Art as a way - Online presentation

 ~ Reflections from the weaving of my art & life ~

It's been ages since I've posted anything online and I don't imagine I'm alone in being sick of so much computer time/work.  However, if you want to see what I've been reflecting on, here is a link to an online (Venmo) presentation for The Grunewald Guild https://www.grunewaldguild.com/  in Leavenworth of my work in progress - 'Art as a Way" (30 min.)  https://vimeo.com/801755531  

 Art as a Way…

 

HOMECOMING, a Yoga + Creativity Retreat Spring Equinox Weekend 2022

 1:00 pm  Friday, March 18, to 12:00 pm  Sunday, March 20   

At Madrona MindBody Institute.  Fort Worden, Port Townsend, WA 

https://madronamindbody.com/all-events/homecoming-a-yoga-creativity-retreat

This spring come home to yourself with “HOMECOMING,” a Yoga + Creativity Retreat that invites you to be playful, curious and tune into your inner voice.

Five yoga and movement classes, suitable for all levels, will be led by Yoga Therapist Renee Klein, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT.

Throughout the weekend you’ll be working with your own copy of Deborah Milton’s beautifully illustrated workbook, “Journal Home,” in which you can write, draw, color and collage, for wherever your creativity leads you. Let yourself be surprised and inspired as you explore your interior landscape, discovering new insights. Practice following your voice of intuition, allowing the unknown to emerge while you wonder, wander and respond. Your newfound sense of being home within yourself will let you emerge beautifully into the light of spring!

Artist and creative guide Glo Lamson will help facilitate your process and the creation of a group mandala or collage, perhaps inspired by our collective creative thoughts as well as items collected from the natural world around us at beautiful Fort Worden State Park.

This retreat is open to a maximum of 16 fully vaccinated participants and held in Madrona’s 2,200-square-foot ballroom that allows for ample space and health. To ensure additional safety and reassurance, we will provide all participants with a non-invasive rapid Covid test (at our cost) at Madrona immediately prior to the workshop.

COST:

Residential Retreat fee:

Two night’s private room lodging at one of Fort Worden State Park’s accommodations, two breakfasts, one dinner, one lunch and your Journal Home workbook, $485.

98368 Local Residential Retreat fee:

(includes all of the above but no lodging or breakfasts) $240.

Register by January 15 for a 5% discount.

For more info and registration go to:

https://madronamindbody.com/all-events/homecoming-a-yoga-creativity-retreat


   Renee Klein

After years of ballet, fitness and other forms of movement, Renee discovered the life-changing practice of yoga.

She invites you to explore this magnificent practice where bodies, minds, hearts and spirits can be enriched and healed. She teaches in a manner accessible to all—the yoga newcomer and the advanced student.

Renee's initial training was in the therapeutic Viniyoga lineage with Anne Basco. Additional studies have included numerous curriculums with notable yogis such as Gary Kraftsow, Angela Farmer, Richard Miller, and Mikunda Stiles.

Subsequently she earned her Yoga Therapist credentials (E-RYT 500) through Ananda Seva Mission. She also earned the prestigious yoga credentials of C-IAYT, certified with the International Association of Yoga Therapists, and is a Certified Senior Fitness Instructor through the American Sports & Fitness Association.

She is indebted to all these yogis and organizations, but mostly she is indebted to her students, from whom she continues to learn and grow.

   Glo Lamson

Glo Lamson (aka Gloria) is an interdisciplinary artist, whose creative practice has been central to her life for 50 some years. Her creative work has served as a major source of connection, integration, healing, adventure, and growth in her life.

Moving between nature and psyche, she is interested in bringing the inside out, and the outside in, seeking to invoke wakefulness and renewed connection to the worlds within and around us.

Through the years she has taught, mentored, and coached people in realizing their own unique creativity to nurture their lives. Lamson has an MFA in Arts and Consciousness from JFK University. She is committed to helping others experience their creativity as a connective, healing force.

Photographs in Small Expressions Exhibit at Northwind Art - Jan. 30, 2022

  Two of my photographs (below) were chosen for the current Small Expressions Show.

 

https://www.northwindart.org/news/northwind-art-celebrates-20-years-of-small-expressions
    Northwind Art is celebrating the 20th year of Small Expressions 20, a juried exhibit of small format artworks from regional artists executed within the last three years—but with a few twists. Juror Jaleesa Johnston has been invited to jury all art entries in person, on-site, rather than online, making for a much more immediate experience. Small Expressions is at Jeanette Best Gallery, 701 Water Street, open Thursday-Monday, noon-5 pm and runs from Dec. 2, 2021-Jan. 30, 2022.
    While the artworks may be small in size, measuring no more than 16 inches in any direction, they are expansive in variety, style, and medium. In an exciting twist, for this exhibit, artwork that sells may be taken away during the run of the show, which will provide a dynamic element to the changing installation.

Magic Happens

Lifting Off     

  

Encaustic photograph of white glove bird  (sold)

Art show & activities with Dying Matters Guild. Nov. 20-21, 2021

 I showed several photographs and offered a 'Story Drawer' for the silent auction 

at the special event put on Dying Matters Guild & Strait Up Magazine at the

 Cotton Building in Port Townsend.  The poster for the event is below.  

Included in the event were an art show, a community altar (in which offerings were encouraged), a Death Cafe (a facilitated conversation related to thoughts around death & dying), a silent auction, meditation, resources and readings from the upcoming issue of the local Strait Up magazine.   

For more details checkout   http://www.dyingmattersguild.com, the sponsoring organization.

A couple of my photographs in the show were

The Question

Negotiating

Dear One

Photographic Multiples

Lately I've been returning to my roots in photography.  Weaving between past and present images in my archive of photographs to make new creations.  This current interest began with the recent 'Story Drawers' or, actually a long time ago...like with the image I created for the cover of the 'And/Or' magazine, for the then And/Or Gallery in Seattle, Washington.

2021 multiples  include these below

SPRING RENEWAL: Yoga + Creativity with Renee Klein & Glo Lamson

  Friday, March 19, 2021 6:00 pm through Sunday, March 21, 2021 11:00 am

**you can double click one of the pages below and it will open up both pages and the writing becomes sharper and more clear.  

 Meet for 8 Hours over 3 days.

 For more information and registration:

 https://madronamindbody.com/new-events/spring-renewal-2021  

*** Use LINK BELOW for more information and registration   https://madronamindbody.com/new-events/spring-renewal-2021 

"Story Drawers" included in Contemporary Photography Exhibit at Grover Gallery, Port Townsend, WA

                                                                                                               'Dear One'

                           

                                                                                'Play time'

‘Story Drawer’ Statement

With ‘Story Drawers’ I explore creating ‘mini-installations’ which I make in my studio, which allows me a more self-sustaining creative process. As I had several old drawers on my work bench, they became obvious containers in which to grow this new work. ‘Story Drawers’ excites me to re-contextualize past images in new ways.

‘Dear One’ began growing in my mind 10 years ago when I found this buck lying in my back yard. He looked so alive…but he wasn’t. His presence spoke to me of mysteries, of life, death and everything between. I felt compelled to photograph a human relationship with him. I kept his horns wanting to do something special with them, to honor him and life itself. His was my first story drawer which I think of as a kind of altar.

‘Play-Time’ grew out of a photograph from a group of images entitled ‘Landing Language’. In this series I spelled out words on the ground with white cotton gloves, the kind used to handle precious objects. I photographed them as a part of their surrounding environment. Wanting to explore the idea of ‘playing around’ in my studio, I began with the word ‘play’ then followed the lead of various definitions of the word.

Contemporary Photography Exhibit 

This juried exhibit features 42 fine art photographs covering street, nature, portrait and abstract themes from participants in the popular long-running “Print Night” community of photographers. Includes work by

The monthly “Print Night” event was established by Port Townsend School of the Arts faculty Rick York in collaboration with photographer Chuck Moses in 2018 and has remained an enduring collaborative art group even as pandemic restrictions necessitated the move to a virtual setting. The group meets regularly to share work, discuss photography history, current trends and enjoy the community of fellow professional and aspiring photographers.

Watch the virtual tour - https://youtu.be/4FGlAjHbQBM

Participating Photographers:  Ginny Banks, Betsy Carlson, Jeff Eichen, Kathy Fridstein, Brian Goodman, Allan Jones, Jon Kaplan, Johanna King, Kate Kinney, Gloria Lamson, Allegra McFarland, Mitchel Osborn, Nels Peterson, Lynn Sorensen, Kerry Tremain, Joe Tysl, and Rick York.

     December 31–March 1, 2021 

Grover Gallery, 237 Taylor Street, Port Townsend. 

    Gallery hours are Thursday-Sunday 12-5

- - - - - - - - - - - - - 

***   https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/01/18/art-gallery-little-free-library/     Excited by this article and want to spread the idea  :-)  kinda like a story drawer!  

'Ode to the Light Within' - September Public installation, 675 Tyler St., Port Townsend, WA

 

“Ode to the Light Within”

 

These luminous figures give visibility to my belief that within each of us there exists a kind of light that encourages us to be our ‘best’ selves.  My hope is that this poetic, figurative rendering supports that light within us and encourages us to offer it out to the world through the quality of our interactions.  Our thoughts, feelings and acts of kindness can spark compassion, tolerance, equanimity and empathy for ourselves, each other and for the earth. 

 

May we all be well.

Comments:

Materials used for this installation are clothes dryer, venting hoses and glittery bird, scare tape along with several of my photographs made by scratching into slide film.

I have much gratitude to the North Peninsula Chapter Surface Design Association, https://sda-np.com/ for the opportunity to use their window exhibition space to realize this installation which has been brewing within me for some years.

Creating ‘Ode to the Light Within’ in this space felt a bit like a homecoming for me, reminding me of other installations I created in that window from 2010-2016
http://glorialamson.blogspot.com/2016/04/changes-and-what-if-window.html .

I welcome your thoughts, comments and questions via email, at glolamson at gmail.com

2020 New Year Retreats Report

January 2-5, 2020 I had the wonderful opportunity of facilitating the creativity components for two New Year's retreats at Madrona MindBody Institute in Port Townsend, Washington with Aletia Alvarez and Renee Klein. The first retreat was a half a day of mindful movement, meditation and creative play. The second retreat was a 4-day yoga retreat including creativity play with Renee Klein.  

Weaving through the various activities was focusing on identifying and releasing what no longer served us and exploring our intentions for what we did want for the new year. At one point we all worked on a group collage of what we wanted to help create in this new decade.

We had a creative studio space for folks throughout the four days to do collage, make totems, or prayer flags with an array of provided materials. There was ample free time for friends to visit, explore Port Townsend, walk around the fort and beaches or spend extra time in the creativity studio. 

After sharing many of our hesitancies, fears and judgments for doing "creative work" there were many pleasant surprises in "doing it anyway" and any which way!   :-)

Kay Jensen shared the story of her journey with her creative work here: 

"I felt grumpy, even irritated, as I left my cozy yoga retreat room. Making my way to an Art Creativity class was the last thing I’d ever personally choose to do, but I’d committed to at least showing up, and hearing opening remarks, suggestions for how to proceed. I could, at the very least, say that I’d participated that much. After too many childhood/youthful artistic and creative “failures” (feedback from teachers, and comparisons to what I thought to be “gifted” artists), I had relegated myself to stick figures and the occasional color crayon attempt. So, I felt more than a bit of dread.

As I rounded the final corner on the path to the workshop, I began to hear energized characteristic raven vocalizations. Looking up, I spotted a pair of the all-black birds as they sat closely together, high on an evergreen branch. They paused as I walked underneath the tree, and then surprised me as they began to hop, treetop-to-treetop, following me, and calling with their raven voices, all the way to my Madrona classroom destination…a distance of at least a city block or so.

Settling in to my place with the other students, I knew my resistance was now mixed with the curiosity of the Raven communication and visitation; what it could have meant in a Bigger Picture sort of way…

After Glo’s generous examples, and invitation to play, artistically, with a myriad of cards, books, markers, paints, fabric, yarn, paper, magazines, pens, pencils, tubes and tiles, I raised my hand and confessed, “I’m sorry. I don’t know how to start; I actually feel creatively paralyzed…”. She nodded, as if she’d heard this before. Then, she said, simply, “Just start. Take one color, one magazine, one book, and begin. Trust that the process will lead you in, and on your way. Stay with it. There is no rush, and no wrong way to do it.”

And, thus, my collage, “Raven” assembled its way into being. I owe great gratitude to Glo, and to the two Raven messengers, for the awareness that 1) it’s never too late for artistic ability, and 2) for the invitation to add more vibrance, magic and lightheartedness to my life, one color, one choice at a time."

And thank you Kay for reminding us what would be helpful for all of us to remember.  

Yoga / Creativity Retreat in Port Townsend, Jan. 2nd-5th 2020 - For a New Decade!

2020 NEW YEAR YOGA RETREAT with Renee Klein, Glo Lamson & Deborah Wood

• Thursday, January 2, 20204:00 PM 
  Sunday, January 5, 202010:00 AM

• Google Calendar  ICS

REGISTER HERE:
https://madronamindbody.com/new-events/newyearyogaretreat2020

Mindful Movement, Meditation, Creativity & Ceremony - Workshop Jan. 2, 2020 Port Townsend

INHALE THE FUTURE... Your 2020 Vision: Aletia Alvarez, Renee Klein & Glo Lamson

• Thursday, January 2, 2020
• 9:00 AM  2:00 PM

• Google Calendar  ICS

Register here:  https://madronamindbody.com/new-events/2020/1/2/inhale-the-future-your-2020-vision

Photographs in Port Townsend at PtSA 2019 Sherry Grover Art Sparks Show

I'm excited to have photographs from my "Signs of Life" photographic series for sale at the 2019 Sherry Grover Art Sparks Exhibit to benefit PtSA, Port Townsend School of the Arts.   Over 500 6"x6" pieces of art by different artists will be showcased at the PtSA gallery downtown across the street rom the Rose Theater. (236 Taylor Street(360-344-8269) 

'Mythic Numbat’

'Movin’ On’

'Note to Notice'

'For What? Whom?’

'A Question’

'Center Valley View’

You can view these works and more Oct. 1st-4th, Tues.-Fri. from noon and during gallery walk on Sat. the 5th. The sale doesn't begin until Sunday Oct. 6th when each 6x6" artwork will be sold for $40 to benefit PtSA. Last year there was a line around the block of excited folks waiting for the gallery to open to buy their favorite pieces.