Jill Berry Blog

Boy Poems

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:47:14 +0000

I am so busy getting ready for Artfest I haven’t come by here, but suddenly am inspired to share two poems with you.

First Grade

By William Stafford

In the play Amy didn’t want to be
anybody; so she managed the curtain.
Sharon wanted to be Amy. But Sam
wouldn’t let anybody be anybody else—
he said it was wrong. “All right,” Steve said,
“I’ll be me, but I don’t like it.”
So Amy was Amy, and we didn’t have the play.
And Sharon cried.

The second poem my boy wrote in his First Grade. It is about his sister, Sydney.

Those should keep you inspired for a while.

Taos, the Luminous Landscape

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:30:29 +0000

Finally my website is up and going for my Taos class this August. We will be painting pages and making books in the Stables Gallery, right off the plaza downtown. The casitas are ready to book with Lovey of Taos Lodging (mention the class, she is giving a discount). The casitas are just so cosy and within walking distance of the Gallery. You could actually park your car and walk the whole week.

The first time I went to teach in Taos, about six years ago, I was hooked. The colors, the sky, the food, the vistas and sunsets sank into me, and now I go back to satisfy the corner of my heart that belongs to the desert southwest. This is a meditative class, unlike many I teach, because we have all week, not six hours, to accomplish what we like. We eat when we want to, trip around to galleries and museums and have happy hour on the deck at Taos lodging. If it rains we enjoy the moisture from inside this historic building, painting away. Luscious.

We will be exploring the poetry and palette of the desert, and the projects are entirely up to you. I bring far more than one person, aside from Mary Ann, can do. I will be ready with at least two book structures (the Secret Belgian Binding and one other) that we will make from the pages we create.

Here it is

The Luminous Landscape of Taos

Painting and Books in the Desert Southwest

August 8-12, 2010

welcome party the night of the 7th

Positively Black and Spontaneous Journaling

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:12:51 +0000

I love working on black paper. In high school I had an aversion to black, and would never wear it or use it in art. Even now the only black paint I have is actually gesso. Black does not, in its absolute form, occur in nature. Dark colors do, but not black. What we call black is usually an exotic form of brown.

This year I am teaching two classes in working on black. One is coming up in a few weeks, and that is what I am working on right now. Three Letter Words is a class I am teaching at Artfest this month in Port Townsend, Washington. In this case, we paint our canvas black, and work with the negative spaces. Ironically the positive space in this case is black. Below you will see some exercises that show you how this works. This is a page of a small booklet I am making for the class.

We will use some of these same techniques on paper in Magical Midnight Stories, a class in May at Art & Soul in Virginia. You get a lot of bang for your buck, a lot of flash for your cash, excellence for your effort, and astonishment at your achievement with these simple techniques. Seriously.

I am making instruction booklets for each class. These are the books for Spontaneous Deconstructed Journals, another class at Artfest.

After Artfest I am going to sleep for a week, a mini-hibernation. I wish. What I am actually going to do is dive headfirst into my first book, Personal Geographies: Mapping Your Stories in Mixed Media. Just got the contract back from North Light Books and I am crazy happy about it. Look for it in 11/2011.

Lust for Letters

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:58:09 +0000

I love inventing alphabets. Quirky hobby, I know, but it is fun. This is a page in my journal of Mexico Letters, which were inspired by a book I have on Pre-Hispanic Stamp Designs.

This one was inspired by the work of Joan Miró. I did this in a workshop that I was not enjoying very much, and I had to get inventive to keep myself happy there. I made a book I called “Faded Lust” about falling out of love. In this case, I was trying to divorce the two artists inside me that fight.

Of course there is a story behind this. Years ago I attended graduate school in Florence, Italy. My art teachers’ name was Guiseppe Gattuso, and we worked in his studio. At the beginning of the year he said to me “Lei è due artisti lottando” (or something like that) which translates to “You are two artist fighting”. I had the graphic designer (Chwast) and the painter (Monet) who could not reconcile their style. At the end of the year Senior Gattuso said to me, “Ora lei è tre” or, in English, “Now you are three”. Three artists inside me who just can’t bond.

So, when two of the three showed up at this workshop, I decided to divorce them (their friends never supported their union to begin with), and I made this book. It sold in Chicago the first night of a show, and I was so not expecting that to happen. I had not photographed it, but for this one page.

Have to say it worked, in a funny way. Ah, the magic of art making!

We will be some inventing in the Journal texting class I am teaching at both Artunraveled and Art & Soul Portland. Portland only has one spot left!!!

Denver University Mapping Class

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:05:09 +0000

This weekend I taught the Personal Geographies: Mapping Your Life class at Denver University, and as usual, it was filled with the kind of energy that you want to enjoy on a gray weekend in February. It never ceases to amaze me what comes out of this class, the range of styles and stories, the willingness to participate in such an unusual workshop. Namaste, to all of you. And Pam, I am it.

Artfest is a’Comin Up!

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:56:35 +0000

In three weeks I will be in Port Townsend, Washington at Artfest, where I will be teaching two classes, can you see my name in lights above? This is thrilling for me, both because I think it is a well run, imagination filled event, and because it is on the ocean (I am crazy about the ocean and could consider that my intense longing for water keeps manifesting in floods in my house).

One of the classes I am teaching is Spontaneous Deconstructed Journal, which is journaling on the fly, on flat pages, and assembling, adorning and embellishing later instead of before. No prep, easy, fun, and involves you in the event in a way that makes the moments seep in and stay.

These are some of the journals that I love best, and return to over and over. Each one is a souvenir of the event, and a record of my time there.

The second class is Three Letter Words. About seven years ago I started a series on these small mighty words that hold lots of images and meaning: Sky, Now, All, See, you get the picture. We will choose a word and use a dry brush technique on a black canvas, painting silhouettes and symbols.

I am hosting a party in my dorm, Dorm 203, on Wednesday March 24th. I have black gesso, and a paper cutter, wine and snacks and we will prep for classes before they start. Everyone is invited.

This will be the first time for me teaching there, and I am already prepared with treats and treasures for each class. I am also vending and trading, so the materials are flying in my studio. So looking forward to having the exhilarating combination of sea and creativity!

Poppies

admin — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:03:51 +0000

This is a piece that I did a few years ago. It is a wild on-the-floor journaling exercise that I did when I was working with Mary Oliver’s poem, Poppies. It took me about a half hour. Sometimes you just have to splash things around.

Some of this you can learn at Magical Midnight Stories at Art and Soul in Virginia in May. Some of it would be included in Journal Texting at Art and Soul in Portland in October. Or, you can just get out the Butterfly Pen (made by Jim Chin), Sumi Ink and watercolors and sit on the floor for some wild fun.

Here is the poem.

Poppies

Mary Oliver

The poppies send up their
orange flares; swaying
in the wind, their congregations
are a levitation

of bright dust, of thin
and lacy leaves.
There isn’t a place
in this world that doesn’t

sooner or later drown
in the indigos of darkness,
but now, for a while,
the roughage

shines like a miracle
as it floats above everything
with its yellow hair.
Of course nothing stops the cold,

black, curved blade
from hooking forward—
of course
loss is the great lesson.

But I also say this: that light
is an invitation
to happiness,
and that happiness,

when it’s done right,
is a kind of holiness,
palpable and redemptive.
Inside the bright fields,

touched by their rough and spongy gold,
I am washed and washed
in the river
of earthly delight—

and what are you going to do—
what can you do
about it—
deep, blue night?

Teeter Totter

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:45:25 +0000

In the last few weeks I have been up and down so often it feels like the teeter totter I used to ride in Lacy Park. It has been the kind of ride that means I am way heavier than the one facing me, who is up. I am keeping her there. Then suddenly, I get light, and fly up, looking down on her.
Today I got off. I feel even and stable. Today I feel like Nanny, in the book Eloise, who is quite enthusiastic about most everything and so must must must repeat everything three times.

I love love love the scarf my friend Lorri Scott sent to me. OMG OMG OMG I really really really do. She makes them with finesse, and magic. I have been lusting after these scarves for two years now, and here it arrives at my door. The magic part is that is makes me so happy, it is like a beautiful security blanket. I wear it to the hospital to see Nancy, I run up and get it when I feel stressed. I wear it when I hug my dog.

Lorri teaches at some of the same places I do, so I will get to see her a few times this year. I want to wear only clothes she makes.

Kathy sent me a Valentine’s box. What a surprise! Map stationery because I am cartographically compulsive, Sweet note candies and a Japanese sachet that I am keeping right next to me now. Ooolala Ooolala Ooolala!

I love love love Kathy, and her exquisite venue, Valley Ridge Art Studio. I am g0ing to teach a one-time-only class there in September. Kathy is connected to the people who teach for her in a different way than most other venue hosts. She is like the Avatars in the movie. She sees you. I am so happy to be seen by Kathy.

Sometimes I need a slam in the head to get to noticing and embracing the fortune in my life, but not today. I have the most interesting friends and am surrounded by love and talent. I get to look at these guys all day too, here in my studio. Some of them were made by friends of mine, some were made by artists in other countries. They are a shelf full of ideas manifested in colorful spirits. Smokey the Bear is in the back, who I have loved since I was three. One critter is from Puerto Rico and is a rat that turns inside out and becomes a purse. When you reach inside you have a rat head at the bottom of your handbag. Everyone needs a rat bag.

It has been busy here preparing for teaching this weekend at Denver University and Artfest next month. My trades for Artfest are finished, and so are my notebooks for one of my classes there. Here are my trades:

So now I am leaping into my lecture, “Crime and Cartography” that I will present this weekend. Needless to say, most of the history we were taught in school is just a tad too heroic, and there are lots of funny cartographic tales to tell. While I am preparing, I am not forgetting the grace, not forgetting the mystery that keeps me engaged in the teeter totter we call real life.

Reality Blogging

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:20:02 +0000

Today I have four friends in medical crisis. I am the kind of person who takes that to heart, and my mother would describe me as “acutely sensitive”. When you are made out of one kind of material, it is impossible to imagine that all of humankind does not share that makeup, but I am finally getting that I am unlike most people. When you toss emotional bombs, and I take them seriously. A few months ago a friend wrote and said her husband “was yet again on a downward spiral and she was considering divorce”. I immediately wrote back with alarm and said “what does this mean????”. The next time I heard from her was just a few days ago when she sent me a cheerful flyer about selling their house. Are we meant to spin our spirals into cheerfulness?

Here is where I am going with this: does it truly serve the world if I take up Happy Talk, here on my blog? Should I just be showing you all how to make art, and keep my personal life to myself? That has been suggested by a few of you out there, and I really don’t like the idea. The point of art making, at least the biggest point for me, is healing. Working it out with beauty, and my hands. It is all about the content for me, not the pretty doodad.

Many things are very funny, and I love to laugh. Ten year old boys are funny, you should get you one. This is the balance for the brain tumors and the burn unit. Gotta have this.

Poetry for Healing

admin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:55:35 +0000

On Wednesday of this week, I went to see my friend Nancy in the hospital. Nancy has a brain tumor. It has been a long haul for all of us who call her friend, since the dark day in January that she had a stroke, to now, when we know why. Just this week she can speak a bit.

My friends agreed to meet me at the hospital, since I am too chicken to go alone. Tom Parson, David Ashley, and I went to read poetry to Nancy. Tom wrote a book of poetry in 2001, and this year 12 of our friends decided to make a book of it, each of them doing one poem on letterpress. They bound the book together as an exchange, and now the last 18 of the edition of 30 will be used as a fundraiser for Nancy’s son Chance, who is 18, and currently has no mom at home.

I took some henna tattoos to do Nancy’s hands, which is about all she can see from her bed. When I told her what I brought (also some Girl Scout cookies, Thin Mints, which cure anything) she said “Tattoos are cool!” It was wonderful to hear her speak, and I knew she would love the tattoos.

This page is done by my friend Kay Moller, written by my other friend Tom, and read by yet another friend, David. Nancy listened and I could tell loved being read to.

We stayed and kept reading to Nancy for over an hour. It was profound, the joy she had in it, the joy we had in doing this. The poems were each perfect for the day, and I felt so honored to know these two wonderful men who would give their morning to a friend in this way.

As I was driving home I felt surrounded by grace, tragedy, friendship and hope. All those feelings crashed at me all the way home. The strongest feeling was that we all gave our friend Nancy the best we could give, and it was a wonder.

This is Nancy, in November, in Africa. She was there for a charity event that has to do with providing bicycles for girls. Before she went I helped her design a small book to take as a gift to her hosts. This is a good time gal.