It's been a year or more since I've written on this blog - so I've updated my website and will update my blog for the New Year as well.   2017 was a tumultuous and dynamic year with lots of challenges and lots of achievements.   I'm hoping 2018 will be as productive and rewarding.

In 2017 I made more art between July and October than I have in the past ten years.  I launched my exhibit WOVEN at the Upstream Gallery in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY on October 1, featuring objects woven from recycled materials, painting that combined weaving as an element, and several woven and kinetic sculptures.

Early in the year I also embarked on a new course of training in Somatic Experiencing, which is a body based form of trauma treatment.  This has been nothing short of transformative in terms of my own physical and mental well-being, as well as my approach to practice with my own clients.  I'm now in my Intermediate level year and can't wait to learn and experience more.   

On the theme of training I also spent a transformative ten days up at Haystack Mountain School of Craft on Deer Isle, Maine in June.  I can only say this place is magic.  From the food to the magnificent 200 foot staircase from the school down to Penobscot Bay. There I took a fibers class from master weaver Marianne Fairbanks from the University of Wisconsin.  In those 10 days I learned to spin and felt wool, crochet, make and splice rope, make a net, create a loom, thread and work a complex floor treadle loom, make baskets and a simple kite.   Are you exhausted reading that list?  Well I didn't sleep for the entire first week.   

What I learned there had everything to do with the production of art work over the summer.  

I haven't even touched upon the political stuff.   I've been phone banking, canvasing, letter writing and marching with my fellow citizens in the defense of our democracy and I have to say its invigorating.  2018 will prove to be even more challenging and I'll be working hard on the November midterm elections.

One of my proudest achievements this past year was a gratitude practice in the form of a blog I started on Martin Luther King Day 2017.  This was five days before the inauguration of our current president, at a time when many were anxious and fearful and the government was in turmoil.  There was so much negative speech in the media and the news that I felt the need for myself to find more positivity.  One Good Thing Daily or OGT DAILY was the result of a walk in the snow which cleared my head and had me appreciating the beauty of the world around me.   It occurred to me everyone could use a dose of that and I committed to writing about One Good Thing each day for the 365 days of that year.  I have just completed that year and I can say gratitude practice has made my life much better.  That is not to say it was all happiness and roses, but on the days where things seemed bleak, when another disgusting tweet had gone out or another outrage had been revealed about abuse of power, looking for the positive had its soothing effects.

OGT DAILY can be found on Blogspot here is the link:​http://ogtdaily.blogspot.com/2018/01/ogt-daily-day-three-hundred-and-sixty_66.html

I want to end this blog post by inviting you to attend one of my new workshops in the spring or fall - art journaling, weaving and fiber works, drawing and painting, and mandala and energy work.
See Schedules and Special Workshops for details.

Blessings...

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As we enter a new year and perhaps new era of great unknowns ahead, I become more and more convinced of the importance or art in not just my life but the world in general.   We can't know what the new administration will do after Jan 20th, but we have a pretty good idea and it could mean drastic change in our civil lives, our health, and our sense of well being.    All throughout the Christmas season I have heard others at parties and online speak about the need to become involved and less complacent.  I've taken up the call and joined an activist group.   I will be marching to fight for my civil liberties, but I've also heard artists speak of their duty to produce works that respond to the racism, hatred, bullying and threat to basic civility that this election has promoted.   This was particularly from the acting community, while one young art dealer I spoke with said he felt despondent that "no good art can come out of this.  It will all reactionary."    

I could not disagree more.   My visceral response (beyond becoming more politically active) has been to dive back into the studio.   To work in any medium of art be it poetry, painting or drama is to essentially to encounter the unknown and wrestle meaning to light.   When I face chaos, tragedy and fear in my life I will use the studio as a place to organize and create a path forward.   This is why I believe in the power of art as therapy.  I know that it works.   

The current show at the MOMA on the Russian Avant Garde art movement speaks to the power of change - revolution reflected and exacted through art.    It is both exhilarating and chilling to see as the likes of Rodchenko, Lissistky and Eisenstein rejecting imperialist styles of art in favor of a new abstraction without formal constraints that could represent the will of the common man.   There is so much freedom to these images speaking to a new spiritualism after the oppression of centuries of Czarist regimes.   The cautionary tale is how they then became enlisted as brutalist motif for a most brutal form of totalitarianism under Stalin.

For good or evil, art is more than just a mirror of the times.   Artists must imagine new forms of seeing.   With politicians and journalists using language like "we must draw out the possibilities" whether about health care or relations in the Middle East, this is no less a time for artists to be active and imagining the way forward; the way to wrestle meaning from the complex unknown of our world.  

 

January 14, 2017 10:30 am to 1:30 pm - Learn a basic breath based mindfulness meditation and two visual meditations, which can help you or your clients achieve a calm, receptive state which can promote creativity as well as coping skills and stress reduction.

$60.00 - Limited Seating - reserve before January 1, 2017.

Noe Kidder, filmmaker and Mia de Bethune will exhibit together in this group show from Dec 1 to Jan 1 in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, in anticipation of their collaborative installation "The Dark Door" in 2017.

The Upstream Gallery, 8 Main Street, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706  914-674-8548
Conversations - Group Show
Hours 12:30 to 5:30 Thursday to Sunday
Opening December 4, 2016 from 5 to 7 pm

November 13 in New York City - Nelly Edmondson and Mia de Bethune, two members of the Kobbe Project team, worked with a group of 15 creative arts therapist to explore narrative threads, try easy, affordable methods of weaving with recycled materials and build a communal web.   

Doll Making was the project today and there were five of us around the table busily stitching, stuffing and creating soft dolls and other creatures with playful intent.

Participants were asked to bring in a picture, memory or actual doll from their childhood.  Lively conversation ensued about Madame Alexander dolls, Swiss Sasha Dolls, Trolls, Barbies, Raggedy Ann, Tiny Tears and Tommy from the Rugrats.  We talked about the role dolls played as transitional objects or comfort objects for kids in all circumstances, but especially in the event of a death in the family, divorce or other disruptions in childhood.   Dolls were recognized to be important to identification in childhood and for practicing behaviors and working out problems through play.  

The goal of the workshop was to learn several simple doll making techniques that did not require expensive or extensive materials and could be made easily with a child in one or two therapy sessions.

Tongue depressor puppets, pipe cleaner dolls, yarn wrapped "worry" dolls, felt dolls, sock dolls and dolls made from old nylons were on the agenda.

The simple acts of repetitive stitching a felt doll or stuffing its body or winding yarn to make a "worry" doll can be biorhythmic and soothing activities for children or adults.   This is not even considering the great value as a comfort object to a child when they go to sleep or are distressed and need a reminder of safety.

Pinterest has many good demonstrations for making soft dolls, but I recommend buying some felt, polyester batting, a few buttons and some thread and trying for yourself.  Cut out a large 8.5 X 11 size gingerbread shape from paper and use that as your template.   The other way to go is to buy brightly colored socks, toe socks and stockings at the dollar store and see what you create from these using buttons and beads for eyes.

Here are our creations:

It's been a long and busy summer.  I've been busy writing and weaving at an artists' residency in Catskill, NY - the Catwalk Institute.    This silver curtain is made of deer fencing and recycled plastics.

We have an exciting line up of workshops for the fall - come and try one out or sign up for a series.
The following are art journaling offerings.  We have raised the price to $40 at the door, but you can still attend for $30 if you sign up for a series of four or your choice.

Playing the Cards You Are Dealt
Sunday, Oct 19, 2014
1:30-3:30

Life gives us all different challenges and opportunities.   Do we accept them?   Do we compromise?    How do we manage?    A chance to explore through writing and art making as we move into the challenges of Fall.


$40 including supplies - or $120 for a series of 4
Please specify which session.
 
As of April 1 we have raised the price to $40 at the door.  Buying a series is still $30.

Coming up!
Conjuring Creation
Sunday, Nov 16, 2014
1:30-3:30


When are you at your most creative? We will look at ways to spark and conjure creative moments.




Then we will be making dolls in early October.  Come join us!

Simple Doll-making
Sat October 4, 2014
2:30 am to 5:30 pm

For mental health practitioners - or anyone else!
Learn to make simple soft dolls with your clients and 
explore the beneficial use of dolls in therapy.

$60

As always there is our peer supervision group:

Art Therapist's Peer Supervision Group
On Monday per month from 7 pm  to 8:30 pm

Next group Oct 6, 2014


RSVP to mdebethune@gmail.com