Category Archives: Around Atlanta

WHAT I LEARNED IN MY YEAR OF WALKING DURING A PANDEMIC

How have I coped with this time of social distancing? I took a walk, then another one, and it turned into over 364 walks! From 3/29/2020 until 3/21/2021 I logged in 2200, the length of the Appalachian Trail. Walking daily is probably the best decision I never made! Things I’ve noticed are:

  • I began to listen to nature, and my observational skills increased
  • My concentration level increased
  • I feel in better shape than I have been in decades
  • I am eating much healthier
  • I fit into all my clothes
  • My most creative ideas have come while walking – and I’ve learned to take a notebook with me

According to a study done by Stanford University, walking can increase your creativity by 60%!!!!
If I had read this a few years ago, I would have laughed. But – it Is true. You can read about about this study HERE.

Ampitheater found in the woods

In looking back through history, many of the great creatives walked daily. 

  • Aristotle gave his lectures while walking. His followers were known as peripatetics – Greek for wandering about.
  • Wordsworth walked an estimated 175 thousand miles during his life
  • Dickens walked everyday after writing from 9a-2p – and 20+ miles was not unusual.
  • Thoreau felt walking was a pilgrimage to his Holy Land.
  • Beethoven  took breaks throughout the day to “run into the open”. 
  • Virginia Woolf and James Joyce  took several of their characters on walks that she took herself.
  • Nietsche felt it was where he worked best.
  • Mahler walked up to five hours a day. He had a jerky weird walk which his daughter claimed came from his shift in rhythms.

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” Nietsche

Butterfly

I have discovered a hidden world of treasures in my own neighborhood. I have collected over 80 bird feathers, I found a hidden beach, a hidden teepee, a hidden ampitheater – all in my neighborhood!

I have seen a gleeful boy and his father take a bike ride throughout the neighborhood every day after lunch. I have seen a neighbor taking her bird on a walk. I discovered there are three greyhounds (in different homes) on one street, and three standard poodles. There is a cat that likes to walk with her favorite dogs. 

So, get out there and take a walk. Don’t use weather as an excuse, learn to dress properly. As Roger Miller said. “Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet”.

And, I know a lot of you will say – you just don’t have time! I have found I don’t have the time NOT TO WALK. As I said, I walk often these days – often working out a problem in my head while moving. A fifteen minute walk outside is better than no walk at all.  Out of ideas? Again, take a walk!

One last observation, 99% of all dead-end streets or cul-de-sacs have a basketball hoop. I wonder what that means?

Basetball hoop

Do you have an walking stories to share?

 

 

 

THE RHYTHMS OF MEMORY – A DAUGHTER’S JOURNEY

 

OPENING RECEPTION APRIL 21, 2018; 5-9p

Art-Haus

332 Ormond St. NE

Atlanta, Ga. 

Dementia and Alzheimers are probably the most feared incurable diseases there are. As the people are living longer and the population is aging, most of us will be affected by some form of dementia. This series is inspired by my mother’s journey into dementia.

I begin each painting with multiple layers achieving a tactile surface. The layers are symbolic of the abundance of plaques and tangles that are found in the brain of Alzheimers/Dementia patients.

Each piece represents a different aspect of what I observed during mom’s struggle.

The first is the isolation and the feeling of invisibility patients frequently experience. A figure is painted on a multi-layered textured background. The entire surface is painted out and with mark making the figures begin to emerge from the background, while still being faint and translucent.

Some paintings illustrate the confusion that comes with this disease.I make seemingly random marks creating chaos. Using pen and ink, the lines and dots are connected bringing order to the composition.

Connect the Dots – 18×24

Let Me Call you Sweetheart, 8×10 collage, framed 11×14

There are also a series of collages illustrating the power of music, which has been proven to be an effective treatment to help patients access their memory. As the grand-daughter of both a piano tuner and music teacher, this is close to my heart. Each collage included is based on a particular song that has been proven to be effective. 

The inspiration for the piece on the right is a powerful story.  A woman had been verbally unresponsive for a year. But, when we heard this song on the piano, she began humming along, ultimately singing the words. They found this was the song used in her wedding.

 

 

The work shows those with dementia can still be present and they still have stories to share.

For the opening on April 21, 2018, two pieces will be auctioned and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Georgia Alzheimers Association.

These pieces are valued at $600 apiece. 

 

If you have any stories to share, please put them in the comments. 

 

VISION BOARD WORKSHOP

I am so excited.  I’ve done the research, taken classes and worked with experts around the globe – and now I’m ready to share what I’ve learned. A VISION BOARD WORKSHOP!

Do you know what a vision board is?

It’s a way to manifest your dream life. When you make a Vision Board, you get clear on what you want to create in your life.

Once you get clarity, you select images and words from magazines, and paste them on a poster board. Seeing this board aligns your brain with the outcomes you want to attract. (Oprah, Ellen and Katy Perry swear by them!)

So, why doesn’t everybody do them? In my experience as a life coach and artist, I find people just don’t take the time. Or maybe they are just skeptical.

But, it is time to change that!

With this workshop, I will send you a “Create Your Best Life” Dream Sheet to fill out prior to the workshop to get clearer on what you want in your life.

After completing the workshop, not only will you leave with a finished vision board, but you will leave with other tools such as a booklet that will include the “Be-Do-Have Worksheet”, a hand out on the importance of having a Word of the Year, and other things (working on several ideas).

Are you ready? Doubts, excuses and wavering are just the ego’s way of stopping you from creating your dream!

 

If you sign up prior to February 1, you will get the early bird discount of $50. To sign up email me here and I will send you an invoice. Also, don’t hesitate to ask questions.

You can download the flyer HERE.

Because of the powerful work in our day together, there are only a few spaces available. They will fill up quickly, so please act quickly. Your space will be confirmed with payment is received.

 

FUN FACTS ABOUT ATLANTA

 

Atlanta is more than the home of CNN and Coca-Cola, as well as the 1996 Olympics. While it is a fairly young city (established in 1847), there are some little known, what I think are entertaining, facts about Atlanta.  (The above images are my loose interpretation of the skyline in 1980 and 1970).

1. Atlanta was the fifth city to become the capital of the state of Georgia (Savannah, Augusta, Louisville and Milledgeville were first!).

2. The symbol of the city is the mythological  Egyptian bird called the Phoenix, which rose from it’s ashes.  Why is this symbol of Atlanta?

PHOENIX

PHOENIX

 

There was a historic fire in Atlanta that was deliberately set to burn the city.

Of course, I am referring to Sherman burning the city of Atlanta in 1864. In fact, Atlanta is considered the only U.S. city to have been destroyed by an act of war. Over 400 buildings were destroyed. Atlanta surrendered to the Union on September 2, 1864. 

3. There was a second fire in Atlanta that occurred in 1917.

200px-1917AtlantaFireWhen the fire was stopped at 10PM, 22,000,000 gallons of water had been pumped. Fire trucks came from from nine Georgia towns, as well as from Tennessee. When it was over, 1,938 buildings were destroyed over 300 acres that spanned 72 city blocks. 

More than 85% of the burned buildings were made of wood shingles. 

So, the symbol of the Phoenix is appropriate for this city that continues to rebuild. 

 

 

 

4. Atlanta hosted the Atlanta International Pop Festival, held one month prior to Woodstock. Many of the same bands played at the Atlanta festival that played at Woodstock, such as Janis Joplin among others.

5. The Atlanta Braves are the oldest continually operated professional sports franchise in the U.S. They began as the Boston Red Soxs in 1871 and moved to Atlanta in 1966.

6. The Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport is honestly the world’s busiest airport. Why? Partly because you can fly to almost 80% of the U.S. within 3 hours from Atlanta. The terminal is larger than 45 football fields.

7. I know The Continental Divide is a big deal out west, but in Atlanta you can find the Eastern Continental Divide.  This divides water flowing into the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean. 

8. You can ride your bike to Alabama on the Silver Comet Trail

9. It is illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole.

10. Stone Mountain is one of the largest blocks of exposed granite in the world. And the etching on the side of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis, is the largest bas-relief in the world.

11. Babe Ruth hit a home run into the tree that is behind the Whole Foods on Ponce de Leon. That was the home of the Atlanta Crackers and a magnolia tree stood in the outfield. The Babe hit a ball into the tree during an exhibition game – the tree is still there!
venSEblrm-photo_RottenBeer

12. The infamous punk rock band, The Sex Pistols, played their first American show at The Great Southeast Music Hall, located in a shopping center in Atlanta. (I was there!).  Here you see Johnny Rotten having his beer there.

 

13. Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With The Wind while recuperating from a sprained ankle. “Scarlet” was originally “Pansy”, and this was changed only six months prior to publication. “Tara” was known at “Fortenoy Hall”, and “Melanie” was almost “Permelia”. In fact, the original title was “Tomorrow is Another Day.”

14. There are over 55 streets bearing the name “Peachtree” in Atlanta. Interestingly, the Peach Tree is not native to Atlanta. It is “said” the Creek Indians had a site called “Pitch Tree”, which is what pine trees were called because of the sap (this is disputed fact.)

15. Atlanta is one of only two cities that are home to two Nobel Peace Prize Winners, Martin Luther King and President Jimmy Carter (I’m very proud of this fact actually.)

16. The Peachtree Road Race is the world’s largest 10k race, this year there were more than 60,000 participants

17. And, last but nott least, Atlanta has the largest toll-free dialing area in the world. I guess there is something to be said about Southern Hospitality.

Hope you enjoyed this. This is just a small sampling on Atlanta’s short history. I previously gave historical tours of a couple of Atlanta’s historic neighborhoods, so Atlanta’s history has always been of interest to me.

 

THE ABC’s OF GRATITUDE

This blog is part of the Soaring Sisters monthly blog circle.  This month there are 14 women participating around the world – and each of us at posting about gratitude.  We are linked to each other, so after reading this – click HERE to read the post by Karrlin Bain.  This will begin your journey through the circle!

I decided to go through the alphabet with my gratitudes – so here goes.

ART – As Neitzche said “The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude”.

BEING ME – I have to admit, being thankful of being me was sometimes a struggle.  I had someone tell me about 20 years ago to have a love affair with myself!  One of the best pieces of advice I ever had.  Just remember, as Oscar Wilde said “Be yourself, everybody else is already taken”.

CREATIVITY – This is one of the things that makes this world a wonderful place and keeps it from getting boring.  Being creative means taking risks, looking at problem solving a new way.  In fact, this would be a good blog topic in the future.

DREAM – You have to dream it first, and if you pursue that dream, anything is possible.  

ERIN – my niece.  She is doing a remarkable job of taking care of my mother right now – and I am thankful for that every day!  

Mom and Erin

Mom and Erin

FRIENDS – new and old, and those I have yet to meet. 

GOD – need I say more?

HEALTH – this is something my family and I are blessed with.

INTERNET – it may seem a little lame, but without the internet I wouldn’t be writing this and connecting with women around the world.  

JOEL – my husband is an artist too.  He is supportive of my art and he gives great critiques. We have such a good time together.  He also takes good care of the dogs – what more could I ask for?

KNOWLEDGE – I am thankful I grew up in a country where education is compulsive.  I am thankful I have a lifelong desire to learn as much as I can.  

LAUGHTER – one of the sweetest sounds on the planet!

MUSIC – I am thankful I was instilled with a love of music at a young age.  I believe Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is the most  perfect piece of music ever written – and it always brings tears to my eyes when I hear it performed live (along with Rhapsody in Blue and Carmina Burana)

NIECE – along with Erin, it has been a pleasure to watch Mallory grow into a remarkable and beautiful young woman.

Mallory

Mallory

OPTIONS – I am glad I have options, or choices, in the decisions I make.

PARENTS – on the basic point, without them I wouldn’t be here.  However, I was taught at a very young age that we are all created equal.  That is something that has stayed with me, so thank you so my parents for teaching me that.  I’m not better than anybody and they aren’t better than me.

QUIET TIME – it took me A LONG time to learn this, but quiet time is important to having a healthy body, mind and soul.

READING – I love books as much as I love art – well, books are a form of art.  I read EVERY day and I’m glad I have a love for reading, which is knowledge and learning.

SUNRISE and SUNSETS – I’m thankful for every one I see.  It is another day to experience life.

TIME – it is your friend – you have to learn to use it.  I am glad I’ve learned that and know it is something to work on.

UNIQUE – I’m glad and thankful that I never strived to be like everybody else.  Maybe being left-handed and having red hair taught me early I was unique.  It is learning everybody is unique is important.

VISION –  I am thankful for having a vision of my life – it helps me overcome obstacles when times are tough.  Having a vision connects me with my passions to live life to the fullest

WONDER – I sincerely believe this is what keeps you young.  Wonder about everything – today my wonder was how and when traffic lights began – i’ll google that.

X – tough one –  I considered X-rays.  But I decided the letter X is unique and that is what makes the world go around.

YESTERDAY – without memories, where would we be?

ZIGGY – need I say more – i knew the minute I saw him – we belonged together.

 

ziggy and waylon

ziggy and waylon

 

what are you grateful and thankful for?

This is part of an international blog circle – I copied this from Karrlin Bain’s blog to complete the circle.

Blog Hop Map

I got this note HERE:  http://www.lalymille.com/2013/11/gratitude.html  * “This blog circle is an international group so it’s a bit of a challenge to coordinate the different time zones. If you find that the circle is not yet complete, please check back later today!” 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

MARKETING PLAN

I just completed the IGNITE class with C4 in Atlanta. This is a class designed to “ignite” your art career and move you forward.  In participating in this, I created a marketing plan, which I have included below.  This is my initial version.  In presenting to some very knowledgeable people, I realized I need to change the following to really be successful:

  • Personalize my vision statement
  • Focus – it was felt to focus on the coolage party, when that takes off, the rest will come.
  • Target women in the 25-40 range. They not only have children for birthday parties, but friends getting married and many are in the corporate or non-profit world to eventually incorporate team-building and performance art.
  • Don’t ignore the suburbs
  • Snag the domain name of CoolageParty immediately
  • Once it gets going, re-assess my costs, they are low

I realized alot about myself – it was very eye-opening. I want to be part of a bigger art community that is well-respected. I’m not that interested in personal fame.  This was a big first baby-step for me.

 

marketing.001 marketing.002 marketing.003 marketing.004 marketing.005 marketing.006 marketing.007 marketing.008 marketing.009 marketing.010 marketing.011 marketing.012 marketing.013 marketing.014 marketing.015

 

 

 

 

MY DOG ATE MY BLOG

Ziggy and Joel

Ziggy and Joel

It’s hard to believe that cute little dog could do this to my notes. Ziggy literally ate my notes on my blog.

P2170004_0869

Those are notes I made after hearing a story on NPR about the new exhibit at the High Museum of Art here in Atlanta!!  The exhibit is Frida & Diego, Passion, Politics and Painting, which I am looking forward to seeing.  This is the only stop in the United States and apparently close to 25% of Frida’s paintings are on view.

I had looked up and found some interesting tidbits about the two of them that I was going to share – but alas, you see what happened to them.

So – back to the drawing board.

Lesson learned?  Apparently Ziggy thinks anything on the bed belongs to him!

THE ORLY PLANE CRASH

THE DAY ATLANTA STOOD STILL

Headline of the paper after the fateful crash
Fifty years ago today, on June 3, 1962,  the art community in Atlanta was forever changed.  After a three week trip to Europe, members of the Atlanta Art Association were returning home to Atlanta on a chartered plane.  The plane crashed on takeoff, killing all but two stewardesses.  At the time, it was the worst single plane crash in history.

“It was the Titanic of our city.  When it happened, it took a lot of leaders, important people at the time.” says Ann Uhry Abrams, author of Explosion at Orly, The Disaster that Transformed Atlanta”.  The group included artists, civic leaders, heads of businesses, overall, an influential group.  They had traveled to Europe partly for pleasure, but also to show the city had a commitment to culture.

Out of this grief,  the citizens of Atlanta realized something needed to be done to memorialize the crash victims.  They knew the tiny museum located in an old house needed to be improved.  Ground was broken on the fourth anniversary of the crash for the Memorial Arts Center.   It opened in 1968, and was the first arts center that housed both visual and performing arts in the same venue, which included the Atlanta College of Art (now part of SCAD, Savannah College of Art and Design), The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the High Museum of Art.  The Alliance Theatre was added in 1970, and in 2005 Young Audiences was added.   This addition ensures the PreK-12 programs will serve more than one million children annually, the largest base of an arts center in the country.

It was renamed the Woodruff Arts Center in 1982 to honor the great benefactor, Robert W. Woodruff, also known in Atlanta as Mr. Anonymous.  

The French government donated Rodin’s “The Shade” to the High Museum in memory of the crash victims.  It now stands outside with the names of all the victims surrounding it.  The crash victims had seen Whistler’s Mother at the Louvre,   In a gesture of goodwill, the Louvre loaned the painting to the museum in the fall of 1962 – it’s first appearance in the US.

The High Museum now holds more than 11,000 works of art in its permanent collection


Rodin’s The Shade outside the Woodruff Arts Center

Some other facts:

33 children were left without parents after the crash
Martin Luther King and Harry Belafonte cancelled a sit-in in downtown Atlanta as a concilliatory gesture for the grieving families.
Andy Warhol painted his first “disaster painting” 129 Die in Jet, based on the cover of the New York Mirror the day after the crash.
The plane was known at the Chateau de Sully
The High Museum is named for the High family that donated their home to the museum in 1926.




SEEING RED

 

 

 

Every once in a while I see or read something that really gets under my skin and makes me want  to learn more.  This happened recently upon seeing a production of the play RED in Atlanta, with Mark Rothko in the center.   This is not a review of the play (even though I thoroughly enjoyed it), but some of the things I learned from reading about both the play and Rothko.
 
RED is a two person play set in the late 1950’s when Rothko was painting his murals for the Four Seasons in New York.  If you don’t know this story, Rothko accepted a commission to paint a series of murals for the Four Season’s Restaurant, located in the Seagrams Building on Park Avenue designed by Mies Van Der Rohe and Philip Johnson.  Rothko completed 40 paintings, three series in dark red and brown and even altered his horizontal format to vertical to go with the columns, walls, and windows in the restaurant.  After a trip to Europe and a visit to the restaurant, he abruptly changed his mind and returned the $35,000 (roughly two million dollars today) he’d been given for the paintings.   He kept them in storage until 1968, and they now hang in the Tate Modern in London, a museum in Tokyo, and the National Gallery of Art  in Washington D.C.

He never fully explained this decision, but many felt after visiting the restaurant, he found it pretentious and not the best place to view his meditative paintings.  He was quoted as saying they would end up in a space “where the richest bastards in New York will come and feed and show off” (told to a Harper’s Bazaar editor).
 
The play was written by John Logan, who also co-wrote The Gladiator, Rango, and most recently Hugo. After seeing the paintings at the Tate that were  intended for the Four Seasons, Logan was inspired to pen the play.  He was in London finishing up the screenplay for Sweeney Todd and found “they had a vibrancy, a severe and somber power to them”.
During the play, Rothko quotes Nietzche and  Freud   He talked about commercialism and how Dali and Picasso would sign menus to make money – even after he had accepted a $35,000 commission.
 
The play portrayed Rothko as a hard drinker, heavy smoker, and an intellectual with disdain for lesser minds, in short – an egomaniac.  
 
The rectangles floating  – often using a palette of red and brown and black –  were meant to be seen in a contemplative environment, not on the walls of a restaurant where people went to see and be seen.
 
Rothko suffered from depression, and ended up committing suicide in 1970.   Surprisingly, his suicide coincided to the day the murals arrived at the Tate Modern in London.
 
I admit to downloading the play and re-reading it later.  I wondered how much of the dialogue came from Rothko’s own writings – because his spirit was there.  Some of the quotes I remembered and have read in reviews were:
 
“Selling a painting is like sending a blind child into a room of razor blades” – which showed he had a vulnerable side.  
“One day the black will swallow the red.”
The murals are “a continuous narrative, each a new chapter”.
Painting is  “10% putting on paint, 90% waiting”.
“You cannot be an artist until you are civilized.  You cannot be civilized until you learn.”
 
In reading about Rothko’s paintings, the word repeated is “pulsates”.  As Rothko himself said:
“The fact that people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions…the people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when painting them.  And if you say you are moved only by their color relationships then you miss the point.” 

What have you seen or read lately that inspired you to learn more about the subject or person?

 
 
 
 
 

 

SACRED SPACES Lance Carlson’s Solo Exhibit

Sacred Spaces is the current exhibit at Georgia Perimeter College’s Clarkston Location in the lobby of the Fine Arts Building.   I really thought the work looked great in this environment.  To give some background to this work  – this is Lance’s artist statement for this:
“This series consists of ten 36″ x 56″ (approximately) pieces on paper.  The images and marks on these mixed media pieces are connected (through the artist’s mind) to spaces/places that have traditionally become associated with worship and/or are of pivotal importance to the world’s religions.  Only ten spaces are portrayed which implies that only some of the world’s religions and traditions are expressed.”
I think it works very well.   The paper is from a roll of watercolor paper and he taped the edges and put gromets in the top – a very effective way to present them.   The ten places are:
Friends Meeting House – Houston, Texas
Chartres Cathedral, Chartres France
Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
Pantheon, Rome
Acropolis, Athens
Stonehenge, Great Britain
Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Ziggurate of Ur, Iraq
St. Peters Basilica, Vatican City
I was really drawn to St. Peters Basilica, as well as the Dome of the Rock.   There is a reverence, as well as a rhythm about these pieces that are difficult to explain.  I felt the work was personal and reflected Lance’s spirituality.   And the fact that Lance is an architect makes it more interesting to see his interpretations of these places.
While these ten pieces make up the core of the show, it is interspersed with some of Lance’s favorite works.   Above you see him standing in front of his favorite piece in the show.
The show will be up through February 10th.   I encourage you to check it out.  AND, I hope Lance finds another places to display these pieces because they deserve to be seen.

Lance’s work can be seen at DK Gallery on the square of Marietta.