Navigating Life

The only way out is through; no.
A way out is through.
Away from limitations.

Who am I?

Not always the question I ask myself every morning, or even when people ask my name, but then, sometimes I surprise myself and I'm not quite sure I remember who I am. Or is it simply that I'm so different from who I was six months ago, a year ago and definitely two years ago that sometimes I can loose track, of myself.

I'm posting this photo, from the trip that essentially propelled me to make major changes in my, then, life. In this photo I got to wear a dress with styling from the 1850's that had Velcro up the back so that any one fortunate to see the fashion exhibit in an old church in Amsterdam could potentially fit into. This brings a perpetual question of mine, of recent, now that I've divorced myself from the fashion world I'm able to look at clothing for what it is (and not for what will be the next best seller in a store.) Clothing, cloth, covering makes us whomever we want to be. Sometimes the cover up is for the best, sometimes, depending on what I wear I can feel more like "me" or less like "me." The question of constant contemplation, of days recent.

I've surprised myself.
I'm still muddling through weather it's for good or not. And to think of the clothing I was wearing when I surprised myself. Was I wearing any at all, or was it just a dream? Today I don't feel like myself, It's cold and damp, it's raining, and I have millions of things to do, and so far little has been done, or tons, depending on one's point of view. But since we're talking about me, than I guess, not much as been done. Ah, but the day is but am embryo, so I must not make anymore haste and be off and start the day, no matter who I am, but just to remember that I'll become more me at the end of the day if I'm allowed to wear what I want and feel comfortable in it.

SeaFlect

Soon after we can see we are aware that we can also be seen. -John Berger

Initial sketches for "SeaFlect" a performance stool for Alexis Parsons, an improvisational jazz performer. It is to include delicately placed mirrors, facing inwards and some outwards as a representation on how much of Alexis gives in each performance. What she gives to the audience as well as what she keeps for herself will be symbolically designed into this stool, a work in progress. Some sketch models have been made in between the below pencil drawings and the college of marker loose drawings that is at the bottom of this post.

As the weeks progress I will be posting development, decisions, reactions and hopefully receiving comments from viewers.

Detaching, with Love

Thank you to all who came out to support me in my endeavor to detach from some of my beloved pieces. This was such an amazing experience. All of the feed-back from my work was amazing. I cannot say thank you enough to everyone who helped me:

• Caroline from Jan & Aya who so graciously curated my work into the beautiful presentation at her store. http://janandaya.blogspot.com/

• Patti and Joan for their initial support when the show was just a thought.

• John Hartmenn of Freecell for his initial inspiration from his show many years ago; How to make a Thousand. http://www.frcll.com/

• My cousin, Katherine Thompson, who is an amazing and successful artist herself, and thank you for taking photos of my show!

• Jordan Winnick who helped me make a website for my work in time for my show. http://jordanwinick.com/
• http://www.scullynewyork.com

• To David Gibbs who helped me with the last minute additions to the show http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/david_gibbs_wat.php

• To all of my friends that came and supported: Lys, Meridith, Beth, Christina, Heidi, Rob, Sam,Theresa, Emily, who I had not seen in 10 years!,and The Madan, Joel Wennerstrom (Even my drawing professor came!) and Terrin, hopefully reporting back to everyone at good 'ol AT! Christopher, Molly, and Rich McCullah, the amazing furniture designer: http://www.mccullahdesigns.com/

• To all my friends and family, I know that you were rooting for me too, so thank you as well!
  

Pieces become Whole

Blue Bag Project Part II

IMG_0685.JPG
Originally uploaded by alisonboring

Thank you to Alison Walsh took this splendid photo of my work at night. How attentive to the details of the skyline.
Thank you, look for more soon, you have inspired me to continue...

"I'm going to float like a butterfly sting like a bee"

The famous quote, by The Greatest of All Time, Muhammad Ali.
He was the greatest, and I look to his teachings and try to remember that I would like myself to seem as graceful as a butterfly and behold the power of a single bee to deal with life's shortcomings and minor set backs.

All of this from a simple project of making a rural mailbox for a famous person of our choice. The "rural" mailbox, although I grew up in the country, I forgot what one looked like, and wondered, does anyone use one anymore at all? It is so easy for me to forget to check my mail these days. The real mail that I am concerned about comes in minute to minute via E-mail. No surprises here for anyone who joined civilization at the later part of the 20th century, although I do miss the days of getting a hoards of birthday cards around my day in May, or from a Pen Pal---gosh! The younger generation likely doesn't even know what Pen Pals are. I just looked mine up on facebook, but alas, there are over 500 of her name that I would have to sift through to find her, if I even remember her name correctly, and who knows what she looks like after all these years.

I have to say, I am so thankful for my Dad whom continues to write me letters via what is now termed as 'snail mail,' giving it such a sad connotation. What is wrong with a snail, or being slow? Slow, maybe, but deliberate, yes. I noticed right away when I started using e-mail how it was and still is oh so difficult to truly understand what people want to say. Seems that most people know by now that all caps means they are shouting, but do to the immediate quality of e-mail, sometimes I truly do not take their meaning or sincerity in the correct direction, often quite the opposite.

As someone whom considers herself an environmentalist, I do see the advantage over e-mail as there is no paper involved, as long as they are not needlessly printed up. However, I have found it no longer exciting when I hear from long-lost friends, it's hard to really know how they are doing, or to learn anything new about them, or even try to understand them more. I used to enjoy so much stationary, the colors, the textures and the handwriting, when a pen would run out of ink, would they choose the same kind of pen, or pick a new one, whatever was closest? Some would write perfectly in a straight line across the page without lined papers, (I always admired this so much) others would purposely write in squiggles, or circles or zig-zags just to be cute, or thoughtful, or for me to know that they were having fun writing to me, and this was something special.

Writing letters is graceful, like a butterfly, one could sting like a bee if necessary, but this is best left to e-mails that can be deleted quickly and forgotten, faster than a letter in which one would have to burn or shred to get rid of. I suppose, I still have the option to be both, I prefer the idea of a butterfly more, but sometimes, I like to wear costumes