Tag: CA – Ridgecrest
Garden of Life
Friends are the flowers in the garden of life. My flower gardens bring much pleasure to myself as well as many others. Through gardening and art, I have made many friends who enrich my life. Friends in far-reaching places oftentimes come to mind. I like to think of them as flowers given to me in my garden of life. True blessings.
It is my hope that my box will convey to others how important friends are. May my little traveling garden bring a smile to the viewer, along with a reminder of someone special—a flower placed in their garden of life.
Chosen Journey
Woman Thinking Outside the Box
Hearth
Diverse meanings are attached to the shape of a box. This particular box represents the amalgam of two ideas. The first is the idea that all our judgments and ill-imagined, preconceived notions might go up in flames so that we might remember to view each other with fresh, clear perspective.
The other idea is that each of us would throw our boxes of hope and treasure onto the pyre for warmth of body and food on a cold night. This flame of necessity, real for some, but taken for granted by others, might illumine a way of looking at life – that we might value the bare essentials of life more than we do – and care for those who don’t have them.
The green flame represents the possibility for growth and a new way of life that would rise from the kindling of excess with unsurpassed brilliance.
Face
Soon after the birth of my first child, I became aware of a sense that on a grander scale, all children were my children. Universal.
I am now a grandmother for the first time. Mostly, I am happy. Sometimes I feel sad, maybe a bit jealous because I no longer carry the egg that becomes the baby. Look at my little grandson in utero. He is perfect, just like the one perfect living cell, the egg. What gift this is that we may, “…bring forth those who bring forth.”
Desert Water
Emergence
Ask for Guidance
When I started this project, I had a general idea of what I wanted to say and how I would do it. However, once I started beading it began to take on a life of its own. For one thing, the beading took much longer than anticipated, which forced me to slow down and enjoy the process.
Beading is a mechanical type of thing which allows contemplation while still doing the work. It began to look a bit different than I planned and time was getting short so while I beaded, I literally asked for guidance and trusted that this would lead me somewhere. Is it a pillow, a blanket, a symbol?…it is any and all of these things and a place to rest and to think. The idea to glue messages to the box came as I beaded. Lesson learned.
“All you need to do to receive guidance is to ask for it and then listen.” Sanaya Roman
“Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.” Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Mom, Me, and the Pink Dancers
This work has to do with the cycle of life and where I am in that cycle now. It is a combination of fears–past and present, traumatic experiences—past and present, hopes, dreams, pain and frustration that continue, that I am more or less resigned to endure. It is to honor my mother and her teaching and love for me, my love for her and what each generation of women pass to one another.
The pink dancers were an image I formed from an interview I heard on public radio with young women activists who dress in pink and perform on the sidewalk of urban centers to attract people to engage them in discussions pertaining to social and political issues of the progressive left. I yearned and regretted for a moment that I was not there, was not a pink dancer. But soon saw that they were the next phase, and was glad just that they were there. Yes! to them.
War is still bad, starving children are still bad, and women still have to keep working to stop these things from happening. There is a lot of pain we must carry with us.
My own children (17yrs old & 21yrs old) saw this piece being made. The red stuffing, I told my questioning son, represented blood and tissue. However, it was not bad. Blood is everywhere when you are born. It is a good thing. Blood is life.
Such a small piece, so much to say. Very personal.
Yomama’s Chair
Breaking Out of the Box…
Got Milk?
Dreams Fly
Inside this box, within a bird, a dream is sealed.
Please PICK-UP and hold this wise, matriarchal creature. Shake her gently and listen. Hear her dream stir? What is within her; within you? Permit your vision to awaken emboldened, released with wings spread and soar beyond every limitation that you impress upon yourself.
Goethe said, “Whatever you do, or dream you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” Truly, all women have dreams and passions pleading to be set free on the wings of imaginary flight.
RIDGECREST
Maturango Museum
Ridgecrest, CA
September 1 – October 13, 2004
Barbara Andolsek – Dreams Fly – California, USA
Inside this box, within a bird, a dream is sealed.
Please PICK-UP and hold this wise, matriarchal creature. Shake her gently and listen. Hear her dream stir? What is within her; within you? Permit your vision to awaken emboldened, released with wings spread and soar beyond every limitation that you impress upon yourself.
Goethe said, “Whatever you do, or dream you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” Truly, all women have dreams and passions pleading to be set free on the wings of imaginary flight.
Kelley Serena – Hearth – California, USA
Diverse meanings are attached to the shape of a box. This particular box represents the amalgam of two ideas. The first is the idea that all our judgments and ill-imagined, preconceived notions might go up in flames so that we might remember to view each other with fresh, clear perspective.
The other idea is that each of us would throw our boxes of hope and treasure onto the pyre for warmth of body and food on a cold night. This flame of necessity, real for some, but taken for granted by others, might illumine a way of looking at life – that we might value the bare essentials of life more than we do – and care for those who don’t have them.
The green flame represents the possibility for growth and a new way of life that would rise from the kindling of excess with unsurpassed brilliance.
