Another Chair!?!

In the interest of sanity and the spirit of giving, I have decided to contribute a second chair to The Chair Affair. This second chair is entitled "Finding Home". It was actually the working title of my first chair, which eventually took me in another direction, as collaborations with my materials often do, to "Pieces of the Past". This"new" small piece is actually a gathering of things I have made, things I am repurposing, and words I have collected. Pictures to follow....... As I count down 15 days till my wrist fusion surgery I am trying to practice self care, and am trying to recognize and listen to The Sacred Pause. I also recognize that I still have to create space for the creating.

The Chair Affair is Swiftly Approaching!

Jo Grishman

I have seen myself as an artist since childhood, always drawing and creating imaginary worlds, growing up in New York City. My passions for family and nature have been nurtured and blossomed since moving to Portland, where I finally feel at home. I am an artist exploring narrative sculpture combining found objects, text and mixed media. Manipulating the variety of materials is like a dance, as the images emerge and take on a life of their own. Through the process of excavating layers of memory, the story of each piece I create gradually begins to reveal itself to me. It is an unfolding."What a caterpillar sees as the end of the world the butterfly sees as just the beginning".


The 4th Annual CHAIR AFFAIR+ will be rockin’!!

• Live auction: trips, beach houses, celebrity cooking…
  
• Silent auction featuring the work of 100+ artists creating gallery quality, funky/functional, one-of-a-kind chairs and household items…
  
• Food, Drink, Fun…all supporting the important work of Community Warehouse — providing basic household necessities to those in need.
  

Date: April 8

Time: 6-9 pm

Location: TBA

The Chair Affair 2010 Update

Our great event - even better in 2010!

More artists...

Over 100 artists! Look forward to some amazing creations.

More variety...

The + means (re)created chairs and other basic home furnishings.

More food...

In unique Community Warehouse style

CHAIR AFFAIR+

More fun... to meet a greater need!

The 4th Annual event will be the biggest ever with over 100 artists participating! Besides the fantastic one-of-a-kind chairs, look for art made from tables, mirrors and lamps; as well as photography, sculpture and jewelry.

The chairs (et.al.) will be displayed at three locations.  Mario's always does a stunning display of about a dozen chairs in their window. 

P.H. Reed will be showing a window full of art for us again - they also did this last year.  We have arranged to have the rest of the work displayed in the Galleria windows - the space that was occupied by Made in Oregon! 

~  We will have a First Thursday opening on April 1st at these locales. I hope you will all attend! It will be a great way to preview and tempt you with all the wonderful creations that will be part of the Chair Affair auction on April 8th

~ The event will be held at The Bison Building in Northeast Portland.  Take a look we are very excited about this venue!

All art will reflect the work of Community Warehouse - providing basic household necessities to those in need. For those of you in the know, this is the place to be to purchase gallery-quality art that's both functional and funky! All proceeds go directly to Community Warehouse which enables us to continue our work in providing for those who have little-to-nothing.

Information and ticket sales contact:

linda@communitywarehouse.org, or call 503.206.5244

Young@Heart

I ended my evening laughing and crying as I watched the most amazing heart warming, powerful film about living life to the fullest at any age. If you have the chance do not miss the independent film documentary Young@Heart showing on PBS. It is both extremely joyful and very sad but so full of life, love and zest for living that it is a must see. What a perfect way to complete an exhausting rollercoaster emotional day and put life in perspective!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3uOOhm8Fj8&feature=related.

A Change Is Gonna Come!

 Last night at dance, I tried to channel all my anxiety and stress about today's upcoming Regional Hand Surgeon's Conference by creating through my dance. When the evening was winding down, Winky, in her infinite wisdom played an instrumental version of  the old Sam Cooke song A Change Is Gonna Come. I danced my heart out and through my tears felt the meaning of the words I have come to know over time. They could not have seemed more appropriate for this time in my life. After over three years and two surgeries and a significant effect on the quality of my life and my work, I have hope for the surgery on my wrist on February 10. The team combined their knowledge and experience to come up with a plan of action to fuse my wrist and help me to get on with this wonderful life I have been blessed with. The dance continues to amaze me in the way it mirrors my life. I dance in celebration of new beginnings!

 

A Change Is Gonna Come

(Sam Cooke) (1964)

 

I was born by the river in a little tent

And just like the river, I've been running ever since

It's been a long time coming

But I know a change is gonna come

 

It's been too hard living, but I'm afraid to die

I don't know what's up there beyond the sky

It's been a long time coming

But I know a change is gonna come

 

I go to the movie, and I go downtown

Somebody keep telling me "Don't hang around"

It's been a long time coming

But I know a change is gonna come

 

Then I go to my brother and I say, "Brother, help me please"

But he winds up knocking me back down on my knees

 

There've been times that I've thought I couldn't last for long

But now I think I'm able to carry on

It's been a long time coming

But I know a change is gonna come

Pieces of The Past

In an attempt to focus on the CAN DO and not on the CANT'S,  I photographed my completed piece for The Chair Affair 2010. She is aptly entitle "Pieces of the Past." I am faced with a cancelled surgical date for my wrist and anxiously awaiting the rescheduled date, to say the least. I am trying to hold it together, leaving pieces of the past behind, moving forward with the new, but with the inability to let go of memories and experiences from the past, be they positive or negative. Memories are something we carry with us. It is not a choice. Creating the chair has been therapeutic for my spirit but painful for my hand. I am glad she is completed. I feel a sense of satisfaction that I was able to complete her and pour my pent up creative juices into her to the best of my ability and to try to accept that being enough. She is, what she is. The chair I began with is old. She feels broken, lost, left behind. The chair is collaged with handmade paper I bought, that reminded me of days gone by, possibly another era, another place. I then used the chair as a place to land. I patched her up, added worn, rusted, found and collected elements. I created an assemblage of things I have found and collected that conjure memory, partly for me and partly for some other fictitious life. There is a sadness about her. She has a sense of completion for me, yet a sense of possibility, of waiting for someone, something, to arrive. 

I sit with her........I sit..........I wait...........I become her..............

First Winter Snow

"All things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man... the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports."
- Chief Seattle

After a wonderful holiday spent with family in San Francisco, we return home to the comfort and quiet of winter's beauty. I feel truly blessed. I now patiently await my scheduled wrist surgery on February 19 with the hopes of a healing winter and a spring awakening.

 

Walking the Labyrinth

To honor the Solstice and that quiet, dark and restful place that dwells within me, I walked on the Labyrinth at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral last night. Walking the labyrinth can be a way for the psyche to connect with the soul, a way of seeking our higher spirit. It may be a symbolic pilgrimage or a means of seeking clarity, vision, focus, healing, discernment, peace, or spiritual insight. The labyrinth is a spiritual tool. There is no right or wrong way to walk the labyrinth. Trinity has a beautiful inlay wood labyrinth in the parish hall. Trinity’s Labyrinth Guild provides its walkers and seekers opportunities to strengthen and deepen their spiritual connection by walking the labyrinth. It is a wonderful, symbolic ritual of meditation, clarifying the  teaching: Out of the journey in and deep surrender comes an opening awareness of new life.

The stones I chose from the basket to hold in my hands while I walked were "Peace" and "Resiliency". I reflected upon those words and their personal meaning to me as I journeyed through the path of the Labyrinth.

I meditated upon the gifts that fill my life and the gifts I have that fill others. I meditated on the possibilities of accepting what is as being "enough"..........surrendering, allowing, being. I thought about the conundrum of what it would be like to do less and in doing so, be more. To surrender to the fact that my hand is in pain, needs surgery and cannot do much of what I want. To surrender to and accept what I can do and see the gifts that are hidden within.

Inside that dark quiet place of winter the potential grows...........

The Solstice and my Personal Winter

This weekend was filled with many wonderful openings. Now that I have seen them, I can begin to realize I have the choice to enter into these openings. Jumping back a bit to last Friday Dance Playground, there was a shift. During the pairings and changings between our six dancers, I felt a new opening into trust and safety and fun while in dance and relationship with "the other". I was able to let go and enjoy without all the work that fear brings with it. A breakthrough for me in the dance, the movement, the relationship, the dance..........fast forward to this friday and the 3 hour Reflective Dance Practice.

The very sweet small intimate group of the four of us was beautiful.Dancing in silence, how aware I became of the music of each others breathing, footsteps, clock ticking, bodies moving through the space followed by the quiet sitting meditations that came between the steps. Jen gave me the "permission" in her suggestion of the time of the season and I realized that right now I am in my own "Personal Winter". I am going to try to embrace that now.That quiet time of inward darkness that makes way for spring light. Like a bulb planted, I need the quiet slowness to heal both my hand and my spirit with the hopes that there will be a renewed blossoming of my hand that will be healing after the surgery, but making room now for the gathering of the creativity during this time of darkness that will also blossom anew in the Spring. I brought one of my old sculptures that felt dead to me right now and created an alter of sorts for it before I danced not so much to breathe life back into it, but to honor that for roght now, it too is in its dormant personal winter that needs to rest with my other sculptures until the time is right to re emerge. Time..........Patience...........Quiet..............Darkness.

Now to Sunday morning dance. For the first time I gave myself permission to dance as part of the whole rather that on the outside looking in. In the past, I actually placed myself on the outside of the circle not really looking into the circle and the other dancers, as much as looking into myself or sheilding myself from the other dancers by always gazing inwardly. I opened my eyes, I moved through the space, through the other bodies! Winky gave permission to dance with "the other"even if there is no physical contact, that you can dance with each other by merely being aware of the space you are both inhabiting at that moment. I found a way to take care of my body and myself in the mass of moving bodies. The energy that I allowed myself to fill up with from the others was amazing, and I acknowledge that I too must be contributing to filling others as well. I felt so free and alive and truly a part of the community. I do give myself permission to still step outside the group dance and into the private quiet dance of the self whenever I need to, but that will be out of choice rather than out of fear. Yet another breakthrough for me!

The weekend was also filled with wonderful jazz/funk music shared with Michael on Saturday night and then rounded out with an amazing performance of the Aurora Chorus joined by the fantastic Jamie Seiber on Sunday. The voices of the 100 woman singing about peace in many languages was so inspiring and uplifting. It truly filled my soul to hear the 100 voices sound like one voice and the ethereal electric cello added just the perfect touch.

The finale of the weekend was to meet and celebrate the Solstice and holiday season with my Art Circle for dinner. Wonderful friends and rich time.

Now, today marks the Solstice and I plan to try to create some enriching rituals for myself that will not only celebrate the Solstice but honor my own Personal Winter.

Honor your own complexity.

Mark Gerzon
Coming Into Our Own

Pieces of the Past

Well believe it or not in a manic burst to finish my chair for the Chair Affair before my surgeon's appointment in one hour, I did what I thought was impossible. What began as a lonely chair that had no identity, she joined us as the Thanksgiving table, then waited to become......At first her working title was Finding Home. On this journey, she became Pieces of the Past. I love my narrative chair and will post a picture soon. I am proud of myself for working through the pain, and using my left hand as much as I could, being disciplined at a time when I was in emotional turmoil which culminated in creating my chair. It was a collaboration that was at first uninspired, but the relationship grew into a chair that I am proud of. I hope she raises a lot at the Auction in April!
Now I am off to the surgeon to create a plan to heal my hand. Now I am waiting to become whole again.

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."

~T.S. Eliot ~

I am honored to have been a part of this annual fundraiser!

Trying to change perspective

Loss makes artists of us all as we weave new patterns in the fabric of our lives.

Greta W. Crosby

After a very difficult weekend accepting what is, rather than what I want things to be, I struggle to complete the Chair Affair chair before my surgeon's appointment tomorrow night. I do not know what lies ahead for me and my wrist in the coming months so I want to finish it. It hurts to work on it, but I need the discipline and sense of satisfaction that working provides to keep me going. I am trying to simplify my original plan for the chair. Editing the elements but keeping the narrative hoping less can be more. I will continue on it this afternoon.............

 

Slowing Down

"There is more to life than increasing its speed."

Mahatma Gandhi

Now that I have given myself permission to not make the chair if I can't, and instead mount the layered glass piece that I did printmaking on as a back up, my ideas have begun to flow. It is amazing to me that when you let go, space is created. I will approach the chair slowly, thoughtfully, and simply. I will try a bit today, since I now have some inspiration about where I want it to go and the narrative has finally begun to take shape. I will only create it IF I CAN! I am giving myself permission to do it in small increments. It is about Finding Home.

I am now thinking about the beautiful Rumi piece Guest  House.

"This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond".

Renewed Inspiration!

The meeting of our Portland Women's Art Circle on Wednesday was just the medicine I needed in light of my current hand situation. After much conversation about my frustrations and with the help of my very wise fellow artists and friends, I now see things a bit differently. The project of 365 chairs that I saw as being already unsuccessful, I now realize set myself up for immediate failure because of the pressure I put on myself. I have done 3 small clay chairs and that is all for now.I had been beating myself up about not being disciplined enough to stay with this rigid and difficult left handed project. I am now collecting the wax molds that I remove from my hand after my daily soak in hot paraffin wax. I will collect these daily until my surgery and hope to mount these lovely cocoons and back light them. This is a manageable and soothing piece to be working on. It is healing, creating with the best of what I have to give right now and it nurtures me, which is what I really need most now.
The three clay chairs I have completed are the first chapter........Waiting.
The wax hands are the second chapter...............Nurturing. 
The third chapter remains to be seen............
I am so grateful to these supportive women and feel so blessed to have them in my life.

"Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop."

Ovid

Save The Date for The Chair Affair

Now is the time to plan ahead to for 2010 and to think about  getting involved with  the Community Warehouse and in beautiful artwork. The main event will take place Thursday, April 8th, 6 - 9 pm.  Each week year the Community Warehouse recycles gently used household furnishings to over 60 of Oregon's neediest families  at no cost to them. The needs for families is unfortunately growing while donations of household goods have sharply declined. Please consider the Community Warehouse when you are cleaning out your own home and looking for a wonderful place to give your belongings a new good home. Please check out the website www.communitywarehouse.org for more information and please consider joining me at the 2010 Chair Affair for a night of fabulous fun, food and artwork made by artists in our community, many who are your friends and colleagues such as myself. It is a great way to both give and receive. For more info see the attached invitation and check out the website. I know there are a lot of organizations to support in our great city, but you can be a part of the Community Warehouse in so many ways even if you cannot attend The Chair Affair. I will keep you posted.........until then thank you for your support!

Re-examining my clay chair installation project

I am feeling quite discouraged with my original clay chair installation project. I was so excited about the potential and the disipline but I am just not ready to follow through full steam ahead right now. The holidays are always emotionally draining and with the abrupt change in the cold weather I am again feeling in hibernation mode. I am also stressed by the decision that I will have to be making whether or not to have surgery on my wrist so perhaps I am expecting too much of myself right now. I just don't have the creative emotional energy right now. The problem is, considering my wrist issues, I have basically "set myself up" for failure unless I re-examine my intentions, my parameters and my capabilities. I am in quite a creative funk and by counting the fact that I have not made more chairs than I have made, I feel like I am failing. I have to think about the way I can approach this installation without feeling unsuccessful before I really begin to emerse myself in it. I have to pause...........and see the possibilities of what can be, rather than what cannot.

"Time, like life itself, has no inherent meaning. We give our own meaning to time as to life.
Don't fight against life, let it be. Life has its own rhythm, its own time. In most cases, you simply create stress and suffering for yourself whenever you attempt to hurry the course of history or to slow it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Thinking outside the chair

Well I have my chair for this years  Chair Affair, in fact it played a roll as a stand in on Thanksgiving when we came up a bit short so she is already a member of the family. I will post pictures of her soon but I am not sure what she will become yet considering the current condition of my right wrist that might be facing a third surgery.I may have to get really creative in my thinking outside the chair and also have to be pretty open and flexible about the expectations I have on myself in regards to my creation. More to come.................

Choosing My Chair

Tonight I meet my chair. I enter into this relationship with trepidation since once again I am faced with having to creating it one handed. It is not the way I want it to be, yet it is what it is.................

"Problems are opportunities in disguise. If you did not face problems you would just drift through life, and you would not gain inner growth." Peace pilgrim

My Patience Continues To Be Challenged

Pain is inevitable, Suffering is optional. - Buddhist proverb Pain is what the world inflicts upon us. Suffering is our emotional reaction when we fail to make the difficult conscious decision to choose Joy. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

A Year of Chairs Begins with Baby Steps

After our Gathering of Women Artists meeting last week, I have been inspired to think about what I can created that is large yet has small components. My friend and fellow artist HsinYi Huang is creating an installation with several hundred pod shapes that hang on the wall. With all the discussion with other fellow members, Nes, Katie, Renee and Alison, about "possibilities" for me and how to deal with my physical limitations of my wrist and mental limitations that I am imposing upon myself, I decided to move forward. Michael took me to Georgie's on Saturday where I bought 100 LB of clay, thanks in part to the generous gift certificate my beloved daughter Jenni gave me last year. I chose a very soft, non groggy clay that will be easy to handle. The Wonder White clay is so soft and supple, that I am forced to work small and slowly, since it takes time for the clay to firm up and hold it's shape. My thoughts, ironically yet totally uninfluenced by the upcoming Chair Affair, is multiples of very small chairs that will hang on the wall. I thought about what the image of the chair conjures up in my mind, and began to feel inspired. Some of my thoughts: The chair is a universal item that most people in the world have sat upon at some point in their lives. It is something that waits to be filled. It is empty and reminds us of someone's absence. We enjoy a wonderful dinner in restaurants, we wait in waiting rooms for help or anxiously waiting in a hospital praying for good news. We sit on it at happy occassions with our loved ones. We sit on chairs in jury duty, waiting rooms as our cars are worked on, waiting for doctor's appointments and waiting to pick up our prescriptions. We sit for hours at our desks or in our studios being productive or struggling to solve a problem. We wait at the airport happily awaiting a much anticipated visitor or tense about a delayed flight in bad weather. We sit for hours in school learning or daydreaming. We sun ourselves at the poolside and read books at the library.We laugh and cry at the movies............This is just the beginning of the interest I am having in the idea of chairs. I would like to have the goal, hand allowing, of creating a very small white chair a day, that will hang on the wall. Ideally 365 chairs but that remains to be seen. I will leave some chairs empty, while filling others with sometting that I have collected or will be collecting in the coming days that creates a narrative for me. I am very excited about the prospect of touching clay once again. I made my first chair yesterday. Did my wrist hurt, yes. Did my spirit come alive with the birth of a new creative venture, absolutely. The silky delicious clay on my fingertips, heavenly. Baby steps..........less can be more. Therein lies my challenge. Another opportunity to grow and learn.