Threshold

Most Ordinary by Susan Piver

Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it. –

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are our most potent at our most ordinary. And yet most of us discount our “ordinary” because it is, well, ordinary. Or so we believe. But my ordinary is not yours. Three things block us from putting down our clever and picking up our ordinary: false comparisons with others (I’m not as good a writer as __), false expectations of ourselves (I should be on the NYTimes best seller list or not write at all), and false investments in a story (it’s all been written before, I shouldn’t bother). What are your false comparisons? What are your false expectations? What are your false investments in a story?   Each keeps you from that internal knowing about which Emerson writes. Each keeps you from making your strong offer to the world. Put down your clever, and pick up your ordinary. ~Susan Piver

I wrote this last entry to this first chapter of Project BUD once already....it disappeared suddenly into cyberspace...sigh.   I started that one with a different quote from Emerson, but apparently this is the one I was meant to use.

Cork City//arts college // installations and performing //Hermann and Jessica

 

 Cork City, Co Cork [in the South of Ireland]

Not Just Another Pretty Face

Found art outside the Cork Art College where we traveled to reconnect with Hermann and Jessica, artist/educators from Cork City.  Jessica is on staff at the Mayfield Arts Center.  Hermann teaches/facilitates art process in a program for people who are living with developmental disabilities.  Between the two of them, there was much to see in terms of exhibits in this city of alleyways.

Blue Doors Abound [Glencree and Cork City] 

Kilkenny Design Center//On the Road Again

On the road with Eleanor, you never know what she has to show and tell!

We were on our way to visit artists/exhibits in Cork City, made a stop at the Kilkenny Design Center.

Robert is a jeweler, so........

Con is always fascinated by mixed media in general and architecture/tree forms in particular, so.....

Fatima Mansions // Rialto // Dublin

Robert Longyear and Alicia LaChance arrived in Dublin to begin a project that would begin a conversation about the Northside shopping center, its people, its history, and its regeneration i.e. who? when? how? 

One of their first stops was Fatima Mansions in Rialto, Dublin City.  This is the site of many arts-based regeneration projects and events.  The old housing blocks or 'mansions' have given way to mixed use housing and retail over the last several years, the result of a public/private partnership initiated by the women of the estate.  When Dublin City Council would have seized the valuable real estate, these women, who were determined to save their homes and histories, pulled a 9-month moratorium into what you now see.

Neal O'Beauill is the keeper of many of the stories.  I have heard him tell them several times...he is always careful to say that his is the abridged version...but what a story it is.

Cranmoor Center // Ballinrobe FRC // County Mayo



Seamus Burke, Arts Coordinator, Crannmor Resource Center

These artists are part of the Lisne Group, based at Crammor Resource Center.  They paint, show, and publish their work regularly.  The Ppogo portraits were again a big hit [Mairead made it clear she wants a Pogo of her own].  We had great conversation, commentary, and lively interaction.  Seamus would very much like to connect to similar groups and programs in the US...access and accountability for all are his passion. 

It was a full day with lots of drama, and many cups of tea ....very good craic!

Jared...#1 studio assistant

Mairead the Marvelous

Tacu` // Ballinrobe FRC // County Mayo

If this was the street where you lived, you would call Ballinrobe in Co Mayo home.  You would be very near to Tacu` Family Resource Center which has just moved into a new building with white walls and a wooden staircase going up the center of the space.  If you go out the front door of Tacu` and down the street to the shoe shop, you will meet a woman who works there who went to college about one mile from my house in St. Louis MO...

Main street....small world.

Day One at this FRC and the view from the brand new art space was amazing views of mountains and weather and a slightly wanky roofline [designed and originally occupied by an architect].  The kids who came on the first day worked with pogo portraits and pass-around drawings.  They are a cheeky-but-cute crew who insisted on calling me Mary once they found out it is my first name.  They completed reflections like:  I am...I have...I wish....

Kids in Oughterard FRC // County Galway

These lovely lasses were part of a group of only four who got to a camera and the magic pogo printer to make their trading cards.


  
                                 

I spent two afternoon sessions at Clann Resource Center with 7-12 yr. olds. Boundless enthusiasm, bids for attention, suprising results.  The basis for the activity was the artist trading card, the subject was a partner portrait or a self-portrait.  Images were combined with descriptive words and included in a format that could be reproduced and traded with fellow designers.

Thanks to local artist Kathleen Furey above!

  

Random words into sentences?  (-:]

                                                                                                  

[left to right] Kathleen Furey, local artist. Leonora, Clann's arts coordinator.
and Ann O'Shaughnessy, Clann FRC Director





Women's Days/Oughterard FamilyResourceCenter // County Galway

"Who could leave such a chair [bed] by such a window even to go and join the view?"  ~unknown

Thank you, Carmel Geoghegan, for one of the most pleasant places in the world and to the Oughterard FRC etc. for hosting me there!

Railway Lodge and Cottage 

Oughterared, Co. Galway, Ireland

This lovely restful place was also haunted.  Or at least inhabited by fairies.

I woke up there the first morning [after working with children at the FRC the day before] contemplating what/why/how I would work with the women who had signed up for a full day's workshop. The little bag of books, tricks and treasures I had brought were spread around me when I heard,

"Why would you want to complicate this?  Why wouldn't you use what works?  Ask the questions again, 'What is the color and texture of your map?' "

                                Who am I to argue? 

These are the women [and children x2] who showed up thinking they were going to paint. Some were hobby watercolorists, some were working artists, some were just interested in the day's activities.  What they did was write about color and texture i.e. 'I am green' or 'I am sand'.  They worked in three groups to combine words into a story/poem, and illustrated those words with a collective map of images and symbols and presented to each other.  

                                           

It was a lovely engaging process [witness the visual connecting elements] that brought unexpected results and insights into how we see  ourselves, see others, AND see others seeing us! 

 

This particular drawing comes from a sweet very shy 12-year old girl who said very little out loud. She surprised her mother and herself with her graphic insight.

The next day, we met again with returnees and one new artist/poet to begin a project to be facilitated/continued by Cliona, the development person at Clann.  Her original vision was that it would be multi-generational, but, after this first session, it seemed that 'story' would be the focus. 

Cliona shares a 'picture' story.

The Irish are famous for stories and personal rememberance flavored with history and tempered with a little magic!  Each person was issued a sketchbook for writing and drawing.  We used pass-around drawing to get us started and the flow of the story came easily soon after.  I have my own sketchbook from that day...ready to take it back to hear the stories and feel the energy collected over time...thanks, all!


 



Storytellers at Brigit's Garden, Oughterard

The Light

I do not know how anyone stepsaway from the windows in Ireland. 

Maybe it's just the time of year and the sheer quantity of light. 

Maybe it's the island and the effect of the oceans.

Wait for it....the light at the end of the tunnel of course.

The view from Ed Carroll's courtyard window is an ever-changing skyscape. 

The building with the blank wall absorbs rain and then lets it go

in imitation of an abstract painting alway in process.

Standing on the overpass for the DART this day, you could see a hundred sail boats competing with and losing to the sailing clouds.