sooooo.... I am taking intro to drawing this semester. I walk in the room feeling like a jerk. I haven't drawn anything since I was 12. Don't even know what kind of paper I am supposed to get. I open the door. Jazz is playing, a tall lanky man with a gorgeous body is standing naked in the middle of the room, and the teacher says, "don't worry, just scribble!" And I did and I haven't had so much fun since I was 12 either!!!!!! This is going to be a great semester!
Thursday, January 21
Wednesday, January 20
Anniversary
This is what my daughter sent me this morning:
Yes, we lost yesterday.
One of These Mornings from Valery Lyman on Vimeo.
Yes, we lost yesterday.
BUT, we still have a great President to be very proud of. If you didn't see the movie yesterday, please do so now.
Yesterday
is a good reminder about how hard we have to keep working if we are to
maintain our ground. That doesn't mean we can't stop and feel good
about what we DO have.
Happy One Year Anniversary Mr. President
best,
Valery
One of These Mornings from Valery Lyman on Vimeo.
Tuesday, January 5
Humanity
Just came across this amazing photographer working on a project on the "intended and unintended consequences of gun violence in the United States and Guatemala" Powerful, sensitive pictures!
Too Young To Die
The Blue Earth Project
EbonyJet
I have been listening to the news with despair - hearing the pundits and the politicians posturing as the news media whips up the latest frenzy. So much of it is irresponsible and dangerous. My reaction - turn off the television and the radio, absorb myself in the demands of my own life, stick my head in the sand so I can live... but then that is not me, so I am just disheartened.
Because I am on vacation, I have a little time to explore some of the vast amount of stuff that flits across my computer screen, and this morning I found this photographer. I was so moved by his work. These photographs bring to light a reality that is all to easy to close our eyes to. How much more meaning they have than the blather of CNN. They stay with me, bring me to a still, deep place inside myself that must stop to feel the the reality of the world I live in; that must stop to acknowledge the pain and suffering that exists only in my peripheral vision unless I choose to look.
This is news. It informs and expands my world. This is art. It moves me and touches a deeper reality, not through my mind but through my senses. It leaves a lasting impression.
Strangely, this work does not really depress me or bring me down as tragic and horrifying as is its' subject matter. No, quite the opposite. I find it inspiring, uplifting even, beautiful. Why is that? Perhaps it is just the utter humanity it portrays. And the reality that is a relief to have expressed, rather than lurking in the shadows of our awareness.
How can work like this receive a larger place in our consciousness?
Too Young To Die
The Blue Earth Project
EbonyJet
I have been listening to the news with despair - hearing the pundits and the politicians posturing as the news media whips up the latest frenzy. So much of it is irresponsible and dangerous. My reaction - turn off the television and the radio, absorb myself in the demands of my own life, stick my head in the sand so I can live... but then that is not me, so I am just disheartened.
Because I am on vacation, I have a little time to explore some of the vast amount of stuff that flits across my computer screen, and this morning I found this photographer. I was so moved by his work. These photographs bring to light a reality that is all to easy to close our eyes to. How much more meaning they have than the blather of CNN. They stay with me, bring me to a still, deep place inside myself that must stop to feel the the reality of the world I live in; that must stop to acknowledge the pain and suffering that exists only in my peripheral vision unless I choose to look.
This is news. It informs and expands my world. This is art. It moves me and touches a deeper reality, not through my mind but through my senses. It leaves a lasting impression.
Strangely, this work does not really depress me or bring me down as tragic and horrifying as is its' subject matter. No, quite the opposite. I find it inspiring, uplifting even, beautiful. Why is that? Perhaps it is just the utter humanity it portrays. And the reality that is a relief to have expressed, rather than lurking in the shadows of our awareness.
How can work like this receive a larger place in our consciousness?
Thursday, December 17
Gratitude!
... I know it's almost christmas but I am finding myself overwhelmed with gratitude for my life right now! Thursday, kalia's class went to the Urban Nutcracker, and their grandma's were invited to come. I hopped on my bike, and rode the 6 miles in the below freezing dawn to get there. My heart was singing. I had on the incredible Burton Snowboarding coat that my sister Angelica gave me, so the cold wasn't even touching me, I was able to ride my mike like that, go be a Grandma, see an incredible dance performance hop back on my bike, race to school for my last class of the semester at the Museum School. How unbelievably lucky is that? What a privilege to be able to so seamlessly go from one world to the next, to not be confined to one role, one mold, one race, one gender, one class, Really, I was calling out my blessings that morning, thanking everyone that makes this incredible life I live possible!
Wednesday, November 18
Paradise and My Upside-Down Education
How interesting to spend my whole life learning first hand, self taught, exploring inner and outer worlds and then to go to school instead of the other way around. A lifetime of extraordinary experiences, gleaned insights, foraged knowledge and loosely related fragments of understanding are suddenly given a framework to hold them all together. I can barely describe the experience - but all I can say is I have these odd moments of utter revelation - like this morning doing my History of Photography reading. Amazing.
All of my life, people have told me to narrow my energy and attention to one specific field, or focus on one specific project or idea within that field. And that is often necessary to get anything done at all. But something about that approach to life has always been antithetical to my nature. I don't like to put on blinders. I don't like exclusion. I resent having to limit my sights. I think it's dangerous.
And now I am beginning to think that only art and, more than that an art education, might be broad enough to begin to encompass all the different lifetimes I have led, the different journeys of my heart and mind...
Strange to end up here.... Damn - I might have to change from this diploma degree to a bfa, wouldn't that be funny!
Today, I was going through my photographs to collect a few for my landscape photo class, and inevitably I settled on my photographs of Guatemala. I wrote this to one of my closest friends an artist who lives there: "Am missing Guatemala, it really is my idea of paradise, I must say - the volcanoes rising out of the mist awaken some deep archetypal image in my soul..." Then I opened my History of Photography reading and this was the first thing I read: "We are bewitched by visions of the faraway and the fantastic because dreams of these Edens, of the overseas worlds of beauty and oddness and pleasure, seem to make life bearable. So our fantasies are sustained by a murmuring imagery of yearning." Nice when your school reading is relevant!
Or how bout this, a fragment from another early morning email to a classmate, Heisue Chung, who had sent me her Photo History paper on Photography and Colonization - Powers of Possession This is what I wrote:"It is painful to me to study history and see the trail of destruction wrought by the dominance of the white 'race' over the past centuries. Even the word race is another construct of white western men - so it is hard to even talk about without using their language of oppression. This too is a subject which I have spent a good deal of my life suffering about, and trying to understand. I think the subject of my paper perhaps is a psychological clue as to why....I also think we are at the end of it. Our way of life - based on that kind of rape and exploitation of people and the land is at its end. I fear the reaping of what we have sown...." And my history reading went on to address these very themes.
All of my life, people have told me to narrow my energy and attention to one specific field, or focus on one specific project or idea within that field. And that is often necessary to get anything done at all. But something about that approach to life has always been antithetical to my nature. I don't like to put on blinders. I don't like exclusion. I resent having to limit my sights. I think it's dangerous.
And now I am beginning to think that only art and, more than that an art education, might be broad enough to begin to encompass all the different lifetimes I have led, the different journeys of my heart and mind...
Strange to end up here.... Damn - I might have to change from this diploma degree to a bfa, wouldn't that be funny!
Today, I was going through my photographs to collect a few for my landscape photo class, and inevitably I settled on my photographs of Guatemala. I wrote this to one of my closest friends an artist who lives there: "Am missing Guatemala, it really is my idea of paradise, I must say - the volcanoes rising out of the mist awaken some deep archetypal image in my soul..." Then I opened my History of Photography reading and this was the first thing I read: "We are bewitched by visions of the faraway and the fantastic because dreams of these Edens, of the overseas worlds of beauty and oddness and pleasure, seem to make life bearable. So our fantasies are sustained by a murmuring imagery of yearning." Nice when your school reading is relevant!
Or how bout this, a fragment from another early morning email to a classmate, Heisue Chung, who had sent me her Photo History paper on Photography and Colonization - Powers of Possession This is what I wrote:"It is painful to me to study history and see the trail of destruction wrought by the dominance of the white 'race' over the past centuries. Even the word race is another construct of white western men - so it is hard to even talk about without using their language of oppression. This too is a subject which I have spent a good deal of my life suffering about, and trying to understand. I think the subject of my paper perhaps is a psychological clue as to why....I also think we are at the end of it. Our way of life - based on that kind of rape and exploitation of people and the land is at its end. I fear the reaping of what we have sown...." And my history reading went on to address these very themes.
Monday, November 16
A Newly discovered God!
Emmet Gowin
Went to see him today at MassArt. He was amazing - a true elder, speaking with such a deep tenderness and reverence for all life. It was inspiring. I tried to write down a few things he talked about, but mostly I was too absorbed with the beauty of his images and his speaking. There was something heartbreakingly beautiful about the way he talked. The wine of life distilled to its' essence.
Not exact quotes, but close:
Not exact quotes, but close:
"Art is the sensuous apprehension of what you don't yet understand"
"The unknown is friendlier than you think"
"The thoughts we have are answered by unknowns"
"The greatest journey you can ever make is to come back to where you already are"
The lure of the Orient
In our Core class, we went to the Essex Peabody museum in Salem, and saw some of the treasures brought back from the Orient to that seaport town.
This weekend I went to Newport with my mom and my sister, who is here for a few days from Afghanistan. In addition to long walks by the ocean, beer for lunch and dinner, we did some retail therapy to clear her mind and help her relax and regenerate.
We wandered into a little antique consignment shop, and the reality of a seaport town was brought home to me...
Of course all the treasures meant so much more to me because of our studies!
We wandered into a little antique consignment shop, and the reality of a seaport town was brought home to me...
Of course all the treasures meant so much more to me because of our studies!
Saturday, November 14
Just Beauty?
We were talking about art (what else?) in Core yesterday and Michelle said something about a work of art not being about "just beauty". I understand what she meant of course, but it brought into focus one of the themes that I have been chewing on as I think about art.
Just beauty?
How can those two words be part of the same phrase? To me beauty is something so fleeting, so fragile and so precious. Beauty is what feeds my soul and gives meaning to my life.
My definition of the word beauty is quite broad, perhaps broad enough to be encompassed by anything that moves me - reaches inside and touches me deeply. So to me beauty really is never a matter of just. But it seems gotten a dirty name in the art world. To me this image by Lalla Essaydi, that we saw today in Core, is beautiful.
This week in Landscape class we looked at books that examined the idea of paradise - not the same thing as beauty, but can't help but explore some of the same themes. I was struck by the work of Terri Weifenbach in her book Lana and how she is not afraid to celebrate beauty in the landscapes she is surrounded by. Listen to me - "afraid to celebrate beauty". Something is just not right about that kind of mindset, the art lens that puts those words together. Here is what one reviewer wrote about her: “Weifenbach has never shied from the beautiful; her images celebrate natural color and through the use of selective focus she distills scenes and plants to their essential aspects. She embodies the ideal role of the artist working in nature, allowing the manifold of sensory perceptions to filter through her mind, translating this materia prima into her own graceful language."
Just beauty?
How can those two words be part of the same phrase? To me beauty is something so fleeting, so fragile and so precious. Beauty is what feeds my soul and gives meaning to my life.
My definition of the word beauty is quite broad, perhaps broad enough to be encompassed by anything that moves me - reaches inside and touches me deeply. So to me beauty really is never a matter of just. But it seems gotten a dirty name in the art world. To me this image by Lalla Essaydi, that we saw today in Core, is beautiful. 
This week in Landscape class we looked at books that examined the idea of paradise - not the same thing as beauty, but can't help but explore some of the same themes. I was struck by the work of Terri Weifenbach in her book Lana and how she is not afraid to celebrate beauty in the landscapes she is surrounded by. Listen to me - "afraid to celebrate beauty". Something is just not right about that kind of mindset, the art lens that puts those words together. Here is what one reviewer wrote about her: “Weifenbach has never shied from the beautiful; her images celebrate natural color and through the use of selective focus she distills scenes and plants to their essential aspects. She embodies the ideal role of the artist working in nature, allowing the manifold of sensory perceptions to filter through her mind, translating this materia prima into her own graceful language."Friday, November 13
Thursday, November 12
Krzysztof Wodiczko and the meaning of art
So last night I went to Krzysztof Wodiczko's show at the ICA - Out of here - The Veteran's Project. So worth seeing. Afterwards he talked with veterans including someone from the SMFA. I have never seen a more humble or sensitive artist. I guess he would have to be to do the kind of work he does. It was very moving.I don't have enough time to really talk about it here, but one thing he said really spoke to me and to my last post about the responsibility of an artist. He said something. He talked about how it is up to an artist to heal us from numbness. Wow... that is part of what I was trying to get at!
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