Bad Blogger/ Good Worker Bee!
I have been woefully neglectful of my blog for a long while, so if you've given up on me, I totally understand.
My head has been in a million places lately with big changes in my life, but all of it is good. The greatest news is that I have finished my three Breastplates pieces!! I feel like I have given birth in completing these. They are truly my "babies," since they have been in my thoughts and in various stages of progress for quite a while now.
Kathy Iwanowski, the artist/coordinator of the Breastplates project, has set up a website about the exhibit. If you'd like to check in about what is happening with the Breastplates project, copy and paste this address into your browser window: www.breastplatesandotherartfularmoragainstcancer.com
If you click around to the different pages, you will find a calendar with some of the events listed that coordinate with the show. We will be having a preview show for three weeks in September at a Hyde Park gallery in Tampa called Mirta's Gallery, with the Breastplates installation on exhibit there as a preview, and five additional pieces each that highlight our individual styles and statements. (By the way, that is my Breastplate piece on the calendar page!)
After the the preview show at Mirta's, the kickoff of the main show begins at the H. Lee Moffitt Stabile Research Building- their newest beautiful space at the Cancer Research Institute. Details are also being finalized for showings in Chicago, Philadelphia and points beyond. The show is set to tour for two years, with a goal of raising both awareness of how cancer affects all of us in some way, and funds to help women get mammograms who otherwise couldn't afford them.
I feel so proud to be a part of this show.
I have volunteered to photograph the pieces as they have been coming in from the artist participants, and the quality and diversity of the pieces are amazing. This is going to be such an inspiring show!
Anyway, let me share MY work with you. I feel like I'm ready to open the curtain for my big debut..... Holding my breath....
Ta Da!
Armor of Affirmations
Cotton fabric-covered torso cast. Copper strips, paper, leather, linen, silk threads and beaded trim. Acrylic on canvas.
size 24"x24"
As I was casting this torso from my own form, I tried to imagine what would most protect me if I were dealing with cancer. I feel that cancer changes who you are- not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well. The disease can work to make you hardened and bitter, or it can help you see that the changes affecting your life can bring deep meaning. This can be difficult, almost impossible to imagine at the darkest times, but to know someone who has approached their treatment and loss in this positive way, has been a profound experience for me.
I feel that the protection must come both from within and from without. I used the copper strips with affirmations to represent the positive thinking that can be done from the inside while working through the struggle of cancer, while the prayers tucked into the winged prayer pocket, hold blessings from others, and affect us from the outside. By having this protection on both the inside and out, invisible armor is created.
Invocation
Digital collage on 100% cotton paper with acrylic
size 22-3/4"W x18-3/4" H
This piece began with a collection of three of my photographs. The main photo, a shot of a sunflower from my garden that grew up as tall as the roof of my porch, still amazes me today. How can a flower grow that huge?
I used the sunflower as a symbol of hope and beauty. The figure, a woman praying, came from a statue I found in Savannah Georgia. I incorporated these two images with a third one of oak trees, to create a feeling of mystery in a difficult journey, with a prayer for a hopeful outcome. We invoke the help of God/Spirit/Energy/Beauty to help us through the pain.
Healing Light
acrylic on Paper
16-3/4"W x 20-3/4"H
I was drawn to paint the beautiful light coming through this priory window. Light heals and creates a way for us.
Kathy is still in the process of finding additional venues for the tour. If you think that you know of a good place to be a part of the exhibit tour, please contact me here or by e-mail, or contact Kathy via the Breastplates website with your leads.
We are targeting galleries in Cancer Research Facilities, and private galleries that have the space, profile and interest in supporting a large event like Breastplates and Other Artful Against Cancer.
We are definitely on our way, and the sky is the limit now!
My head has been in a million places lately with big changes in my life, but all of it is good. The greatest news is that I have finished my three Breastplates pieces!! I feel like I have given birth in completing these. They are truly my "babies," since they have been in my thoughts and in various stages of progress for quite a while now.
Kathy Iwanowski, the artist/coordinator of the Breastplates project, has set up a website about the exhibit. If you'd like to check in about what is happening with the Breastplates project, copy and paste this address into your browser window: www.breastplatesandotherartfularmoragainstcancer.com
If you click around to the different pages, you will find a calendar with some of the events listed that coordinate with the show. We will be having a preview show for three weeks in September at a Hyde Park gallery in Tampa called Mirta's Gallery, with the Breastplates installation on exhibit there as a preview, and five additional pieces each that highlight our individual styles and statements. (By the way, that is my Breastplate piece on the calendar page!)
After the the preview show at Mirta's, the kickoff of the main show begins at the H. Lee Moffitt Stabile Research Building- their newest beautiful space at the Cancer Research Institute. Details are also being finalized for showings in Chicago, Philadelphia and points beyond. The show is set to tour for two years, with a goal of raising both awareness of how cancer affects all of us in some way, and funds to help women get mammograms who otherwise couldn't afford them.
I feel so proud to be a part of this show.
I have volunteered to photograph the pieces as they have been coming in from the artist participants, and the quality and diversity of the pieces are amazing. This is going to be such an inspiring show!
Anyway, let me share MY work with you. I feel like I'm ready to open the curtain for my big debut..... Holding my breath....
Ta Da!
Armor of Affirmations
Cotton fabric-covered torso cast. Copper strips, paper, leather, linen, silk threads and beaded trim. Acrylic on canvas.
size 24"x24"
As I was casting this torso from my own form, I tried to imagine what would most protect me if I were dealing with cancer. I feel that cancer changes who you are- not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well. The disease can work to make you hardened and bitter, or it can help you see that the changes affecting your life can bring deep meaning. This can be difficult, almost impossible to imagine at the darkest times, but to know someone who has approached their treatment and loss in this positive way, has been a profound experience for me.
I feel that the protection must come both from within and from without. I used the copper strips with affirmations to represent the positive thinking that can be done from the inside while working through the struggle of cancer, while the prayers tucked into the winged prayer pocket, hold blessings from others, and affect us from the outside. By having this protection on both the inside and out, invisible armor is created.
Invocation
Digital collage on 100% cotton paper with acrylic
size 22-3/4"W x18-3/4" H
This piece began with a collection of three of my photographs. The main photo, a shot of a sunflower from my garden that grew up as tall as the roof of my porch, still amazes me today. How can a flower grow that huge?
I used the sunflower as a symbol of hope and beauty. The figure, a woman praying, came from a statue I found in Savannah Georgia. I incorporated these two images with a third one of oak trees, to create a feeling of mystery in a difficult journey, with a prayer for a hopeful outcome. We invoke the help of God/Spirit/Energy/Beauty to help us through the pain.
Healing Light
acrylic on Paper
16-3/4"W x 20-3/4"H
I was drawn to paint the beautiful light coming through this priory window. Light heals and creates a way for us.
Kathy is still in the process of finding additional venues for the tour. If you think that you know of a good place to be a part of the exhibit tour, please contact me here or by e-mail, or contact Kathy via the Breastplates website with your leads.
We are targeting galleries in Cancer Research Facilities, and private galleries that have the space, profile and interest in supporting a large event like Breastplates and Other Artful Against Cancer.
We are definitely on our way, and the sky is the limit now!
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