Takin' Art to the Streets

Downtown Lansing; Michigan’s newest art gallery!
And I am pleased to have 2 works selected to be included.

On our 27th wedding anniversary my husband and I attended the opening reception and press conference one block from the state capital building. We walked the beautiful downtown streets of Lansing and enjoyed art along with people who just got out of work and were on their way home. People who wouldn't think of stepping into an art gallery were stopping, looking, enjoying, calling the phone number on each banner to learn more about the art and artist. Amazing!

We learned how the Arts are [finally] being recognized for the economic impact it has in our greater community. We met artists from all over Michigan and learned about their inspiration and passion for their art.

Below is the "copy" from the City Streets website. Please browse the works online if you can't get to downtown Lansing before Labor Day. And don't ever, ever doubt - the Arts make a difference in people's lives!

http://lansingcitystreets.com

This summer Lansing Art Gallery is turning downtown Lansing into an open-air art gallery with the City Streets Exhibition. Eighty works of art from Michigan artists are on display along Washington Square and Michigan Avenue, creating two intersecting corridors of artwork.

More than just a visual experience, the City Streets Exhibition is a fully interactive happening. In this outdoor gallery, there’s no need to silence your cell phones. You’ll want it handy so that you can dial in to hear phone casts of the artists talking about their work and their inspiration in their own words.

With the City Streets Exhibition, your opinion counts. You know what you like, and we’d like to know too. You can leave comments about your favorite pieces and vote for the People’s Choice Award. Just look for the unique voice mail and text numbers displayed on each artwork banner.

The City Streets Exhibition was designed to give you the opportunity to see art, to learn about art, to talk about art, and to share your opinions about art. What are you waiting for? Take a walk in downtown Lansing, Michigan’s newest art gallery!

The exhibit is supported by the City of Lansing Arts & Cultural Grant Program funded through the Economic Development Corporation with help from the Arts Council of Greater Lansing. The grant program is part of a ten year Cultural Economic Development Plan.

Weeping

Like everyone, I watched with horror the news of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. It is beyond me to comprehend entire towns wiped out and their populations missing. When the opportunity was presented to our printmaking community to give to relief efforts by making a print that would be sold with 100% going to that effort, I wanted to help.
Coming up with an image that represented my thoughts and feelings and my style of landscape and water, was difficult. I didn't want to portray destruction. I wanted to portray hope.
But I couldn't get the sounds out of my head. The sound of things shaking and crashing....the sound of people yelling....the sudden quiet as the quake stopped and everyone and everything regrouped. And then the water. Rushing, tossing everything in it's path, surging forward. The sound of water lapping against debris and finally the stillness and nothing is left to make a sound.
After all of that, it is the sound of weeping I am left with in my heart, mind and soul.