Live in NYC? What are you doing September 17th?

There’s three great events going on in Brooklyn on September 17th. One is at the gallery—our first workshop of the new season. The second features a very talented neighbor of mine. And more!

1. Saturday, September 17, 2-4 pm: FENG SHUI YOUR LIFE WORKSHOP
With author Tisha Morris

Last chance to register at discounted rate! Bring balance to your mind, body, and home! Please join us for a special hands-on workshop with Tisha Morris, author of the new book FENG SHUI YOUR LIFE. She’ll be visiting the gallery all the way from Nashville to teach us how to put the “om” back into home with simple and practical feng shui techniques:

-Discover feng shui techniques that can quickly transform the energy in your home without spending a dime.
-Identify how areas in your home correlate with areas in your life.
-Discover energy portals in your home that you can use to bring about change in your life.
-Leave with a specific Action List to transform at least one room or area of your home.

Autographed books will be available for purchase. Please bring a notebook and writing materials. Registration required.

early registration discount:
$25 before September 9; $30 afterward

2. Saturday, September 17, 1-6 pm: MADE IN BROOKLYN ART RETROSPECTIVE – ARTIST RECEPTION
With artist Zane Treimanis

My friend and neighbor Zane Treimanis‘ art is created primarily with wood, assembling pieces that have been chopped, sawn, nailed and glued. After acquiring a band saw and other tools, Zane began to cut her own shapes and started to develop a personal vocabulary of abstract contours suggested by the human form, as well as forms in nature. “Made in Brooklyn” weaves together several decades of Treimanis’ work. Her most recent work explores the “bare bones” of wood, taking advantage of its natural color and texture.

This exhibit takes place at the BWAC Gallery located at 499 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231. The artist will be at the exhibit every weekend 1-6 PM to greet you and offer a personal tour. Can’t make the opening reception? The exhibit is up September 17 through October 16, 2011. Gallery is open weekends 1-6 PM.

For more information, visit Zane’s website at ZaneTreimanis.com.

3. Saturday, September 17, 6-9 pm: FLATBUSH ARTIST STUDIO TOUR AT WHISK
Opening reception and grand opening

The Flatbush Artists Studio Tour, or FAST, will have an opening reception for a collective exhibit at the Whisk Bakery Cafe located at 1119 Newkirk Avenue on the corner of Westminster Road.  The FAST exhibit will be on view through October 11. This reception will coincide with the Whisk Bakery Cafe’s Grand Opening scheduled for that weekend.  FAST is a group of local artists interested in showcasing the work of Visual Artists living and working in the Victorian Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. It should be a fun time!

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Creativity Friday: The studio et moi on tv

The segment on Kris Waldherr Art and Words, my little studio-gallery in the heart of Brooklyn, aired this week on Brooklyn Independent Television. I’m relieved that it came out so well. And it was fun to participate in too thanks to Clive Salmon and his talented crew.

The segment is six minutes long and features the Creative Women’s Networking Salon. Which reminds me: I need to schedule the next one for June soon!

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Creativity Friday: The Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW)

One my favorite things about living here in Brooklyn is the community—I’m surrounding by so many intensely creative and lovely people who inspire me on a daily basis. Two of my neighbors are the well-known comic artists Tom Hart and Leela Corman. I was sad to learn that they’re leaving our tree-strewn neighborhood of Ditmas Park for the southern charms of Gainesville, Florida. However, they have good cause: Tom and Leela are opening an art school, The Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW).

SAW will be a informal, intensive school dedicated to cartooning and sequential art. Tom Hart has ten years teaching experience at New York City’s School of Visual Arts and has been nominated for the Eisner, Harvey and Ignatz Awards. Leela Corman has illustrated for dozens of clients and illustrated a dozen books. Her graphic novel Unterzakhn will be coming out from Pantheon in Spring 2012.

To help SAW surmount the initial big hurdle of securing a space for their school and other legalities, they’ve announced a fundraiser with some amazing thank you gifts starting at five dollars—a great way to get that warm and fuzzy feeling of supporting arts education while scoring something cool. All donations are tax-deductible.

For more about the school in depth, visit SAW’s official website at SequentialArtistsWorkshop.org. Prefer social media? SAW is also on Facebook and Twitter.

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Publishing Monday: Goodbye to all that?

Since my last post, our new gallery exhibit about children’s picture books has opened after much hard work on my part as well as my co-curator Aram Kim. The show does look lovely, if I do say so myself. Plus the opening was well-attended and several pieces sold. I’m especially pleased at the educational component to the exhibit. It’s set up in four sections, charting out how a picture book is created—from inspiration to publication. Below is an iPhone photo of the first section.

Now that the exhibit is up and finished—again, what a load of work!—I have the sense that this exhibit is in some ways a valedictory address for me. After all, it’s been ten years since I published my last picture book.

I never planned to stop making children’s books. It just seems to have happened that way.

I suspect that this sense of farewell is heightened because I received a letter today reverting the rights for HARVEST, my last picture book as an author-illustrator. As I opened the envelope, I thought, “And that’s that.” Not in a sad way, mind you, but in the way one feels when one closes a door on a home for the last time. Though you’ve already moved to a new-and-better house, there’s still a sense of finality to the gesture.

When I first happened into publishing fresh from art school, I really intended to illustrate picture books for the rest of my career—it seemed a dream job. My first job in publishing was as a children’s book designer with one of the greatest art directors to grace publishing—another dream job. I’m still called on to mentor people dreaming of publishing their first picture book—after all, I love the art of book making. So it’s a bit strange to come to this recent realization of “you’re not creating children’s books anymore.”

Yet the ironic thing is that, in many ways, picture books are more important than ever to me. I spend hours reading them to my daughter Thea. (Thank you, Mo Willems, Kevin Henkes, Dr. Seuss, Margaret Wise Brown, Gustav Tengrin, and many others for the lovely experiences you’ve brought us at bedtime!) I probably have an even greater appreciation for the art form than I did ten years ago. Who knows, maybe I’ll eventually make another picture book? But it doesn’t feel like the keening need it once was—if it happens, it happens.

I think this is how creative careers are. To paraphrase Woody Allen, they have to evolve or die. In my case, you start out illustrating fairy tales; years later, you find yourself researching absinthe consumption in 1880s London for a novel where there’s sex, suicide, and other decidedly PG-13 occurrences.

One consolation: Thanks to the wonders of the digital age, many of my picture books are still available—THE FIREBIRD, RAPUNZEL, and others. Now that the rights for HARVEST are back in my hot little hands, I’ll be reviving the book for a new generation soon. And, if you’re in the NYC area, the children’s book exhibit will be up through May. Come and visit!

• Filed under The Novel, art and words, e-books, publishing, studio and gallery, the art world | 3 Responses

Publishing Monday: Back from England—and more

Ack, how could almost a month pass since my last blog post? And that one was right before my trip to England at the end of November. Quelle scandale! Well, the truth is that since my return I’ve been so inspired that I’ve been working nonstop on my novel THE LILY MAID and other projects (more about those below). So the objective of my trip was more than met. And Nana’s ashes were brought home to the church where she was baptized and married.

I have several hundred photos from my trip, many of them research-oriented. One highlight was a visit to Highgate Cemetery’s West Cemetery to visit the grave of Elizabeth Siddal, Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s model, muse, and wife. Below is Rossetti’s Beata Beatrice, an oil painting he completed of Lizzie (which is how her many knew her) several years after her death from a laudanum overdose. Though her passing was ruled death by misadventure, she may have left a suicide note which her husband destroyed. However, Lizzie was a gifted poet and painter in her own right, a fact often overshadowed by the Sturm und Drang particulars of her association with Rossetti.

The fragile condition of Highgate’s West Cemetery leaves it closed to visitors except by advance arrangement. I feel very fortunate to have had such a special experience. I am grateful to Justin, my guide at Highgate, who was both knowledgeable and tolerant as I paid my respects.

I was pleased to see that someone else had recently visited Lizzie’s grave—I added my offering of a peach-colored rose to the red flowers already there. Lizzie’s plot in the Rossetti family enclave is located down a hidden, isolated and ivy-strewn pathway slick with autumn leaves. Justin said that she’s visited by more men than women–and the men tend to weep. One even became visibly angry and ranted about how she was abused by Rossetti. “I think the women who visit are made of sterner stuff,” my guide concluded.

Lizzie’s tragic life is included in THE LILY MAID as a cautionary tale. In this excerpt from my novel, my protagonist Elizabeth is warned about the dangers of being a muse from her ex-fiance:

Charles began, “Elizabeth Siddal was the muse for Dante Rossetti, the most famous Pre-Raphaelite of them all—”

“—Don’t bore me. I know who Rossetti is,“ I interrupted. “And I told you, Mr. Dulac is not a Pre-Raphaelite.”

“Doesn’t matter. All artists seek inspiration—a muse, if you will.”

“Indeed.”

“Everyone should have a muse. But nobody should have to be one.”

Charles’ eyes met mine, daring me to ignore him…. His voice became low. “Elizabeth Siddal posed for some of Rossetti’s most famous paintings—Beata Beatrice, Paolo and Francesca. His poems are about her. You know this one:

‘At length their long kiss severed, with sweet smart:
And as the last slow sudden drops are shed
From sparkling eaves when all the storm has fled,
So singly flagged the pulses of each heart….’

I flushed, remembering.

Charles continued, “Anyway, Rossetti claimed to be in love with Miss Siddal—that she was the only one who could inspire his art. But he soon tired of her, beautiful as she was, and replaced her with another muse, Jane Morris. Miss Siddal did not take it well. Sure, Rossetti did the right thing and married her, but she never recovered from losing that influence over him. It was like a drug to her. So she replaced it with another drug, laudanum. She died at the age of thirty-one from an overdose.”

I was disturbed, but determined not to show it.

“When she died, Rossetti tucked his only copy of his poems in her coffin next to her long copper hair. He regretted it, so he had the coffin exhumed from Highgate seven years later.”

THE LILY MAID is about a young woman who becomes a model to a charismatic artist and his wife and, in the process, uncovers a mysterious tragedy. It’s set during the Aesthetics art movement in 1880s London. You can learn more about Elizabeth Siddal and her work at LizzieSiddal.com and PreRaphaeliteSisterhood.com—both wonderful sites. I also highly recommend Lucinda Hawksley’s biography, Lizzie Siddal: Face of the Pre-Raphaelites.

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It wouldn’t be a Publishing Monday post without some mention of publishing. As I posted last month, my new e-book imprint Art and Words Editions is officially launched! I’m especially pleased that all of our Fall books have been approved and released by Amazon, BN.com, and Apple.

Our newest addition—and one which I’m especially proud of—is Lisa Hunt’s Soul Drawings. Thie e-book original is a stunning look at the fine art of this much-loved illustrator whose many publications include the Fairy Tale Tarot, Animals Divine Tarot, and Celestial Goddesses.

Soul Drawings is available for $9.99 in iBooks, Kindle, Nook, and PDF formats; the PDF will work on any computer. View excerpts from the book here. In addition, you can download a free chapter and art here from Apple, BN.com, and Amazon.

In January, we’ll be posting an exclusive and candid Q&A with Lisa about the creation of Soul Drawings as well as a video detailing what goes into creating a “soul drawing.” Not to be missed!

• Filed under The Novel, art and words, be-mused, creativity, e-books, friends and colleagues, new projects, the art world, the world around me, travels | 3 Responses