While looking through the file today I found a note that I wrote to my dad. It had to be at least 3rd grade because I signed my name in cursive. I started researching the history of the Indian Guides on the internet and was shocked to see the changes over the past few years. It will take to long to write about it now so I'll keep this post cute and nostalgic.

rabbit dreams

I have been struggling deciding what I should draw since Sunday. As I post these drawings and painting by other artists I am jealous and really want to continue my work like this as well. In the summer I took a video class at Museum School and my final piece was about a journey follwing a rabbit, (not Alice in Wonderland). My goal if this was to be an exhibition, was to begin with the video and then the rest of the walls would consist of painting of the rest of the journey in which I would be introduced to each of my 12 spirit animals. Let me explain, what I've learned about spirit animals is based on Native American beliefs. They help protect and guide an individual throughout their life. Zack's mom did a reading for me when I was starting out teaching. I think what I should do for my sketches over the next month or so is to draw each of the animals that I discovered in that reading. Eventually I want to incorporate them in a story version and paintings. I can't wait for that but I think I need to start slow. The picture is of one of the cards that I had a very good feeling I was going to get. It is the rabbit card, at the time I was having a lot of strange dreams with a rabbit and it started influencing my art.

fay ku

I first saw the artist Fay Ku's work when Sean and I went to Real Art Ways in Hartford a few years ago. Seeing her show was one of the first times I started to understand what contemporary art was, and how it could make you feel. Besides loving her work formaly, I am very intrigued by how uninhibited she is in the pieces she creates. It seems as if she wants people to be a little uncomfortable when they look at her work, and isn't afraid to expose herself. I'm not sure if I will ever get to this level, but she is definitly an inspiration. The first painting is called "Part Reptile" and is from 2005. The second is called "Bait" and is from 2009.

lil libby

In keeping with the animal theme, this is Libby from Seattle. When we went to Seattle in August 2009 we stayed at Joni and Larry's house. I can't help but remember how hospitable they were and how playful their dog Libby was! I hope we can visit them again. Here is a link to our pictures from the Pacific Northwest.

kiki smith

I love when I can draw little lines over and over again until it shows shadow and form. This makes it very satisfying to draw animals with fur. Kiki Smith's etchings are fascinating because whatever she does, it seems to make the animals a little bit creepy, but in a good way. She did a lot of etchings of dead animals, but even the live ones aren't "cute". I love it. I am working on some sketches like these and will be posting them soon.

mourning dove

I have been hearing a mourning dove outside our bedroom every morning. I thought it was an owl at first. I think about that little bird and its coo every day. It inspired me to do a sketch.

circle gatherings

There's something very satisfying about people gathered in a circle. I remember in elementary school when we used to put our desks in a circle, it felt like you could really see everybody. The first picture is by Andrew Wyeth called "Snow Hill" created in 1989. The other is by an artist named Chris Russell who I found on Little Paper Planes. It is titled "Smoke Signals" and was created in 2006. I love the different perspectives the artists used. I can't help but crave a highly detailed drawing/painting aesthetic. I am going to keep working in graphite for now, until I get my drawing skills back, then I can begin to work on the painting skills.

still life sketch

This is an attempt to start drawing again.
I will sketch every other day and post the drawing here.
On the off days I will reflect on my inspirations.