I am ready to play!

Taurus:  The Icelandic word *hoppípolla* means
"jumping into puddles." I'd love to make that one of your themes in the
coming weeks. It would be in sweet accordance with the astrological
omens. You are overdue for an extended reign of freelance play . . . for a
time of high amusement mixed with deep fun and a wandering
imagination. See if you can arrange to not only leap into the mud, but also
roll down a hill and kiss the sky and sing hymns to the sun. For extra
credit, consider adding the Bantu term *mbuki-mvuki* to your repertoire.
It refers to the act of stripping off your clothes and dancing with crazy
joy.

Strongly influenced by my horoscope, I take on the challenges and head out to jump me some puddles. I want to play!

moving on?

"Above all Michele stands ready to jump. Michele has ended the semester on a strong note demonstrated by the  work that communicates with a clearer and more confident voice, as well as, strengthened visuals that exude a more complex emotional component."  Amy Podmore, RSA 2014

creative, brave, and courageous.

For the [creative person], what's going on outside is trivial compared to what is going on inside… Don't try to change the structure of the outside world [hoping that] then you'll be fine, then you'll be creative and then you'll be brave. No. First, figure out how to be creative and brave and courageous, and the outside world will change on your behalf…

It's always the same case – it's always the case of you're a human, trying to connect to another human. And if you just pick one human that you can change for the better, with work that might not work – that's what art is.    

Seth Godon "V is for Vulnerability." 

 Seth Godon "V is for Vulnerability." 

Oh Hi

By the way, it's official.

me, mfa, done.

woot.

the big question?

getting ready!

TAURUS : You remind me of a garden plot that has
recently been plowed and rained on. Now the sun is out. The air is warm.
Your dirt is wet and fertile. The feeling is a bit unsettled because the stuff
that was below ground got churned up to the top. Instead of a flat
surface, you've got furrows. But the overall mood is expectant. Blithe
magic is in the air. Soon it will be time to grow new life. Oh, but just one
thing is missing: The seeds have yet to be sown. That's going to happen
very soon. Right?
Getting ready for the mfa defense in two weeks. The work is near complete, videos are pleasing, frosting cubes and hoops are just about perfect. Now I need to figure out how to transport them, and get my show up to Maine! IT's ALMOST HERE!

awe

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): "Our brains are no longer conditioned for
reverence and awe," said novelist John Updike. That's a sad possibility.
Could you please do something to dispute or override it, Taurus?

 Would it be too much to ask if I encouraged you to go out in quest of 
lyrical miracles that fill you with wonder? Can I persuade you to be 
alert for sweet mysteries that provoke dizzying joy and uncanny
 breakthroughs that heal a wound you've feared might forever plague you?
 Here's what the astrological omens suggest: 
Phenomena that stir reverence and awe are far more likely than usual.

this is a good one

TAURUS It's Love Your Messes Week, Taurus. In
accordance with the astrological omens, you are authorized to love the
hell out of the messes in your life -- from the small, awkward knots of
confusion to the big, beautiful heaps of fertile chaos. This is not a time to
feel embarrassed or apologize for your messes; not a time to shy away
from them or ignore them. On the contrary, you should explore them,
celebrate them, and even take advantage of them. Whatever else they
are, your messes are untapped sources of energy. Learn to love them for
the mysterious lessons they keep teaching you. Love them for the
courage and willpower they compel you to summon. Love them for the
novelty they bring your way and the interesting stories they add to your
personal legend.

looka dis!

sunsets photographed through shattered mirrors by Bing Wright. Gotta love mirrors. I do. Love mirrors. 

frosting on the hoop

today I went back to frosting hoops, after hours and hours spent writing rewriting writing rewriting.
it's okay. The frosting looks good AND I referenced some old monoprints that I had done two summers ago. So that was good too.

before

after

it's pink

Your true color is

Pink

Your motto is Go, Go, Go! But you also know how to relax and recharge your batteries for the next big thing. You like to work hard, play hard, and nap hard

What you DON'T want to hear from a professor.....

"I hope I'm not too late." (by which, she means, with editing thoughts)
Whuh  oh!

artist statement at work......

Michele Ridgeway

Artist Statement

I  construct anecdotal narratives through video, performance art and sculpture which reveal universal themes of humanity that acknowledge that we are fleeting and changing beings.  The daily struggles, emotions, and situations of family, mothers, middle age, and home are the  text that I draw inspiration from.  The durational performances emphasize process, chance, time, endurance, and repetitive obsession to reinforce these themes.  

Through the medium of video I perform the everyday gesture that might occur in the home; icing a cake, wiping a mirror, nurturing with cooking, decorating and stitching.  The narratives conflate the line between  the practice of life and the practice of art and the domestic in terms of an aesthetic and a medium.  

My sculptural work is composed of materials in my home; icing, gingerbread, doilies, curtains, and mirrors. The mirror exists in the work as identity, stillness, a look into the now as well as reflection upon the past. The frosting sculptures speak to repetitive obsession in gesture and celebrations and are inspired by decorative elements in the home. The sewn pieces, constructed from household linens, recall stories from childhood and a desire to comfort and nurture. The objects that I make are similar to the video work in that they engage the domestic aesthetic in both size and material.  They reinforce the themes of endurance, process, and repetitive obsession in their construction. 

With this work, I depict a life that is lived through art.

a long lost horoscope

and a quote from an early horoscope; “work to link previously unlinked elements in your life that may help to inspire you to master the gritty details that will lead to your own monumental accomplishment”...Rob Brezny

works

work accepted to a show. yup. me. 

words listed

recently advised by my advisor to write a list of words regarding what I hope to elicit with the work installation.....

looking through notes, found this gem;

"self portrait-framing certain tasks with in activities for daily life"

"aesthetic that has a performative aspect"

"using domestic aesthetic as a bridge between humanity and narrative"

"acknowledges that we are fleeting and changing beings"

"celebrates and communicates the cyclical nature of humanity"

"honesty and poignancy"

"repetitive obsession"

words?

nurture *  memory *comfort *obsession *mother *celebration* ghost* past* look* watch *fear* grandmother *wisdom *thought *anxiety *overdone *try too hard *control *loss *life* fear *endurance* lack of control* trying too hard white* middle class* breakable *approachable *non approachable* white on white* very personal place*universal themes of humanity*we are fleeting and changingbeings*durationalperformances*process*chance*time*endurance*repetition*repetitive obsession*reassurance*been there done that*try as you might*can I hold your hand?*is that really how it was?*

shortcuts?

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In May 2011, two Nepali men reached the top
of Mt. Everest after a six-week climb. Lakpa Tsheri Sherpa and Sano Babu
Sunuwar had prepared an unprecedented way to get back down off the
mountain. Strapping themselves to a single parachute, they leaped off
and paraglided for 45 minutes, landing near a Sherpa village thousands of
feet below the summit. I suggest you look around for a metaphorical
version of a shortcut like that, Taurus. Don't do the next part of the
journey the same way you did the previous phase. Take a more direct
route. Enjoy an alternate adventure. Give yourself a fresh challenge.

And Do It With Love, For Yourself.....

TAURUS

 "The fact that someone else loves
you doesn't rescue you from the project of loving yourself,"
writes blogger Sahaj Kohli. Nothing else rescues you from that
quest, either, I would add. Sooner or later, whether it's now or
20 years in the future, you will have to master this fine art. It's
not enough to merely feel affection for yourself; not enough to
seek pleasure and avoid pain. You've got to make extensive
investigations to discover what it means to love yourself; you
have to develop rigorous plans for how to accomplish it; and
you must fire up a deep commitment as you actually carry out
those plans. By the way, the coming weeks will be an excellent
time to work on mastering this fine art.

Just, You Know, Do IT.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): What is the single best thing you could do to
fulfill your number one desire? Is there a skill you should attain? A subject
you should study? A special kind of experience you should seek or a shift
in perspective you should initiate? This is a big opportunity, Taurus. You
have an excellent chance to identify the specific action you could take
that will lead you to the next stage of your evolution. And if you do
manage to figure out exactly what needs to be done, start doing it!

I'm loving angels instead.....

So,
the work is progressing, I am as well learning to be with the ending of the life of my father, together with my brothers. We spent the last three days with him in his hospice in Miami, we slept in the room (a total ridiculously cramped snore fest) my brothers played scrabble, we sang to my dad, played endless John Denver (take me home, country roads, to a place, where I belong....) stroked his forehead, kissed him, and told him how much he was loved and what a wonderful legacy he had created. Sometimes we laughed pretty hard, which was a sort of funny way to be in a room of a man who lay dying. We whispered when we said some inappropriate things because we knew he was hearing us. Early on, I was crying and talking to my dad and I said "it's so hard now dad, huh?" and he leaned foreward and gasped out "yes."
We tried to tell him to go in peace. "Go in peace, dad, we're okay, we're taken care of."

There was so much love there.

He is still breathing, 3 days after the breathing tube was removed.

I wanted to share a youtube lecture with you:  Art as Therapy by Alain de Botton. http://youtu.be/qFnNgTSkHPM

take a listen. We are not alone. We share a wonderful commonality with eachother and the artists who are making beautiful work for us to experience.

gifts

"Don’t make stuff because you want to make money — it will never make you enough money. And don’t make stuff because you want to get famous — because you will never feel famous enough. Make gifts for people — and work hard on making those gifts in the hope that those people will notice and like the gifts.

Maybe they will notice how hard you worked, and maybe they won’t — and if they don’t notice, I know it’s frustrating. But, ultimately, that doesn’t change anything — because your responsibility is not to the people you’re making the gift for, but to the gift itself."

thinking about thesis....is work a gift? 

Would You Consider Bringing a Little Bit of Fun Into Your Waking Life?

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You Tauruses are customarily more grounded
than the rest of us. But this week, I'm wondering if you will be tempted to
escape the laws of gravity and rebel against the call of duty. I suspect
that your dreams, at least, will feature uninhibited forays into the wild
blue yonder. While you're sleeping you may float weightlessly in an
interplanetary spaceship, become an eagle and soar over forests, wear a
futuristic jet pack on your back and zip through the sky, sail across the
Serengeti Plains in a hot-air balloon, or have a picnic on a cloud with a
feast of cotton candy and sponge cake and mint tea. Would you consider
bringing this kind of fun into your waking life?

um, let me see now, YES! I have started up the studio practice and am exploring a few themes:  "EveryDay at Around Five,"   and "ReAttachment" are two videos in the works. Gingerbread is baking tonight, and I'm decorating the pieces before attaching them together to make the house. I have been rewriting the Hansel and Gretel story; I feel like the witch got the short end of the deal...it's not her fault that she eats children. What about that mother, huh? Abandoning the children to the forest like that. 

so, yes to fun. work is fun. 

Mindfulness and Presence

If to enjoy even an enjoyable present we must have the assurance of a happy future, we are “crying for the moon.” We have no such assurance. The best predictions are still matters of probability rather than certainty, and to the best of our knowledge every one of us is going to suffer and die. If, then, we cannot live happily without an assured future, we are certainly not adapted to living in a finite world where, despite the best plans, accidents will happen, and where death comes at the end.    Alan Watts