Monday, March 17, 2014

The Sound of Walking

A late winter walk on Mowry beach, Lubec.
When you walk on stones do you ever think about just how ancient they are?

 Sea Witch Juju
Mowry Beach, Lubec, Maine


 Spirals in nature.
Everywhere.


 Herring Collectors Series
Shanna Wheelock, 2014


Frequency
Ink and Charcoal, 18"x24"
Shanna Wheelock, 2014


 Phenomenal women, partners in a journey at the Heartwood College of Art MFA program.


 Paste Paper workshop with instructor Bonnie Faulkner
at Heartwood College of Art.
Another fabulous residency weekend on the Biddeford campus!
I sure do love that mill and the creative energy that abounds.
Thesis....here I come!


Colorful paste paper used for a bookmaking.


 How cool is this? The Whiz Bang Popcorn Machine. 
We are well fed during our MFA weekend residencies.


Thrilled to have my djembe back in my hands! It sounds fabulous with a new head, and looks great too.  Resounding Rhythms in Bath did a wonderful job with the repairs!!!!


Counsel of the Stones
I walked the beach this morning and happened upon the Counsel of the Stones. They are the oldest of souls, you know, and therefore the most wise. Hoping to hear an answer, I waited my turn as each element, plant, and shell lined up to beg their question. The Seaweed lolled back and forth like a teenage girl, looking at her feet, trying to muster the courage to speak. Water rolled and swirled about, eager and impatient, talking out of turn. Shells opened bearing all, and sea grass whispered in the breeze. A lone feather tumbled amongst the crowd but did not speak. Finally it was my turn. I wanted to know why they, embedded deep in the clay, would choose such stillness. They replied “It is from our stillness that we are kissed by the wind, the earth, the feet of you. When the tide draws in, we are surrounded by the plants, the fish, the water and all of the beginnings of life. We are softened by the elements, and we are worn. Fragments of our soul split and meander, tumble, roll, and journey. When they are ready they come back to us and teach what they have learned.”  I bowed my head in reverence, appeased and humbled. Then the stones asked me “Why is it that you avoid the stillness?”


* * * * * * * * * * * * *

I love to walk. It is probably one of the few things that I do that catapults me into silence. Not silence as in the absence of sound, but the type of silence that is more difficult for me to experience, the kind that erases the chatter that swirls inside my mind. I envy those who claim to be able to meditate. When a thought enters they say "to let it go". How does one do that? I mean if you let one thought go, and you make a conscious effort to do so, aren't you just replacing one thought with another? I have been practicing this "letting it go" a bit of late and thought perhaps I was meeting with some success, but somehow a song has slipped into my mind for the past four nights while laying in bed. I suppose that wouldn't be so bad, being a song that I like and all, except for the fact that I only know one or two lines from the chorus. Maybe, just maybe, this repetition which has become a sort of nocturnal mantra, has in effect cleared my mind of all other thought and in essence become a form of meditation in and of itself?

Like I said, I love to walk. A simple act, one foot in front of the other and off I go. When I meet up with friends to walk in a group it is like a finely orchestrated round of roller derby. We start as a cohesive unit but take turns falling back or moving forward engaging in varied conversations that change with each new coupling or small group within.

Walking alone is different though. Sometimes I walk to work out a specific idea. This kind of walk has a bit more physical speed to match mind's pace. I have a mission and that is to within a relatively short time frame figure out, usually, the technical aspects of a particular project. There is a problem to be solved and walking offers that focus away from the studio and the usual visual clutter.

All good, but the best, the absolute BEST walks are the ones where I feel simply compelled to walk, to keep walking, and there is nothing to be done other than to be in the moment. My mind silences and I am able to listen to nature's conversation, and if I am so fortunate, hear some of her wisdom. Sometimes she speaks in the chatter of a squirrel or the call of a bird. Sometimes her words are heard in the wind moving through the trees, or the crunch and snap of fallen twigs as stepped upon by a four legged. Sometimes she is more subtle and metaphoric, begging to be heard in the warmth of sun, shine of the moon, or in the puffed white formations against the blue sky.

Walking on the beach offers a different kind of sound, different from that of the woods or road. Softness underfoot makes one aware of every step, creating a somewhat syncopated rhythm that works in tandem with the consistent bass line of the waves rolling into shore. This embodies a meditative quality likened to sounds of mother's womb and water-echoed heartbeat. Water, such a gentle fluid presence but with the strength to smooth the most hardened of her shoreline partners, the stones. The coupling of these two, the water and the stones, creates a soulful song with bits of brushed sharpness as they methodically clack against one another.

Living in a city these sounds are replaced by whizzing wheels, honking horns, ringing cell phones, multiples of voices, and banging equipment. I suppose we have these same sounds in our rural part, too, but somehow the sounds of a haying tractor or hum of a sea vessel's engine out on the waves complements the landscape in the way an artist knows how to use just the right combination of hues. I am reminded every day just how fortunate I am to be living amongst one of many of nature's masterpieces and, on the most fortunate of days to hear, and hopefully, understand  the wisdom of her words.


Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Warm Sand and Cold Snow


Save these dates!

 Assembled Construction, Factory C
Shanna Wheelock, 2014

June 14, 2014
Shanna Wheelock vending at the 
(details TBA)
(I will be debuting my latest handcarved Collectors Series, the North Atlantic Right Whale, as this year's selected artisan for the marathon awards.)


June 19-July 8, 2014
KINDRED: Women in Vision
Lubec Landmarks, Lubec, Maine
Opening reception Saturday, June 21st, 5:00 p.m.
(Women in Vision is a collaboration between Passamaquoddy Bay area artists Sherry Ashby Cunningham, Lisa Marquis Bradbury, Sharon Kiley Mack, Elizabeth Ostrander, and Shanna Wheelock)


August23 - September 5, 2014
SACRED: Women in Vision
Next Door Gallery, Eastport, Maine
Opening reception Saturday, Augsut 23rd, 5:00 p.m.
(Women in Vision is a collaboration between Passamaquoddy Bay area artists Sherry Ashby Cunningham, Lisa Marquis Bradbury, Sharon Kiley Mack, Elizabeth Ostrander, and Shanna Wheelock)


August 23, 2014
Quoddy Artsists Studio Tour
9am-4pm 
Artists from Eastport, to Lubec, and across the bridge to Campobello open their studios to public!


September 2014
Shanna Wheelock at Lubec Memorial Library
(details TBA, including a name for the show!!!)

Mid June-Mid October
Lubec Market
Saturdays 9-11:30
(Weather and travel permitting, this is where I will be most Saturday mornings this coming
summer.)


I'm still hashing out the details of this summer and fall's vending/gallery schedule and already have 2015 exhibits in the works. Updates to come soon!


Reflection
Shanna Wheelock, 2014
ink, charcoal


 Hinged
Shanna Wheelock, 2014
Ink


 
 The Space Between
Shanna Wheelock, 2014
ink


 
 Flow
Shanna Wheelock, 2014
ink


A serene sunset with a magical low tide gathering at
Pawleys Island, South Carolina


 
 Friends
at Huntington Beach, South Carolina
What a fabulous week!!!


 Bog at Huntington Beach, South Carolina
The peepers were so loud!!!


 Catching photographer Lisa Tyson Ennis at work
Pawleys Island, South Carolina
(This is NOT a black/white photo!!! This is a full color shot on a dreamy fog-filled morn!)


Meals at Pawleys Island were always fun,
from the prep in a crowded laughter-filled kitchen to the devouring around the dining table.


 Love me some big cats! 
Now if only I could do this with a large live feline rather than a bronze one.
Brook Green Gardens, South Carolina



My favorite sculpture at Brook Green Gardens
Fountain of the Muses
by Carl Milles


 Another angle from the Milles sculpture
Fountain of the Muses 


 Friends Molly and Lisa jumping exuberantly at Pawleys Island, SC.


Winter
She’s pointing her long icy fingers over the back stoop. Light filters and glistens highlighting their sharpness, beautiful and menacing at the same time. There is temptation to flirt just a bit with danger, maybe knock  down one or two of those slender frozen formations, wield it like a light saber, or maybe just admire it’s beautiful strength. In warmth, her liquid flows and nourishes; but in the dead of winter, hardens and hovers and makes slick underfoot. Judging by her stance it was of good resolve to pile by the armful a reserve of split tree, roughly humped alongside the iron beast. Soon there will be a fire in his belly. It won’t melt the icy digits that hover just outside the door, but it will warm the toes of this human concoction of flesh, blood and bone.


  

Still in the depths of winter but I managed a week long reprieve with friends to South Carolina where my toes frolicked in the warm sand while waves rolled and combed the shore; my first vacation in well over ten years. I have never before left Maine winter for a warmer climate, but now I understand why so many do.When my friend Amy called in December and said in that beautiful but gently commanding southern voice "Shanna, I want you to say Yes right now", without hesitation I did, and then was told that I would be traveling in February. This mode of phone greeting is an excellent ploy that my friend has developed which seems to sway me out of work mode on a fairly regular basis.

The week down south was just what my soul needed. As frenzied windy day waves can be, they soothe. Laughter, the kind that makes your belly ache and leaves you gasping for air, was plentiful and meals were always a communal sharing of culinary expertise, savoring the flavors of local fare. The best part of the experience, however, was the bonding between friends, some that I have known for years and some that I met for the first time. 

Back to Maine I was greeted by the reality of winter. Over three feet of snow had fallen while away. The shoveling task was perhaps my best seasonal workout to date in 2014, involving three hours of lifting and relocating the heavy frozen precipitation. After that day of "rest", I jumped right back into the studio to work on a current drawing series. As with all recent work the past couple years, local factory ruins provide inspiration. I seem to be expanding my interpretation of those ruins, however, a bit more than previous.

Pottery production was in full swing before I left for Pawleys Island and will resume next week. I have the privilege of once again creating the awards for the Bay of Fundy International Marathon and so far all seems to be going well with that project. The first pieces have been bisque fired and I will soon be experimenting with the glazing phase. Some folks are waiting ever so patiently for orders that were placed in December. Rest assured those items are near completion and will be out soon.

It's always a bit like a juggling act here, to get it all done....but what a fun circus it is!