Eggs-perimenting

I work with elementary and middle schoolers on the day to day basis and experimenting is the name of the game.

So for the month of April I had a ton of Experiments on the dockets with Eggs.

The one we set out to test was called the Naked Egg.

It started out with a bang. Everyone was pumped to decorate their little guys, name them, and get attached to them before they shed their shells for us!

We used the basic recipe for this experiment. Vinegar and Raw Eggs. If left for 12 to 24 hours the shell of the egg should start to disintegrate, and thus leave a Naked Egg. Sometimes swollen from the Osmosis, that occurs between the liquid and semi-permeable membrane of the egg.

Our eggs, didn’t quite shed their beautifully decorated shells too well. By the time my impatient middle schoolers got their hands on them they were not patient enough to slowly peel the rest of the shell off, and to tell you the truth neither was I.

While the first half of this experiment proved to be fun and entertaining the next day, we had a smelly mess on our hands. But we have the memories and photos to keep with us!

So only Half a bust on this one.

Until next year, ponder with me what could have made this experiment better?!

~ eVa

 

 

Link

Society Working Against Art?

Within the past two days I came across two different texts. One the before mentioned blog article which you should check out before you proceed. Yes it is lengthy but it’s discussing a consistent problem.

Over the past couple of months I have skimmed the surfaced of what it means to live an artist life. That cliche of living from paycheck to paycheck, always looking for the next gig, and never having enough jobs to find a way to make ends meet. I have met and become friends with many who have this continuing struggle of wanting to do their art, their work, life’s blood, but not having/ finding a sustainable way to continue on. By sustainable, I mean not working awfully long hours, sacrificing a personal life in order to keep the creative and professional one afloat. I am living myself out of this hole because I have yet to commit fully to my art, because I have not fully found and set upon it yet. I would say, I am a dabbler. A committed, consistent dabbler, but a dabbler nonetheless.

After reading this article about this devoted successful artist deciding to take a step in a complete other direction, I began to worry for my friends and for art making communities.

However, I stumbled upon this today in Rollo May’s The Courage to Create, 

“Dogmatists of all kinds-scientific, economic, moral, as well as political-are threatened by the creative freedom of the artist. This is necessarily and inevitably so. We cannot escape our anxiety over the fact that the artists together with creative persons of all sorts, are the possible destroyers of our nicely ordered systems. For the creative impulse is the speaking of the voice and the expressing of the forms of the preconscious and unconscious, and this is, by its very nature, a threat to rationality and external control. The dogmatists then try to take over the artist. The church, in certain periods, harnessed him to prescribed subjects and methods. Capitalism tries to take over the artist by buying him...The result, by the very nature of the creative impulse, is fatal to art. If it were possible to control the artist-and I do not believe it is-it would mean the death of art.”

This what written in the 70’s, was true in all eras of time and will continue to be true in the future to come. Art will always be threatening. Whether it’s because it’s in your face, dealing with controversial issues, inspiring our children to keep dreaming, or just asking too many questions, it will always threaten the systems in place.

So the point of this post you might be asking?

I don’t know.

I know that creativity is good and necessary for us to keep living. So we can learn how to survive on this planet, to become resourceful with the limited resources we will have in the future. I know art is necessary to give culture, and societies and looking glass into what is really happening to humanity with the rules and systems that are in place. And I know that living the life of an artist is forever and always, going to be a struggle. I guess I am wondering how much am I a going to chose to be a part of that struggle. How much are you going to be a part of that struggle, and if you are it better be for a damn good story. Make art that matters folks!

Welcome, O Life

“Welcome, O Life! We go for the millionth time to forge in the smithy of our souls the uncreated conscience of the race.” ~ James Joyce (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) So I am jumping, but in a good and necessary way onto Rollo May’s, The Courage to Create. Finished reading the first chapter, which I have probably read six times now and new things always present themselves to me. What’s bubbling forth this time is the above quote and the wonderment of what structures and forms will this age be recognized for. I have heard on numerous occasions that artists are the thermometer/ barometer of the age they are in, or will come after them. Their sensitivity to expressing is tweaked in a way that gives them the ability to almost predict what the future will hold. All mysticism aside, these inklings of artists do not mean they are fortune tellers of a generation. Rather they are insurgent form and structure makers. Their expressions spurn on other’s to see what it is the world they are living in needs. Is it a restructuring of governments, re-checking the roots of the systems that are in place. Radical change, maybe?

Side Bar:

Did you know that radical means, basically getting back to the root of things. The essential native part of whatever was originally formed. That’s radical change for you.

What is the conscience of our race? What are artists saying right now, that in hundred’s of years from now historians will look back and say:

“based on Pharrell’s song Happy,I believe the 21st century were looking for happiest in every possible place, or day to day occurrence or moment.”

“based on Beyonce’s hit song Drunk In Love, there was a primal instinct that was being fed through the baseness of the performances and the indelicate nature of the view of love.”

Just some tongue in cheek examples. Nevertheless, what are they going to say? What would you say now? I am saying all this because I am wondering what systems am I going to support? What forms am I going to create through my day to day interactions, or from my life’s work, or the decisions that I make? What will I help create that will become the conscience of this race I am a part of now?

I am no oracle. I will not be able to foresee the future and thus answer these questions. But asking them keeps me aware, in tune, and at the ready.

This reminds me of when I learned about actor’s neutral. It’s a place you try to get to before you go onstage, or you enter into a scene. You basically take the time to still your body by standing feet hips width distance a part, face forward, eyes focused on nothing particular. Basically stillness, but this stillness is not a stale stillness. It is stillness so as to make yourself alert and ready for whatever may come your way. Whether it’s a crazy offer, insane opportunity, or volatile emotions, giving yourself that time and space are necessary as an actor.  I feel as if that’s where I am.

By asking these questions I am in neutral. So Welcome, O Life, let’s do this!

From : http://article.wn.com/view/2000/08/13/jubilant_over_joyce/

Body Art

I went to a teaching artist class a many months back and one of the presenters said something that has stuck with me. It wasn’t exactly what he said but the way he said it that has seared a place into my memory.

My body is my art.

Was said with so much gusto, energy, and exuberance that it was art. The way he carried himself, his semantics, his energy just screamed this is a representation and expression of this man.

Oftentimes, I halt or stumble when I start to think about art, if I am an artist, and if so what is my medium. I am not the greatest at drawing, I do like to slap some paint on a canvas every now and then, and I can play some songs on the guitar but I am not terribly too artistic with these mediums. However, my body and using it to pervay something, a character, story, command, emotion,or dance is something I would say yes that is my art. That I can do, love to do, and find myself sliding into doing as often as I can.

I think a body is equally an art form. Maybe one of the most overlooked out there. I am thankful to have discovered mine and want to continue excavating what it can do!

Bird. by. Bird.

I’m in the midst of going through Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. Which is all about encouraging others how to write.

 “Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'”

~ Anne Lamott

So I am in the midst of trying to figure out what is my next bird? Maybe my first bird in a long time.

Now I do not consider myself a writer, I consider myself a researcher and a student. I have this curiosity within me that desires to learn more. It’s a quizzical hunger that needs to be fed. Like Richard Parker in Life of Pi. This ever nagging brooding beast that just will not leave me alone and let me survive my day to day living unless I find a way to satisfy his hunger.  So my long metaphor to relay that, I am stuck.

I do not know what to focus on next, what to pick up and delve into. For the past couple of years, I have been meandering around the avenues of Improvisation, Theology and where they intersect. Which led me to Chaos Theory, which I still would love to wrap my brain around. Physical Theatre and Commedia Del Arte became next on the list and from there I wound up in thinking about play and theories behind it’s importance. My mind has been filled with sociologists, anthropologists, scientists, theologians, and artists thoughts and ideas and I have been drawing a blank for the past couple of months as to where to continue this learning journey. I have started hoping if I have something out in the world (i.e. a blog) it would push me to continue my research which my life so desperately is aching for.

Best way to move forward I know is to start identifying the things that have been holding me back.  A huge block holding me from continuing down this path of enlightenment, is a monumental loss. I lost a great teacher some months back. Amidst a hugely transformative time of life. Since then I have been in a haze and my desire to create and persist on this path seems to have dissipated. There is a huge hole I do not know how to fill.  I have been wounded immensely, by this loss, and have not found the exact way to mourn, remember, memorialize, and continue on learning without this teacher who blended life and teaching so well.

I am done wallowing. It’s time to keep inching along.

So what’s next?

Picking up old loves, or trying something new. I could get back into painting. Could take up photography. Maybe take some classes Yoga or Dance. There is a whole life ahead of me that is begging for me to do more. Reach out to my friends, write more letters. Be a good pen pal. Read some of the many books I have picked up from the numerous used book stores. Finish those half-done projects. Learn how to indulge in cooking. There is a lot of things I want to try and experience and I know I could overwhelm myself quite quickly by just listing. It’s easy to write things down on piece of paper, it’s much harder to actually get out of my apartment and make these things become my reality.

  However, I am going to try. I am starting with a class, Yoga to be exact, get my body back into some semblance of healthy and normalcy. Then I think the books on the beginning side of my syllabus are going to be finish Bird by Bird, and then get through ( I have started this book a total of four times I believe, is a stout bear) Rollo May’s The Courage to Create to get some existential psychology going on in the brain noodle.

Here’s to hoping I have nabbed my first bird.

Did I mention chasing birds is one of my favorite past times. ; )

What birds (ideas, hobbies, books) would you like to grab onto and grapple with?

Art in Asheville

A motto to live by!

I was down in Asheville, NC for a funeral this past Feb and as I was on my way to check out my favorite spot in the city, I stumbled upon this gem of wall art. It’s a motto of goodness I wish I could live by. Something I would like to preach to others. To find times and ways to play, and to do it everyday. Play is something we are told needs to stop happening after a certain age. I can remember being young and thinking I never want to stop having the urge to play. I would watch my older brothers and saw that over time they enjoyed clothes and talking to people on the phone more than playing. I remember declaring to myself at a young age that this would not happen to me.

It did.

I grew up and cared about what I wore, what music I listened to and who was my friend, more than I cared about just purely playing. As I have grown older I have weirdly remembered this desire to play and also am beginning to grasp the importance of it.

Now I have to strain to figure out what are the new ways I like to play, as an adult, and where can I do such things. I like to imagine things, I enjoy sports (running, hiding,). I love working together in teams to come up with something usually a story. Most of all I love when games can break down barriers.