Art for Airports

So I recently wrote about seeing the great performance of Music for Airports but recently had some even more exciting news. Here is the press release:

(04/05/2010/Knoxville) – The Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority (McGhee Tyson Airport) and the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville are pleased to present “Arts in the Airport”, a new exhibition featuring selected artwork from 36 artists in Tennessee. “Arts in the Airport” was developed in the spring of 2009 to allow regional artists to compete and display work in the most visited site in the area. The selected art features contemporary 2-dimensional artwork and will be exhibited in the secured area behind McGhee Tyson Airport’s security gate checkpoint from April 23 – October 21, 2010.

Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority and Arts & Culture Alliance Present “Arts in the Airport”

“I was pleased by the dramatic increase in artist submissions for this show, which made it especially competitive. As a result, the quality of the final selection promises to be the highest ever,” says juror Stephen Wicks, Curator of the Knoxville Museum of Art. Wicks viewed 815 submissions to select the show. “The generally forward-looking nature of the show and its diversity of styles, materials, and subjects speak of a cultural region that is complex, dynamic, and in touch with national and international art developments.”

“The artwork featured in this exhibition is a true reflection of our region and serves as an example of the artistic talent found in our community,” said Kirk Huddleston, Chairman of the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority’s Board of Commissioners. “As we open the third airport exhibition, we are pleased to showcase another group of exceptional pieces.”

The following artists’ works will be shown:

Val Lyle of Bristol

Denice Bizot and Amanda Rae Long of Chattanooga

Paula Sarut of Chuckey

Travis Graves of Elizabethton

R. L. Gibson of Gatlinburg

David Underwood of Jefferson City

Eleanor Aldrich, Carolyn Bendel, Julie Bernal, Neranza Noel Blount, Kellie Crye, Diane Fox, Trent Frazor, Dot Galloway, Jacques Gautreau, Beauvais Lyons, Daniel Maw, Tom McDaniel, Amy Elizabeth Meadows, Margaret Moran, Brigid Oesterling, Joe Parrott, Denise Stewart-Sanabria, Anika Toro, Brian Wagner, and Rick Whitehead of Knoxville

Barry Lynch of Louisville

Shirley Brown, Margarita Merino, Rachel K. Turner, and Gena Tussey of Maryville

Bryna Bobick of Memphis

Ross L. Jordan of Nashville

Ruth Koh of New Market

Harold G. Smith of Oak Ridge

View these images online at www.knoxalliance.com/album/airport_spring10.html.

WooooHooooooo.... So if you find yourself traveling over the next few months through Knoxville please do stop a moment to check it out!

The image I did is the 3D panorama of my aunt and Nolfa in Chile. It captures that whole moment so well for me. It's encapsulated the whole memory and their personalities. It is particularly special to me as it was the last road trip my dad was able to take with us. I love photography.

Treasury East

I am loving the new version of treasuries in ETSY. Here is one that I made. It's my first. I think I was going for content rather than aesthetics. These are all items I would like to buy "for Twila".

Whooo...

So, the last few weeks have been quite a transition. Thankfully my mom has been in town for the last two weeks. I am trying to get back on the blog though... especially for those who ask me if the next time they see photos of Twila she will be in her teens. I will back post from the last few weeks as I get a chance because there were some milestones. But for now I will just say that Twila has begun wanting to walk everywhere! She still is holding on to my hands or the side of a wall or whatever she can find but she wants to practice ALL DAY LONG. Gone are the days of leaving her in a room by herself for a moment. Yesterday I went for less than a minute to the kitchen and when I came back the cat food was all over the living room floor and Twila was hunched over the food bowl throwing the dried pieces of food behind her like she was digging for gold! When I came in the room and said, "Whoa! What's going on in here??" she looked up at me over her shoulder and smiled very proud of herself. So from the moment she is awake to the precious moment of nap time it's on. A few weeks ago when she started her new phase of movement she also gave up napping. I will be honest, that kinda sucked. I love her nap time more than I have ever loved my own nap time. So I am happy she is currently sleeping awhile during the day for me to get some things done or rest.
She's continuing to be sweet. She has started this swaying thing she does when she hears music...I think she is dancing. She will sometimes just start humming to herself and sway. It's cute. She is still having some eating issues...more on that in another post. She is starting to become a bit chatty too. I'll post more later. I am rationing my "free" time! Hope all of my friends and family are doing well out there! I feel like it's been ages since I have gotten to speak with a lot of you. You are always in my thoughts...

PureCraft Link

I recently joined a promotion team on ETSY. I am really liking the conversations, ideas, encouragement, and sales it's bringing me. The woman in charge has a blog, a full time job, sings (quite well), and has time to run this promo listing. I am thankful for her. The above is a treasury she made with members from our group listing. It feels good to be mixed in with such nice people and good talent.

Yea! More treasure!

I have not had much time to write recently but plan on doing some this weekend hopefully. Twila has started walking (with assistance but still...) and well, if I learned how to walk around and get to where I want to go then I guess that would be all I wanted to do too. But, yikes, she is a handful. My mom is visiting and we are both totally worn out! She's been a sweetheart though and quite cute so that keeps us motivated. Below is another treasury I got to be a part of. Check it out if you get a chance. I think it's up for another day or so.

Moogs, Books, and Music for Airports

Finally getting to write a bit about the second day of Big Ears. It was memorable and worth sharing. I recommend getting a ticket to come out to Knoxville for next years festival. So the morning started with another trip off to the cafe where Adrian Belew was going to make an unscheduled stop-by to play with the local musicians at the Ambient Cafe. We went, had some breakfast, stopped waiting for AB, and then headed off to the Moog Lab. I was really looking forward to playing with some synthesizers and theremins. We got there just as it opened up and were able to get a hands on lesson with the daughter of Mr. Moog himself! She was very friendly and had some exciting news about the future of Moog. Not only were they designing programs to teach kids science using Moogs but they are also going to open a Moogseum in Asheville, NC! It looks really large from the plans. There will be workshops, a theater, and a museum all in one building. Twila seems to like keyboards. She plays piano with her grandpa and smiles. She likes buttons though of any kind...I'm sure like most babies do. She was a natural however at playing the theremin. "Good form" the lady told her. We were the only ones there at the time so there was no need for headphones and she just went to town. Very fun.

After the Moog Lab we headed back to the house to drop Twila off to be with her grandparents while D and I went to see The Books play. The cool thing about Big Ears is that the theaters all around downtown are involved and have something going on almost all the time. So people could come and go as they wanted and there was no assigned seating for anything. It was almost overwhelming at times-walking out of one giant theater with ambient music into another theater with piano players, then into another theater with a noisy rock band...it was great. Oh! On the way to see the Books we got a call that Adrian Belew was at the Ambient Cafe so we headed on down to a room of about 15-20 and sat a few feet away from AB's new pedal system he debuted at Big Ears. A friend summed it up that it was kind of strange in the room- the feeling. It was like being in a church. Everyone was ultra quiet and there was this legend that was given this strange kind of reverence that was almost tangible. The music was great though and it was nice to see some friends living their dream. We stayed for about a half an hour but then went off to The Books.

So The Books... How could I have not heard of this band?? They were amazing. They were inspiring. One of my friends said that seeing them live really allowed a person to gain an appreciation that listening to an album didn't seem to offer. I suppose that's because their whole set was so interwoven with collaged video. There was a guitar player and a cello player. Behind them was a large screen with video they had spliced together. They were saying that on their previous tours they collected hundreds and hundreds of videos to splice together. The result is old 70s hypnosis video mixed with news footage of India mixed with home videos from various places around the world. But I suppose that they have always been into this because there were home videos of their own showing them as young boys playing guitar next to a tv with edited videos. The music was nice. They played along with a pre-recorded percussion track and sounds from the videos. They would then sing and play. Some songs were funny others were dreamy...they were great!

After the Books I stayed to watch Bang On A Can All-Stars re-create Eno's Music for Airports. Wow. It was perfect. And I wondered how it would be listening intently to music I had enjoyed purposefully as background music. But you know, I love this kind of music. For me it seems to put me in a meditative state where I can appreciate my present moment easier. It makes me very happy. Time seems to fit and move along perfectly when I listen to it... The show was also great to see. I had never heard of this band either! Crazy since they play all over the world to packed audiences for over the last 10 years and with legends in all different musical genres. Google their video results! The range is amazing!

After Music For Airports, some friends and I headed over to the Bijou Theater to watch Saint Vincent. That was also a great show. Soft sweet guitar would change into loud abstract noise mixed with a violin player, keyboard, drums, and saxophone. It blew me away.

A great weekend. My ears do feel a tad bigger.

More treasure!

Here is another treasury featuring a print of mine... I love it!

New Treasure!

Again, I love validation!

Up for two days or so... Treasury!

Twila's birthday

My little April Fool had her first birthday today. Remarkably she woke up at the exact time we did a year ago to wake up to go to the hospital. Isn't that strange?? It felt perfect- waking up at 4:15 in the morning to remember and contrast the feelings we had a year ago with the ones this morning. Last year we were apprehensive, sad for our cats that their lives were to change so dramatically, and supporting each others fears with humor. We were going through the checklist of items we needed for the hospital. Our team was assembled and we hoped for the best. This one year later moment feels good. I feel stronger. It has been nice getting to know Twila and see who she is evolving into. I felt really...feel really lucky. Things went better than I thought they would have and that gave me peace.

We spent most of the day going back and forth from the printers-fun, fun, fun! We did have a nice birthday lunch with some family though and did a lot of playing around the house. Mostly, we just cherished her company. Doug and I did get some gifts for her that were waaay out of her age group. Doug got her her first guitar-it's very little but still bigger than she is. I gave her a little Elmo camera. But let's be honest- this birthday was more a celebration that she was in our lives and we hadn't done too much harm to her in the first year... even though it is about her we are the ones who want to celebrate. At least I am aware of that. But she did like playing with the guitar and has gotten better at playing with the strings instead of just pulling on the strings and banging on the wood. And as far as the camera is concerned she prefers to push the buttons and dance to Elmo's song more than looking through the viewfinder but it's still quite cute if you ask me.

A Chinese friend of ours had told us of a custom that is done on the child's first birthday. The baby sits surrounded by objects. Whichever object she grabs first holds her/his destiny. She said that the Dalai Lama had done this and grabbed a religious figurine... We thought it sounded fun. We put a variety of objects including a guitar and camera but also a calculator, pen, a paintbrush, a book, a cat and dog stuffed animal and a couple of other items. She ended up going towards the drums but then the camera caught her eye, and finally decided on the guitar. I will say she quickly played it then went for the camera though. She seemed to have fun with the game.

That evening we went over to grill with the Baker family. It's been nice spending time with them and Twila seems to love their company as well. She fell asleep in my arms as we sipped some wine around an outdoor fire. We were going to take a family photo at the exact moment she was born, 10:02pm but the time seemed to escape us. But, just like in the morning, she woke up suddenly at 10:02pm-can you believe it?! I have witnesses! Then she was back asleep as fast as she woke up. So we took our family photo and left for home once again.

She was happy throughout the day and received more "happy birthday"s before 9 am than I got all day on my birthday! She's a lucky baby to have so many people who love her. And that also makes her parents feel very happy so thanks to everyone who called, wrote, and stopped by-you guys are awesome. Her birthday party was a few days later. More on that in another post.