Category: Reflections
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Breathe: Art Lives in Community
“This morning I have been pondering a nearly forgotten lesson I learned in high school music. Sometimes in band or choir, music requires players or singers to hold a note longer than they actually can hold a note. In those cases, we were taught to mindfully stagger when we took a breath so the sound…
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March Spring Winds
March Spring Winds is a contemplation on tensions that coincide as seasonal change crashes into human emergence from the pandemic. Created through a meditative practice on internal ecology, the video consists of a sequential drawn animation combined with an improvisational flute melody to evoke the interplay between complements. As plants sprout and animals emerge from hibernation,…
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Songs of Urban Ecology: Cathedral of M-14 Fugue
What spaces around you do you ignore? Stop, Observe, Listen. The Second Song to Urban Ecology, this one was actually begun first. It was originally a photo series that I took in one of my favorite parks, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. M-14 is an expressway that runs between Ann Arbor and Plymouth, which is…
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First Song to Urban Ecology: Jamaicaway Matins
While natural systems and cities are symbiotic everywhere, there are huge equity gaps across the globe. Higher income areas have more access to open space, and foliage and are therefore more likely to have active and noisy animal populations. There have been many articles about this through the years. One of the most memorable for…
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Bedouin Cocoon: Spring 2001
The unexpected places in which surprises happen are the places where invention happens. Whatever plans I made, the process of creating and performing forced me to push my limits. Those limits left space for the air to pass, and for others to enter and share in the learning. This performance did not have a title when I…
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On the Journey: But What About the Leaves
When I was visiting my father over winter break, I unearthed documentation of artwork that I did twenty years ago. It is funny to think of myself as an artist-practitioner for twenty years. Yet, when I look back at that work it is plain how it connects to my work today, and the red threads in the…
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Thoughts about home
When I moved to the Boston area for graduate school, it was surreal. On the way here from Ypsilanti, Michigan, not quite my home town, but very close, I drove through Canada. Not that exotic, I’ve done this road trip a few times in my life, though customs and border enforcement always makes me nervous.…
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In-between Thoughts
Art is a necessary part of my life. The process of putting pencil to paper or looping needle and yarn help me process my thoughts and feelings Art is a necessary part of my life. The process of putting pencil to paper, or looping needle and yarn, help me process my thoughts and feelings. Focusing on the…
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Cathedrals and Time
Buttresses of the Cathedral of M-14. Nice long walk in Bandemer towards Argo A photo posted by Allida (@hemoracallis) on Apr 15, 2015 at 8:20pm PDT Over the years I have always loved bridges. They have great acoustics. They are beautiful in their way, even the ones that are very boring infrastructure have their moments…
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Brecht, Aelita, and other Inspirations
One of my other recent projects was at the same school where we did Charlie Brown, but with the “Upper School” students (Grades 9-12). It was the play by Bertholt Brecht, The Caucasian Chalk Circle. It takes place in the Caucuses region in what is present day Georgia. It is not about “white” people, though if…
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Participating in the Cannon
Although I would not say that these rugs were inspired by the work of Sonia Delaunay, after a series of drawings I did last year that were circular, someone directed me to look at her work. Of course I knew of her work before, she did both costume and fashion design, and when I was…
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Goings On About Town
Though my drawing a day project has once again fizzled, I have in fact been making art nearly every day. When I started the project, my intention was to do all kinds of work, showing progress, drawings, sketches, and finished work as it went on. But as the project went on, my parameters got more…
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Symmetry
This week I was digging through some old image files for one reason and another. This one stood out as something interesting. It was done during one of my private lessons while I lived in Madrid. At the time, most of the drawings from those classes seemed un-interesting. During classes, I mostly did figural works,…