Pawtucket Apocalypse
No time– the world is still here and I’ve got to go to work. Read all about surviving the end of the world as you know it at Kyria Abrahams Blogspot.
How We Heal: By Joining a Community and Connecting with Others Who Have Been Similarly Wounded
One of the recommendations I make in “Know Thyself” for expressing and healing your Wounded Child is to volunteer for an organization that helps others. One of the ways that I help children heal from trauma is also by inviting them to join the community of my office by contributing something to the Rainbow Wall, a wall of arts and crafts creations made by children in the process of therapy. This wall helps children to know they are not alone, and that even in their suffering, they have something to give to others, which is a representation of progress and hope.
Marilyn Monroe: Foster Child
This is a fascinating documentary — a window into a Marilyn Monroe who wanted a much fuller identity than this crazy mixed-up world would allow. It struck me with a new depth to realize she was a foster child, after many years of working with foster children and helping them form healthy identities. It’s amazing to see Marilyn striving for new levels of identity — to be taken seriously as an actress, a creative force in her own right, and not just a stereo-type of the Dumb Blonde, sexy, but ultimately empty. She also wanted to bring others to their fullest expression as artists, helping to get jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald into the realm of stardom. She also wanted to express her leader more, and started her own production company. Sadly, it really sounds like Arthur Miller did her in by not letting her continue in her partnership with Milton Greene. Of course there were many factors in her undoing, but this movie gave me more to think about in terms of how children with vulnerable identities get co-opted by “sharks in the pool” — relationship partners who are tyrannical in the level of control they must have over the other partner’s life.
Ai Wei Wei — Never Sorry
Chinese artist and provocateur Ai Wei Wei can’t stay away from Twitter.
A documentary about his life and work is showing at the Cable Car Cinema. I never saw that theater full till today at the matinee. Wow. Now I have a big art crush.
Gore Vidal
I’m sorry to hear of the passing of Gore Vidal. I mostly saw him in small roles, on a historical DVD on Abraham Lincoln, and playing Rhode Island’s own Claiborne Pell, Brickley Paiste in the movie Bob Roberts.
I’ll miss his world-weary voice and regret that we have one less old guy unafraid to stand up to bullies.
Nora Ephron
She lived a long and full life, but she would have found lots to do with a little more time. I’ll miss her.
Two things I remember her for. One is that, thanks to her, no one will be able to think of award-winning investigative journalist, Carl Bernstein, without recalling the phrase ‘capable of having sex with a venetian blind.’ If a man is foolhardy enough to marry a writer and break her heart, he can end up with a bad case of ‘Heartburn’.
Another thing, about ten seconds of the movie, ‘Michael’. William Hurt, playing a reporter, is walking through the streets of NYC in the wee hours. A couple of guys with Spanish accents walk up to him. They ask him if he needs help with his car. He says no thanks. And that’s all that happens.
In a Hollywood that has trouble making a movie without gratuitous wrenching emotion– of the violent or sentimental kind, that small moment struck me as original and even kind of brave.
I’ll miss Nora Ephron, but she really lived, and that’s the best anyone can do.
Thomas Kinkaide Died
Wow, only 54. Thomas Kinkaide has dabbed his last high-quality print, but death is no joke. He leaves behind a wife and four daughters. I’m sorry he died and left them too soon.
My friend’s father was distressed when he heard that his son wanted to go to art school. “Why do you want to spend your life being broke so you can be famous after you’re dead?” At least Thomas Kinkaide got to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Any owners of an original Kinkaide daubed print who expects the value to skyrocket now may have to take it on faith. The man generated volume.
He did have genuine talent and a nice way with color. Anyone who bought one of his paintings because they love to look at it and value his special personal brushstrokes has their money’s worth. That’s true of most art, houses are a safer investment than pictures of houses.
Some links to his shadow side are in my earlier post here, that links to the haunted Village at Hiddenbrooke. I think he was greatly overextended and in ways tormented. Sad, but it’s not nice to fool trusting Christians.
Gallery Night Providence 2012
The 2012 Gallery Night season is slowly approaching, as artists get ready to showcase some of their amazing works on March 15th, and every third Thursday of each month leading up to November. It should be a night filled with great art and excitement throughout the city of Providence, with 6 new galleries joining Gallery Night, totaling to 25 galleries, 5 buses, and 5 guided tours.
Save the Date
From Occupy Providence on Facebook–
Yellow Peril Gallery invites you to the opening night reception for #OCCUPY, a group exhibition featuring artwork inspired by the OCCUPY movement to launch the 2012 Gallery Night season in Providence, RI, on Thursday, 15 March 2012, from 5PM to 9PM.
#OCCUPY includes seven artists with firsthand experience with the OCCUPY movements in Providence, New York City and Salt Lake City: The Chair People Collective, Joey Kilrain, Melissa St. Laurent, Occupy The Light, Phil LeStein, Sandy Parsons and Tom West.
#OCCUPY will run at Yellow Peril Gallery from Thursday, 15 March to Sunday, 15 April 2012. Opening night reception will be on Thursday, 15 March, from 5PM – 9PM during Gallery Night in Providence, RI.
Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading 2012
The Poet
Once again, organizer extraordinaire Anne Clanton and RISD Museum are hosting a poetry marathon in honor of Langston Hughes. If all you know of Hughes is a quick reading of ‘Dream Deferred’ you don’t know this poet. His short poems build on one another. Read aloud by different voices to a jazz beat, they take you into the gorgeous mosaic of New York City in the 50′s and 60′s.
It’s fun, too, to see Providence people up on stage, with performing talent you never knew they had. Watch out for Central High School. They have a drama coach.
This writer will be participating for the forth year in a row. Wish me luck, or break a leg or whatever.
17th-Annual Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading
Sunday, Feb 5 1:00p
at Metcalf Auditorium, RISD Museum, Providence, RITwo-time Grammy Award-winning performer Bill Harley reads Langston Hughes’ poetry aloud, along with members of the
community, and accompanied by the Daniel Ian Smith Jazz Trio. Coordinated by Anne Edmonds Clanton; co-sponsored by RISD’s English Department. Free to public; reception follows.
(Thanks, to Boston.com.for the notice.)
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