bowler hat portrait

Originally uploaded by bbmarie.

I have a new hat. It is a bowler and I am pretty excited about wearing it at my gig this friday. It is not a hat you see any one wear these days with the exception of some of the men who drive horse carriages around Central Park. Apparently it was originaly designed for coach drivers to protect them from the elements and any low braches that may knock into them as they drive. In its original form you could stand on it and it would support your weight with out caving in. That idea of strength and protection is a potent one. I would hope that this new hat would be a symbol of protection for me as I drive into an uncertain future with courage and faith.

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studio picture

Originally uploaded by bbmarie.

This is a picture taken in the carriage house studio that sits in the back of our house. The painting is based on a Modigliani painting I love. The frame is made of scavanged 2 x 4s redimentioned with a table saw. The perimiter of the frame is embellished with old linolium. I really love to recylce old materials in my work partly as a way to be responsible to enviornmental issues and as a way to save money, Using old materials also bring to the work a sense of implied history because of the nicks, dents, and patina they have collected over time. Some times it seems that the materials themselves radiate some kind of mystical vibration of there own that some how becomes kicked up another level as they become part of a work of art.

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to clara, birds eye view

Originally uploaded by bbmarie.

I continue to push off into the unkown with this series of wood cuts that incorporate the random and not so random combinations that are possible with collage. This image of the girl looking at you with one eye being the eye of the bird is a metaphore for the way of seeing that God brings us to that lifts up out of the confines of this world. When I do a string of art events where I have an opprotunity to share my work with the public and I sell nothing or only a few pieces that barely cover my expenses the temptation is to think I have wasted my time because I can not point to a financial reward. As the utility bills continue to arrive with machanical regularity, I remind my self to stay open to a different possible way to think about the art events where I am not rewarded with money. One thing I can be thankful for is the opprotunity to an honest look into my motives for creating art in the first place. To exhibit an not be able to sell is very purifying as it is humbling. And to be made pure and more humble is like accidently moving next door to God. I know from time to time in his wise love, God will crush us in his mysterious morter and pestal. I know that it is in preperation for us to be used as art material in one of his very cool creations. Just think what one of my old books might feel like as I begin to tear out its pages and break its spine?

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hope in God

Originally uploaded by bbmarie.

This is a new wood cut I have made this week. It comes out of our life. We take a lot of risks and this consequently often causes us to feel like things are just about to fall apart. The vulnerable feeling associated with things about to fall apart reminds us to go to God. He is the one who sustains our life and makes beautiful things out of all our failures. Money is a common place where failure hits us. Just recently the small group of friends that meet together for a potluck at our house for a meal on Sunday nights ended the evening with prayers for help in the area of finances. The very next day I got a request for a piece of art a person wanted to buy. That request was followed by another by some one else the next day. The day after that I got a check in the mail from a company that sells digital files of my work on line. Then that same day I recieved a phone call from a person in NY who has promised to pay us some money they owe us. I have been reminded again this week that prayer is a powerful thing and that we need to continue to put our hope in God.

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Pearl put this little movie together from what she shot at the Cornerstone Fest this summer. We took Rose Shaw and Tressa along with us from the neighborhood and Brenda and the little ones stayed back. We had a great time together and Pearl’s film here ducuments the girl’s perspective.

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sk16

Originally uploaded by bbmarie.

Brenda and I went walked down town for our date last night. We noticed several buildings under construction. The sky seems filled with large cranes and the ground with building sites. We walked through Monroe Street past people sitting at cafe tables the resteraunts place out side when it’s not winter. We had decided against eating out because of our skinny bank account and had eaten at home befor we left but still the good smells coming out of these resteraunts had its effect on us, stirring up appatite and longing. We ended up at the River City Book store with drinks and a table piled with books and magazines.The book store had a singer named Anisa (www.anisahome.com) on stage doing mostly covers. She was doing a great job of helping the store have an ambiance. One of the books I picked up was a newly released Jack Kerouac work and in the forward I learned that Kerouac came to New York City from Lowell Massachusettes to play foot ball at Columbia on a scholarship. He quite the team in his second year after a disagreement with his coach and joined the Merchant Marines. It is interesting to me that though he was brought to NY for foot ball, his true reason in being there had nothing to do with sports and everything to do with meeting William Burroughs and Allen Giinsberg and the new approach to writting that they would pioneer together. Kerouac’s On The Road was to have a huge effect on me in 1982 as I began my first year out of college and set my sights on the rough and tumble life of an artist persuing a personal vision.

What does all this have to do with Grand Rapids? Some times I wonder why we are here now back in our home town, and what is wanting to erupt right here in our humble city? What new artistic development, literary movement, what new language of expressing God’s incarnation is about to be stumbled into? My hope and my prayer is for this city to awaken to it’s full potential, to rise up as a place of vigerous artistic output and creative individuality. I want Grand Rapids to have a deep music community full of talent and fresh vision. I long for more vitality and life to happen here.

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This movie is made out of footage we have saved into the computer from our year in Brooklyn. The music I find in various places continues to be a big part of the inspiration for my film making. It is a way to bring together my love of music and images.

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