How not to sew paper

The paper archives of a large regional power company are now recycled into quilts. They let me do this for a living!! What luck!

Benjie dominates the grid.

Mercy Hospital commission

This project, called "Commitment", involved the entire staff of Mercy Hospital in Charlotte,
NC. They were invited participate in the development of this artwork to help focus on their transition to a more patient-centered model. It took nearly a year to complete. We gathered volunteers, paired them and asked them questions, and then during a gluey workshop, used the handwritten answers for the background pages. Additional participation yielded hundreds of beads made from strips of discarded medical packaging, each holding a written commitment relating to the specific personal change the new programs would require.

These individual transformations, guided by a national program called the Planetree Initiative, will collectively raise the level and style of patient care. The employees and patients will be reminded of their personal commitments as they wait for the elevator. I can think of few more exciting objectives in the making of art.

Boo Gilder, the current resident at the Rensing Center, was a priceless help in making this work, as were Kay Reardon and Doni Jordan. I am blessed by such skilled friends.

The art for this wonderful re-creation of Mercy was coordinated by Hodges Taylor Gallery in Charlotte.

Mercy Hospital

I led a workshop this week at Mercy Hospital in Charlotte, for a great and receptive bunch of folks in scrubs. They had volunteered to participate in an exercise that asked them to change perspective. The pages and beads they produced will become part of a hanging for the elevator lobby.

The Planetree Initiative is a national program designed to reframe medical delivery toward more patient-centered care. Art (guess what!) can be a vial part of this effort! Kay Reardon was a priceless right arm, and bailed me out when I dumped the prepared glue down my front on the way into the hospital.

Bounty

 

Jamie came in with two harvests yesterday. The rain lately has yielded this amazing crop of chanterelles! And there are a few potatoes the voles didn't eat...We are blessed with abundance.

Join Me in Orvieto

I will be teaching this fall in Orvieto, Italy, and I hope you will join me! Here are a few reasons that might entice you...

10 Reasons (or more) to travel with

Adventures in Italy

1. Kristi and Bill Steiner are your hosts, with vast knowledge and experience in Italy and Orvieto. They’ve been traveling to Italy for 17 years and to Orvieto for 7. Through the years, they've built friendships and relationships that allow then to share experiences most travelers never get.

2. A journey of discovery: You spend a week in beautiful Orvieto in what is called “slow travel”. By staying in one place, you sink into the daily rhythm of Italy, discovering the passion of Italian living. Linger over a morning's cappuccino, wander through tiny ancient alleyways, savor long delicious meals created from the freshest local ingredients. Discover insights into artful living and within yourself.

3. A learning vacation: Learn a new skill or deepen an existing one as you share the week collecting objects and making books with me. Use the colors and textures, the history and architecture of Italy to inspire your creativity as you capture priceless memories of your week.

4. Food, wine and fun! Italy is synonymous with excellent food and wine and you'll experience them non-stop in Orvieto.

5. The nuances of olive oil: Begin with a fascinating look at olive oil as you sample local selections in an afternoon of olive oil tasting. An official olive oil taster will show you how a true tasting is done.

6. A most fabulous cooking class: Make pasta from scratch with a world renowned chef as he shows you his trade secrets. Then sit with friends as your pasta dish and many others are served, accompanied by local wines. This is so much fun!

7. Explore a vineyard and taste local wines: Spend an afternoon at the exquisite Palazzone where Giovanni shares his passion for creating excellent wines. The site is beautiful, with views back to Orvieto. The original house dates to 1300 and is now a locanda (B&B.) Giovanni will introduce you to several of his wines and help you understand what it means to make wine in Italy. He loves answering your questions. You will not forget this day!

8. Shop with the locals on Market Day: The weekly market is essential to life in Orvieto. Join locals as you shop for produce picked hours before, just a few kilometers away. Here you have the chance to see Italians up close as they warmly greet each other, boisterously argue with vendors, and lovingly select seasonal flowers to adorn a table at home.

9. Retreat and renew in your restful convent B&B: San Lodovico, the convent B&B, where you stay provides, in many ways, the anchor for your visit. It is a retreat, a quiet, peaceful place, a calm presence as you go about your week. There are places to look out over the countryside, places to sit and think, places to enjoy the sun’s warmth, a garden to wander through, grand spaces to marvel at, flowers to enjoy. The sisters are there to support us, they provide our breakfast, and they almost always give us some treat from their own hands: limoncello, tiramisu, pana cotta. Folks never want to leave this beautiful “home”.

10. Personal Attention: You deserve and expect it. Kristi and Bill Steiner are committed to making your week in Italy everything you are dreaming of and more.

• They offer detailed travel information and are available to advise you on every aspect of your trip.
• They provide guidance on plane tickets, itineraries and travel beyond your week in Orvieto.
• They are your travel partners to help in every travel detail.
• Once in Italy, Kristi and Bill ensure you have everything you need for a comfortable stay. They’ll accompanying you on all cultural events and guiding you aroundtown. Former travelers rave about the devoted attention they received.

11. An Adventure of a lifetime! Travel is enthralling and enriching. Exploring a new country with its fabulous food and wine, its warm hearted people, its ancient history and its breathtaking landscape energizes and enlivens. It is like being 10 years old again, exploring, discovering, and seeing the world with eyes wide open.

12. Because life is full of beauty, inspiration, joy and hope, yet we see it too little. Because you deserve to experience life's fullness and Orvieto helps you to do so! Isn't it time you had a grand adventure? I would love to have you join us!

701 Center for Contemporary Art

I'm settled into this magical building, which is renovated to the most elegant state. I live here alone, though it is often packed with people in the daytime. The place was the community center for the Olympia Mill village, and plenty of folks remember when they swam in the pool here, or got their first haircut. Neglected, it was condemned a while back, and the roof fell in. Some visionaries put it back, kept the spirit, preserved the astounding texture of the walls, and lovingly funded a gallery, and a gorgeous live/ work space where for this brief moment I get to live, and work, and share soup with multitudes. I'll make an installation honoring this place and its memories that will open February 5, and will close with original music and choreography around April 5. Stay tuned.

http://www.701cca.org/