Week of April 20 I think it will be valuable, for my last posts for this class, to do one for each of the areas we studied.
Art
Working on the Patrick Dougherty installation at Bernheim is one of the best things I have been involved in artistically. To be able to work with someone who has an international reputation, to be able to see just how far use of natural materials can be carried, to see his approach to working with the large number of volunteers that he uses, and simply to see first hand how his works are constructed - these are among the reasons that I am making the drive to Bernheim as often as I can. The work starts with the grunt work of dragging three saplings of the proper height and diameter (Patrick has a lot to say about this as he is the only one with any idea of what he wants he finished project to look like) and setting them into 2 foot deep holes (which is a part of the grunt work I was not involved in), tamping as the dirt is being filled in. This is his framework and what makes the piece secure, despite its ultimate airy look. After setting the framework, there is more grunt work of raking up the loose dirt and spreading mulch so that if it rains we are not working in the mud. This took the first two and 1/2 days. Finally on Wednesday afternoon the weaving began. Patrick uses scaffolding, rope, and string to create the shape he wants the framework to take but by the time all the weaving is done, all of this support is removed. The saplings have dried into shape and also are held by the intertwining. The weaving has several layers. There is the first pass which creates a sort of loose skin. then the skin is filled in with more branches. the last part is the exterior weaving, which is what creates the illusion of movement in the piece. As each of us gets more experienced, he trusts us to weave different layers. I was privileged to weave a part of the exterior layer (though it was on an inner wall) last week. Patrick tends to weave the most visible parts of the exterior himself. This week I will be involved in the finishing of the project. By the time I get there on Wednesday it will have been a week since my last work day. Much will have been done but, I suspect, much will be left to do before the grand opening Thursday afternoon. I am scheduled to work Friday as well. I asked, "Will we still be working on the piece Friday if the opening is Thursday?" Patrick asked the project coordinator, "When am I leaving?" When she told him he was leaving Saturday, he answered me, saying, "We'll still be working." Along with everything else, I have learned what it means to be a dedicated artist.
http://www.bernheim.org/dougherty.html

thinking
http://chronicle.com/article/Shift-Happens/131580/
This article is about the book "The Structure of Scientific Revolution" by Thomas Kuhn, which was published 50 years ago and how it is still important and controversial today. It is a long article but for me it was worth reading. Approaches to doing science are not really so different from approaches to doing everything else in life, even art. To do good science you have to have a creative mind, just as artists do. And philosophy is relevant to  science just as it is to all parts of life. In science, just as in art and just as in the well-lead life, philosophy matters. Your initial mindset matters. And what you think may not be the same as what others think, even if you are using the same words; the post-modern argument applies in science too. All of us who are doing good work, whether we are politicians, artists, bankers, horticulturists, or scientists are using the same kind of tools - critical thinking and openmindedness. This is why, even when I can't really grasp what my husband is thinking about, I can still on some level understand what he does.

social change
I have no children living at home and, when I am in school at all, I am only a part time student, so I sometimes feel have to do something more to validate my existence, to make a difference in my community. I choose to volunteer. I work at Yew Dell Gardens for several hours every week and I have been involved in the Patrick Dougherty work at Bernheim. I also am the chair of LATFA, the Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Artists and I help with jurying artists for the Crescent Hill Art and Music Festival. Clearly I am selective about what I get involved in. And I sometimes wonder if it is enough. The volunteer work that I do makes me very happy and it is done for organizations that provide other people pleasure. But sometimes I think I need to be more directly helpful to people who are in need. The most socially active thing I have done recently is challenge people sitting in their cars with their engines running, asking them if they need to do that, given what we all know about 1) conserving fossil fuels and 2) AIR POLLUTION!!!!

Artwork

This is the completion of something I started earlier in the semester when we were to do a piece using natural materials. It is framed pretty casually because I do not think it will last for very long; when I was sewing the squash onto the paper, it was like sewing through apricots. So I expect to see some rotting going on some time. I call works like this my impermanent collection. They are not meant to last forever. Sorry about the crummy photo. I am not a photographer. This piece is called "The Order of Things: One of These Things." The name refers to the Sesame Street song and the close-up is a photo of that one thing.

Week of April 3, Week of April 10
I have no link for this post, which is the point. A friend's son brought to her house his new iPad and showed her all the cool stuff he could do with it, like find out what stars and planets he was looking at in the night sky. Her response was, "So we never have to wonder about anything any more?" And it struck me that we need a sense of wonder. I have to admit I am the first to say, "Look it up!" when a question occurs to me. But often we look it up, get on our devices, when looking around might offer us a more special (maybe you could say more spiritual, more meaningful, more divine?) experience. Instead of looking it up, look around. How's that for a motto. Instead of looking at your device, look at what is around you. In support for this idea I offer a photo taken on campus of cherry trees in bloom. I have to admit I was on my cell phone when I walked by them but luckily I happened to look up and realized that I was surrounded by this absolute beauty. And I stopped for a few minutes to appreciate it.


 Here are the blossoms a week later, pink snow under the trees.

Is there a link between creativity and intelligence? I got to wondering about this and asked a very intelligent person I know if he was creative. He said, "Sometimes." I asked if others thought of him as creative. He responded, "Sometimes." It turns out that he feels that when he is surrounded by creative people, he is creative. When he is with boring people he is dull, he thinks. Anyway my question was answered in part that very week, when the show Being with Krista Tippett , aired on WFPL Sunday mornings at 6 a.m. had an interview with Rex Jung, in which he proposed that the ability to allow the mind to take a meandering pathway is necessary for creative thinking. The article to which I link here .http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html further suggests that it is first the meandering path of thought then a following path that links suggestions encountered on the meander (divergent and convergent thought paths) that allows us to come up with creative solutions to problems. Troublingly, this article also suggests that the ability of American students to do this is in decline. Teachers say there is no room for creativity in the classroom. (!!!!!!!!) What a failure of understanding what is needed in the world! We do not need to know facts. We need to know how to use facts to come up with solutions to what ails us. Every once in a while, when I can't solve a problem around the house, I say to myself, "Brad and I are intelligent people, we surely can figure out a solution." I think what I really need to do is not invoke intelligence but rather our creative abilties, our abilities to think of things other than the normal path and then a solution will be within our grasp.

http://spalding.edu/visitors/huff-gallery/
I have lately been pondering how to make art relevant to social change. It is not perfectly clear that there is a link. Social change involves making people think differently. Art can do this but in order to do this it has to be seen. I would think further it has to be seen by people who do not normally look at art to have its greatest impact. So just having it in a gallery may not be the best way for art to create social change. Gwen Kelly, local artist/activist, had a show recently at the Louisville School of Art entitiled  “Meditation on Houses and Other Everyday Objects” in which she showed work related to abandoned properties in Louisville, particularly in her own neighborhood. A part of the show was an opportunity for the viewer to send a post card to the owner of an abandoned property. This truly made the show a work of activism. I'm not yet sure how to make my art so activist but after taking this class, it is something I will continue to think about.

detail from Gwen Kelly's 

http://swissinstitute.net/exhibitions/exhibition.php?Exhibition=119 This is a link to a current show in NYC entitled "Heart to Hand" organized by Berlin art world denizen Pati Hertling around the idea of"art being received in connection to a political progress of thought. The exhibit questions the role of art in these times. I'm sure the organizer does not mean to suggest that art has no role in today's politicized world but I think the point is well-taken, that it needs to have a part in that world, rather than being on a pedestal, in a gallery, apart from what we might think of as these troubled times.

 My art: A first attempt at something I have had in my mind for a long time. I received this plastic yarn about 4 or 5 years ago and had the idea of panels of knitted lace to be displayed in the garden, inspired by the fact that my husband wanted to shield our view of the neighbor's house. I did not have a good source of bamboo until this year so finally I have begun to implement the thought. I want the panels to be mounted onto bamboo, but I need to create a better framework than what I have done here. I believe that cutting the bamboo so the parts fit together smoothly at the corners, then tying them together with the green plastic yarn will be the solution. I will also use the plastic yarn to lash the piece to the bamboo. The panel shown here will be part of an installation which will include both larger and smaller panels. I hope to enter it into the sculpture show at Yew Dell Gardens in 2013.

Week 10 posts

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/opinion/bruni-a-farewell-to-newt.html?hp

It's been said before and it has been said again - there is too much news coverage resulting in our paying far too much attention to issues which are perhaps not worth our time. Political candidates are a case in point. Endless discussion ensues about their every statement and every vote they do or do not get. It is not necessary that we have this level of discussion and it is not worth the time it takes to listen to it. If news media did not have 24 hour a day coverage they would not feel compelled to discuss such minutia and instead we might get more important news coverage. Philosophers as far back as Plato have pointed out that we look for experts to take care of our health, to build our houses, people who have studied and prepared themselves to do these tasks. Why should we look for less in our political leaders? The ability to get votes does not guarantee the ability to run government. And Newt Gingrich isn't even capable of getting votes! One way to diminish unwanted behavior is to ignore it. If our news media ignored the unqualified (yes this is a value judgment that I am not sure I am really qualified to make) people running for office, they would not have a voice and would not be able to effectively campaign. But this would be undemocratic, wouldn't it? We are all allowed a voice in our democracy. So let's all speak up. But let's not all think that we have the ability to run the country, even if we do have a PhD in history and/or even if we do claim to represent the common people.  I let my elitist bias out here by saying, as have philosophers through the ages, that democracy means that all should have equal opportunities offered to them, not that all people are equal and qualified to perform every job.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/opinion/sunday/art-has-legs.html?src=recg

Once again the question of is it art arises. 

In this case the object is a Larry Rivers sculpture of legs hanging in a tree in Sag Harbor Long Island where it has hung for 4 years and has been in dispute for at least half that time. Larry Rivers died in 2010. His art commands high prices so this piece probably has value. It is being argued that it should not be considered art but rather a structure and thus should be removed under village zoning codes. Acceptance of this piece as art is a true case of the theory of institutional art, as judged by the prices that Rivers' work sells for. Too bad we just can't decide on the basis of is it attractive and appropriately displayed. In that case I think the piece might have to go, at least out of the tree. To me it just looks dumb hanging there. 

My art:

Here is Abraham Lincoln wearing the scarf (which did end up to be 12 feet long) that I worked on in class. I think it suits him well. I hope to have photos of more sculptures wearing this scarf in the future, maybe even the Thinker. I probably need to get permission before I start messing with him though. 

Week 9 posts
Lying in the name of postmodernity
http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/writer-vs-fact-checker-this-time-its-personal/?scp=1&sq=Gideon+Lewis-Kraus&st=nyt

So telling the truth has gone by the wayside for good it seems. It doesn't matter any more. In this commentary from the New York Times, the author takes to task a writer for not accurately reporting facts in his story about Las Vegas; the writer says he did it because it makes a better story. Ira Glass on This American Life will be issuing an apology this week because in the story he presented a while ago about working conditions in Apple plants in China, the author said he witnessed certain events which it is now known he did not actually witness, though some or all of them did really happened. The whole world is being photoshopped so to speak (using that term to apply to words as well as pictures) as people report what they want to see in words that they want to use rather than reporting with accuracy and specificity. Mitt Romney's campaign says that it is mathematically impossible for any other candidate to win the nomination while at the time that he said this it really was mathematically possible, just not very likely. Words lose meaning when they are not used to say what they mean. I know that in the post-modern world words have meaning only by what the hearer knows them to mean but I think we have taken this a little too far. There are meanings that we can all agree on and to use words to mean something other than the agreed upon meaning is to lie. And in my opinion lying is not okay. I seem to be in a minority these days. A slightly different take on lying is when Rick Santorum justifies saying that in the Netherlands people are euthanized against their will because in his heart he believes it to be true.  (See end of this clip from Colbert Report - http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/410721/march-15-2012/march-15--2012---pt--3?xrs=share_fb). He is telling a lie but because he believes it in his heart it is okay? What does this make him? A good Christian or just, excuse me for saying it, stupid?

Feminist art

I have tried to deny that my art is feminist but after reading the articles in preparation for our feminist art lecture I see that I must give in. Though I like to see my art as just art, not women's art, the fact that it is knitting gives lie to this. Knitting is seen as a woman's activity so no matter how I view it, my work will be seen as such. Knitting has a grandmotherly aspect to it, which is both good, with grandmothers being seen as a source of comfort, and bad, as many people have received as gifts hand knit sweaters which were not well crafted or were ill-fitting or totally unfashionable. Hilary Clinton once claimed she didn't stay home and bake cookies (as I did for our International Women's Day class, another feminist statement of some sort I guess) and I'm sure she would never admit to knitting either.Old ladies knit. This image is I think changing with the help of such people as Karen Searle (http://www.karensearle.com/) and as more young people take up knitting. There is still plenty of tacky knitting around but the craft is also being incorporated into artworks that transcend the "oh my mother used to knit" image. My very large knit works do this by putting the knitting directly in your face. In some of the work the stitches are so large that you can't ignore them. Unlike in a sweater which we take for granted as a knit fabric, in my big knitting each stitch counts. The process is more visible. People find the Giant Shawl so impressive, yet it is only 38 stitches wide and 160 rows long, not very much knitting compared to what goes into a sweater. It's just that each stitch is so visible. I also see this piece as interactive knitting for non-knitters. It is a plaything, as you can see in the photos I have posted. It can be a source of comfort, a trait that I think is inherent in knitting, to many people at one time. This piece is currently on view at the LAFTA (Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Artists) exhibit at the LVAA  gallery at the Water Tower on River Road.

new art
One part of the lace installation outside Carnegie Center in New Albany in conjunction with  Tools of the Trade: Fiber Art by Bette Levy, Opening Fri. March 16, 6-8 pm
Yarn bombing is a relatively new idea of covering an environment with knitting or crocheting. In order to keep this installation tasteful, the requirement was that all the doilies be shades of white or off-white. They were purchased and volunteers attached them to permanent structures outside the Carnegie. With the help of Kathy Loomis, I attached doilies to this tree at the side entrance to the center. A question was raised as to whether this use of the doilies demeans the work of the women who made them. Bette maintains that she found it demeaning that they were being sold in junk stores for only a dollar or two and that this use  celebrates the work.

Lettuce Landscape

Even the butt end of a head of lettuce that has been in the compost bucket for a day can have a certain beauty.

week 8 posts
Smells
Not to mention that if we always are plugged into our electronic devices then we do not leave ourselves time to think unimpeded by outside interference (see last week's post about the muse), there is lots to learn without ever turning on an electronic device and sometimes I think we hforget that. Steve Van Zandt, formerly guitarist with Bruce Springsteen, formerly Silvio Dante on The Sopranos, now host of Little Steven's Underground Garage, a music show that airs Saturday evenings on WFPK, talked last night about his predictions for the year 2030. As electronic devices are speeding everything up so much, he predicts a change in our brains such that attention deficit will no longer be a disorder but rather an adaptive strategy and in fact we will be taking drugs to help our brains work faster. Get me out of this world!
Today on the public radio show The Splendid Table, the host interviewed a woman who talked about smells and what they do inside our brains, and who leads smelling tours of English cities. Proust, who wrote  À la recherche du temps perdu  between 1913 and 1927, knew the power of smells as he wrote about madeleines, simple small sponge cakes, and the involuntary memories their odor produced. Scientists are now studying exactly what happens in the brain when we smell a familiar odor but I don't need to know. I know that the smell of muddy river, stale beer, and urine means I am in the French Quarter of New Orleans on a Sunday morning. I know that when I am walking from downtown to U of L, the smell of tomato and too many spices means that I am near the Paradise Tomato Kitchens on South Brook Street. The smell of lilacs in the spring is a memory of my childhood home. The damp smell of chlorine in an enclosed space brings me not only memories of my daughter's swim meets but also the sens of peace that I get when I swim, back and forth, following the black line, turning every 25 yards....  My favorite smell is perhaps the smell of rotten seaweed, evoking time spent at the beach, poking around at low tide. If you must have a link, here I hope is the link to the bit about smelling tours from  The Splendid Table. http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/popup.php?name=splendid_table/2012/03/03/splendidtable_20120303_64&starttime=00:01:20&endtime=00:08:23

Ruth Asawa artist and activist
http://www.ruthasawa.com
Ruth Asawa was born in 1926 in California to a family of Japanese truck farmers. Her Japanese immigrant  parents were neither allowed to become citizens nor to own land. As a child Ruth was always drawing and her artistic talent was acknowledged in school. After her family struggled to get through the depression they were deported in 1942 to an internment camp for Japanese Americans.  Ruth learned from other artists in the camps. She ended up in a camp in Arkansas and graduated from high school in the camp. She attended teacher's college but found that, due to lingering ill will toward the Japanese, she could not get a job. She deicided to support herself as an artist and attended to Black Mountain College where she met and worked with many influential artists as well as the man who was to become her husband. They decided to live in San Francisco where they felt they would encounter less prejudice. They had six children, which prompted Ruth to help create art programs in the public schools. While creating a huge body of work of her own in many media, she also encouraged children to be involved in the arts. She felt that " through the arts you can learn many, many skills that you cannot learn through books and problem-solving in the abstract. A child can learn something about color, about design, and about observing objects in nature. If you do that, you grow into a greater awareness of things around you. Art will make people better, more highly skilled in thinking and improving whatever business one goes into, or whatever occupation. It makes a person broader."

Ruth with work done by school children

One of Ruth's crocheted wire pieces

Proposals for Art, Thinking Social Change

Deborah Levine March 1, 2012

Mid-term power point

Floating Garbage

Both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans now contain large mats of floating garbage, deposited there by currents. While we may think that recycling plastic is the answer to this problem, too much of it is not recycled and, because it floats, it is washed away and when it reaches the ocean it ends up deposited in these locations. I would like to discuss in this presentation the following:

1. How the garbage got here

2. What can and cannot be done about it

3. What is being done about it.

Final paper

My knowledge of philosophy is abysmal, given that I present myself as the product of a good liberal arts education. I would like to remedy this by writing a paper that is a summary of the history of philosophy in eight pages. To begin, I will read Will Durant’s Story of Philosophy and will then supplement it as needed. This will benefit me greatly so I hope it is acceptable, ridiculous as it seems to present so broad a topic in such a short paper.