Cute as a button house

This is a great place! Right up my alley. I especially like the mobile aspect.

My mother’s gifts

As some of you know my mother, Doris Shintani, left this earth on August 13, 2009. She had Alzheimer’s disease for about 12 years leading up to her death. Recently I spoke about the many gifts she gave me at a community memorial and at the United Methodist Church in Lodi.

As a healing and an honoring of her, I decided to make art around these gifts.

The first small piece I made was a red chair drawn and sewn on to a piece of birch bark. I wove the red thread hanging from the chair into a braid and at the end of this I tied a red envelop. Inside the envelop I placed 3 needles. I wanted to convey my sadness and the empty place in my heart. And I wanted to convey the gift she gave me – the ability to always create my path and to stand on my own two feet.

The other piece I am working on is a real meditation. When I was going through my mother’s photos I found the pictures of her

classes. She taught first through fourth grades. I thought about those 23 years she had been a teacher. She was very dedicated to her students. My mother had touched so many of their lives. Some students even sent her letters through the years. I decided to make a bead of each students face and to string them together. I have made about 150 beads and have 500 more to go. The core of each bead is made of joss paper which is used for funeral rituals. The art making has helped me through my grief. I made beads sitting in waiting rooms during my father’s surgeries. I made more beads on plane trips. I continue to make beads in my studio. They are keeping me connected to the impact my mother had on my life and on the lives of others. The gift to make a passionate difference in other’s lives is a gift I want to keep giving.

Introducing The Purpose Prize, winners 50-70+ years old

Unwilling to stuff envelopes or go off quietly to the sidelines, thousands of innovators in their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond are combining their creativity and experience to address big social problems. These change-makers are taking matters into their own hands and fashioning a new vision of the second half of life, one in which the expertise and talent of a lifetime is refocused on finding solutions to challenges in our communities, our country, and the world.

The Purpose Prize, now in its fourth year, provides five $100,000 and five $50,000 awards to social innovators over 60 in encore careers. It is the nation’s only large-scale investment in social innovators in the second half of life. Rather than a lifetime achievement award, however, The Purpose Prize is a down payment on what these 60-plus innovators will do next. Read more by clicking here.

Organizing for creativity is a different kind of order

I’m not ashamed to admit it, I hired an organizer. Sometimes I think it is just best to get some one to help me do a job I haven’t been able to tackle.

The professional I brought is a local coastside gal named Jeri Dansky. I met her through twitter believe it or not! Jeri is a pleasure to work with. She never made me feel like a bad girl who hadn’t cleaned her room.

On her first visit she walked around my art studio with a thoughtful look on her face, not saying a word. I followed behind her jabbering about why this area was a mess and why that was on the floor, etc. She stopped and turned to me and asked, “Do you like to have your stuff out?” I kinda thought it was obvious by the different piles I had. But what really surprised me next was when she said, “because we can organize things to be out so they can give you inspiration.” This was a totally new concept for me! Then I remembered going on tour through a Reggio Emilio preschool room. They believed in having materials out for kids to interact with throughout the day. They felt having access to art stuff allowed kids to incorporate art into their everyday life. I was in love with this idea!

What we did to organize things to be ‘out’ was to put like things together in open plastic boxes. My categories so far are: natural materials, ribbons and strings, different papers, found stuff, collage materials, seashells, metal things. We threw away a lot of stuff that was just junk and made a pile to shred. We went through 5 big shelves.

In a big heavy cardboard box on a top shelf I found my POPAI (Point of Purchase Advertising International) Indians, all eight of them. After looking at the awards and talking about what I could do with the mini statues, I decided to put them on display on my bookshelf. Why you may ask. Well because they represented the best part of my hi tech merchandising career, the recognition by the industry of great store design, innovative merchandising, and hard work. The awards also remind me of how these skills can be helpful in my new interest in pursuing public art opportunities. Now looking at them I wondered why I had hidden them away.

Well I have much more to do, but I’m actually looking forward to organizing now!

Here’s Jeri Dansky’s info, and she loves working with artists.

www.jdorganizer.com/

http://jdorganizer.blogspot.com/

Artful Abode Art Show for Drs Without Borders, reception 11/7

“We had such a wonderful turn out for the Second Doctors Without Borders Silent Art Auction we just have to do it again. The event is getting a reputation for the terrific art and the well attended reception.” said Judy Shintani, artist and organizer of the event.

The show will be exhibited at M Coffee, November 2 – 30, with the reception on November 7, 6-8pm. There will be a silent art auction, refreshments, and live music. Silent auction bids can be placed until November 29.

Judy feels that M Coffee in downtown Half Moon Bay is an ideal location for this show because they have a loyal clientele as well as tourists that come in throughout the day who may want to help out Doctors Without Borders and see some great art.

Doctors Without Borders is an independent international medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural or man-made disasters, or exclusion from health care in more than 70 countries. “I think it is important that they are not affiliated with any specific country so they are not restricted by political issues when they do their work,” said Shintani. Last year the event had 16 artists and donated over $1,300 and this year Shintani is aiming for $1,500 for the Doctors’ organization.

The theme of “home” is being interpreted in many different ways by the artists. For example, Nancy Margulies watercolor reflects the idea that “home is where the art is”. Susana van Bezooijen expresses the idea of loss for many immigrants with her clay figure. John Donohue is carving a redwood altar which celebrates the goddesses of the hearth and artist Carrie Hollister is contributing a miniature fabric quilt.

“Part of my intention in curating this show, is for the artists to engage in art making during the month prior to the opening. It is powerful to have a group of us generating and engaging in the theme together,” says Shintani.

The artists committed to making new art for the show. Those exhibiting are: Carole Brehm, Rashid Bousellam, Kathy Bristol, Mauro Dinucci, John Donohue, Susan Friedman, Carrie Hollister, Clifford Hunt, Leslie Hunt, Judy Johnson-Williams, Richard Kirchner, Margaret Lindsey, Nancy Margulies, Pamela Martin Noyes, Deborah Penrose, Lisa Petrides, Randall Reid, Judy Shintani, Susana van Bezooijen.

There will be a wide variety of art including painting, photography, jewelry, and sculpture on display and available for purchase for a great cause.

Now floating wind turbines

I just read this interesting post:

The energy company Statoil has begun operation of the first full-size Hywind floating wind turbine at a location 10 kilometers off the Norwegian coast. What is remarkable about this turbine is that is is floating in the water, rather than being rigidly attached to the ocean floor.

Click here to read more: http://ecogeek.org/component/content/article/2952

What about tomorrow?

The latest artist collaborative theme we are working with, is the phrase, “What about Tomorrow?” I can take that question so many ways: what am I doing tomorrow?, what is the state of our future?, So what about tomorrow? Is there a tomorrow?

People approach their tomorrows differently I suppose. They can plan them, they can let them flow, they can think about tomorrow…or not. I don’t treat all my tomorrows the same. I guess it just depends. Tomorrows can be bleak, happy, sad, blah, hopeless.

I decided to put different tomorrow possibilities in little red envelopes and then put them in a wooden box. That way I can select an envelope as a divination tool – to give me a clue, as to what my next tomorrow will bring. The whole tomorrow kit (which covers 28 days) was mailed to another artist as a jumping off place for her “tomorrow piece”. Can’t wait to see what she does with her tomorrows.

History, Healing, and Hope art workshop created intergenerational memories

I had the honor of facilitating and collaborating with Legacies of War on a History, Healing, and Hope Community Workshop at ArtXchange Gallery in Seattle.

I led a workshop exploring how art can be a powerful force in expressing history and personal experiences. Legacies of War is a non-profit that uses art, culture, education, community organizing and dialogue to bring people together and create healing and transformation out of the wreckage of war.

Legacies’ representative Sakuna Thongchanh and I spent a great deal of time on the phone talking about Laotian imagery and icons before settling on a tree to be the framework for the workshop. I constructed the tree in Half Moon Bay in California and drove it up to Seattle in my little Toyota pickup.

The morning before the workshop Sakuna and I collected various materials specific to Laos, to be used for the individual memory art creations – things like banana leaves, tamarind seeds, spices, papers, tea, orchids and rice. These were laid out beautifully on fabulous fabric, along with ribbons, and scissors, and threads, and photos.

Sakuna did a short lecture about her organization and I showed examples of how I use art as a healing and storytelling vehicle for my own family and culture. I then lead a grounding meditation and posed questions to help the participants form their writings and imagery for their memory art pieces. It was very special that different generations came together to work on this creative healing. The created works were hung on a Memory Tree structure.

The entire Memory Tree work  will now travel as part of Legacies’ educational art exhibitions, where more people will have chances to add their stories to its branches.

DID YOU KNOW?

* 260 million cluster bombs were dropped on Laos during the Vietnam War, 210 million more than have been dropped on Iraq. * More than half of all confirmed cluster munitions casualties in the world have occured in Laos.(Source: Handicap International)

* Each year there continue to be close to 300 new casualties in Laos. About 40% of accidents result in death, and 60% of the victims are children.

Free arts education workshop, 8/3-4

ISKME’s OER Academy Course on Arts Integration

Integrating and Sharing Teacher-Led Curriculum in the Arts using Social Collaboration (all grades)

Dates & Times: August 3 – 4 | Mon – Tue | 9:00am – 4:00pm

Location: Mills College 5000 MacArthur Blvd. Education Complex Room 101 Oakland, CA 94613 http://www.mills.edu/maps/index.php

Participants will gain:

* Hands-on art and multi-disciplinary approaches to learning using easy-to-procure material* Open access to lessons and other materials that support learning, especially in the arts

* Experience with finding and sharing resources with others and using online networking and digital media tools and methods

* Practice in resource search and identification, and an introduction to licensing that makes content legal to adapt and share online

* Continued online support and networking through the OER Commons site and education programs

* Opportunities to connect and collaborate with teachers internationally

Instructors:

ISKME: Amee Godwin, Director, Strategic Initiatives and digital media and open education leader

Megan Simmons, Education Program Manager and K-12 educator

Judy Shintani, artist, arts educator, and arts research consultant

plus special guest presenters

More information available on the OER Commons wiki . http://wiki.oercommons.org/mediawiki/index.php/ISKME%27s_OER_Academy_on_Arts_Integration

Join the Academy by contacting Megan Simmons, ISKME’s Education Program Manager megan@iskme.org or 650.728.3322

Please provide the following information: Name; Email; School, Subject, and Grade taught; and if you will be bringing your own laptop

Breakfast and snacks provided by ISKME. Participants are responsible for bringing their own lunch.

Each course is free of charge for 20 teachers.

Feel free to spread the word to other educators that might be interested in attending the OER Summer Training Academy.

Rick Bartow, artist in residence, Enso Gallery, 7/10-24

Rick Bartow will be working on a series of drawings and paintings at Enso in Half Moon Bay from July 10 through July 24. The gallery will be open to the public as the artist is at work most afternoons during this period. The resulting artworks will be on view at Enso through the month of August. This is the first time the artist has come to the Bay Area with the intention of producing a body of work.

A working reception, an Art Performance with the artist creating works set to live music performed by Mauro Ffortissimo, is scheduled for Saturday, July 25,
beginning at 6 PM.

A selected piece of the resulting work will be dedicated to The HEAL Project and Puente de la Costa Sur in August.

Rick Bartow’s tribal affiliation and heritage is Wiyot of Northern California. Transformation mythology – both personal and shared – is central to many of his works. He has achieved significant success in his career; a solo exhibit at The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, The Eiteljorg Museum’s Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, an installation in the Jacqueline Kennedy Sculpture Garden at The White House, and a Flintridge Foundation Fellowship. Bartow has been the subject of an Emmy Award winning biopic, interviews on NPR and OPB, and myriad articles in numerous publications. Bartow’s works are included in the permanent collections of museums, private collections and galleries throughout the world.

July 10 through August 30, 2009
Artmaking/Performance & reception with the Artist: July 25, 6 PM
ENSO • 131 Kelly Avenue • Half Moon Bay • California • 94019