(If we live with an open and grateful attitude, every
day will bring a gift. This is one of 365 gifts during the year I turned 70.)
Artist: Sharon Zarambo
I
was on my way out the front door this afternoon when I noticed a package
sitting outside—one addressed to David and me. Neither of us had ordered
anything. Immediately I turned around and went back into the house, carrying
the package. It wasn’t heavy and we were oh so curious. It felt like Christmas.
The
outside of the box was unusual and inviting. It was a typical brown shipping
box but with a special touch—a colorful smiling image in the lower left corner
and stamp-like stickers in two other places. In the lower right corner, was a
picture of a forest with a quotation by J. Sterling Morton, “Plant trees.” In
the upper left corner was another forest image with a quotation by Ralph Waldo
Emerson, “The wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more.”
Across the middle and winding downward was a cutout picture of a snake. I hated
to do it, but in order to open the package, I had to cut the snake.
Inside
the layers of packing were two original pieces of art from Sharon Zarambo—two
smiles. The smaller piece looked like a toothed jawbone and the larger one was
a beaded whimsical face with “smile” spelled out in Scrabble letters. It is
really impossible not to smile when I look at this. It will be a constant smile
that will hang in our house. With the challenges David and I face now, Sharon’s
timing is perfect. We are blessed with caring friends, especially one who sends
contagious smiles born from such a creative spirit.
My
gift today is a smile.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sharon Zarambo, artist. This includes the piece that was detached during transit.
(This is part of a 365 project
during my 70th years where I write and illustrate a blog on each
day’s gift.)
Artist Sharon Zarambo in her studio with totems on either side.
Today when I walked into Sharon Zarambo’s Bellozar
Studio in rural Etlan, Virginia, I experienced a vibrancy of spirit and color. This artist
creates jackets, bags, pillows, dolls and wall art. But the most striking pieces
are her totems.
Totems traditionally represent an idea, spirit beings and
symbols for groups such as a family or a tribe. Sharon’s totems, with names such
as “Nothing is Revealed” and “Diversions Ahead,” call out to the human tribe. The ideas that her totems
represent vary, as do the visceral narratives of space,
texture, color and myths, depending on the individual filters of those
who see her art.
I am particularly drawn to the paradox of how her
art fluctuates between balance and imbalance within an individual piece--the
balance as an initial response and then imbalance as I study the narrative.
Visually I am drawn to the small objects that frame one totem—buttons, beads,
stones, Scrabble tiles, shells and other found objects. There is a sense of
thoughtful balance in their arrangement but then I am thrown off balance when I
look closely at some tiny shells with “eyes” and “mouths” that communicate
subtle expression changes. In much of her work, mouths and eyes pull me in,
some looking back at me and some looking askew.The objects and words within the frame make me pause: “POLITE NOTICE NO
PARKING,” “destination,” “ADMIT ONE,” and “Ask.” The longer I look, the more I understand that the experience is a
meditation.
I could have spent many hours meditating on each
piece.
When you see Loring Cornish’s art, you can’t help but become a part of it. Stand outside his glass house studios on Parkwood Avenueand and you’ll understand why. Yes, it’s a glass house but you don’t see through. Both you and your surroundings will be reflected in hundreds of mirrored mosaic pieces. His work captures both imagination and reflection of a different sort.
My husband and I first met Loring when he exhibited at the AVAM, the American Visionary Art Museum. He is not a trained artist but a visionary. He says in his artist statement: “I’m not a trained artist; they call me a visionary, an ‘outsider’ artist. My work comes out of my relationship with God. While I worship, I create, and while I create, I worship God.”
I’m somewhat at a loss to describe the reflection that Loring Cornish’s work instills in me because I feel it won’t do his work justice. You can read more and see photos at the following sites but the best thing is to see his work in person.
Today online, I stumbled on a conversation portrait artist.
No, that’s not a typo. Flash Rosenberg is an artist-in-Residence at the New York Public Library who draws in real time and shapes conversations and interviews into a visual connection.
She says that she gives “visual, unifying fluency to conversations that are otherwise too complex and fragmented in today’s digital world to be universally understood.” She’s all about communication but in a creative way. Her drawings are filmed with voices of the conversations or interviews in the background.
“Our conversations in society are changing so much, too, because of email and Twitter and the Internet. When we talk and when we don’t talk, when we understand what somebody else is saying and when we don’t —these kinds of disconnects are all so common now,” she says.
Rosenberg’s art results in a unique and delightful connection. See for yourself her production, “Who is Mark Twain?” And after that, click on the link to her “Tribute to George Carlin.” You’ll love it!
Can love change the world? Most people might say yes. But can art change the world? And can a graphic painting with a love message on walls change the world? Michael Owen and Scott Burkholder believe it can...at least in a small way.
It’s a simple concept.
Artist Michael Owen has designed a graphic of hands spelling out the word “love.” The plan is to paint this on walls in communities around Baltimore City and to connect people through these love-themed murals.
The design is already in two places: Mount Washington Arboretum and Carroll Park/ Gwynns Falls Trail. The project needs funding for 18 more love murals in Baltimore that will be identical but range in size depending on the space.
The Love People
I originally met Scott Burkholder at Watermark Gallery and learned that he is working with Michael on networking and fund raising for the Baltimore Love Project. In an age of youthful cynicism, I was fascinated by their idealism.
The two men originally connected through painting of a different kind. After graduating from MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art), Michael worked for Scott in his interior painting business. Besides making money painting walls of houses, schools and businesses—in solid colors—Michael hoped he would gain some mural clients. However, it proved useful in another way. “My biggest gain was learning how to most efficiently cover a large wall. It was like my Jedi training,” says Owen. You can see some of Michael’s murals at his web site.
The friends kept in touch and later, when Michael told Scott about his vision of the Baltimore Love Project, Scott became involved from a business angle.
Scott says, “The Baltimore Love Project was the perfect opportunity for us to unite, Michael in a creative role and me in a business role. Our skill sets and personalities match well. Because we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, we are able to execute quite proficiently.”
Why?
It’s not making them money so why are they doing it?
For Scott, it’s about relationships. “I am involved with this project because relationships are something that I value highly, and love is critical to successfully experience relationships. I am involved because we don’t necessary want to change the world, only to inspire it in small ways."
It’s also about using his business skills. “The project brings me joy as it fulfills my desire to use my skills in a significant and meaningful way. Over time I have realized that I enjoy entrepreneurship and business. I like analysis, I like strategic development, I like to build relationships and I like innovation. This project allows me to do all that, and all for a good cause—promoting love through art.”
Michael admits that he had “no divine moment I recall where the image from The Baltimore Love Project came to me.” He wanted to incorporate his more personal studio themes into public murals. “Then I began to see the possible repercussions this project might have on others. What if some guy saw a love wall on the way home from work? What if he smiled a bit and decided to pick up some flowers for his girlfriend? What if a mom saw one when pushing her kid home in a stroller? What if she didn't hit the child for that one night? These are small acts of love that can be inspired by these murals. Last week the project flashed through my mind when arguing with my own wife. I can't say it resolved the issue, but I did feel more compassion for her. To me, these incidents of love mark the success of the Baltimore Love Project.”
Neither of the friends is native to Baltimore, but they both want to create something positive in the city that they’ve grown to like. Scott came to Baltimore as an engineering student at the Johns Hopkins University in 1998 and when he graduated, he remained in Baltimore as a lab technician at Hopkins. Recognizing the lack of relationships in science, he started a painting business as a transition to whatever lies in his future role of promoting art. He likes the people and diversity in Baltimore and sees it as a place to discover and get to know many more people. “I have only begun my Baltimore adventure,” he says.
Michael, too, came to Baltimore as a student-- at MICA in 2000. At first he didn’t like the area and felt disconnected but an assignment in one of his classes drew him out to other areas and he began to see the city in a new way. Michael explains, “Marcel Proust said that ‘the real voyage of discovery is not in seeing new landscapes, but in seeing with new eyes’. Baltimore is not palm trees and dolphins kissing as they jump toward the sunset, [Michael is from Orlando] but I latched onto a brokenness in the city that resounded in myself and from there into my art. Peel back the makeup and ego, it is in us all.”
Edward Steichen's curated exhibit and book, The Family of Man, made me change forever how I looked at our world and the people in it.
Simon Schama, author and speaker, says, “The power of the greatest art is the power to shake us into revelation and rip us from our default mode of seeing. After an encounter with that force, we don't look at a face, a color, a sky, a body, in quite the same way again. We get fitted with new sight: in-sight. Visions of beauty or a rush of intense pleasure are part of that process, but so too may be shock, pain, desire, pity, even revulsion. That kind of art seems to have rewired our senses. We apprehend the world differently.”
Remember the iconic newspaper photograph that Nick Ut (AP) took in 1972 of Phan Thị Kim Phúc at age nine running naked through the streets after being severely burned by a napalm attack? Or the photo taken by Eddie Adams (AP) in 1968 of General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executing a Viet Cong soldier? These two photos would become become two of the most famous images in journalism that would change the American public's views on the Vietnam War. Images can change the world.
There are other projects going on that seek to connect people through public art. One is the Dialogue Project which brings to cities installations consisting of ten, 7x8-foot free-standing screens covered with thousands of inspiring and insightful quotations from people throughout history.
Again, the question, can art change the world or change a community? Does public art have power? Can two young men with a vision make a difference? If you believe in possibilities and would like to help, you can purchase a T-shirt with the love logo. Proceeds will go to help the project.
The strange power of art is sometimes it can show that what people have in common is more urgent than what differentiates them. ~ John Berger, author/art critic
Bonnie J. Schupp (1944-2021) was raised in Baltimore and graduated from old Eastern High School in Feb. 1963. She earned a bachelor's degree from Frostburg State College, her master's from Johns Hopkins University, and, at age 60, a doctorate in communications design from the University of Baltimore. She was over the years a public school teacher, camera store owner, writer and award-winning photographer, and mother of two daughters,. She self-published half a dozen books combining her writing and photographs, notable among them "Dog Tag Poetry" (2012, Blurb Books), "365 Gifts on Turning 70" (2016, Amazon), and, posthumously, her memoir "Curious Possibilities" (2021, Amazon) edited by her husband, David M. Ettlin.
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