Susan Cain is author of the new best-selling book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. “All these brainstorming studies show that individuals, extroverts included, produce better ideas when they’re riffing alone than when they’re in a group.” Cain says. The United States of Innovation, Susan Cain, Hudson River Valley, New York; Rachel Z. Amdt, Fast Company.com, May 2012, p. 94.

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The reception for the A breath of contemporary! art exhibit was well attended. Some 40 people came, Hilary from Potsdam via Watertown, and Shaun, John and my mother, all from Plattsburgh. Terry, Sue and I were able to do some improvising of my word images with the uku and other musical objects. Stephen DuBrey, who I had not seen in years, since last high school reunion, came with recording equipment. Angela and Ralph enjoyed the party, mingling with folks they did not know.

Thank you all for coming. Thank you to my co-artists; Joanne for your cheeses and your graciousness, and Aaron for your wine and your presence.

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It is the third warm evening of the year.

I taste, for the first time, french fries dipped in hot mustard.

Around us, voices weave, cross, touch, flutter, merge. They wrap around us like a cloak, a cloak of humanity.

We inhale the heat of broth, of mussels, garlic, white wine and tomatoes, rising up from our metal bowls.

We sit at our cafe tables on a street corner on a wide sidewalk.

We sit at our cafe tables, basking in the velvet warmth of urban light, twilight blue sinking into green horizon haze. Slight breezes of cool waft through.

Branches still bare, the maples and oaks, weave an arch above the intersecting street. The trees, many taller than the three-story brownstones they grow in front of, line both sides of the street, all the way to the end.

All the way to the end, to the utility lines, curved fine lines of soft reddish gold, curved fine lines of soft setting sun.

I am enchanted.

Nadia Korths
Word image written March 20th, 2012. Print made March 23rd during workshop; 3 brayers, each with different color, each rolled once directly onto rice paper. Audio recording made 4.15.12. To purchase print on wide range of media visit Redbubble.com, search Nadia Korths.

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I want to thank Jenny Hutchinson, Gallery, Program, and Shop Coordinator at LARAC , for initiating contact, doing the marketing and all the prep for the workshop Marketing Channels which I presented on March 10th.
It was lovely to see Connie Dodge after a few years of not. Connie, you look great, by the way. Also participating was Chris Malmgren, pathfinder photography; Cindy M. Fitzgerald, fabric artist; another fabric artist and Cindy’s friend; DebraAnn Salat, hand embroidery artist; Diane Golden, 3 dimensional collage artist; and Marjolaine, garden center owner transitioning into felt clothing and accessory creator.

And thanks to LARAC for being one of the few galleries in the Adirondack North Country region where contemporary artwork can be displayed.

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“Not that she saw her dad’s decline as a “horrible, depressing thing,” she says. He wasn’t in pain and he often seemed to be happy. “It didn’t matter that he didn’t know who I was,” she says with a sage smile. “He liked me.”

World views, (artist) Marcy Hermansader by Megan James. Seven Days, Burlington, VT. 02.22.12 – 02.29.12.

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Last night at Bluseed Studios in Saranac Lake, that was fun. Lee Knight, folklorist, originally from Saranac Lake, who works for the North Carolina Arts Commission, and just taught a class at the John Campbell School, was a great host. He played a handmade in Western North Carolina black walnut banjo. As well, a dulcimer, a Cherokee flute, and a mouth instrument which twanged beautifully. Beautiful sounds and songs – at least one of the songs could be traced back 5 generations.

Beckie O’Neil’s homesteading stories kept getting better and better.

TAUNY staff -  Could I have a copy of the audio of my reading of Eating snow at dawn, the one where Lee joins in, playing his dulcimer? That was first time reading it in public. And to have such a great accompagnist. Improv in the moment. That was just wonderful. I’d love to post it to my website linked to the associated print.
Thank you again.

There’ll be two more of these:

Song & Story Swaps
Thursday, March 8, 7 to 8:30 p.m., BluSeed Studios, Saranac Lake
Friday, March 9, 7 to 8:30 p.m., Lapland Lake Nordic Vacation Center, Benson
Saturday, April 21, 7 to 8:30 p.m., Adirondack Folk School, Lake Luzerne

Anyone with a song to sing or a story to tell is invited to join TAUNY this mud season for a series of Song & Story Swaps in the Adirondacks. Supported by the Pearsall Adirondack Foundation, the swaps will be hosted by TAUNY staff and local traditional musicians. Participants will be asked to share songs, stories, and poems in a manner reminiscent of traditional gatherings in parlors, kitchens, grange halls, and hotel and tavern barrooms. Click here for details and directions for each event.

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II of Dark before Dawn Series

The wind is gusting.

Old man birch, wide eyed, faces right into it.

Nose like a prow of a ship.

Snow drapes from his forehead, wraps
around his eye, drifts the length of his nose.

His nose – an elongated flat knot
on the outward side of a slight crook in the
trunk – faces directly into the wind.

Wide-eyed old man birch! Arms open to what may come.

Eating snow at dawn. The first good snowfall.

I eat it off boughs and railings.

It is delicious.

A melt of minerals.

The next day it is granular.

(written 2.25.12 / modified 3.1.12)

styrofoam relief intaglio print
Akua intaglio inks
rice paper

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Am I cooking or what!
Sanford, over the past 6 years, has printed 95 postcards for Bluseed Studios, one of the 2 benefiting orgs. These six cards he created the last year and a half. I, show organizer, requested that they be blown up. I know which one I want!

Labels, bios, statements going up tmrrw.

Betty B. took right off in the relief printmaking workshop. Here are her beautiful creations.

Each of the four participants has a wall space to hang their work as soon as it is printed. It was absolutely beautiful to see everyone’s work up – about 40 pieces created in two hours. And then a wonderful lunch. Ah, it was really just delightful.

I had to clean out my print making studio to maximize the space for 4 women to hand print at the same time.

Next to me (3rd photo) is one year, 3 months worth of found metal, plastic, etc. recycled into styrofoam relief prints.

Well, at least their indents are. I collect the objects during my daily walks.

And now, with the smell of printing inks rich in the air, I am going to make some prints myself. I’ve been so busy the last two weeks I haven’t been able to.

But it was so worth it.

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Joanne Court’s recycled aluminum cans are drenched with bold acrylic colors and transformed into eye-popping wall hangings, of nature scenes such as flowers, tropical fish, and the Adirondack icon, the pine cone.

I am so lucky. I have the first (13″x12″) in her pine cone series. I took down all of our, mostly representational, wall art collected over the last 20 years to receive the six artists during the two Enchanted Christmas Dec. Sat. afternoons on Helen Hill when four homes, including mine, were open to the public.

Only contemporary work is going back up. And Joanne’s beautiful piece is one of them. Thank you so much, Joanne. She was one of my six artists.

She does not realize how talented an artist she is. She started her Eye-Can work to raise funds for worthy causes. And she does.

Starting Feb. 16th, her works (more below) will be exhibited at the Saranac Lake Free Library’s Cantwell Community Room as one of the three artists showing in the Contemporary Recycled Print, Acrylic and Graphic Art Show. Geoff Sanford and I, Nadia Korths, are the other two artists.

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