New Expressions

Changes are adrift. My old gallery, Adrift Assemblages, will change its name to Expressions Artist Gallery. A new website is almost ready to launch. As my art matures, my vision for art gets more focussed, and my skills with ceramics more honed, I find it is time to move up.


Open Studios, last month, was relatively slow for me. Not as many visitors as I would have liked. But, as is generally the case, one visitor, Russell Colton, did come, saw my potential as an artist, and has, since then, jumped in to help me in so many ways.


He raved at one of my pieces after another. And, he asked a big question: “Why do you display driftwood outside? I have driven by here hundreds of times, going to the library, the rec center, the post office, and never realized you had art in here.”


Over the next hour he offered suggestion after suggestion for changing my image. “Where outside does it say, ‘Art’ Why do you have none of your art in the window? How do you plan to market this? I thought you only sold driftwood in here!”


This started an ongoing consultation and collaboration. Russell has jumped in to help me upgrade my gallery. Working with his suggestions, I have moved all the driftwood to the back of my studio. I have decided to rename my gallery.  We are working together to design my new look—a website, a business card, a new sign outside.


And, as these changes have begun to take shape, my art has begun to find new forums for exposure. Down in Camp Verde my exhibit “To Restore their Dreams”, expressing my anger and pain over human trafficking, is on display. Joining “my ladies”, I have 30 pieces of my art upstairs. As of June 1 I will be in the Muse Gallery in Old Town Cottonwood. Also in June, I will have three pieces, Hebrew words, with poems, in the Old Town Center for the Arts. In July I will have art in the Clark Memorial Library. And more ideas are bubbling!


I have always been a poet. My art, as it has developed, has carried my poetic voice. Poetry always flowed through me. One of my goals, as my art continues to develop, is to find more ways to incorporate poetry with my pieces of art. I have made a dozen wall hangings with Hebrew words. These come with an interpretive poem.


Also, the blog on my website continues to be important to me. I strive to write at least two blogs a month, one of them being poetry, memoir, short story or some other form of literary expression. As I continue to develop my art, this I will hold this focus.


As I have worked with Russell I have come to see I create more than ceramic sculptures and assemblages. My art, is sculpture, with words, with creating and re-creating myself over and over, I am Expressions.


In September I will do a grand opening and ribbon cutting for my studio. In the meantime, join me on my continuing adventure as I re-invent my art, as I find many new Expressions.