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Props to #bonnieheller for her #pillplanet or #planetpills? As seen in online catalogue #globes #ourearth #mirthday #sculptingintime #muddywaters #medicalarts #arspoetica #topography #geography #handwork #puzzlesofinstagram #climatecrisis #timecapsule (at Sabes JCC) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDes8vcHaxK/?igshid=1wespyomdzpv8

#bonnieheller #pillplanet #planetpills #globes #ourearth #mirthday #sculptingintime #muddywaters #medicalarts #arspoetica #topography #geography #handwork #puzzlesofinstagram #climatecrisis #timecapsule

@dureenruff and @suewellart are first puzzlers to reach the promised land... PUZZLETOV! DIASPORA 500PC 18" X 18" Released May 2020 This painting takes on a whole new meaning during #Covid19 #Negev #fortydays #countingthedays #omer #wilderness #diaspora #promisedland #desert #drfauci and the #future #2020grads #patience #duration #publicart #together #nationdivided #journey #outlanders #ingroup #popularity #mitchprinstein #folktale #present #shtetl #Litva (at Minnesota) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAI-PmdHXi0/?igshid=13sobcb5o7fti

The great #8! Brand new puzzle design now in stock - can you spot it? Hint: watch video at end... Pre-orders...I shipped your goids out yesterday! Virtually hug @kingslayerj when you see him at #USPS #quarantine #jigsawpuzzle #nature #community #psychadelic #puzzletime #meditation #magic #publicart #contemporaryart #sarahjanelapp #painter #landscape #refugees #sanctuary #solitude #paperart #cardboardart #Riga #Vilna #ancestors #photooftheday #puzzlesofinstagram #giftsforgrandma #giftsfornurses #giftsforbatmitzvah #giftsforgraduation #giftsformom https://www.instagram.com/p/B_r90bDnEuY/?igshid=127ju6nqo45og

FOR TOM (and for anyone else who likes birds and poets but still dislikes death) At sunrise today I saw two guys chasing a lady past my studio. They exhibited none of the slick, sky-swooping moves I’ve come to expect from these guys. Instead they seemed to be speed-walking down the hot yellow line that bifurcates our residential street, their chase a blur of Red, red, brown. Red, Red, brown. Red- I dipped my pen into the ink bottle and looked up to see who won. Alas, the whole operation had disappeared entirely. If you’re a male cardinal which one of you is the wingman? And if you’re a transgender cardinal - then what? And if you can fly speedily to your beloved - why walk? The man who would have known the answers died three weeks ago. I do not like how he died. Not that anyone sent me a survey in advance. Dear Valued Customer: Please take a moment to help us improve our processes! Your friend will die this year. Would you prefer he die via... 1) cardiac arrest 2) gastric bleed-out 3) lymphoma 4) pneumonia 5) All of the above? His name is/was Tom Crawford and I met him in Santa Fe where he grilled me a turkey and introduced me to his faithful companion, Walt the wee poodle. His two-legged partner, Mary Judge, I had met in the New York metropolis a decade prior. Tom and Mary - both writers - shouldered more than their fair share of tragedy. No details required. You have enough gore in your own life. More important: their grace - and of a level not typically witnessed among us mortals. Here’s evidence of Tom’s elan in his book THE NAMES OF BIRDS: It’s Such A Relief To Want Less It’s such a relief to want less. Let the Sharp-shinned Hawk who is not greedy/so eats only one small sparrow a day/ be my model, right down to the wing/picked joints and the tidy pile of gray feathers/ the wind soon blows away. Nobody/ in my family learned the quiet habit/ of bird watching. We weren’t in one place/ long enough for a feeder, for the song/of our own silence might bring./ Age comes swift,/but my eyesight only gets better./ No tragedy in my backyard./No props./No villains./ There is no such thing,/you know, as a sick old hawk. (Sherman Asher Publishing Sante Fe, 2011) Do you also wish you were the person who could write such words - I mean write AND also believe them? Selfishly, I would have preferred this hawk to live a little longer. Because I owe you a letter, Tom. Because I secretly wanted you to attend our whenever-that-will-be wedding. Because I want my friend Mary to have the most happiness possible and now I am not sure how that will work. In case any one values my opinion.

#TomCrawford poet TheNamesofBirds hawks cardinals SantaFe #death #eulogy #survey

“Two birds skittered on the lawn...the bombs would begin to drop at midnight.

Ten years ago -or more- my friend Jonathan Milder lovingly voiced this line for my animation “Chronicles of a Professional Eulogist.”

Today this prose played in my head while I listened to Mr. Cardinal spread his morning message. Shortly after this exhibition was installed at ArtProv Gallery the cardinal’s partner built a nest outside our dining room window. She’s been guarding three eggs for several weeks now. What an honor an privilege we feel to watch this life cycle unfold. Will they hatch before the exhibition ends?

When I made the two birds drawing shown above - an image that came to be identified with this film on the festival circuit - I had not yet participated in avian birth projects. It was 2003. I had just interviewed Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf in Chicago: “If that bastard begins a war on my birthday I will be pissed.” If memory serves the U.S began bombing Iraq the next day.

What does the cardinal sing to the other birds when we humans drop bombs?

Israel and Syria began trading missile attacks twelve minutes ago.

I will listen closely to the cardinal’s song today.

#Syria Israel peaceinourtime JonathanMilder #eulogies cardinals spring ornithology animation gouache ArtProvGallery

Planet SJ Explains Time Haven No. 1

The beheading of Tom Ashbrook continues to bother my brain. His formidable “On Point” radio show provoked many a painting of mine in this Seekonk studio - including the one featured in this post which currently hangs at ArtProvGallery.

I found long-lasting inspiration from Ashbrook’s interview with paleontologist Richard Fortey in which Fortey discussed the tricks of the trade practiced by critters which have survived the millennia.

Will Tom Ashbrook survive his lay-off? Will he modify his behavior? Or will he wash up on the beach and entertain some toddler with his shell...

Regardless I still appreciate the education he gave me. And I look forward to sharing what I learned with others - like Martha who I met at Gallery Night. A youth minister she walks her talk and we had a magnificent conversation about the nature of rules. Rules we break knowingly, lovingly, joyfully.

What rules did Tom break? What rules does the horseshoe crab never break?

For this piece of art I broke the rule of the rectangle...a “rule” parent sheets of paper had imposed on me for oh-so-long. Both my esteemed mentor artist Walter Feldman (R.I.P.) and my fellow exhibiting artist/next-door neighbor MaryJane Andreozzi encouraged me to liberate myself from the delicacy of the deckled edge...enter the scissors!

But how to present and protect an organic shape within a commercial gallery context? I did not want to revert to rectangular framing...I wanted to maintain the exciting contours...

Serendipity saved the day!

I’m grateful to artist Margaret Allen who I chanced to meet at our HeartSpot Gallery opening...who introduced me to Ari Kohorn...who introduced me to Abdullah “Bud” Saggall at Precision Laser...who engineered the cutting of this UV Plexi for me and created an anchor system for gallery wall, carefully mounted by Michele Aucoin and Nick Paciorek....

May all the endangered animals find similar protection and stewardship from humanity’s disruptive behaviors to their time havens...

#TomAsbhrook OnPoint RichardFortey Timehaven Paleontology MarthaLinehan DBT evolutionarybiology Precisionlaser #walterfeldman maryjaneandreozzi artprovgallery Indiaink scissors #AriKohorn #Nickpaciorek MicheleAucoin NRDC #preservation conservation

Planet SJ Explains Post No.??

"Is it hard to give up your babies - I mean your artworks?”

I am asked this question several time a year.

The answer is yesnoyesnoyesnoyesno.

Los Angeles’ mindful master Dana Claudat taught me the value of letting go, letting someone else enjoy something you’ve already “possessed.”

Sometimes I respect this lesson, sometimes I don’t.

Some artists hold onto prototypes, artist proofs, etc. Some increase the price to reflect the “sentimental factor. William Kentridge once advised us to keep one item from each chapter/project/idiom...

I finished “For You” the artwork pictured in this post just last month and it is certainly a first.

I debated whether to include it - shouldn’t I make iterations and pick the best?

But I did not have the time - and could not resist seeing this tiny piece next to its grandparents - much larger paintings like The Gardener and Mercy43...

I priced it at $230 - about the same as my studio rent - and, excluding all the very fairly-priced animation drawings, I daresay, one of the most affordable and joyful pieces in the show.

I’ve been deeply amused watching strangers and friends alike turn the box handle. Here I am doing the same:

https://www.facebook.com/michele.aucoinpaciorek/videos/10155662122641859/

The piece itself is composed of gifts:

1. The “Happy Birthday” music box was given to me by my dear friend Martha Manno. I held onto it for nine months, played it frequently and then set it on my office window ledge.

2. Artist-wizard Keith Belanger gave me a low-labor cost on drilling and assembling.

3. Dr. Anna Thorner gave me the panel, pre-gessoed.

4. Denny Moers gifted me the time to take the photograph of the piece...

In the interim, I would advise any SJL collector to purchase this piece, enjoy it fully for some time - and then give it to someone who could use some joy.

SJL

#happybirthday #musicbox gesso MDO Indiaink birthdaycard nib panel joy Hallmark gift letgo DanaClaudat KeithBelanger Wickenden Providence

PlanetSJ Explains Post no. 4?

I often tell my clients and students this:

You Just Never Know Where Your Art Will Go.

Films, especially, ferment in the very best ways.

“Chronicles of an Asthmatic Stripper” began, literally, as a joke between two now very dear friends - contrabassist and composer Mark Dresser and photographer Bill Jacobson, both of whom I was privileged to meet at my very first MacDowell Colony residency, circa 2000.

Since we scrambled to put this project together in six months time - for Mark’s 2002 Mark Dresser Trio tour with pianist Denman Maroney and contra-flautist Matthias Ziegler- this little film has played worldwide over the last eighteen years.

In the Bundestag. In a Chicago bar. At the Aldrich Museum of Art. In a German gallery near donkeys and organic gummy bears. And now in Providence at ArtProv Gallery for the next month...

I could write so much about this 5minute film, my first 35mm experience, my first go-around with Oxberry genius Sal Mallimo, my first time making hatch marks on a page to record the number of drawings I need to do daily to make my deadline, egged on my fellow work-a-holic Josh Marston: “30! you can do it, you can do it!”

It’s the film I made right after 9/11.

The film I made when I moved tearfully from NYC to Seattle.

It’s the film whose negative is...lost in the flames of a lab whose name I can’t believe I’m forgetting...

The letter M comes to mind.

But I’m starting to sound like a nostalgic sap.

And I haven’t even begun to ask about my friend Colette Sandstedt - she has a valentine in the sequence following the credits.

We can discuss that after you’ve seen the film...

#MacDowellColony MarkDresser BillJacobson Kodak 35mm ColetteSandstedt asthma albuterol lungs sexworker occupation animation NYC

Planet SJ Explains Post No. 3

Nor’East Beast. 12″ x 12″, Acrylic and India ink on MDO (top)

Mostly Minnesota, Slightly Seattle...and what about Seekonk?

12″ , Acrylic and India ink on cardboard (bottom)

I finished these two paintings this March, shortly after touring my former/forever homes in Seattle and Minneapolis. Pilgrimage to Mecca: Minneapolis Institute of Art to view my favorite George Morrison assemblage and also - the surprise of a Myron Kunin portrait collection on display. Photographs not allowed of this very haunting collection....

Posting these two images in honor of my parents who called to tell me Minnesota was about to receive 12-18 inches of snow. Here is MA, even with daffodils emerging, feels like we’re still recovering from the various blizzards. Rick and I visited our tree friends in the woods yesterday and so many were uprooted, shredded, destroyed...

#GeorgeMorrison salvage forest lakes blizzard Minnesota Seattle #Kunin MIA

Planet SJ Explains: Post no. 2

“The Synagogue”

Presented here: a slightly larger gouache painting from the animation “Chronicles of a Professional Eulogist” whose genesis seeds itself in Chicago’s South Side. Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf gave me an interview in such a synagogue which, he boasted, situated itself right across from Chez Obama. Did the synagogue actually look like this?

Who remembers.

But Rabbi Wolf was unforgettable - and his persona became a cornerstone as I constructed the conceit of “the professional eulogist.” The joy I feel when seeing this image most likely reflects back the ebullience AJWolf emanated.

I’m proud to say his family played my film at Wolf’s bar mitzvah, which, btw, did not occur until he he was 83....

When I met Wolf we were on the verge of war - I cannot imagine how he would experience today’s political landscape. I would say “May he rest in peace,” but I’m quite sure he’s raising joyful hell wherever he is the universe...

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