Checking In: Connection, Community, Collaboration

Words chosen as guides through 2025

Hello dear friends,

Yesterday was January 6th (or it was when I started writing this post) and today it feels really pressing for me to check in with you here.

How is everyone? Are you doing okay? I ask, while in the back of my mind there is a narrators voice, one of those old timey, school-film-documentary voices, responding “they were, in fact, not okay”.

The Way of Rain; Collage Mixed Media by Crystal Marie

I’ve had a few other check ins lately—one with an arts organization and one with a gallery. How is everything going? I inquired, just checking in . . .a few words have been eliminated to remove the personal conversation and get to the point of how they each responded:

“We had trouble meeting the minimum in our workshop that just took place last week and are also struggling with the upcoming one in February ( . . .) I don't know if it is the political climate, their budget or something else we haven't figured out, but it is nothing like we have ever experienced as a group before.”

“We're moving the gallery in a different direction ( . . . ) which has been reflected in our slower sales over the last several years.”

These check-ins have a similar tone to other conversations I’ve had with artists, gallery owners, makers, and freelance instructors lately. Everyone of them perplexed over the unpredictable nature of it all, some are thriving, but the majority have seen unusual fluctuations in sales. Each one puzzling through the same thoughts as above “I don’t know if it is the political climate, budgets, or something we haven’t figured out, but it is nothing like we’ve experienced before.”

It strikes me with no small amount of irony, that just after the election this quote by author Toni Morrison was trending:

“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.” ~Toni Morrison

I have to admit, and I felt cynical saying so, but seeing that Toni Morrison quote trending in November chafed me. I needed a minute. I couldn’t just ignore the despair I was feeling and “get to work”. Also, when had we not been working??

But I respect Ms. Morrison and wanted to know more about the context of the popular quote, so I looked it up.

Here is a portion of an essay she wrote titled “No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear,” from which the quote was extracted.

“Christmas, the day after, in 2004, following the presidential re-election of George W. Bush.

I am staring out of the window in an extremely dark mood, feeling helpless. Then a friend, a fellow artist, calls to wish me happy holidays. He asks, “How are you?” And instead of “Oh, fine — and you?”, I blurt out the truth: “Not well. Not only am I depressed, I can’t seem to work, to write; it’s as though I am paralyzed, unable to write anything more in the novel I’ve begun. I’ve never felt this way before, but the election…” I am about to explain with further detail when he interrupts, shouting: “No! No, no, no! This is precisely the time when artists go to work — not when everything is fine, but in times of dread. That’s our job!”

I felt foolish the rest of the morning, especially when I recalled the artists who had done their work in gulags, prison cells, hospital beds; who did their work while hounded, exiled, reviled, pilloried. And those who were executed.”

( . . .)

“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

Culturally, I believe, we’ll see a shift in mainstream messaging towards the arts and artists in the next four years. More book bans in schools, more silencing and white washing of our nation’s true history, more cuts in funding for public libraries and radio, museums and theaters. More disparaging of independent artists.

Systemically, there is a reason the arts are chronically underfunded; not because the arts are nonessential and frivolous, but quite the opposite.

Here’s a bit more from the Toni Morrison essay above:

“I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge — even wisdom. Like art.”

Today, Meta announced it will no longer fact check posts on its social media platforms going forward. Artists I’ve been connected to for the last 15 years are talking about leaving them. “Truth Matters”, one friend posted, as they shared their decision for exiting Facebook.

This brings to mind the meaning I wrote about for the name of my old Facebook group and website, Canary Rising—relating artists to the sentient nature of canaries, as sensitive and empathetic beings. The revered songbird, the canary in the coal mine, more sensitive to the environment around us:

"We pick up on the emotional currents in the atmosphere. We read insincerity from a mile away. We get pulled in by the story of the underdog and make it our mission to call out what is not right.

We have heightened awareness to what is toxic in food, in the environment, in the legal system, the infrastructure of society, in our spouses, our partners, our friends, and the world around us.

We are sensitive to hypocrisy, sensitive, to conflict, sensitive to injustice, and sensitive to speaking and understanding deep truths.

We have colorful, beautiful, creative inner lives—full of thoughts, hopes, dreams for ourselves and for each other. We have important things to say when we open our mouth, if only the world would listen.

We are poets and dreamers, artists and writers, musicians, and makers.
We are not weirdos.
We are canaries.”

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Connection, Community, Collaboration

Your life and my life flow into each other as wave flows into wave,
and unless there is peace and joy and freedom for you,
there can be no real peace or joy or freedom for me.
~Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat

My chosen words for 2025 are the same ones I selected in 2023: Connection, Community, and Collaboration. Oftentimes when I’m contemplating a word for the coming year, it takes me weeks to really hone in on it. This time I knew by the end of October I wanted to return to these words as my guides for the coming year. On this day following the certification of votes, in this virtual world where truth has taken a backseat to profits, they seem even more imperative.

Artists, like all humans, are not always in lock step with one another, but so many of us fit the description above. Sensitive, intuitive, truth speakers with a heightened sense of justice. What does it mean for us to “get to work” in the time we are living in?

In times of crisis, Mr. Rogers taught us to look for the helpers. I sincerely believe Mr. Rogers would agree that Artists fit that category. Artists will fight for your liberation, they will speak truth to power, they will come together to create the shelter to weather the storm. But times do not have to be perilous for us to need connection and community.

In my physical world, I’m saying yes to more opportunities to connect with other artists, in group gatherings, invitations to studio visits, and deliberate decisions to attend more events and openings. My 2025 teaching calendar includes at least 3 in person, on location workshops. I’d sorely missed the joy of interacting with the participants in this setting. Connection and Community are natural outflows of engaging in this way.

In my virtual world these connections are happening in my membership group and my decision to focus on teaching live online, rather than filming my classes as I’d been doing for the last few years.

In both the virtual and physical realms of my art connections and community, I plan to seek out collaborative opportunities and projects. I’ve a few specific ideas and artists in mind and will allow myself to stay open to more possibilities.

Connection, Community, and Collaboration — To remember how much we each have in common, moving in close to see each other in the full spectrum of our shared humanity and recognize that we are more alike than different. To hold each other up, and hold each other accountable for our actions, when the powers that be would have us divided and suspicious of each other for their own gain. Because in the end, as Ram Dass would say, we are all just walking each other home.

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In the first, of what I hope to be many posts that include collaboration with other artists this year, today I’m sharing images and statements by three artists. Each purchased my annual fodder packs last year, which included an invitation to collaborate. The packs were half vintage ephemera and half handmade fodder that I’d created in my own studio, with the idea that whoever used these elements in their own designs were joining me in collaboration.

Wayfinder; monoprint mixed media by Sharon Hayes

Artist Sharon Hayes has created a fabulous warm and vibrant work called “Wayfinder”. I am enamored with Sharon’s statement of trusting the signs and markers that appear on our journey. Here is what Sharon wrote about this piece:

“Wayfinder” is about finding your way as you go - about trusting the signs and markers along the way that guide you to the place you are meant to be. When I opened the collab pack, I was immediately drawn to this piece of fabric. The palette and lines of Crystal’s painted fabric seemed to line up perfectly with the colors of my encaustic monotype. I added the thread to suggest a path or journey.

IG: sharon.hayes.studio
www.sharon-hayes.com

Untitled; mixed media collage assemblage, by Barbara Greve

Barbara Greve has assembled this earthy, symbolic design with a nod to the Indigenous American Cultures she is inspired by. I think Barbara beautifully achieved her stated goal of reaching her soul and allowing it to speak:

I used the painted background canvas and the orange painted paper sheet for my background from your collaboration pack. I seemed to be channelling my native American Indian background on this one. Not that I am native American, but I do love all their work and take every opportunity to see exhibitions of it.

I think all art relates to the experiences in our life. I'm always trying to reach my soul and have it speak. I try to include a touch of levity if I can. Humor is very important to me.

IG: barbgreve

Ocean of Emotion; Mixed media assemblage, by Ann Leach

Ann Leach crafted this deeply meaningful and beautiful work of art as a testiment to making it through a very difficult season in her life. Her statement includes a glimpse into what she experienced and how allowing herself to be vulnerable in sharing the work led to a meaninful connection for the proud new oner:

“There are 22 different pieces of paper and fabric (most of them made by you!) that represent the 22 hearings and trial I attended. There are 29 messy french knots that represent the local folks who showed up at court with/for me over the course of 18 months, and of course the metal cloud of doom I was walking under for much of it! The middle part is when I was at my worst-my cat died, I experienced what I thought was a mini-stroke, and the defendant was announcing he would just represent himself and planned to fire his attorney. But I always had my safety net in the form of my faith that's represented by the fishnet. And there is light at the end of the tunnel! I even put a nod to the judge and jury in the piece. The shape is a nod to the beautiful wool shawl that was stolen by the defendant (I paid $200 for it in a KC shop about 12 years ago!) and the hinge at the left represents the oh so slightly opened door that the defendent walked through at my house.

I put an asking price of $200 on the piece, as a nod to that shawl's value and got it! The piece was purchased by a friend of mine and I ran into him at the art center when he was paying. He told me he thought this work was some of the strongest in the exhibit, and then asked me to call him later as he wanted to talk more about it. I did, and he shared that it spoke to him because he is going through a divorce that he didn't ever see as possible in his life. He believes this piece will help him with his own healing. That is so humbling to me!”

IG: annleachart

(There are still 48 artists who purchased collaboration packs, but have not submitted images. If you are one of them: I’m extending the call throughout 2025. I’ll include your work and words in future posts if you’d like to participate. Leave me a comment if need the email address and guidelines again)

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