EMC updates

After twenty nine years, Elizabeth and I made it official yesterday.  We are now married in NYS.  Of course, we have thought of ourselves as married for many, many years.  But yesterday was incredibly special all the same.  Thanks to my Mom, Evelyn, for catering the food AND for her love and support all these years.  Thanks to the readers – my sisters Georgia and Tricia, my brother Chris, and Elizabeth’s nephew Fred.  You all read with such emotion and love, adding to our special day.  Thanks to Bill for taking such lovely photos and putting together the music.  Thanks to Diane and Sara for cueing the songs, and to Elaine and Howard for helping set up in the morning and to Mary C. & Tricia for the delicious desserts.  Thanks to Fred and Barbara Schneider for sending the beautiful roses.  Thanks to Paige, Sarah and Scott for greeting people and handing out programs.  And, many thanks to Edie Reagan for helping us to put together our own special ceremony.

I know I’ve probably left some people out, but I trust they know it is not intentional.  I am truly overwhelmed by it all.  Twenty nine years ago, when Elizabeth and I shared our first dance in a little neighborhood bar called Ariel’s, who knew that our world could change so much?

I feel so blessed today knowing that we have the love of our family and friends.  What more can I say?  The pictures tell it all.

See more pictures on our Facebook album.

I’m back after taking three weeks off in August.  Somehow I could not find the energy to write.  But now I’ve returned.  Did you miss me?

Diverse Pair II, grapevine, found wood, stone, 28 x 22 x 8 inches

A few weeks before the artists’ market, we had a visit from our dear friends Elaine & Howard.  While they were here, I showed Elaine the sculptures   I was working on, and in the process I saw this piece of grapevine sitting in the corner.  I had previously cleaned it up, stripped the bark and cut it so it would stand on its own.  But I could not find other objects with which it worked.  I pulled it out and said to Elaine “This is so powerful – maybe I should just mount it on a stone and show it alone.”  She agreed it had a great presence, but suggested I pair it with something smooth and quiet.  I looked in my stash of furniture parts and out came this table leg.  We agreed it was a good combo.

In the next few days I brought the “pair” out to the shop.  I have pieces of soapstone left from this big old slop sink I removed from the basement of an INHS client a couple of years ago.  One long piece worked well with my new couple.  I tweaked the placement a bit to find the spot where the two pieces curved together nicely and the energy between them was just right.  Strip the old finish from the table leg.  Drill a few holes in the stone for mounting.  Oil the wood and wax the stone and it was done!

This piece is currently on display at State of the Art Gallery.  You can see it along with two other grapevine “couples” through October 2^nd.

Glass Tower Reclaimed, 1995, 21 x 7 x 7 inches

Yesterday I was doing my morning exercise (and thinking about what I should write this week) when I saw this piece right in front of me.  (Sorry the images are not so great.  I scanned the old slide myself, so not the best quality.)  It’s a piece that’s been around a while.  When I made it I don’t think I was seeing the two branches as a couple.  But sixteen years later, in the context of all the couples I’ve produced these recent years, it seems obvious.

In my very early work I was always exploring the difficulties with emotional connection.  First I made sculptures where the main element would be surrounded by layers and grids to the point you could hardly see what was in the center.  Then I began using photography, but I would cover the image with wire glass and frosted paper and fencing, all in the same piece.  I realized later the symbolism here – I was expressing my own inability to connect with people.  Later still I began the bridge series.  But they were fragments of bridges that never completed their journey to the other side, again representing my own emotional struggles.

So yesterday as I looked at this old piece, it made me smile to think of how much all that has changed.  You see this couple has a barrier between them – the glass.  They are connected at the base, and they can see each other to some degree through the frosted glass, but the barrier is clearly there.  But now my couples are engaged!  They dance together.  They flirt with one another.  When I make them I look for the energy between the elements and I celebrate when I find it.  It took a lot of work to get to this much better place in my life, so it’s good to recognize it in the artwork.

oak, branches, frosted and ribbed glass

This piece is not for sale.  My partner, Elizabeth, fell in love with it when I first made it so I gave it to her as a gift.

Last Monday I missed my blog posting.  I chose not to take the time to write because I was busy getting things ready for the Ithaca Artists’ Market held this past Friday.  I only do these one day or weekend shows occasionally, but each time I am left with great respect for artists who do them all the time.   It’s a huge amount of work, the days are very long and you really have no clue how much money you’ll make in the end.  Who will show up?  What will the weather be like?  One big sale could make it all worth while.  Or a bunch of small sales can add up to a good day.  Then again, you might sell next to nothing, but make some good connections that lead to another show or sale down the road.

Unfortunately, I got no immediate gratification at this sale.  Traffic seemed much lighter than last year, when I attended not as an exhibitor but rather as a visitor.  It was a hot, humid day with a threat of thunderstorms all afternoon.  (They never happened, but I suspect the threat kept many people at home.)  Add to that the air of financial uncertainty generated by the ongoing debt ceiling crisis and you get an atmosphere where not many people are willing to spend money on art!  I did not get a chance to speak to many of the other artists, but the ones I did talk to all said it was pretty slow.

Now it is Sunday evening.  I’ve had some time to rest and recover from the long days and the hard work.  Tonight what I remember is the question I got from several visitors regarding the marriage equality pieces:  “Did you do one about NYS yet?”  I have used quotes and incorporated issues from the struggle along the way.  But tonight I am starting a new piece to celebrate the victory of June 24^th, 2011.  Stay tuned….

"Alabama -- 2004/2006" (detail)

I began doing cross stitch as a hobby almost twenty years ago.  My friend Bill was (and still is) an avid stitcher.  I’d watch him working on projects when we got together to watch a video or some TV show that we all liked. The stitching looked like fun.  It reminded me of paint by number, something I loved as a teenager.  So I started doing projects myself, along with my partner.  First it was stamped cross stitch kits.  We’d stitch baby blankets as gifts for newly born nieces, nephews and friends’ children.  Then I got more adventurous with counted cross stitch.  It kept my hands busy while I watched TV in the evenings.  I use TV for down time at night, but I often feel guilty about so much wasted time. (Once a Catholic….)  So stitching left me feeling better about so much time sitting on the couch in the evenings.

"Leading the Way", 2009 (detail)

Fast forward to the marriage equality series I began in 2004.  The text in the first pieces was printed, and that was OK.  But one day I got the idea to stitch the text.  And more than just text, I began to think of samplers.  My idea was to make things that were pretty and folksy and might entice people to read them.  Maybe I could even get some more conservative people to consider the ideas I was exploring.

"A Concise History of Marriage Equality in the U.S.", 2009 (detail)

Wanting to include images as well as text, I thought of state birds and flowers.  I turned to Bill again who had a whole series of designs for these.  The result was a number of pieces included in my last solo show (“What Makes a Marriage” at State of the Art Gallery in Ithaca). During the show a few people suggested that I approach the Cornell Lab of Ornithology about having a show of these pieces in their gallery.  A nice idea, but I wasn’t sure I could produce enough work to fill the whole space.  But it got me thinking and now I’m organizing a juried show for the gallery titled “Birds in Stitches” .  The criteria are that works entered must use some fiber medium and include some kind of bird image or theme.  I’ve been advertising the show far and wide via the internet and Facebook.  If you know anyone who is interested, please pass the word.  The deadline for entries is August 19,2011

grape vines, stone, 18 x 20 x 13 inches

I wrote a few months ago about receiving a gift of grape vine roots from a friend who used to work at King Ferry Winery.  (See post from December 13, 2010.) This is another piece made from those vines.

I love both rocks and trees.  Just a few days ago I spent some time with my brother Chris and his family.  My sister-in-law joked how the first time they came to our house in Ithaca she knew it was my place when she saw the bolder retaining wall in the back yard.  Apparently my brother ALSO loves rocks!  Sometimes when driving along a highway I am fascinated by trees along the road.  It’s incredible how they grow in every possible crevice — sometimes out of sheer bedrock!

On one of those drives I thought I’d try to include such images in my sculpture.  So back in the studio, I tried mounting branches between rocks, but I could not make it work.  Instead, I just began mounting the branches or roots on stone bases.  These lead into the “couples” series that I am still exploring.  Sometimes (as in this piece) the two elements that comprise the couple are much alike.  But often one is a natural element and the other a machined one, like a found table leg or spindle.  However they come out, I am continually grateful to John for inviting me to the winery that day.  I still have a barrel full of grape vine pieces.  Each has a unique shape and character and piece by piece they find their way into new sculptures.  Just like the trees growing out of rock, it’s another version of life’s longing for itself.

Upper Taughannock Falls Gorge

Some weeks I just can’t meet the Monday deadline.  But this week it was for a good reason – I was too busy enjoying a visit from our dear friends Elaine and Howard.  Our friendship began when Elaine and I shared a hotel room in Cincinnati while attending a National Sculpture Conference focused on women artists.  It was in May of 1987, and Elaine and I discovered so many commonalities in our lives and our work that by the end of the weekend we were fast friends.  Imagine our delight when we found that our partners also enjoyed each other’s company!  Since moving to Ithaca we see them less often, but whenever we visit it’s completely comfortable — like we’d just been together yesterday.

Fall Creek

Elaine is a sculptor (click here for her website) and Howard is a photographer (click here for his).  Ithaca is filled with the kind of natural beauty that has influenced all of our artwork.  The weather was completely cooperative this weekend and we visited a couple of places I’d never been before.  It’s funny how it takes out of town visitors to get me out into the gorges.  Sunday we went up to the trail head above Taughannock Falls and Monday we hiked along Fall Creek near Risley Hall at Cornell.  I took too many photos (the problem with digital cameras), including the few shown here.  I also brought home a couple of treasures for possible new sculptures.

Grass through rock, Fall Creek

I took this photo because the grass growing out of the rock crevices so reminded me of the work Elaine was doing when we first met.  As always, we spent time discussing our current projects and critiquing each other’s work.  I treasure their opinions and their honest feedback.  At one point Elaine was fretting about returning to a previous theme in her sculpture.  Her fear was that she’d be repeating herself.  I told her my opinion is that an artist’s path is neither linear nor circular.  Rather, we travel in a spiral.  In this way, we revisit our core issues again and again, but each time we have moved to a new plane.  The images we explore may be similar, but since we have changed, the resulting artwork also changes.

Elizabeth and Howard

"Loving" (detail) Well, at least NYS is no longer against us!

I’m writing this on Sunday morning from NYC, though by the time I post I’ll be back home again. Today we’ll be at the Gay Pride March for the first time in years. What luck to be here on this historic weekend! 

It’s really quite amazing that so much has changed for gay people in America in such a short span of time. It has only been forty two years since the Stonewall riots kicked off the modern struggle for gay and lesbian civil rights. At that time our lifestyle was considered not only immoral. It was illegal. The gay bars were routinely raided and people were thrown in jail just for being themselves.

I came out in 1977. At the time, it was still a pretty scary thing to do. I was at first terrified even to express my feelings to the woman friend to whom I was attracted. I was sure she would reject me and I would lose her friendship forever. We had met in college and become became very close in the last year of a school. Later, after we’d acknowledged our feelings, we came out to our other college friends. Imagine my surprise when they all looked at us and
said “It’s about time!” It took many more years and similar experiences for me to realIze that the people who love me care only that I am happy. The more comfortable I became with myself as a lesbian woman, the more accepting everyone else became.

Gay Pride began in NYC as a remembrance of the Stonewall Riots. Today at Gay Pride we will all be celebrating another victory — marriage equality in NYS! Thanks to all my friends and family for supporting me in this cause. It’s been a long struggle and it won’t be over until we win on the federal level. But it could only have happened with the efforts of ALL of us combined! Today, we celebrate!

As of this morning the NYS Senate has still not voted on the bill to legalize same sex marriage.  The e-mails asking me to call my senator have slowed down.  (Last week I called twice and wrote several times, although my own senator has come out against the bill.)  Will I be able to marry my life partner soon?

When it happens (and I know it is just a matter of WHEN, not IF), it won’t significantly change my life.  For that to happen, the Federal Government will have to repeal DoMA (the Defense of Marriage Act).  Once that happens, then I will be treated as a free and equal citizen of these United States of America.

Meanwhile, I continue making new art pieces, both about marriage equality and about relationships in general.  I have a new piece at State of the Art Gallery (through June 26^th).  And I am organizing a juried show titled “Birds in Stitches”.

Next Sunday is the annual NYC Gay Pride March.  If the bill passes, it will be quite a party!

Found wood & cross stitch, 33 x 19 x 2 inches

Basics, 2006 -- mixed media, 15 x 25.5 x 3.75 inches

This is one of the early marriage equality pieces, when I was printing rather than stitching the text.  I think both the form and the content present a simple and elegant design.

There are quotes on both sides of the work.  One side comes directly from the U.S. Constitution.  The other references two court opinions:   the Loving v. Virginia case (U.S. Supreme Court, 1967) when interracial marriage was made legal in ALL fifty states; and the NYS Supreme Court Case that failed to legalize gay marriage in 2006.

Basics, 2006 (detail)

I called the piece “Basics” because these quotes go to the core of the issue.  The constitution says that no state can deprive me of my liberty without due process AND that the law must be applied to all persons equally.  Yet my own state continues to deny me the freedom to marry the person whom I love.

I recognize that many Americans are opposed to gay marriage for religious reasons.  I respect their rights to their own beliefs.  Our constitution is fundamentally committed to freedom of religion.  But interracial marriage was also opposed on religious grounds for centuries.  Many of our religious and political leaders predicted doom and disaster if whites and blacks were allowed to marry.  Yet only forty four years after Loving v. Virginia, how many people believe that today?

In New York State, the majority of judges said “let the legislature decide”.  The State Senate says the people are still opposed to the issue, despite polls that show public opinion shifting steadily in favor of gay marriage.  My own state senator says he believes in equal rights for gay couples – but his constituents are opposed to “marriage” for gays, so he’s OK if we could pass some kind of separate but equal rules.  It didn’t work for African Americans in the south and it doesn’t work for me today.

Basics, 2006 (detail)

I say the NYS Senate should LEAD on this issue.  Do the right thing and pass a bill legalizing gay marriage NOW.  There are currently eight State Senators who are undecided on the issue.  Is yours one of them?  If so, please call or write them today!