Dream Vessels and A Murder of Crows

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assembling, Authentic Movement, birds, broken, California, crows, dance, darkness, gallery, hope, inspiration, Murder of Crows, nature, peace, spirit, studio, Vanitas, voice, wings, witness

Dream Vessels #125: Metronome

Gathering paintings and collages and poems for an exhibit at Upstairs Art Gallery Feb. 24-Mar. 24.

Discovering connections and stories in my own artwork, how collage making laid ground for constructing Murder of Crows paintings. What Vanitas symbols can you find?

Artist reception and short poetry reading with my daughter Reba on Sunday afternoon March 10, 2-5 pm. You’re invited!

Upstairs Art Gallery, 306 Center Street, Healdsburg, CA 95448

(707) 431-4214  Open daily 11-6

www.upstairsartgallery.net  

March Featured Artist, Marsha Connell

Dream Vessels and A Murder of Crows

EXHIBIT DATES: February 25 – March 24, 2019

Artist Reception:  Sunday, March 10, 2019: 2 -5 pm  

Poetry reading with Marsha Connell and Reba Connell, 2:30-3 pm.

Thinking About Bonnard, Murder of Crows oil painting series

Press release:

The March Featured Artist, Marsha Connell,  presents works that articulate an artistic evolution initiated in collage and leading to the “Murder of Crows” still-life oil paintings.

Connell had long been a painter and sculptor when her daughter, Reba, invited her to make a collage for shared communication while she was having her junior year abroad in Israel, a year that coincided with the first Gulf War.

The collages became an unexpected healing process, fueled deeper by a dream of war preparations that suggested she bear witness.  The collage “letters without words” to her daughter grew into a series of 150 “Dream Vessels” that speak with a visual vocabulary, like Vanitas paintings, symbolically merging awareness of death and the passage of time with the beauty of life.

When words finally came, they emerged from the “dreaming in the day” dance practice of Authentic Movement.  The resulting poems were often written in the presence of the collages and arose from a similar place of finding connections among discovered fragments.  They accompany the Dream Vessels, but do not describe or explain them.

The arranging and rearranging of found images in collage-making, laid the groundwork for assembling and staging objects in the “Crow” series.  “Spirit birds” and wings play a supporting role in the collages; birds star in the still-life series.

Thinking about Hokusai, Murder of Crows oil painting series

 

“Through this work, I found a way to bring hope together with darkness.  Assembling these found images was like taking the broken pieces of the world and putting them back together.”

Both the collages and the crow paintings entice the viewer to look closer and follow a path of discovery.  The paintings are also homages to other painters, such as Thinking of Bonnard and Thinking of Emily Carr. And there is humor, Connell confided,  “The longer these crows were in my studio, the more trouble they got into!” evidenced by their activities and positions in the paintings.

FOLLOW those BLUE Art Trails signs, NEW DATES October 21-22 & 28-29!

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artists, California, community, conversations, Environment, gallery, home, inspiration, journeys, joy, life, love, meditation, nature, originals, spirit, support, weekends

 

Art Trails Open Studios rescheduled:

October 21-22 and October 28-29

In the spirit of an offering, a gift to our community, about 130 Art Trails artists throughout Sonoma County, will open studios and hearts to the public, sharing beauty and hope. My studio, #24 on Art Trails map, 2180 Beverly Way, Santa Rosa, will be open both weekends, 10am – 5pm.

Just as music can be inspiring and soothing, light and dark, taking us on emotional journeys without words, seeing wonderful art can be uplifting, inspirational, moody and joyful, bringing comfort, solace, contemplation, refuge, and pleasure. I invite you to visit, and have a hug, share a story, tea and cookies, and travel through my plein air paintings to healing landscapes, places of memory, dreams and renewal.

Our hearts are breaking for those who have been devastated by fire. Several Art Trails artists have lost homes, studios and/or their entire art inventory. The Art Trails Artist Relief Fund has been established. Donations can be made directly at many Art Trails studios and exhibits, and on-line at www.SonomaCountyArtTrails.org or www.SebArts.org. Make checks payable to SCA, with a notation indicating Art Trails Artists Relief Fund; checks may also be mailed to Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 282 S. High St., Sebastopol, CA 95472.

I will be donating a percentage of painting sales, and will also be offering my contemplative Dream Vessels collages and some hand held carved clay sculptures.

An updated list of artists and maps showing participating studios will be posted by the weekend on the www.SonomaCountyArtTrails.org home page. We encourage visitors to stay up to date on road conditions.

Thank you for supporting the arts!
Marsha Connell, Chair Art Trails Steering Committee

Jewish Community Free Clinic in Santa Rosa brightens patients’ visits with art

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art, California, colorist, en plein air, Jewish Community Free Clinic, landscapes, Marsha Connell, nature, oils, painterly, paintings, Sonoma county

Jewish Community Free Clinic in Santa Rosa brightens patients’ visits with art (More photos online here)

CHRIS SMITH
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | May 22, 2016, 6:07PM

Can art heal?

Champions of what’s been called a miracle of a Santa Rosa health clinic can’t prove that the fine and vivid pieces of framed beauty that adorn the walls help to make the low-income patients better.

But good luck persuading them that it doesn’t.

“Art lifts the spirit of this place,” said Donna Waldman, director and co-founder of the Jewish Community Free Clinic on Montgomery Drive.

The operation runs on a shoestring — its budget is less than $300,000 a year — and it relies on the volunteer labor of doctors, nurses, translators and other staffers. Patients, a good many of them immigrants without health insurance, are charged nothing for the care they receive.

Given the austere nature of the mission, someone walking in the door might expect the waiting and reception areas, the halls and the exam rooms to be clinical and plain.

But for the donations by acclaimed Sonoma County artists Marsha Connell and Sally Baker, they would be.

It’s not coincidental that Connell, the landscape and abstract artist who chairs the county’s ArtTrails open-studio program, is married to Dr. Jerry Connell. The retired family doctor was an early volunteer medical director with the 15-year-old clinic.

Said his wife the artist, “I was always wishing I could do something for the clinic.”

She found that something when she perceived that the walls pleaded for art. Several of the 15 or so pieces Connell contributed are lavish landscapes of Sonoma County scenes.

The total effect is an environment far more inviting and calming than anyone would reasonably anticipate upon entering a free health clinic.

“Our medical offices should look exactly like any other medical offices,” Waldman said.

It helps that the building on Montgomery Drive, just west of Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, is not some beggarly space, but the smartly designed and well maintained former home of a prosthetics practice.

The clinic operated within a smaller location in Rohnert Park when the owners of the Montgomery Drive building did something grand two and a half years ago: they donated it for the benefit of people without health insurance or the ability to pay for health care.

“This is more than double what we had,” Waldman said of the space.
The Jewish Community Free Clinic is open about 25 hours a week, and its volunteers see between 1,500 and 2,000 patients a year. That’s 500 to 1,000 fewer patients than eight and nine years ago, when the recession was in force and the federal Affordable Care Act wasn’t yet enacted and offering coverage to the uninsured.

That law “has absolutely, positively helped many of our clients,” Waldman said. Yet, the clinic’s safety-net services continue to be essential to people who remain without health insurance, or who come down with a medical issue and don’t have a doctor to turn to.

Many impoverished people also look to the clinic for vaccines, prescription medications other than painkillers, pre-employment physicals and women’s health services. People who come in with chronic illnesses are referred to one of the county’s low-cost community health centers.

Though no one is charged for the care received at the Montgomery Drive clinic, Waldman said it often happens that grateful former patients will send in donations when they’re able to. The other operating funds come from philanthropic gifts and fundraisers.

Artist Connell is completing a large, colorful giving-tree painting that will be placed prominently at the clinic and will feature ceramic leaves, doves and poppies bearing the names of donors. The ceramics are being made by artist Leslie Gattmann of Sebastopol.

Connell said the model for the purple-hued tree in the painting is a great oak that stands near her Santa Rosa home and that has proven to be healing to her.
“We want to make this clinic a healing place,” she said, “and art is very healing.”

Sales of her giving-tree painting’s ceramic accoutrements will generate $90,000 for the Jewish Community Free Clinic. Once completed and hung, the tree painting and its personalized leaves, doves and poppies will indefinitely beautify a clinic wall.

A wine-and-food benefit on June 5, 5-8pm at Congregation Shomrei Torah on Bennett Valley Road will honor Connell and Gattmann for their creative contributions to the mission and raise additional dollars to sustain it. You can sign up for the benefit evening here. http://jewishfreeclinic.org/upcoming-events/

Director Waldman said that ideally, the day will come when everyone is provided quality health care and the little miracle of a clinic will no longer be necessary. She added, “As long as we’re needed, we’re going to be here.”

And as long as the clinic exists, an abundance of art will surely be there to help patients feel welcomed and honored and, who knows, maybe even feel better.

New Year’s Wishes

Tags

art, nature, peace

Dream Vessels #125: Source                 Marsha Connell

In this New Year, may you be safe; may you be happy; may you be free from suffering; may you be at ease. And may your creative well be full!

May all who need it find solace, sanctuary, and loving kindness.

Peace, peace, peace,
Marsha

 
In the Storm     

Mary Oliver

Some black ducks
were shrugged up
on the shore.
It was snowing

hard, from the east,
and the sea
was in disorder.
Then some sanderlings,

five inches long
with beaks like wire,
flew in,
snowflakes on their backs,

and settled
in a row
behind the ducks—
whose backs were also

covered with snow—
so close
they were all but touching,
they were all but under

the roof of the ducks’ tails,
so the wind, pretty much,
blew over them.
They stayed that way, motionless,

for maybe an hour,
then the sanderlings,
each a handful of feathers,
shifted, and were blown away

out over the water,
which was still raging.
But, somehow,
they came back

and again the ducks,
like a feathered hedge,
let them
stoop there, and live.

If someone you didn’t know
told you this,
as I am telling you this,
would you believe it?

Belief isn’t always easy.
But this much I have learned,
if not enough else—
to live with my eyes open.

I know what everyone wants
is a miracle.
This wasn’t a miracle.
Unless, of course, kindness—

as now and again
some rare person has suggested—
is a miracle.
As surely it is.

Copyright © 2006 Mary Oliver All rights reserved
from the Southern Review (http://trk.cp20.com/click?9fht2-14q1bj-rbt65x1)
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission

Thank you to Rabbi George for sharing Spirit Rock’s “Metta”, Loving-Kindness meditation practice, and this poem.

Our Special Valentines

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art, art therapy, cards, collages, creative practices, dreams, fund- and, gratefulness, meditation, organic food, paintings, poetry, prints, Sonoma county, spirit, wine tasting

We’d like to express deep appreciation and gratitude to the 45+ donors who have given Amy’s Healing Journey a solid footing in both spirit and fund-raising! Whether you have selected something from the Shop, or Donated Directly, or sent your good wishes and prayers, you have made a difference.And big hugs to the 25+ generous and creative friends and family whose contributions have made our Shop offerings so yummy!You are our special Valentines!Have you checked out the wonderful offerings in our Shop? Many new items have been added! February 14 is the last planned active date of this campaign, so we encourage you to act now if you are inspired or able to do so.What a perfect opportunity to contribute to a worthy cause plus add to your collection of art, your library, or pleasurable experiences for spirit and body! These would also make great Valentine’s gifts! Imagine a journey in California’s beautiful Sonoma County. . . For your body: Start with a weekend in the country and homegrown organic food with Mike and Sandy, Lunch at SRJC’s Culinary Café with Marsha D, then Wine tasting from unique vineyards: Paradise Ridge, Joseph Swan, and Ancient Oak. Complete your get-a-way with acupressure by Susan and a haircut at Rascals with Linda. For your collections: Take home memories, with paintings, prints, collages, photos, or cards from Marsha, Sally and Warren, or Jack, Designer Jewelry by Jan, Susan, and Nina, or a vase by Judy. For your spirit: Linger and luxuriate in creative practices with Maureen, Joyce, or Jo, or books and CD’s of poetry, meditation, art therapy, dreams, and more by beloved regional authors: Reba, Lee, Natalie, Laury, Adina, Rachel, and Shifrah. Here’s links to The Shop and to Donate Directly. Enjoy!  With love, hope, humbleness and so many many thanks for showing up and lending your support, Marsha for the Connell and Monroe families

Amy’s Healing Journey: A Fund- and Spirit-raiser

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Amy's Healing Journey, books, contribute, donating my art, friend to friend, Fund- and Spirit- Raiser, Fundraiser, generous, gifts, Healing, heart to heart, jewelry, living legacy, love, nurturing experiences, prayer, support, sweethearts, Valentine's Day

FRIEND TO FRIEND, HEART TO HEART

We are so grateful for the very generous response to our recent launch of Amy’s Healing Journey: A Fund- and Spirit-raiser! We hope to conclude this active phase of the campaign by Valentine’s Day, with a spirit lifting gift to our sweethearts! Friend to friend, heart to heart, we invite you to be part of our awesome support team!

Since our daughter-in-law Amy had a stroke 2½ years ago, so many in our circles have wished they could do something to help. Amy and Sam suggested Love and Prayer. While continuing that practice, we decided to also create Amy’s Healing Journey website, to address the extraordinary expenses that can accompany catastrophic illness.

Please take a look at the opportunities to contribute! There are wonderful gifts, including art, jewelry, books and nurturing experiences, from the Studios of Marsha Connell and Family and Friends. Or you may prefer to simply donate, or to send a message. All are greatly appreciated!

I began this project with the idea of donating my own art, my living legacy. I invite you to add to your collection in this special way! This may include selecting artwork that is on my website or blog, or in the studio. (Please write to me for an appointment or conversation.)

The scope of gifts has expanded as more people kindly volunteered to participate. If you’d like to also offer a fundraising item or experience, please let me know. We’re honored to include what we can. New items in the Shop will appear in our periodic updates.

If you are moved to share this project with your own caring circles, please send the link http://www.amyshealingjourney.com/ with a personal note.

With love, hope, many thanks, and fond wishes for the new year,

Marsha
for the Connell and Monroe families

Collage and Dream Vessels

Tags

Dream symbols, Found images, Gulf War Dream, Unconscious, Vanitas

Marsha Connell, Life Before Her Eyes: Dream Vessels #117

A premonition of the first Gulf War in a dream, and my daughter in Jerusalem for her junior year abroad, impelled me to create the Dream Vessels collages. Begun in 1991, my “letters without words” have grown to an over twenty year series. I have made the collages as a healing practice. Sharing them, I hope to heal the world.

A collage often begins with a wisp of a dream image, and a collection of “found images” that dialogue with it. Through both intention and the unconscious, I follow relationships of content, feeling, color, and shape as they transform into an aspect of the dream or  an unexpected scenario. Recurring themes include houses with rooms I have never before visited, danger from fire or water or heights, youth and old age, journeys. “Vanitas” symbols—the awareness of death within the sweetness of life—such as skulls, eggs, wings, timepieces, are touchstones, as I set sail on the sea of dreams.

Marsha Connell, Metronome: Dream Vessels #125