From 1986 comes. . .

life in 2019.

The latest essay at the Reanimation Library's Word Processor blog covers Arthur C. Clarke's July 20, 2019: Life in the 21st Century. The essay by rahel aima is funny and insightful. Enjoy.

Studio B's VALUE exhibit offers alternative to Hallmark version of Mother's Day

Visitors to the VALUE. woman. artist. mother. exhibit expecting Hallmark notions of motherhood and art will be deeply disappointed, and that's a good thing. The exhibit is a collection of works by artists who happen to be mothers--and it's a smart and moving show that resists simple ideas and superficial emotions. I'm not lying when I say that some of the pieces moved visitors to tears.

The exhibit is a forum of sorts, where the artists speak through their chosen media to the reality of motherhood and art in their lives. Seventeen artists are featured, and each artist uses her space in the gallery to display works responding to a specific artistic term--a term that also has value to mothers. For example, one artist responded to the term "composition," another responded to "juxtaposition."  Peggy Lonjin Olley, responded to the word "Concept" with three sweeping forms made of wood and natural fibers. Her pieces were sad and beautiful. They suggested struggle and growth, and this was a piece that caused some teary eyes.

Each artist also included a short statement about her artistic term and what that term meant to her work and her life. The written component to the exhibit was a welcome touch. The perspectives, stories, and reflections--even poems--shared in the statements make the pieces on display all the more moving.

Angela Colasanti and Tara Dolan co-designed the exhibit. I hope the two of them get to take this exhibit elsewhere. There are galleries in Philadelphia that would benefit from hosting it.

Final note: I know that you want photos, but the moment I walked into the gallery space I turned off my phone. There's a sacredness to this exhibit that I didn't want to cheapen with photos. If you want to see the featured pieces, please visit the gallery. Hours and directions are at the Studio B website.

For Mothers Day: An Art Exhibit

Looking for something to do on Mother's Day weekend this year? Why not an art gallery? Why not an art exhibit about motherhood?

VALUE: WOMAN. ARTIST. MOTHER. opens Friday night, May 10 and includes works across a range of media--all from artists responding to their motherhood experiences. The exhibit features works from seventeen mothers, including grandmothers, young mothers, stepmothers, adoptive, and foster mothers.

Sounds cool, right? I know. Details:

The show is curated by Angela Colasanti and Tara Dolan, and exhibits work by Colasanti and Dolan (also mothers) and Linda Rohrbach-Austerberry, Mary Brady Begnardi, Debra Burkert, Stephanie Corfee, Rachel Blosser-Derstine, Elizabeth Flaherty, Juanita Gaspari, Deborah Hamburger, Peggy Lonjin Olley, Meredith Mustard, Darla Rodriguez, Patti Tinsman-Schaffer, Sarah Smith, Teresa Vadala and Elisabeth Walakovits.

Colasanti explains in a press release:

We sought to create a broad canvas of diverse motherhood experiences, as well as a wide range of artistic media.  As each artist was added, the common threads between their individual experiences emerged into a series of cohesive artistic themes, often centered on dual meanings of other art terms, such as balance, form or tone.

Should be a quite an exhibit.
It runs through June 15, 2013. Parking is on street and in a lot across the street. Studio B is located at 39A East Philadelphia Avenue, Boyertown, PA 19512 and open Thursday through Saturday 11am-3pm, and by appointment.  

Am I going? Sure as hell am. I'll definitely be there for the opening. I'm looking forward to seeing work by several of artists I know--and artists I don't. Check this blog next week to read my response to the exhibit and individual works. And, who knows? Perhaps some readers who visit the exhibit will share their comments.

Profile of William Zinsser at 90

This is one of the reasons I read the Times. I appreciate how this article reminds us of the spoken quality of good writing--of how Zinsser's methods and advice can help a writer to craft a piece that would is just as beautiful to read as to hear.

Poetry in America: Hoagland's Vision

In a post from April 13 on the blog (called "The Stream") over at Harpers.org, Tony Hoagland argues that we as a nation failed to keep the flame of poetry alive in education in the latter half of the century. Fresh from his bout at AWP where he presented "Camouflage & Capitalism: The Intellectual Appropriation of American Poetry" and beat-up academia for its affect on how we regard poetry in this country, Hoagland takes the mic at the press conference with his side of the fight: "Twenty Little Poems that Could Save America."

What I love about Hoagland's argument is how it appeals to me on an emotional level. Through clear scenes, Hoagland shows me students suffering through poems that are supposed to be "deep" or "complicated" and require, as he puts it, "a priest" to reveal its mysteries. I was reminded of a move he made in his presentation at AWP: a question he asked that basically went something like this: How many of us [he's referring to all of the writers and teachers of writing in his audience] while preparing for class, have considered two poems, both beautiful and interesting and worthy of discussion, but we choose the more complicated one because the students can "get" the easier one on their own, and because they're paying a lot of money for school, discussing the more complicated poem feels more appropriate. He presents scenes where people discuss some of the twenty poems he proposes, and in those scenes, people listen, people disagree, but people come to appreciate the craft.

Hoagland's "twenty poems" are not as "easy" as we might think, but the point seems to be that they encourage not the need for a priest class, but discussion. Honest, let's-talk-about-this, discussion. Considering how much we all seem to shout at each other, perhaps these poems might do some good.