Dream Vessels and A Murder of Crows

Tags

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.

EXHIBITION: ​WAKE-UP! The Political Power of Art and Dreams

Tags

CA, Claudia Chapline Gallery, Marin, Stinson Beach

 

CONTACT:

Claudia Chapline

​Claudia Chapline Gallery                              ​​Joyce Lynn, Exhibition Curator

​415-868-2308                                                415-267-7620​                             ​​

​www.cchapline.com                                      www.PlumDreams.com

info@cchapline.com                                      Info@PlumDreams.com

 

ART NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ​​​-  AUGUST 27, 2018

 

EXHIBITION:  ​WAKE-UP! The Political Power of Art and Dreams

 

AT:  Claudia Chapline Gallery, 3445 Shoreline Highway, Stinson Beach, CA 94970

 

DATES:  October 6 – 28, 2018

 

ART EVENT:  ​Reception: October 6, 2018, 2-4 P.M.

 

Like surrealism, the political-art movement opposing totalitarianism in the aftermath of the horrors of World War 1, the power of art and dreaming in these turbulent times holds the possibility of social change. Art and dreams, conduits to truth, are paths to healing and transformation. Art and dreams wake us to reality and response.

 

“Wake-Up! The Political Power of Art and Dreams,” an exhibition at the Claudia Chapline Gallery, Stinson Beach, California, October 6-October 28, is scheduled the month before the 2018 Congressional elections to create dialogue and raise consciousness about U.S domestic and foreign policy. An opening day reception will be held from 2-4 pm on Saturday, October 6.

 

At the reception; attendees can share/write/sketch their political dreams to inspire positive action. There will be a drawing for the exhibition’s commemorative poster.

 

This exhibition in the pop-up gallery will include works derived from dreams by Northern California artists: Dream Vessels by MARSHA CONNELL; Flag of Death and other images of war by CLAUDIA CHAPLINE; works by artist-activist RICHARD KAMLER; FrankenBush by ADAM HARMS; They Never Stood a Chance, an installation of remembrance and survival by JENNIFER LUGRIS; and Dream Veritas! From Tragedy to Transformation, a multimedia presentation of dream profiles by journalist and exhibition curator JOYCE LYNN, and more.

Several graphic pieces will capture dreams about Donald Trump.

 

Exhibition curator Joyce Lynn is a journalist, including eight years as a political reporter in Washington D.C. She has profiled political activists from student Nazi resistance fighter Sophie Scholl to peace “mom” Cindy Sheehan, whose dreams have illumined their way.

 

The exhibition is located in beautiful Stinson Beach, 12 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Artist/writer Claudia Chapline has received numerous honors and awards for her promotion of community arts. WAKE-UP! is an activity of the 50 State Initiative of ForFreedoms.org, a platform for civic engagement, discourse, and direct action for artists in the U.S. A percentage of sales from the exhibition will be donated to Bay Area peace candidates.

What do you see? I’d like to know! And an Events Calendar

Tags

.corricks.com, abstract sensibility, art, artist in residence, Artists Round Table, California, Chroma Gallery, colorist, commissions, demonstrations, drawing, Dutton-Goldfield Winery, gallery, Graton Gallery, landscapes, Marsha Connell, Mendocino Art Center, nature, oils, open studio, painterly, paintings, Pepperwood Preserve, scientific inquiry, sketching, Sonoma county, techniques, watercolor

A visitor to my current exhibit at Dutton Goldfield Winery wrote to me, “Thank you for bringing me into your world through your art. I’m swimming in colors!” Another viewer said, “Wonderful! Your work has a lot of movement and is emotionally evocative!”

Once I was painting at a rambling old farm with multiple buildings surrounded by hills.  I was intrigued by how two barns framed the landscape behind, the shape of the space in between the structures, the abstract puzzle of it all, the color, the quality of the light. The farmer came up behind me, watching, thinking, and finally observed “I’ve lived here fifty years and I’ve never seen what you see!”

What do you see when you view my paintings? I’d like to know your experience. If putting this into words intrigues you, please drop me a line, or a poem.

Here’s some settings where you can view my art in person, a listing so far for 2016. Workshops and lectures, too. Several shows include a lot of other artists’ fine and varied works. You can also visit the virtual galleries here on this blog site. Enjoy!

January 22 –March 14, 2016  Open daily 10am to 4:30pm
Dutton-Goldfield Winery
COAST AND COUNTRYSIDE: MARSHA CONNELL’S
PLEIN AIR LANDSCAPES OF SONOMA, MARIN and
MENDOCINO
3100 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472

SMALL WORKS SHOWS 2016
1. Jan­­-Feb 28 Th-Sat 10:30-5, Sun 10:30-4
Graton Gallery

2. Feb 4-Mar 5 Th-Sat 11-4, Sun 11-2
Chroma Gallery
312 South A Street, Santa Rosa, CA

Friday, April 1, 2016. 7 pm lecture. Open house 6:30 pm, Dwight Center
Pepperwood Preserve
DISCOVER NATURE: THE SYNERGY OF ART AND SCIENCE Come with all your senses tuned for a lecture and visual tour of Pepperwood’s 3,200 acre preserve. Shawn Brumbaugh, Santa Rosa Junior College biology instructor joins artist Marsha Connell on a painting and drawing journey observing and interpreting Pepperwood’s majestic landscapes and discussing the historical importance of sketching to document scientific inquiry.

April 16–17, 2016
Mendocino Art Center online registration
LIVELY PASTELS: A COLORFUL EXPLORATION
Instructor: Marsha Connell
Pastels are one of the purest forms of artists’ colors. We’ll explore energetic, “painterly” approaches to using these beautiful pigments while learning about pastel techniques and materials.

Sunday, May 15, 2016, 9 am – 3 pm
Pepperwood Preserve   RESERVE NOW >
LANDSCAPE PAINTING WORKSHOP: OBSERVATION AND EXPRESSION
Deepen observational skills and express your responses to Pepperwood’s blossoming spring landscape. Explore plein air painting with artist in residence Marsha Connell. Beginning painters learn basics of working in the field. Experienced painters expand your repertoire with support for finding your own voice. Demonstrations in oil but you may use any media.

Wednesday March 2, 1 pm – 2:45 pm
Artists Round Table
DEMONSTRATION: PASTEL INTO OIL
Santa Rosa Veterans Building, 3850 Maple Street.

Sonoma County Art Trails Gallery at Corrick’s
Daily 10-5
FIRST FRIDAY ARTISTS’ RECEPTIONS 5-7pm
637 4th St, Santa Rosa, CA 95404. 707-546-2424

October 8, 9, 15, 16
SONOMA COUNTY ART TRAILS OPEN STUDIOS
My studio is also open year round by appointment.
Studio location: 2180 Beverly Way, Santa Rosa, 95404

*Questions, purchases, commissions, workshops:
contact sponsor or  marsha@marshaconnell.com

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.

Still Life with Colander or 36 Views of Persimmons

Tags

constellations, ekphrasis, Hiroshigi, Hokusai, Japan, landscapes, luminous, Mount Fuji, persimmons, perspectives, sacred, Sally Baker, tabletop, Ukiyo-e

Still Life with Colander
or 36 Views of Persimmons

written by Marsha Connell for my good friend and collaborator Sally Baker,
for her exhibit of watercolors and ekphrasis* poetry

There was a time—200 years long—
when Japan shut its doors to travelers from the West,
to sailors and missionaries, to diplomats and artists —
Sakoku, closed country.
And Japanese citizens could not travel abroad —
to prevent disruptive influences,
for purity of culture, internal peace.

Now Japan is a very small country, a nation of islands.
Imagine the wanderlust, the cabin fever, living within
such circumscribed boundaries for a lifetime, for ten lifetimes!
Thus, elaborate ritual journeys evolved, with way stations,
pilgrimages and shrines,
measured by small distances and changing views
of sacred Mount Fuji.
And so began, too, the practice
of painting the serial journey. First Hokusai’s
woodcuts, 36 views of Mount Fuji,
then 48 views, then 100, seen, and reseen,
with fresh perspectives and characters.
He inspired Hiroshigi’s 36 views of Mount Fuji,
and 100 Famous Views of Edo.

Ukiyo-e—pleasures of the floating world.
When I see these two characters, in their brilliant orange,
green and blue, their flashy feathers like costumes of kabuki players,
or perhaps priests for a ritual, standing on a classic cobalt,
ultramarine and white textile, under the subtle
presence of stacked orange persimmons
one looming high above like Mount Fuji, peeking over
the lip of a spring green colander, pierced with dark constellations—
I wonder if Sally, ensconced at her studio table, thinks of Hokusai,
and Mount Fuji, when she travels over, under, around, through
her tabletop landscapes, painting her luminous
36, 48, 100 views of persimmons.

(ekphrasis*: the description of a work of visual art)