comfort, originally uploaded by bbmarie.

I find myself reusing old things to make new things. I find what was cast off and forgotten and give it another chance at life. I suppose I grew up feeling forgotten as the baby of a family that was really starting to unravel just as I was born. This personal experience has given me an emediate empathy with people or things set to the side and forgotten.

I have been having fun with old books, taking them apart and printing on the pages. Some times I apply some paint to an area to give the print a nuetral space to exist. I love the randomness of the way images combine when I work like this. These random combinations suggest new meanings of there own that are far beyond anything I may have origianlly intended when I set out to carve a new wood block. Many of these prints havemade thier way into the new style of paintings I have been making. Infact Brenda and I have been making these paintings together. When we are combining these images and adding paint we work on a very intuitive level. They come together almost like a crazy quilt and this approach makes collaberation easy. Brenda works for awhile and then I work and then it is back to Brenda until we feel like it is finnished. You can see examples of these paintings in the gallery at Grand Rapids Christian High School, in their beautiful performing arts space.

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Beerhorst_Family_Front_Final_Edit, originally uploaded by bbmarie.

We have hung a show at the DeVos Center for Arts and Worship on the Grand Rapids Christian High School campus. The show opens this Saturday night 6:00-8:00 PM. We have taken what we do in our home and brought it into this very polished space with high celiengs and track lights. It feels little wierd but cool as our very organic family begins to interface with a large institution here in the city. I look forward to other opprotunities like this. We are talking to the director at West MI Center for Arts and Technology about a show this winter at their space downtown. We also are being inculuded in a show at North Park College in Chicago curated by Tim Lowly called “Doll House” which will feature our family’s collaboritive art work.

I feel like there is a certain momentum that we are gathering as the chidren grow older and are more able to contribute their own ideas and abilities to what we do. We have been inspiring each other and working off each others ideas and energy.

If your intown and not sick of hang out with us, come over to the show this Saturday night!

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family art show #1, originally uploaded by bbmarie.

We are a full week past the latest Beerhorst Family Art Show. It was really amazing and fun. We had a good flow of people through on each of the three days that kept things buzzing. As always there were luls that gave us time to rest and have that long uninterupted conversation with a single friend or two. There were times when the house and garden were full of people looking and talking.

It takes a lot of work to prepare for one of our shows and the preperation becomes something that the entire family can rally around. We have three shows a year so that gives us 4 months to get ready for the next one. This cycle gives us a defined rhythm that helps pull us forward. When we are in the final few weeks before the show it gets exciting. As we get the house ready by arranging and hanging the art there is a palpable energy that builds. As we hang paintings and pull out drawings, Brenda finishes off a rug, Rose comes down with a basket of new Sock Monsters, Pearl puts up her string of very colorful pot holders…new connections are made, new ideas pop into our heads….it’s as if the whole house hold is somekind of giant compost heap of creativity that where chopping up and turning over and the Beerhorst Family Art Show preperation beomes the mystical shovel.

On a very practical level we were very near broke before the show and afterwards we had a healthy deposit to take to the bank which enables us to pay bills and buy the much needed supplies that are essential to the life of our family.

Thanks to all that were able to come. Thanks to those who couragiously opened purses, bill folds and check books to invest in real art/real life. You are our community.

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praying it in, originally uploaded by bbmarie.

We are on the other side of our Family Art Show and breathing a little easier. I was able to peddle over to the bank and make a deposit into our account and write checks to send out the bills that were stacking up in the wicker file.

Brenda and I had prayed that God would be infused in the weekend and intersect peoples lives, that he would use the art to touch hearts. I our prayers were answered. A lot of people were as taken with the backyard farm as they were with the art on the walls. A number of people just kind of settled in and hung out with us. We know that the paintings are out of reach for most peoples budgets and that is hard but there are always the cards, prints, potholders, and little kid creations that are affordable. I think just being here and soaking in the vibe has a potent effect on people.

Today is the day after. It has been rainging all day long. Brenda and Pearl spent a chunk of the afternoon watching Ugly Betty and I took a long nap in the carriage house while the rain drops did their thing on the roof. The little ones where quarrelsom and needed intervention on and off all day. For dinner we had a roast chicken, mashed potatos with gravy, green beans and spelt flour biscits made with coconut butter for dinner. It continues to rain. Brenda and the big girls are in their privet spaces with books the little ones have settled into quiet non computer/game boy play and Shep is playing with Birdy the pup.

We are thankaful for everyone who came and shared the weekend with us especially those who laid down their hard earned money to invest in our families work and life. We are thankfull and we will soon be ready to begin making new work and follow the garden into fall.

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