MIDTERM!

sooo midterms have found me, well, hopefully NOT slumping but in the calm before a storm. There is so much to learn, still, and forever....the work has evolved to sculptured hens, continued mirror studies, chicken wishes, and thoughts about mother. There's thinking as well, thesis thoughts and professional studies thoughts, to go, you know, with the degree.

chicken sculptures (there's 21)

chicken wishes

mirror studies

mirror studies: stream

this mother

chicks arrived in the mail

chicken pinata

one of many gingerbread walls

Is it really?

The summer intensive has passed; here are some images of work that occurred!

detail; altar cloth

one of many broken mirrors

the "before"

"those were the good old days, huh mom?" paper/ink/stitch

detail; curio cabinet

mirror studies #7; projection video, 7 found mirrors, 7 plinths

detail; Hansel and Gretel 

Kate Gilmore! Me!

I decorated a gingerbread house in front of an audience

light studies digital photograph

Mirror Studies digital image

mirror studies #3 light reflects 

mirror studies #8

pm2 digital image

detail; mirror of a witch

detail: gingerbread house witch

so, there was a lot happening!
Michele

another quote that will be useful

"The line between art and life should be kept as fluid, and perhaps indistinct, as possible."

Alan Kaprow

Performance Art Cont'd

"Performance art does not present the illusion of events, but rather presents actual events as art."

Joan Jonas

Performance Art

so, over the past weekend I participated in an endurance piece created by kate gilmore ( http://www.kategilmore.com/) which was transformative, amazing, focusing, meditative, and an experience of a lifetime. I walked for two sessions of 5 hours each over sets of stairs that surrounded a monument in Portland, ME.  The piece was created by but not defined by kate, and she asked audience to get what they wanted from viewing the experience. For myself, the stairs were in sets of seven up and seven down and I totally counted my way through the five hours and was in every moment of my time spent climbing. The stairs weren't aerobic, but there was an aftermath of a sore blistered toe and really tight calf muscles just now subsiding.

I wrote a note to kate to thank her for the experience, and here's what she wrote back:

michele,
thank you for being so fucking amazing!
you blew me away (and everyone else for that matter).
maybe we can fly you around the country to do this!
i loved working with you.  i hope we can do it again soon!
good luck with the rest of your summer... (and your mom video).
xxxx
kate

also, it turns out that I am the oldest woman to ever perform an endurance piece for kate, as well as one of only two women out of the group to perform all 10 hours. Pretty badass, right?

I can't help it, another horoscope!

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): "There are some things you learn best in
calm, and some in storm," wrote the novelist Willa Cather. According to
my reading of the astrological omens, Taurus, you're in a phase of your
cycle when storm-learning isn't your priority. The educational experiences
you need most will unfold when you're exploring the mysteries of peace
and serenity. In fact, I suspect that the deeper you relax, the more likely
it is that you will attract life-changing teachings -- lessons that can
transform your life for the better and fuel you for a long time.

The answer?

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): "How many years can some people exist
before they're allowed to be free?" asked Bob Dylan in one of his most
famous songs, written in 1962. "The answer is blowin' in the wind," he
concluded. Many people hailed the tune as a civil rights anthem. Thirteen
years later, a hippie cowboy named Jerry Jeff Walker released "Pissing in
the Wind," a rowdy song that included the line, "The answer is pissing in
the wind." It was decidedly less serious than the tune it paid homage to,
with Walker suggesting that certain events in his life resembled the act
described in the title. "Makin' the same mistakes, we swore we'd never
make again," he crooned. All of this is my way of letting you know,
Taurus, that you're at a fork. In one direction is a profound, even noble,
"blowin' in the wind" experience. In the other, it would be like "pissing in
the wind." Which do you prefer? It's up to you.


dammit I love this horoscope guy....