OK LET'S SHARE THE STORY ROPES

1/5/12 seminar:
Going Cross-Culture with Art

the end of the day • one at a time • sharing their stories • traveling down • touching piece by piece • colors and patterns • telling their stories • never heard

SHOW 'N TELL

1/5/12 seminar:
Going Cross-Culture with Art

coming post:

completed

story-ropes

accordion books

to see all Up from the city

seminar posts -

click on label below:

CUTTING & PASTING

1/5/12 seminar:
Going Cross-Culture with Art

a challenge

a story

their story ?

symbols ?

times of light & dark ?

whatever

4 pages

accordion book

create !

upcoming post-sharing their stories

PARTNERING AT HOME AND OVERSEAS

1/5/12 seminar:
Going Cross-Culture with Art

It's an unusual partnership we have, an artist and a non-artist, collaborating & working so well together.

I've arrived in her part of the world with artwork, mostly quilts, that we've collaborated on & we've treked around sharing them with friends. We've traveled together to the 'back of beyond' to do the story ropes and art presentations with old and new friends.

At home we've been asked to share our combined experiences & know-how with other artists inspired to do the same but not quite sure how to begin. It was like that with our friends up from the city, as I've been sharing in the posts. The group observed there was a natural flowing working relationship between us. It's developed over the years. We've observed from our different working worlds, that it's quite unusual and not the norm.

My friend brought the pink heart along to the seminar. It's an object lesson - about the heart turned to God yet struggling with the old ways. She pulled all kinds of things out of the heart as she had our rapt attention! The heart needs some technical help so I'll be working on it before she uses it again.

photos of us at the seminar

TACO SOUP & CONVERSATION

1/5/12 seminar:

Going Cross-Culture with Art

A lunch of taco soup & salad was followed by a time of questions & conversation in the living room.

How are they using the arts cross-culturally?

What's been done in the past?

Who is their audience?

How do they connect with people?

After sifting through the conversation, I thought sharing ones own story, was still one of the best ways to connect with people.

Our two projects were all about personal story. We did the story-ropes just before lunch & they'd be creating accordion books that afternoon.

coming up: the heart

COMING UP......

1/5/12 seminar:

Going Cross-Culture with Art

coming tomorrow:

eating

conversation

& a heart

PIANO KEYS?

1/5/12 seminar:

Going Cross-Culture with Art

It was interesting making time-lines (AKA story-ropes) with young adults.

One of the guys was convinced there would be only three ties on his time-line. After all how much had happened in his life so far?

But then the ideas flowed and his time-line filled in with all different colors and patterns, thoughtfully chosen out of the scrap box, representing special markers in his life so far.

The core fabric he chose reminded him of piano keys. I was expecting to hear about some music in his story.

By the way, his story-rope, as you will see in an upcoming post, turned out great!

photos: making their story-ropes

seminar stories continue in next post

TIMELINES IN FABRIC

coming tomorrow

CHOOSING FABRICS part 3

1/5/12 seminar Going Cross-Culture with Art

After a short break, it was back up to the studio where we went through the how-to of making story ropes.

Simply put this is a story timeline, told with fabrics and other materials. In this case they were challenged to tell their personal journey.

I put out 2 big boxes of scraps, a table top covered with fabrics, plus ribbons, buttons, sequins, yarns, etc.

Look at the guys studying the fabrics, as they rummaged through, choosing specific colors and patterns for their timelines.

"How did it go in other workshops, doing it with guys?" they asked. I had to admit, I had never done it with them before!

Considering this looked to be a new experience for them, working with fabric, they were great sports and did very creative story ropes as you will see ahead !

Next blog post: making the story ropes.

LOOKING AT 7 QUILTS part 2

1/5/12 seminar - Going Cross-Culture with Art

The day of the seminar, began up in the studio.

My friend and I, having traveled together cross-culturally, talked about 7 narrative quilts. Three of the quilts were shown to groups we met with as we traveled together.

Each quilt engages the viewer through the picture story that flows across the face of the quilt.

This first session was about the power of art that tells a story. After talking about the content of each piece, we also told of the audiences we showed each quilt to and their reactions.

Most discussion centered on the two quilts on the work wall, as seen in the photo. The group stood to get a better look while they listened & asked questions.

previous 2 posts picture the other 5 quilts.

next blog post: the group makes story-ropes

A GREAT DAY WITH NEW FRIENDS part 1

1/5/12 seminar Going Cross-Culture with Art

7 friends came up from Manhattan early this morning. Two other friends came from another CT town to help me present contextualizing art in culture. With Nelson and I there were 11 of us. Quite a crowd for a seminar in my studio!

What a full & really great day of connecting, learning, challenging, creating, talking and eating! It is now evening. Going up to put the studio back together but wanted to share at least 2 pictures. I know some of you are waiting to see something of the day! I'll share more over the next few days.

Each person did two art projects, a story rope and an accordion book.

Photos show the beginning of accordion bookmaking. Click on photos to enlarge.

More tomorrow.

STUDIO IS READY

I organized the studio for tomorrow's seminar, Going Cross-Culture with Art.

• quilts on the wall

• story-rope fabrics set out

• blank accordion books & papers

click on photos to enlarge