Mira Reisberg

Creative problem solving CONTEST

2012-01-27T19:44:00.000-08:00

Here's a brain challenge for all you creatives out there. Below you'll find an image that I created for our Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Illustration CritiqueFest. It was lots of fun to do and I have a really good sense of how the story is going to go but no idea right now what the "it" is. I came up with trying to see the moon during the day as it has to be something in the sky or up high (I think).

So anyway, the winning prize for "it" is your choice of a 1 hr Skype picture book consultation with me or a high quality print of this piece, or free participation in my Hero's Art Journey e-course starting March 5th. This course, which features interviews with and inspiration from award-winning children's book people Yuyi Morales, Magaly Morales, Jim Averbeck, Elisa Kleven, Ashley Wolff, Hugh D"Andrade, Maya Gonzalez, Francisco Alarcón, Lissa Rovetch, and a ton of other amazing picture book people and fine artists and even a couple of agents is a life changing fun and empowering creative adventure for very beginning to experienced artists, kids book people, teachers, therapists and adventurers and has received wonderful responses from everyone who has taken it. You'll get to "draw" out and make peace or slay your inner critical monsters, create your own Victorian silhouette tree of life, access your inner goddess, and much more. Do visit the website to find out for yourself. http://www.herosartjourney.com

To win, all you need to do is come up with that special what "it" might be - be as wild as you like - post it in the comments, and link this blogpost to your blog or social media and sign up for my fun infrequent newsletter (if you're in Northern California use this link http://eepurl.com/cz7vE and if you are anywhere else in the world use this link http://eepurl.com/hJCmQ. (you'll also get some litle giftees for signing up).

Be as brilliant, clever, soulful, funny as you can - but no pressure : ) Results will go out via newsletter or here (or maybe both). Good luck and turn off that critical inner voice monster : )

Great Inspirational Opprtunity for Children's Picture Book People

2012-01-04T23:30:00.000-08:00

From the awesome Sharon Levin who does sooo many good thngs

Hey all!

Yes, it's getting to be that time of year again. Please do help me spread the word. It's going to be my last year affiliated with the festival (10 years is a good run, but my 'baby' will be in 10th grade next year, the eldest will be in college and it's time for me to move on), so I'm hoping for a HUGE turnout.

Thanks gang!!!!

WHAT: The TENTH ANNUAL ORION CHILDREN'S AUTHORS AND ILLUSTRATORS FESTIVAL

WHEN: Saturday, February 4th, 2012, 10 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

WHERE: Orion Elementary School, 815 Allerton Street, Redwood City

WHY: A unique and FREE opportunity to hear presentations by a wide range of children's authors and illustrators. The lineup includes Jennifer Holm, 3 time Newbery Honor Winner as well as the author of the best selling Babymouse series. Also presenting, Elisa Kleven, Bruce Hale, Deborah Underwood, Teri Sloat, Thacher Hurd (not just a wonderful author/illustrator in his own right, but the son of Clement Hurd - illustrator of Goodnight, Moon), Shirin Bridges and our own amazingly talented Orion Parent - Elizabeth Gomez.

We have been doing this Festival for ten years. It was started by a parent and the school librarian. The main purpose was to have children meet the people who create the books that they love. We wanted to help break down the barriers between reader and author. The festival has been and will always be free - we never want cost to be an issue for those who want to meet these amazing people.

Each classroom adopts an author or illustrator and studies her/his work in depth. They then create beautiful banners based on their person's art. Every child in grade 2 and above may serve as a docent to the author(s) of their choice. It truly is a school wide event and Orion's gift to the greater Bay Area community.

Thank you for your time.

More information on the Festival lineup below:
Elisa Kleven
http://www.elisakleven.com/books.html
Thacher Hurd
http://thacherhurd.com/
Deborah Underwood
http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/
Elizabeth Gomez
http://www.elizabethgomezart.com/wp/?page_id=4
Teri Sloat
http://www.terisloat.com/books/gallery.html
Shirin Bridges
http://goosebottombooks.com/site/OurGeese_sybridges.php
Bruce Hale
http://www.brucehale.com/
Jenny Holm
http://www.jenniferholm.com/index.html

Sharon
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From me - And just to kvell a little (kind of means boast but it's more like sing or trill - OK I looked it up - "beam with pride and pleasure") New York Times best selling author Deborah Underwood is a former student from one of my kids' book courses, Elisa Kleven and Elizabeth Gomez are both good friends featured in my Hero's Art Journey e-course (next one starts March 6th) and I know and love Teri Sloat. They are all fabulous speakers and gifted creators. Makes me feel mighty lucky!!!!

Lessons learned in 2011 from A-Z

2012-01-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

Art heals the heart and makes the soul sing

Car accidents are awful – leave earlier, drive slower. Also, courage comes in many forms.

Dental surgery sucks – brush and floss really well

Everything creative is not necessarily great (but most things are)

Finding out what's true for me changes with time but the essence of who I am remains the same

Goodness begets goodness

Help (asking for it) can be a really good thing and gets easier with time - helping others, even better

Independence is also good

Just do it and trust that it will be OK regardless of expectations

Kangaroos are not the only things that hop all over the place

Learning is its own reward (so is loving)

Marriage has its ups and downs (tho mostly ups).

Never give up on something you believe in (and if you lose faith, act as if)

Old people have often learned what’s really important (love)

Practice kindness to yourself and others (self part isn’t always easy)

Question what’s really important

Realize that this is it – “your one precious life” and try to live it with integrity

Seek out like-minded souls to grow with

Understand that life leads from one mystery to another

Very often we think we’re going one place when we’re really going another

What matters most is taking the journey with heart

eXtraordinary things happen when you take risks

Yellows like Quinacridone Gold can look light golden light

Zesty energy comes from eating well (no flour or sugar), being creative, and loving well

Wishing all of us a magical and transformational 2012 full of unicorns and rainbows and other fabulous miracles

Here’s a wonderful link to the symbolic meanings of unicorns http://www.unicornleanmanufacturingchangemanagementservices.com/about-unicorns.htm

Kids Books, Successes, Last minute Gifts, International Online Adventures, Victorian Silhouettes, Love and More

2011-12-13T22:24:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy time since I disappeared into teaching my first online Hero's Art Journey course, which was a wonderful and transformative experience for all of us. The last passage of time has been a magical time - I took my children's book writing, illustrating, and publishing students to San Francisco to see and hear Chris Van Allsberg and Lemony Snickett (AKA Daniel Handler) moderated by the delightful Mac Barnett and it was awesome! I managed to spend some time in the beautiful Sierras, have continued bringing art programs to seniors - loving them and learning to accept their passing or their diminishing facilities, while celebrating their many successes in art. I also managed to make some time for my own art projects. Here's the seasonal greeting card that I was invited to do for our region's Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrator chapter. Quite the honor.

I realized that two of my former students were New York Times Best Sellers this year - Yay Deborah Underwood for The Quiet Book and Yay - Yuyi Morales for Ladder to The Moon ! Another former student self-published a really unique and intriguing book Yay David Tribble for Lord of the Scribes (http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/lord-of-the-scribes/id463952767?mt=11)! And another of my former students, Mati Rose McDonough, illustrated her first and second picture books - you can even enter to win one in a competition here. And she's releasing her first painting book Daring Adventures in Paint which I'm sure will be magical. Yay Mati!!!

To celebrate my students' successes I am offering a super-discounted online consultation for your picture book manuscript or illustrations. If you have a picture book in you, I can help! It's $30 off so instead of it being $210 for a guaranteed to blow your mind 3 hr consultation as it is here www.artspractice.bigcartel.com it's only 180 for a guaranteed to blow your mind 3 hr consultation if you click below -
This special is good until January 15th but you can redeem it for up to a year so sign up soon : )

And speaking of magical - my new online art (and crafts) course is up and awaiting your viewing pleasure and personal and creative empowerment. Spirited Gift Making takes a spirited and spiritual (whatever that means for you) approach to creating gifts for others and for yourself. I've created it as a self-paced course where you don't have to wait for anything - it's all right there with tons of fun video demonstrations, step-by-step directions, a private gallery and comments page, AND your own e-book of course content and instructions at no additional cost for the ridiculously low price of $25.

It's for complete beginners to professionals alike and everyone will learn something valuable. You'll be learning how to make Victorian Silhouette Portraits, acrylic paint and sculpted wish boxes, needle-felted brooches, watercolor peace cards, framing love frames, serenity bracelets and more. Any one of these projects is worth the price of admission so do check it out www.spiritedgiftmaking.weebly.com Please read the testimonials above and forward this blog post URL to ANYONE you know who's artsy/crafty or wishing to access their creativity.

Here's a peek

I've even made gift certificates for last minute gifts for that special person - only $25!!

And lastly but not leastly here's the link to the new updated Hero's Art Journey online art and transformation course with fresh interviews with inspiring artists and new content www.herosartjourney.com

And guess what? I'm also running an early bird special until January 7th for this course too. Only $89 for 5 glorious weeks of personal empowerment and transformation accessing or improving art techniques and creativity. See the post before this one for more info and this one is even better! Here's the link to the course www.herosartjourney.com

Here's the link for the discounted price

Here's a sneak peek of the new Hero's Art Journey video

And another gift certificate

And finally here are a few testimonials from heroes all around the world who took the first Hero's Art Journey course:

What I liked most about the course was that it was not just technique, not just personal growth, not just art history, but a fabulous combination of these things and more. It also felt like a very caring community of artists, which I desperately needed being an insecure beginner! This was a terrific experience! :) ~ Michelle Lansdowne

I spent the day thinking of myself and other people as goddesses and gods. It was a really cool experience/exercise. Highly recommend it, changed my 'reference point' quite a bit. I have enjoyed all the interviews because they give me insights into the way other artists do/see things. I really like the filmed interviews. The course has been a wonderful mix of 'everything'. Life happens and art happens, and this class is a wonderful catalyst for making art happen while life goes on it's busy-body little way. ~ Kirsten Carlson

There is so much material, including demos and interviews. I consider this course a “must have” experience. Most of all, it is highly affordable, and very convenient. The videos are very well done. The material is well organized and presented at just the right pace. I am very thankful to have found Mira because her gifts of instruction have helped me immensely. ~ David Le Roy

Mira, I love the course, and the Flickr community where we get to see each others' work on the different subject matter--very inspiring. The technique videos are great, you make things look easy and very do-able, and I know I will try more new ways of making images because of what I've experienced here…. I love the journey concept, it feels like we're going somewhere, and we do! This is definitely a growth experience for me as an artist and a human being. Thanks for sharing! ~ Diane Stewart

it's so fun to watch you work. it's like dessert topping! i just eat up the visuals with my eyeballs. and i love monster stripes and dragon glitter! ~ Maya Gonzalez

Dear Mira your course has been a delight in every facet … this was my very first art class, and I had a great time. The Hero's Art Journey melded itself into all the myriad other things that life sends our way in a typical week and also how it stood out as inspiration instead of "to do.” I liked knowing about the different skin colors too, but I fell on my knees in thanks for the how to draw a person video. You made it so easy - I can do that. I've loved the course, the company, the comraderie, the tiny bit of deadline pressure offset by the hugeness of the artistic freedom. Thank you for all your hard work and your enthusiastic honesty. Thanks to you, I've learned oodles about technique and come to the end of the course feeling richer in very deep and personal ways Thank you for all your hard work, but especially thank you for your honesty and for sharing your open-hearted generosity with us. Mira is an enthusiastic and talented teacher who puts her all into her classes in order to draw as much as possible from her students. ~ Nancy Laughlin

If you need someone to push you outside your box I highly recommend taking Mira's course. Even if you're not sure you have the time, its still worth every minuite you can squeeze in. Attending Mira's course is like having a personal trainer. And, the input from all the other students builds on the entire experience. Through her concept of 'hero' I was able to identify with the themes and truly take my 'journey' to the next level. I feel 'unstuck' after several years of spinning. Just do it! Really! ~ Kary

Mira, thank you so much for your honesty and your commitment.... I will treasure this experience and your teachings ~ Barbara T.

Thank you for reading all the way to the end here. I would love to have you in one of my classes. As always - feel free to email me miraguy AT gmail dot com or contact me in the comments section with any suggestions or questions : )

much love

Mira

Adventures on this Hero's Art Journey

2011-09-07T23:03:00.000-07:00

Calling out around the World!

I'm definitely deep in my hero's journey creating my first Hero's Art Journey international e-course. Course starts this Monday the 12th so if any of you folks are interested in learning how to draw and paint or work with collage, deepen your existing art practice or reconnect with it, meet some fabulous fine artists and children's book illustrators and authors AND have an amazing life changing experience, now's the time to sign up.

click on images to enlarge

The people already signed up range from total beginners to phenomenal artists. We'll have tons of instruction for those who want or need it on drawing, watercolors, acrylics, collage, stamp making and more, tons of inspiration, and guest interviews from the likes of incredible children's book illustrator/authors and fine artists like Maya Gonzalez, Elisa Kleven, Claire B. Cotts, Hugh D'Andrade, Elly Simmons, and TBA. You do as much or as little as you like in whatever way works for you using eay tech in the comfort of your home and the safety of our online environment.

I'm really proud of the work I've done creating this course, which is loosely based on Joseph Campbell's seminal work on universal myths where each person receives a call into the unknown and extraordinary things happen for those who heed the call. I hope you'll join us. Here's a sneak peek www.herosartjourney.com and here's where the discounts are

Join some incredible people for a once-in-a-lifetime experience (truly). Are you up for taking the leap of faith? Do you have an adventurous friend open enough to take the leap with you into a world of creativity, mythology, and creativity? Simply sign up here and then email me at miraguy@gmail.com Family members welcome.

Take a peek at www.herosartjourney.com

Regular price $89

And here are some hopefully intriguing samples from Marge and me (you get to tweak projects so they work for you)

My Little Movie About An Amazing Global Online Transformational Art, and So Much More e-Course

2011-08-26T18:11:00.000-07:00

Here it is! The 2.5 minute movie about Hero's Art Journey, the transformational, experiential, online, multicultural, art, mythology, and personal growth course that I've put everything I know into. I'll be teaching drawing, painting, mixed media, life lessons, and so much more for very beginning and/or experienced artists, teachers (lots of lesson plans), therapists, coaches or anyone wanting more courage, creativity, beauty and fun in their lives and work.

I've made the technology really easy to use and taken choice bits from Joseph Campbell's work on The Hero's Journey. We'll explore meaningful and fun projects while learning lots of art techniques through easy clear instructions using multiple methods of learning (here's where the PhD comes in handy, but don't be intimidated). We'll also form a wonderful interactive community of support.

Class starts September 12th - October 31st with course content remaining for another 3 weeks so folks can really take their time if they need. Size is limited to have the best possible experience so click on over to www.herosartjourney.com or email me at miraguy@gmail.com for more info or to arrange alternate payment.

This course will be life-changing (as I've heard from many of my past students) in the best possible way and is priced to be fantastic value at $89.Please tell EVERYONE you know and help spread the magic.

Check back to meet more of the fabulous artists whose interviews and techniques will inspire you (including historical, contemporary, and famous picture book artists).

Artists lives, friendships, collaborations, and art

2011-08-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

I've been an artist for as long as I can remember. As a child when adults would ask what I wanted to be when I grew up, I'd say "artist" to everyone's horror. For most of my life, being an artist has been one step up from being a heroin addict or a serial killer. Decades ago a friend took me to her office party and the usual question of "what do you do?" came up - of course I said "I'm an artist." The looks were truly disdainful as if I'd said I had a majorly contagious disease, but then when my friend said, "Mira illustrates children's picture books" the change was amazing. Suddenly I was respectable and worth knowing. Faces were smiling. I'd been redeemed.

With the phenomenal rise in the information age and technology came a greater public valuing of images and image making and visual culture. Image making became more valued through this image driven media. And even though there's been a huge increase in respectability, and even money and status for some folks, and even though the emotional and psychological, intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic rewards are tremendous, being a committed artist is still a big struggle in terms of economics, security, health care, and the daily challenges of doing the work and getting paid for it.

For me, one of the biggest rewards of being an artist (besides doing the work and teaching others how) is meeting other artists. As an artist, children's picture book creator, and art teacher, I have become friends with lots of fabulous artists. I wanted to feature some of them here. I'm also delighted that brave souls who want to learn art or deepen their art practices will meet some of them in my upcoming fabulous global online art course Heros Art Journey on September 12th. Follow the kitty to find out more : )

I recently got to visit 2 wonderful artist friends Briana and Peter for their 30th anniversary. They are exceptional people as you will see from their art and home which was a total fixer-upper. Weaving their usual magic, they transformed it into a magical abode. I took a bunch of pics, which I'm randomly showing some of here. Peter makes wonderful recycled stained glass from glass plates and such and they both make fantastical talismans, sculptures, jewelry, and objéts d'art from recycled metals. Click on images to enlarge.

Something strange happened with my camera amidst all the socializing, so apologies for the weird color (sigh). Unfortunately you miss the glorious color of this stained glass piece which you can only imagine, especially when the light is streaming thru.

As I'm only focusing on 2D art for my course, Briana and Peter won't be featured in it, but the next artists will.

At the party, I ran into a dear friend Claire B. Cotts who had just come back from an exhibition of her work in Tennessee. Her work is brilliant (always has been) and while we were talking she "whoopee" agreed to be interviewed for my course! Knowing Claire - it will be fabulous. One of the things that is especially wonderful about Claire is her equal commitment to realistic narrative and abstract narrative in her work. The girl knows her stuff! Oh and she's also an awesome children's book illustrator.

One last friend I want to share today, who will also be featured in the course is my old mate Hugh D'Andrade (check back in a few days for more fabulous featured artist friends - too many for one blog post). I was lucky enough to be one of his students and then to have him as one of my students. I was also lucky enough to play a very small part in his and another one of my students falling in love in class and they are now both happily married successful artists. Yay! Am hoping Mati Rose McDonough will be in at as well but depends on whether her book projects' deadline is extended. Here's hoping she has time.

Don't forget to check back to meet Elisa Kleven, children's book author and illustrator extraordinaire, Elly Simmons another extraordinary artist (whose also done some children's picture books), Maya Gonzalez ditto, George Littlechild (hopefully), and more. Oh and here's my kitty if you want to register or find out more about this phenomenal course starting September 12th. Oh and can you folks who show up on my feedjit that someone really is reading this, help me out and do that magical exponential social media thing and help me get the word out about Hero's Art Journey? Thank you sweet things.

Art, Passion, and Life - Art as Healing

2011-08-05T11:08:00.000-07:00

I love passionate people (mostly). Some passions border on obsession or obsessiveness where you can't stop thinking about it and it's pretty much what you live for, dream about, and want to do with all your heart for all your life. Making art, children's picture books, and teaching/mentoring are pretty much it for me.

My obsession started as a child in a difficult working class neighborhood where art making was my refuge and my joy. I could literally draw out my pain or I could create fantasy worlds that I could escape into (self-portrait mermaids were a common theme as were lovely landscapes). Art making helped me survive many difficult things and heal from them.

My parents were war survivors and died young. After that I pretty much raised myself. If anyone mentioned parents or war, I would simply leave the room. I was scared that if I spoke about them I would start crying and never stop.

One day I did a painting using our family's iconic "family portrait" photo as reference. I was so scared I'd just cry and cry and cry. And I did. But then I stopped and in the process of painting that painting and allowing myself to feel the sadness, something profound shifted. I still have and love that painting (I'm the sad twin in the lower right).

For years, many of my paintings were about sadness or grief or about being confused, conflicted, or angry, until I'd drawn out so much of that stuff. When I lived in San Francisco, I had a year where I just allowed myself to paint darkness, mostly black ink on white paper with a big brush, but also quite a few color paintings about my family and the Holocaust. My best friend and I went to the beach and built a fire and burned all the art. People rushed up offering to buy pieces but I needed to burn them and watch all that sorrow go up in flames. It was fascinating how the canvas on the back of the paint burned first and then the paint turned into chalk and then it was just gone. It was incredibly beautiful.

When I came to the US, I was lucky enough to have a solo exhibition curated by one of my art heroes (and crushes) Enrique Chagoya http://tinyurl.com/3ter9dm . Enrique encouraged me to show my most intense work and take elements out of the paintings and continue them onto the wall so it was even more intense. I got the most amazing responses to that show including an invitation to illustrate a bilingual children's book about change. This began my career as a children's book illustrator where I got to create empowering anti-racist kids books. Talk about healing.

Now my work is very often about light and color and joy. Even tho I still sometimes paint about difficult things or things that I'm questioning, I do it with a much lighter heart and palette. Am so grateful for the power of art as a force of transformation and good in the world.

When I was a grad student, my dissertation chair asked me "What is your agenda?" I said "to be a force for good in the world." I feel grateful that I get to do this through my own work and by teaching others skills to access their own art making or deepen it. It's always sweet to be in a place of gratitude. Now I'm off to obsessively paint!

The wayward blogger returns with many more adventures

2011-07-11T13:43:00.000-07:00

Oh, the guilt! I have been ridiculously busy doing way too many things since I last blogged. I presented at a SCBWI Northern California Central revision intensive. Mine was called "The Art of Re-Visioning Picture Books" and included revising both writing and illustrating picture books. I had the most wonderful group of people, and it was a real joy. Of course, I nearly killed myself putting the powerpoint together because of course, why use one picture book per point, when you can use three? Still, it was a fabulous experience.

I also did an author/illustrator school visit, where I did a presentation for the younger grades, the older grades and a professional development in-service with all the teachers. Each of these was absolutely wonderful. The teachers and I made a place-based science and math mural, where kids would learn about their local environment and animals (science), as well as learn through fun and experiential education addition and multiplication. It was a blast!

Some of my children's picture books

Kids are blurred out for privacy reasons

Detail of teacher's math mural. I like how this one shows our mountain lions

You do the math. Eucalyptus trees, mountains, wild turkeys,

raccoons, squirrels, clouds, mountain lions, and that might be it.

As the regional SCBWI illustrator co-coordinator, I also hosted a "Picture Books and More Share-a-Thon" where everybody brought a copy of recently published children's pictures books where we practiced first seduction, then deconstruction. Meaning, we just enjoyed the hell out of the books first, and then went back to see what made them so great in both art and text or what flaws they might've had. Then we all went and had lunch together. Lovely, lovely. lovely.

Finally, although, not really finally, I did an "I come to you" children's book writing, illustrating, and publishing intensive in Ahwahnee, near Yosemite, which was so beautiful, it took my breath away. We stayed with two very talented artists Chris Obers and Vicki Thomas, whose work I think you will enjoy. Here are some photos from that trip.

I've also been teaching a local children's book class and a pilot study class for my insanely exciting upcoming "Hero's Art Journey" online transformational art course. It's a tremendous amount of work making the samples, doing the research, designing the site, conducting interviews, writing articles, making demonstration videos, finding inspiring examples and creating worksheets teaching folks how to draw animals, birds, people, dragons and monsters, and all sorts of other stuff. I am planning on making it one of the most if not THE most incredible online art learning and sharing experience. Here's what's going to be on the welcome/introduction page (click to enlarge). Any comments much appreciated. Can't wait to share more details.

I'm also continuing and loving my work with seniors. Here's some of their wonderful work.

I've also been busy with is writing and illustrating some new picture books that I hope to get published. Will post some sample pages as soon as I'm able.

But, my two really big pieces of news are I have an intern who I adore. Her name is Marge and she's brilliant, incredibly talented and a true gift to work with. We are teaching each other lots. My other news is I have a new kitten and her name is Luna. Some of you may remember my blogging about grieving for our old cats, Guido and Possum who died last year. We missed them horribly, but weren't ready to get new cats until recently, when I asked my wonderful husband Guy how he would feel coming home to a new cat. When he said "I'd be fine," it was all systems go! Guy wanted to get a black cat, because they're always the last to get adopted (yet another reason to love Guy), and I wanted a kitten to train, which I'm not doing a very good job of because she is so beyond adorable. It's hard taking good pictures of her, because she's so dark and pretty much always moving [ADHD?] or conked out but here goes. She constantly melts my heart and it's a wonderful feeling.

My gorgeous intern Marge

Totally irresistible. Check out that skinny little tail.

Guess who's ruling this house? Queen Luna.

Working with seniors, trip to LA, birthday joy, teaching

2011-04-10T14:32:00.000-07:00

San Francisco, LA, Orange County, Rocklin - these are some of the California hot spots I've been since my last post.

Me in LA wearing my cold weather hat (I became a wacky hat fan after illustrating Uncle Nacho's Hat - really, each book has a story that happened after it). I love the "so bad it's good" architecture and embellishments of this house. Anytime someone expresses heart, creativity, and individuality, I pretty much love it.

While there, I became a trained Alzheimer's Association Memories in the Making Art Facilitator for my Transformational Arts Practice work bringing art into senior care facilities where I work with independent, assisted, and memory care seniors. I LOVE it. Talk about getting onboard the love boat. One of my favorites is a woman, who I'll call B. She's a really extraordinary artist but is terrified of starting so we have this little ritual where I ask her if she'd like me to help her get started. She always nods her head and says yes enthusiastically, so I then ask if I can put my hand on top of hers, which she says yes to as well. I then guide her hand to make the very first mark and then I let go and say "there you are, let's see where this takes you" and she ALWAYS does amazing stuff - mostly abstract but with the occasional recognizable element like a wave or a tree. Her work is incredibly elegant and it inspires all of us in the group. Doing this work brings out my tenderness, joy, and amazement at the human spirit. I have people who have never done art before find this magical sweet spot and it is such a joy, or they just laugh at what they've done and that's wonderful too. I am so trained at training people that this is just awesome (literally) for me to be just in that place of tenderness and being present in the process while teaching those who want a few techniques. I love everyone I work with, including the grumpy ones, and this is also a source of joy and amazement for me to have this complete lack of judgement and just be in that place of unconditional love. I think part of the reason I am so drawn to this work is that I never had grandparents and my parents died young so being with seniors is really healing for me on some really profound level. Making picture books, teaching kids and adults literacy arts and all about pic books have also been incredibly profound on my healing journey. As the saying goes "it's never too late to have a happy childhood." I still haven't made my permissions release form to post seniors work but as you read on you'll understand.

I stayed with Antonio and his fab wife Olga. We visited Chinatown. Antonio doesn't realize the money sign is pointing to him. A good omen I hope. We all know how hard it is for artists to make a living.

Some of Antonio's art.

Another beautiful Antonio piece. It's about 4' across.

Not too flattering of either of us, with some mice that I needle felted (one for him and one for me, the mice look good at least). I took a pic of Olga but can't find it right now.

Antonio and I became friends at Mills College where we were both doing MFAs. His wife Olga is a public defender and she told me that prosecuting kids on a misdemeanor charge (for doing stuff that most of us did as kids) costs taxpayers something like $40K per trial. If the prosecutor is successful the kid goes into the dehumanizing juvenile system which will certainly not make them better adjusted, happier, less likely to commit crimes again human beings. Sigh and no wonder our economy is messed up. The courts are packed.

This was a beautiful young German woman I met traveling on the train. I think her name was Sabine. I worried about her vulnerability dressing like this in a big city like LA.

In San Francisco I celebrated my birthday with a fabulous group of people and we had a ridiculous amount of ultra loving fun.

Me trying on some of Maya's outrageous earings and pulling hair back to show them (they don't go with the heart, but Maya's convinced I can wear BIG earrings if I cut my hair short but I think I'm too small to pull them off).

Maya brought her husband Matt and her daughter Zai (Zai and I fell in love), Ashley Wolff brought her fabulous hubbie Sabin Russell who used to write for the Chronicle and now is writing about dark matter for Berkeley Laboratories (fascinating stuff), my beautiful friend Jane came briefly, Krista Lohr came as did my former assistant Anna Bonner, talented future children's book author and illustrator Indelisa Carillo and new friend Roxanne Davis, my friend Mitch who was the best man at my wedding and who I love dearly, and of course my husband Guy. I did a needle felting demo and let everyone have a go. We also did a show and tell of current projects, which was also lots of fun. Ashley (picture book author/illustrator extraordinaire) showed (and gifted me with) her latest book Compost Stew and it was just the most wonderful night.

Really unflattering pic of hubby Guy and BMF Mitch

From back to front, Krista Lohr (if you see beautiful signs and built stuff at Rainbow Grocery, that's Krista's work - she's a fantastic artist and one of their maintenance people), Roxanne Davis author, check out her terrific book We're Here Because We're Here: Growing up in Mid-20th Century Los Angeles , and Anna Bonner also a wonderful artist (and engineer - go figure).

Indelisa Carillon and Sabin Russel (I just discovered Sabin's blog and it is awesome, especially for anyone interested in science, politics, and life). For some reason it was a bit slow to load but well worth the wait)

Anna Bonner, me wearing birthday gift handmaid wild hat from Maya Gonzalez (picture book author/illustrator extraordinaire)

Gift from Maya. Fabulous scratchboard art

Maya looking funny fierce, Zai and Mathew

Zai looking intensely at her sundae, wondering wether to blog about it on her post it note.

Zai needle felting intently

Me and Zai bonding. I loved how she snuggled into me letting me know

that she liked me (trust me it was very mutual)

Zai with her needle felted art piece

REALLY unflattering pic of Guy, and me (not too bad), at our old haunt

the Atlas Café

In Rocklin I attended Spring Spirit, the California North Central Society of Children's book Writers and Illustrators conference. Many of my former students came which was really fun and I can't wait till they get published. Dominic Catalano was my favorite speaker tho I liked Christ Webster too. As our region's illustrator co-coordinator (try saying that fast 5 times) I got to hang out with the other volunteers and celebs at a wonderful dinner party, I also got to drive Dominic to the airport and hear his ideas on the conference and my students work (which he felt was some of the strongest work). He raved about my other half of the illustrator co-coordinator Kris Aro McLeod whose work is beautiful. She and I have some wonderful things lined up for the coming year that I will be blogging about after I learn to write much shorter posts. Problem is I get too involved in the post and over 3 hrs later here I am.

It's 2.30 (I started blogging before 11) Here's what's left of my day:
• Promote my upcoming classes at http://www.artspractice.com/current_arts_courses.html
• Prepare for senior center TAP art project by deciding on what project to do and make samples for it
• Prepare for working with adoptive and future adoptive or foster care moms at Lilliput Services on Tuesday where I'll be working with beautiful therapist Shelley Balla-Hawkins on teaching visual journaling (I need to start my own journal sample on the same paper and decide on very first project - too many to choose from)
• Prepare for teaching The Art of Children's Picture Books at the Crocker Art Museum, also on Tuesday - see if this link works too
Oh and shower and cook and am actually having my first date in ages with Guy (He bought us tix for Sarah Silverman at he Mondavi center for my birthday)
Life is full and good (apart from having to do promotional stuff for my classes) - that is so Jewish having that little qualifier at the end (and so is the syntax of that last bit about being Jewish - it should be - having a qualifier at the end is very Jewish). As Martha Weston used to say "Rewind" - so I'll end with life is full and good! Am I being meta here?

Adventures in art and art classes • Other adventures in Northern California

2011-01-17T21:21:00.000-08:00

I finally sent out my first email Newsletter last week. It was hard figuring it out but am pretty happy with it. Next I have to figure out how to do the join my newsletter button to put on here and my websites (www.mirareisberg.com and www.artspractice.com). I tried to make it as artful and heartful as possible, sharing art, and news, and info about my upcoming classes. Here's the header I designed and the info about the classes is on the right.
If you'd like to receive my next newsletter email me at miraguy@gmail.com and I'll put you on the list.

Click on any image to enlarge

Other News
I'm so happy I've just about finished the full size sketches for an animal book I've been working on. Here's one of the funkier sketches that still has a good feeling about it. Below is a similar pic that I was fooling around with for ideas for my color sample. Today I looked again at hummingbirds and when their wings are up their tail feathers go down so will be tweaking that for the final. Oops.

text will remain a mystery for now

In the publishing world that uses 4 color process printing you're not supposed to use metallic colors as it's an extra ink run, but even without using metallic ink, I still think glitter looks great.

This lovely ceramic baby is going to my awesomely talented friends and former students Hugh D'Andrade www.hughillustration.com and Mati Rose McDonagh www.matirose.com whose work I both adore. Hugh was my teacher too when we were both teaching at UC Berkeley extension and I have him to thank for much of my web designing skills. I made the baby when I was teaching in Illinois and learning ceramics was my big stress reliever. I learned to make the mold, which was ridiculously heavy and made 5 of these altogether. 2 have been completed and the other one below I'm either keeping or will be getting traded with another fabulous friend Maya Gonzalez, children's book author and illustrator extraordinaire http://www.mayagonzalez.com/html/books/books.html, fine artist and co-publisher of Reflection Press www.reflectionpress.org Am looking forward to completing the other 3 but I don't think one of them will survive the firing process a 2nd time. Will see how it goes. The mold was accidentally thrown out so these are the only babies like this that will ever be made, I call them a limited, limited edition.

Speaking of teaching and learning Mati is starting an online art course with her friend Lisa Congdon www.lisacongdon.com that should be fabulous. It's called Get Your Paint On. Despite slim finances, I've signed up because I think it will be grand and will both help me continue growing as an artist and nurture me in other ways. It starts Jan 31st - Here's the link http://www.getyourpainton.typepad.com/

Cabin Fever and a trip to Locke
Whenever my husband spends too much time indoors he gets cabin fever, so we went off adventuring and exploring to the California Delta and Locke in particular. It was wonderful. It's an historic area that hasn't been gentrified or commodified - Wow! It was designed and built in 1918 following a fire in nearby Walnut Grove by Chinese workers for their own community. Up until fairly recently it was an exclusively Chinese town which is pretty amazing. There are still some Chinese families there but not as many as in its heyday of 600 people. Now the population is pretty small, definitely some artists, eccentrics, and maybe some outlaw types living there. There are also LOTS of street cats, including some very handsome and friendly ones that I got to pet. This made me happy. Here are a couple of pictures from Guy's cell phone (I forgot my camera).

Not sure of the politics of this one above but it was fun to do. The buildings are just what they look like on the highway side.

My beautiful brother-in-law Bruce and his wife Bernadette. They were here from Brussels where Bruce is in a band, performs in films and theater, and translates with Bernadette. Bernadette is also an artist and a joy to be around. They were here for Xmas but have gone back now. I miss them.

One of my beautiful and talented students Lakshmi with her mother. I couldn't get mom to smile but I loved their presence together.

The pictures below are from burning 1990s tax records. It was wonderful.

The joys of collage and the journey of making meaning, joy, healing, and transformation

2011-01-03T21:17:00.000-08:00

Like for many artists, art has been a journey of making meaning, joy, healing, and transformation. This past year has been full of the good, the bad, the ugly, and the process of transformation through beauty, and art making. Rather than dwell on the difficulties (the bad and the ugly) I'd like to focus on the good that has come either out of the difficulties, or of its own. I have been forming community in Sacramento which has been wonderful, teaching art classes, also wonderful, adjunct university teaching which is partly wonderful (I hate grading and how it corrupts the learning process), making art, writing and illustrating kids books, and building my new business Transformational Arts Practice and its website http://www.artspractice.com One of the goals of TAP is to bring art programs into senior care facilities. I am very excited about this as I love being around elders and all that they have to teach. Another one of my goals for 2011 is to begin teaching online courses which if anyone knows how you do this, I'd be grateful to hear from you. You can see some examples of my classes and students work at http://www.artspractice.com/current_arts_courses.html I've also been making art which always makes my heart sing. These collages come from working on a very intuitive level and seeing what comes up.

This is from a beautiful Mary Oliver poem. I love her work and often use her poems in painting to poetry classes. I need to go in and credit her name on the piece. In terms of the art, I love the weight of the rocks/mountains and the lightness of the heart. The first line in the poem is the name of the piece. I transferred it using both back and front painting. The woman holds a wand or flower which leads to a floating heart as a source or possible idea. The first line "I don't know what a prayer is" speaks to my own spiritual journey of finding peace, connection, and beauty in nature. The large boulders or mountains represent the obstacles I put in my way to get to that place of peace, connection, and beauty. Not sure where the Indian woman is from. If I find the source will go back in and credit.

I've been playing around with making stamps. This piece isn't finished. It's called "the flight of the bumblebees." It was fun and easy to make.

This piece about family of origin stuff (or FOO) uses an excerpt from Chuck Smoot's poem "Forgiveness." The decorative paper is used here as a dark sun or moon.

This collage piece is pretty self-evident. I am such a huge hummingbird fan and paint/draw/collage them whenever I can. I've also become a glitter fan which appeals to the girly part of me.

Here's my personal transformation piece or "inner goddesses." That's me as a serious baby, the goddess that has arisen from this young child symbolizes spirituality and wealth in the forms of her multi-hued halo and the bowl of golden eggs represent creative fertility. My spirituality and wealth has always materialized in the form of art making (creativity) and the wealth of friendships and love. The halo points to a tightrope walker walking on a fine golden thread She is holding it together on this delicate journey juggling what might be golden balls, or a series of suns. The final aspect is the warrior goddess, seeking to do good or battle wrong. While armored, she carries flowers as she emerges from a unfolding peony - a symbol of riches and good fortune. Who knew this little girl had all that in her?

"Into the mystery" includes drawing, painting, collage, and handmade stamps. It's about head and heart connections, unfolding ( a re-occurring element), different kinds of wealth, and the miracle of the hummingbird. The figure is like a key hole or portal opening into a world of ideas and feelings.

Spy story tells a visual narrative about good versus bad. But is it really that simple?

This collage isn't finished. I have no idea where it will take me but am enjoying the ride.

Here's a recent photo where I Photoshopped in a picture from Baby Rattlesnake in the background for the Crocker Art Museum where I hope to be teaching in April. Being a Photoshop wizz, I also Photoshopped out the dark Eastern Europan descent circles under my eyes and softened some of my wrinkles. I commented in Facebook recently about struggling with the aesthetics of aging. I think it may be time to stop doing the virtual face lifts. Wish me luck.

Return of the Blog, cat loss and love, and loving Maya

2010-12-14T13:39:00.000-08:00

I've been mourning my cats. Every time I came to blog and saw Possum's beautiful face I'd get so sad and wouldn't be up for continuing. With the passage of time it's getting easier but I still miss them very much. Am trying to figure out whether to get new cats or not as we want to move and having pets makes it way harder to rent. I love the freedom of not having pets but I miss all the loving, fun, and warmth that comes from having them. Sigh.

So, enough about pets. I wanted to blog about my friend Maya Gonzalez who visited recently with her hubby Matt. Together they run Reflection Press and Maya's Etsy businesses http://www.etsy.com/shop/mayachristinaprints and her jewelry and prints site http://www.etsy.com/shop/mayagonzalez http://www.etsy.com/shop/mayagonzalez. Maya also illustrates wonderful children's picture books mostly for Children's Book Press who published most of my books. Maya is probably the most authentic person I know in terms of being true to her own values and way of being. I love how outrageously she dresses, her gentle way of being true to herself, and what a wonderful artist she is. They came for the CA Library Assoc. conference where Maya presented a workshop based on their Claiming Face curriculum. I was teaching an acrylic, collage, and mixed media class so in the time we managed to spend together it was kinda feverish arts and crafts play and show and tell. We traded jewelry (I haven't managed to take pics of her jewelry that I got yet, but you can see her wearing some of my needle-felted flower pins in the poorly taken pics below, taken with a not so great cell phone).

The 2 flowers on the left on Maya's headdress are my needle-felted brooches and the embarassingly messy studio shows some of my old paintings (a family portrait and guardian angel), Ashley Wolff's Miss Bindergarten doll (Ashley is another awesome picture book artist) and a print of one of my favorite pictures from "My Colors, My World" written and illustrated by Maya.

I also want to blog a little about Children's Book Press who need support. They were the first publisher to publish multicultural children's picture books and have been instrumental in anti-racist education over the past 35 years. Like many non-profits they have been hard hit by the economy and are struggling to weather the economic storm. Here's a letter from the publisher and a link to donate any amount of money to keep wonderful books in print and publish new ones.

Losing Possum/Life without Cats

2010-10-22T07:19:00.000-07:00

When I first got Possum from the SPCA, he was only a few months old. He was one of those gorgeous tuxedo cats with long white whiskers and while all the other kitties were madly scrambling about he just sat there looking at me calmly. I had wanted a buddy for Guido, and Possum looked like he'd be a good match. So, I took him home. At the time his name was Eggbert (cruel) and he'd already been adopted once and returned so I knew that I couldn't do that to him again. I called him KrishnaPossum for his calm demeanor. I kept him in a separate room so that Guido would get used to the smell of him and told Guido repeatedly that I wasn't much interested in this new kitty but that he was for him and whenever Guido wasn't watching I'd sneak in and love up that little creature. They became best friends in an intense homoerotic love-fest sleeping with their paws around each other, grooming each other, taking turns chasing each other from one end of the apartment to the other and then turning right around and reversing chaser and chasee. When it came time for Possum to get neutered, no-one warned me that he would smell alien and evil to Guido and Guido kept hissing at him and trying to bite Possums tender regions. I had to keep them in separate rooms and the trauma changed Possum's personality. His nickname became "no sudden moves" and we dropped the Krishna and he became just Possum. It took Possum a long time to realize he was safe and relax more and toward the end of his life he became really mellow and friendly with strangers. While Guido adored Possum, he wasn't so crazy about my adoring Possum and would get really huffy when I pet him. I definitely favored Guido and felt incredibly guilty about this, compensating whenever I could. When Guy came into my life, things got easier and Possum kinda became Guy's cat while also still being mine. At first Guido was really jealous of Guy but he came to love him too.

The cats suffered 3 moves, from San Francisco to Washington State, Washington to Illinois, and then back to California and to Sacramento. Each move was absolute misery and they let us know it the whole way. By the time we moved here Guido was 19 or 20 and Possum 18 or 19. Guido started failing and then died a few months ago. Possum missed him a lot and we gave him all the attention he could ever want but then he started to fade too. We took him to the vet early this morning as he was obviously in distress and put him to sleep. Our cats gave us so much love, laughter, fun, affection, and beauty. It's insane how much loss hurts and I can't imagine life without them. Winters were always especially wonderful snuggling with them under the covers. What can I say? My heart is breaking. R.I.P. Possum. Later we will bury you in the yard beside Guido.

Teaching teaching and fabulous course starting October 3rd

2010-09-19T16:21:00.000-07:00

I've been caught up in the world of teaching, both university and kid's book classes. Am preparing samples for upcoming classes on Enjoying acrylics, collage, and mixed media. Very excited about it but swamped right now. Will post more info and pics as soon as able. Meanwhile, here's a flyer for the upcoming course. Please forward this link to anyone you know who might be interested. It should be a delightful and empowering experience.

Old Art, New Art and Awesome Picture Book Editors

2010-09-16T17:39:00.000-07:00

Good bloggers blog frequently and briefly, bad bloggers blog irregularly and blog long. Guess which one I am? Sigh. My husband used to say"most people have too much time in their life - you have too much life in your time" and it's true. I love my life but I tend to cram too much in. I'm grateful that I'm grateful everyday for having meaning and purpose and art and love and that I'm in Northern California, a place that makes my spirit sing.

Last Saturday some of my students and I went to a SCBWI (society of children's book authors and illustrators) illustration conference in San Francisco. We went down on the Friday and I stayed with some friends who I hadn't seen for 7 years while I was off doing my PhD and then teaching in Illinois. Jane and Jerome are art lovers and have loved me and I them for decades now. A LONG time ago Jane was my vocational guidance counselor and helped me go to school to get my BFA. While I lived in SF they came to every exhibition and major event in my life (wedding, birthdays etc.), they came to my fundraiser to help pay for my MFA and my fundraiser to help pay for my PhD and over the years they collected my art. When I visited them I saw pieces that I had completely forgotten I'd done and said "No wonder you still love me, your house is full of me." One of my favorite pieces was actually a gift. For Jane and Jerome's 40th or 50th wedding anniversary (they're not young but they are young) they paid to rent one of those ceramic places and invited their nearest and dearest to come to paint ceramic pieces for them. Of course I did 2 big plates as a "relational piece" - a kind of diptych where if they were getting on well they faced each other and if they weren't they turned away. I had completely forgotten about this but they hadn't. It was such a joy to see them and be in their beautiful home and near their beautiful energy. Here's some of the art.

Jane and I in the doorway of her house early in the morning (normally Jane is a very snappy dresser but here she looks like someone in a Paul Bowles book).

and now for the lovely Christy Ottaviano, children's book editor extraordinaire. Can you tell I'm having a really bad hair day? I thought I had a pic of Dana Goldberg - beautiful Children's Book Press editor - but somehow I don't. Most editors are young, female, ridiculously hard working and very gifted these days. Oh to be young beautiful and talented again. Guess I'm still talented but the rest is tough.

Final pic is of a new painting. After it was finished I noticed that the back leg is a bit long but I still love it cos it tells me what I need to hear right now and I was so happy painting it.
Inherent in "do less" is "be" more. Looking at my own art I see how many themes continue but my style of making art has shifted from working primarily with pattern to working more with texture and line. Am so grateful that art is a place of refuge, joy, and transformation for me.

Life, Art, Kid's Books and Other Wonders

2010-08-29T11:50:00.000-07:00

Life continues to be full of wonder and joy. Reading (actually listening to CDs of) The Children's Book by A.S. Byat. It has stories within stories within stories about Victorian/Edwardian England, the Fabians, Socialists and Anarchists of the time, English bohemian life, Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, Emma Goldman, Grimm's fairy tales, bohemian life in Munich (yes Munich), puppetry, the origins of English children's books, writing children's books, Lalique and so much more woven in with stories about class, morality and so much more. Here's a link if you want to find out more. It's a wonderful read but not for the faint of heart. It is not a warm and fuzzy book and could have used one last edit as it's quite epic and could be a wee bit shorter (22 CDs).

Unfortunately, if you don't live in Midtown or East Sac, Sacramento is pretty much a car town with massive freeways to get from one part of it's flat sprawl to another. So, listening to books on CDs make this driving much more pleasant. Despite the freeways and ubiquitous malls, I like living here because of all the trees, the beautiful American River which is very accessible, and some lovely parks (Upper Sunrise and Ancil Hoffman are my faves and they are right on the American River). There are also some very lovely people here and it is truly diverse. Although it gets really hot in summer and quite chilly in winter, unlike San Francisco it acknowledges that fact and the homes have AC and central heat. Also unlike Illinois, the weather is not so extreme that it feels Biblical or like it wants to kill you (just kidding but wow that weather was hard to take).

Tomorrow I start teaching a course for general education majors on art education. Am really looking forward to it. It's a blended course (half online, half in-person), which will be interesting. Research says it's a very effective way to teach but I'm unsure because of the lessened amount of time for hands-on in-class art making. The woman who designed the course is lovely and all the different campuses profs teaching this course will be collaborating on creating a best practices approach to blended teaching. Will let you know how it goes. I'm excited about it but have to learn Wimba today.

I've been busy creating curriculum materials for teaching art to seniors (yay seniors), making a brochure for my TAP seniors program, and teaching a children's picture book intensive (yesterday) which was an absolute delight. I love my students and am grateful that I get such bright ones. Three of my students (who had recently taken my course) actually completed their stories and they are good, two finished their publisher's cover letter, one new student began thumbnails and saw how much text she could edit out with pictures, and one got a really good start on a delightful story about learning sign language. Those endorphins were flowing. Will leave you with this wonderful and inspirational video that I found via the lovely Jacqueline about what else - the value of art. Here's the YouTube link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpunQZ4cUyI and here's the video

Victorian style Tree of Life and Family Tree Silhouettes

2010-08-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

Thursday was the last class in the recent Transformational Arts Practice series. We had lots of fun making transformational art including self-portraits and guardian angels, fears and inner monsters collages, totem protective animals, and for the last one we made either a tree of life or a family tree. To see more amazing silhouette work, visit Hugh D'Andrade's website. Very inspirational. Here's a peek.

I'll be starting a new series of four classes exploring different ideas, materials, and techniques starting Friday September 3 10-12AM at University Art in Sacramento. If you know anyone in the Sacramento area who might be interested in learning how to access their creativity as a tool for transformation or to just have more joy in their lives, please have them contact me at miraguy AT gmail.com.

Janet included herself as a child in hers. She had never made art or taken an art class before this and did brilliantly. She is going to collage family photos into the black circles and add leaves which will really make it come alive.

Karen decided to do a kind of story tree about the drama that was going on in one of her trees where there were constant animal fights and goings on. She was fascinated by octopii from the totem animals project and decided to integrate one into her tree as a kind of spirit mirroring the roots. We were running out of time so she went abstract with her foliage which makes it even wilder.

I had always thought of my family tree as being really stumpy because of the Holocaust, but I see the ways that we have regenerated those branches. I only included those nearest and dearest because of time and size constraints. I made the trunk really solid to represent those that came before and the strength of my ancestry even tho I don't know who they were ( I wrote about this in Honoring our Ancestors when I made a family tree of spirit/inspirational and blood ancestors). The squirrels represent play and the hummingbirds small miracles. Pomegranites represent fertility and are often associated with Jewish lore. I love this way of intuitive art making, allowing symbols to emerge and then clarifying through a process of questioning - e.g. why did I make such a thick trunk and what might it represent? etc.

Art therapy group pictures

2010-08-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

I've been participating in some of Majica Phillips' Midtown Art Therapy groups for a while now. She provides a wonderful space for people to come and make art and then process it. Because art making is a right brained activity, we discover things that may not be so obvious on a conscious level or develop strategies for dealing with things that may be troubling for us. Mostly we play with materials and make art in ways that are incredibly self-nurturing. One of the bi-products of the group is an expanding of community as we tend to get pretty close. The groups/classes have also provided a deepening of my own art making practice, and the ideas that I work with in the Transformational Arts Practice courses. It's really a joy. Here are some pictures of our art. The goal is not to make "good art" but to create with as little thought and self-criticism/self-censoring, as possible - very different from my "normal" art making process. Wonder if anyone can guess which ones are mine? Click on images to enlarge.

Special Projects and Community Based Art

2010-08-12T15:14:00.000-07:00

Have finally updated my website page on Special Projects and Community Based Art. I created it to be a resource for others and also to provide information on some of the services I offer educators. Below are some of the images (the information and basic directions are on the website page as it's a LOT of information. There is a good reason why I procrastinated putting this page together). Following the images, I have provided links to some of the picture books I mentioned. I have become an affiliate in hopes of earning a little extra income (yes Capitalism can be sad for creatives). I also have a ton of children's book recommendations on this page including categories and annotations. Click on the images below to enlarge.

visual culture puppet shows

community gardens

zines

immigrant cartoon narratives

picture books

Honoring Our Ancestors
My Diary from Here to There
Where Fireflies Dance
What's the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About Horses?
A Shelter in Our Car
Birthday in the Barrio
A Movie in My Pillow

Fabulous SCBWI Fresno event and tour of the Arne Nixon Center

2010-08-12T14:41:00.000-07:00

At last a moment to blog. Got to take my children''s book writing, illustrating, and publishing students on a field trip last Saturday to Fresno (about 3 hours away) where we participated in Erin Dealey and Patricia Newman's fantastic SCBWI workshop on writing picture books. They invited participants to send the first page of their manuscripts for critique and did a brilliant job of critiquing with the perfect combination of honesty, insight, and encouragement. They crammed a tremendous amount of information in and made it a spectacular event. What a dynamic duo. We also got to experience a tour from Angelica Carpenter the Director of The Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children's Literature.

The Center has one of the largest collections of children's books on the West Coast with a large collection of multicultural and Lewis Carroll books (eclectic) and everything else you can think of. I loved how passionate Angelica was in sharing the books and resources there - I felt like a kid in a candy store. They also have a whole bunch of original art from wonderful artists like Aliki and Thacker Hurd. I was over the moon with happiness being there and wished that I lived closer to take advantage of their fantastic collection.

The drive there and back was a blast and we met up with other class members who live in the Modesto area and usually commute to Sacramento for our classes. Right now four of my students drive 2 hrs to class from North and South (2 each). Fortunately they mostly car pool. We had a lovely dinner and ooh and aahed over the day and discussed what delightful things we were going to do for the last class coming up on the 21st. Will let you know. I always get sad when a course comes to an end as we tend to get very close.

Button possibilities and instructions

2010-08-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

This one or that one? Any strong opinions?

Thank you Cypress Sun (couldn't find her name anywhere) for sending me the winning URL. Here's her etsy site where she makes lovely jewelry. http://www.etsy.com/shop/cypresssun

Here's the site that gave super clear directions on how to do this if you're wanting to make your own (these are 125px wide which is pretty standard). http://www.ehow.com/how_4891649_button-text-box-underneath-code.html

To post my blog button (or someone else's) you simply grab the code underneath and copy it, go into the design section of your blogger site, add a gadget choose html and paste it in and save. Voilá!
Meditation on learning how to do this - In the old days, you just kept working in an area (e.g. painting) and you got incredibly good at it over time but with tech the game keeps constantly changing and evolving, needing to learn new skills, and abandon old ones. Evidently, constantly challenging the brain helps with avoiding Alzheimers and other memory illnesses. In that case, most of us using tech should be fine.

Struggling with making a grab this button for my blog - help?

2010-08-04T18:53:00.000-07:00

I've just spent the last frustrating 3 hours trying to make a blog button without any success. This is the button I'd like to use (even tho it's not "branded") http://www.flickr.com/photos/15266144@N04/4861609108/ or this one http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4117/4861007141_2eb0760f06_m.jpg (opinions welcome).
Here's the code (I couldn't paste it in as it got very buggy). Not sure why it's breaking my name up in the img alt = field either. - Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

New updated teaching dates

2010-08-03T14:59:00.000-07:00

For anyone in Northern California interested in learning about children's picture books, writing, or art - here's the new flyer. The 8 week course features a $10 discount for returning students and SCBWI members.

Little Monsters

2010-08-01T23:22:00.000-07:00

Here are my fears and inner monsters. See if you can figure out the symbolism. I have owned them now so that they don't own me. The one on the left is using flocking, the one on the right uses glitter glue. They were lots of fun to do. The red one still needs work (too busy but then again, that's one of my fears so maybe I should leave it). The ones underneath show the 2 different processes that I used.

Fabulous day, art therapy, making more monsters, and flocking love

2010-07-29T21:50:00.000-07:00

Had a wonderful day with Bebe the dog I'm petsitting who is just pure love. So beautiful to be around. When I take him walking he has such a spring in his little terrier step, it's infectious. Worked on some sample monsters for Saturday's class and then went to my art therapy group with the fabulous Majica Phillips of @Midtown Art Therapy. We did our check-ins and lo and behold we were going to make art about our shadow selves and inner monsters - woo-woo. Got to make some dark art (way darker than we will be doing on Saturday, tho who knows) and and wrote a few words describing our feelings about this part of ourselves on the back of the small canvas panels. Then we did this neato thing of passing our piece around with the instructions for each of us to to make the next person's shadow self beautiful with what we know about this person, so once again it was going to a place of giving love and ultimately receiving gobs of it. Each person added art to the front and words to the back and mine went from being this dark sad and spooky painting to full of light and joy as it went around the room. I loved working on everyone's piece and experimented with glitter and flocking powder and I flocking loved it! Really. Flocking is awesome. Our pieces turned out so beautiful, and the words on the back were incredibly touching. We had to read them out loud saying "I am" and then each of the words our group members had written. I got teary with mine as I've been a little hard on myself for not being more of a mainstream success (i.e. money maker) lately. Sigh. Someone wrote that I was bountiful which was a lovely affirmation, also that I was beautiful, talented, funny, smart (I think) and glistening. Must write these in flocking somewhere so I remember them in those self-judgement moments.

Here's what I love about art therapy: It's all about getting stuff out quickly and visually (not about the aesthetics) which is hard for me because I like to take my time and craft each piece so that it is as beautiful as I can make it, but not doing this is incredibly liberating and unprecious and this approach or loosening up is spilling out into the art I make at home. I alos love how art therapy acknowledges, validates and utilizes the healing power of art for personal growth, and working thru blockages, and for me personally, I get to experiment with materials I would never normally use, be unconcerned with outcomes, have lots of fun, and form community with wonderful people. My Transformational Arts Practice courses are like a modified version of art therapy that also teach systematic art skills and allows more time for an aesthetic experience. It works more on an affirmation and exploration level integrating what I've learned from research, being an art ed prof, teaching art, and being involved with personal growth for many many years. Have I mentioned how grateful I am to be in Northern California where this way of being is so accepted? Right now am in a place of gratitude.

Playing with fears and inner monsters

2010-07-28T14:50:00.000-07:00

I goofed in my last posting, writing that we would be making totem and protective animals this Saturday, but it's actually Playing with fears and inner monsters. We'll be making playful monsters that contain our fears, owning them so they don't own us. As I'm playing with some of these fears, I see how many of them are the inverse of my hopes or the fear that if my hopes are realized I wont be able to handle it. Also coming up is the "not enough" fears. That I wont have enough money when I'm old, that my art isn't good enough and on and on. It's amazing how much power we give these crazy monsters that are simply that. Am loving cleaning this negative energy out and cutting my fears down to size. I'm taking lots of photos for when I teach this course online but if anyone is in the Sacramento area and would like to join us, please contact me at miraguy AT gmail.com (time and place info on the top right of this page). We'll be using collage, cut paper, and mixed media. Making them will be pretty wild (pun intended) and lots of fun.

Teaching, Painting Animals, Bebe the Wonder Dog, The Central Valley

2010-07-25T13:57:00.000-07:00

From http://www.fieldcam.com/

Returned from the Central Valley where I taught classes in kid's books and graphic novels for teens in the afternoon and adults at night. Had a wonderful time and met some delightful talented people. Was pretty pooped afterwards and stayed at a friend's who lives in a fabulous house but in a suburban area with no community. Lovely houses on a lovely street and no-one walking or talking on the street, no nearby cafes or bookstores. Made me think about suburban versus urban alientation and the importance of community. The land was full of golden siennas, ochres, and beiges. A surreal beauty with the occassional swath of green produce in abstract shapes. Came back late Friday and Saturday morning taught the first class of my Transformational Arts Practice course which was about self-portraits, self-knowlede, self-care, and portraits in general. Not many students but the ones that were there were very happy. It was so magical teaching things that they've never done before and watching the beauty and magic of creativity and self-care.
Next week's class is teaching students how to draw and paint realistic and/or stylized animals that are personally significant. I have a whole pantheon of totemic animals that I call upon for different occassions - bears for strength, alligators when I need a thick skin, hummingbirds when I feel like a small miracle and want to give thanks and so on. Because the classes stand alone am making them 3 for $75, 2 for $60 and single classes $35. Kind of an incentive plan. If you know anyone within a 2 hr radius of Sacramento - please let them know. I have a flyer a few postings below with contact info etc.

And now I'd like to introduce Bebe the Wonder Dog. Bebe is a wonder dog because he is so wondrously loving. Up for a cuddle, a belly rub, a walk, anytime. He also loves to kiss, but I draw the line at tongue kissing. I'm housesitting a beautiful house and getting some exquisite solitude just me and Bebe. We love gazing into each other's eyes and plumbing the depths of each other's souls. The only other time I get to do this is when I'm doing portraits and can really look at someone without having to self-consciously avert my gaze. Reminds me of how much I love doing portraits. I had a wonderful time doing my self-portrait sample for class. My old publisher, Harriet Rohmer, used to say that I liked to "reinvent the wheel" by experimenting with different materials and techniques so this one I used charcoal and an acrylic burnt umber glaze, then introduced different subtle glazes on my dolphin, hummingbird, and blossoming flower. It's not finished yet but am loving the process. Am thinking of using this technique in one of the books I'm working on. It has a really nice loose quality, but because the white is the white of the paper (like watercolors) it's not very forgiving. No idea how it's going to end up but will show you when it does.

Teaching in the Central Valley

2010-07-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

Off to teach in Livermore tomorrow. My first time in the Central Valley. I imagine it will be hot and dry but I know that a lot of farming happens there so it may be hot and green from the crops. One of the classes is working with teens doing a workshop on children's picture books and graphic novels. Should be fun. Always a treat getting to work with kids. Will let you know how it goes.

Please forward or come to these unique classes in Sacramento

2010-07-16T16:45:00.000-07:00

If you know anyone who might be interested, please forward this to them. It should be pretty extraordinary and a lot of fun, especially for those wanting to learn art skills or do something different. Click on image to enlarge.

San Francisco with the Bay Area Bookies

2010-07-16T16:31:00.000-07:00

Had the delightful privilege of going to San Francisco with one of my mega talented continuing students to a Bay Area Bookies meeting of amazing children's book authors and illustrators. Here's a group photo that Ashley Wolff of Miss Bindergarten and a squillion other beautiful books took. It was so wonderful being among my kin and sharing ideas, projects, art, and love. I was in piglet heaven.

From the littlest heads in the back left to right Katherine Tillotson (I t's Picture Day Today! , When the Library Lights Go Out, Penguin and Little Blue, Songs of Papa's Island ), Marissa Moss (Amelia's Itchy-Twitchy, Lovey-Dovey Summer at Camp Mosquito, Amelia's Notebook, Hannah's Journal: The Story of an Immigrant Girl, Amelia's Guide to Gossip: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The Pharaoh's Secret, Hannah's Journal: The Story of an Immigrant Girl and many more) Sharon Levin kid's book reviewer, Elissa Guest (lots of books - click link), Sarah Kline does great books with her sister, Jane Wattenberg, (it got to be too much work linking to all the books so am just linking to their book pages, sorry), next row left to right Susan Myers, Elisa Kleven, me looking VERY happy, Wendy Lichtman, Julie Downing, Lissa Rovetch. Bottom row left to right Bev Gherman, Jim Averbeck, Kristen Schwartz (up and coming author/illustrator), Maria Van Lieshout (and baby), Ashley Wolff (who hosted the party in her fabulous Bernal Heights home - when I have time will show pics), and Bob Barner. Just checked Ashley's link and they include Ashley Olson groan but they also include many of her books. You can also always just copy and paste their names into a browser, remove any spaces, and put .com at the end to see their websites (a couple of which I designed long ago and now need updating.

OK I can't resist. Here are a few. The last ones show the "show and tell" we all did of recent and forthcoming projects. Having all given many school presentations, even the introverts did great. It really was a blissful day and quintessentially San Franciscan.

Sneak peak at the Transformative Arts Practice header and offering

2010-07-12T00:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a sneak peak of my Transformative Arts Practice website header. If you can, do let me know you think.
The first offering will be a "self-portraits, self-knowledge, self-care" course that will be very powerful, fun, and empowering. I am reading and re-reading the following books to deepen the underlying theoretical perspectives and pedagogical approaches: A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland, Teaching Visual Culture: Curriculum, Aesthetics, and the Social Life of Art by Kerry Freedman, The Re-enchantment of Art by Suzi Gablik, Claiming Face by Maya Christina Gonzalz, which is a complete self-portraiture curriculum for educators (also available on Maya's website where she is currently offering a super dooper discount), The Art Therapy Sourcebook by Cathy A. Machiodi, The Lure of the Local by Lucy Lippard and Self-Nurture: Learning to Care for Yourself As Effectively As You Care for Everyone Else by Alice Dohmer and Henry Dreher.
I am going to be launching the first in-person series in Sacramento at University Art on Marconi near Fulton on Saturdays 9.30-11.30 beginning July 24th and the online courses will start late August or early September. Am very excited to put it mildly. If you or anyone you know might be interested please forward this to them and have them contact me directly at artspractice AT gmail.com. I will have a registration form as soon as I have my TAP site up.
Any suggestions/comments much appreciated.

Peace and love - Mira

Basking in the Teaching Afterglow (and books we're reading and using)

2010-07-11T23:42:00.000-07:00

Another gorgeous sunny Sacramento day. It's the day after teaching one of my kid's book classes and am reflecting on what a joy it is to teach warm, funny, smart, talented people who are really happy to be there. We have a wonderful system of group teaching that is transforming the student's writing, art, and lives. We begin with the assigned readings.

This semester we are using my Writing Illustrating and Publishing Kid's Books Handbook which also includes exercises the students didn't do because they are so passionate/obsessed about working on their own projects. I suggested they do them as party games with friends which would really be fun. They did however, read all the informative text (yay) and one student's young daughter drew all over the cover because she liked it so much (I felt honored). We are also using Writing Picture Books: A Hands on Guide by Ann Whitford Paul, and the 2009 Children’s Writer’s and Illustrators Market by Alice Pope. In the past, we have also used The Writer's Guide to Crafting Stories for Children by Nancy Lamb, which was also very helpful. We are using the 2009 CWIM because by the time the current guide comes out many editors have already switched publishing houses (it's the only way for most editor's to get raises) and this is the main information in the book that is time sensitive. I also like a lot of the articles in that particular year and because it's not current it's much cheaper new or second hand for my students to buy.

After we've discussed the readings and how they relate to where students are with their projects - it's critique time! The students bring enough copies of their stories for everyone to have one, and those that haven't been critiqued recently get critiqued. Because this is early in the course we are focusing on the stories, although one of the students is working on illustrations that I have assigned her to meet criteria that editors look for in portfolios, and another brought a story that was almost complete and we are bringing her illustrations up to a publishable level. I cannot describe how much fun this all is, or the intense concentration and focus required to almost psychically tune into how that particular author or illustrator can fix whatever needs fixing, tweaking, clarifying, or playing with. What is also amazing is how far the stories go from beginning to end and how wonderful it is to witness this and be a part of it.

For the critiques, we divide up the remaining time between the number of students needing critiques, and that's how much time they get. Someone reads the story out loud and we follow along and jot down notes. Then we read and proof the story and include suggestions before we discuss it as a group. I usually lead the discussion and everyone else jumps in to help solve issues or problems or with suggestions to make it stronger or funnier etc. The class is designed to be a gestalt and everyone is bonding beautifully.

On Dying and Living

2010-07-07T20:46:00.000-07:00

I just found out a dear friend from my time in Illinois recently died. I thought it was a bad-taste joke posted on Facebook about someone of the same name in Northern Illinois dying but it turns out it was her. She was someone I really loved and admired but we were rarely able to do anything together because she was determined to finish her dissertation, which had to be the greatest dissertation ever. Her husband was also frustrated by this but of course we all respected her wishes. And now she's dead. I'm not saying her dissertation killed her, tho I doubt that the stress and pressure helped (she died of a fast acting breast-cancer relapse). I looked up Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's stages of grief and I seem to be somewhere between stages 1 and 2 - denial and anger (am not in the sadness yet, perhaps because of the distance and my continuing sadness over the loss of Guido). I have lost a ridiculous amount of people and loved ones in a relatively short time beginning with most of my relatives killed in the Holocaust before I was born, and caring for many wonderful men who died of AIDS. I have done many living and dying workshops including some fantastic ones with Steven and Ondrea Levine. For anyone dealing with loss, dying, or grieving, they have written some extremely helpful books including these - Who Dies? A Year to Live, and A Gradual Awakening and then there is Kubler-Ross's seminal text and Ram Dass's wonderful work (the original Be Here Now and the updated Remember, Be Here Now, and Still Here, Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying. These folks helped change how we deal with death and dying and helped found the hospice movement which has helped many folks die consciously and with dignity. They have also helped me deal with death in a more present way. When my father-in-law and different friends were dying, I read guided meditations from Who Dies? and some of the other books mentioned here and I truly believe it helped both them and me in the process of letting go.

All this has me thinking about a meeting I had with 2 friends last week called a "Pressure Relief Group" where they help you create a roadmap to deal with your hopes and dreams and goals and relieve pressure from whatever is causing stress. I came all prepared with my little folder about the different exciting projects I am working on including the school for Transformative Arts Practice that I am creating, 14 different e-course ideas, my beginning business plan, and the what needs to be done to complete the 2 books that I am currently creating list. They looked at me and said "Mira you are doing too much." I knew this and told them about doing my PhD in a record 3 years while teaching a full load, publishing 3 articles, winning a teaching award, and graduating with a perfect 4.0 GPA. I also mentioned that it nearly killed me. They asked me "What is the common definition of success in America?" To which I replied - "How much you do, earn, and have." They pointed out what a quantitative rather than qualitative criteria that was and asked me to redefine this definition for myself and of course the answer was having peace of mind and a high quality of life that included creativity, community, love, friendship, art, service, relaxation, exercise and so on. In other words - how to have more relational quality and do less. So have decided that my first e-course offering will be about "Self-portraits, self-knowledge, self-care." Will let you all know how it goes.

The image at the top is a portrait I did of Maya Gonzalez, one of the 18 pieces of original art that I created as part of my dissertation. I find it very calming. You can see more of my dissertation art on my website at http://mirareisberg.com/academic_art

Totemic taxonomy update

2010-07-02T00:38:00.000-07:00

A couple of posts down I wrote about my totemic taxonomy painting and what each of the animals signified or represented for me in my journey to "claiming face" and authenticity. I also described how I wasn't happy with the overall piece and that the background was too distracting so here's the final piece. I'm much happier with it now and have prints available on my etsy site at the low low price of $16 plus shipping.

Before posting this I was goofing off looking at friends' blogs and I saw Mati's posting about elephants, butterflies, and transformation from yesterday around the same time as I was posting about this totem. Our styles are totally different but we are conceptually connected, or is this all just part of the collective unconscious floating around? My image is an homage to/inspired by one of Mati's totem-like stacked animal paintings, as well as the extraordinary indigenous wooden totems from Pacific Northwest indigenous artists. Here are links for both
Mati and Pacific Northwest totem poles

Transformational Arts Practice

2010-06-30T14:24:00.000-07:00

My life-long journey as someone from a challenging background who has used art as a force for healing, making meaning, and helping others by creating multicultural picture books, murals, service-based art projects, and teaching art and problem solving skills, have all led me to start the next part of my life where I "claim face" as Maya Gonzalez encourages, and my authentic identity as an artist/educator/transformationist as Kelly Rae Roberts encourages. I feel like I spent the last six years wandering in the emotional desert of academia where so much is the opposite of being authentic, with myriad hoops to jump through that get progressively higher and higher and institutionalized systems of regulation (me grading students, me being graded by those higher up on the totem pole). All these things that are so far away from what I really want to do - which is make and teach art in playful and empowering ways. A big part of this distance from my authentic self was being part of the "tenure" system, which I am now grateful to be out of. I know for many people it's not an issue, but for me it was.

So now, I am very excited to announce (drum roll please) that I am about to embark on a new period in my life teaching (in-person and on-line e-courses) in sequential art and problem solving skills through a transformational arts practice based on a pedagogy of pleasure. I have been developing this pedagogy of pleasure for many years and wrote about it in Studies in Art Education. If anyone enjoys academic writing visit http://www.mirareisberg.com/articles.html for some of my articles. Transformational Arts Practice teaches course members how to "tap" into left and right brain ways of thinking and doing to overcome blocks in specific areas with specific projects while also teaching traditional and contemporary art and crafts skills (something that many newer artists might really appreciate). I feel that my academic background has trained me in research practices that will be very helpful in providing background information and good pedagogy, while my artist's soul, sensitivity, and joy in making and teaching art will help me teach these things in a loving way. I am VERY excited about actually launching SOON, but am finding it hard to decide on which blog button to use as this will decide how my new site will look. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated as it's very hard to see and critique your own work. If you can - do let me know what you think.

I am an artist, educator, loving, transformationist

2010-06-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

I've been taking this extraordinary e-course with Kelly Rae Roberts and reading Maya Gonzalez's Claiming Face curriculum which provides an alternative pedagogy for teachers to engage students in learning through creativity and claiming their authentic selves (Kelly also does this in a very different way). So, here goes....

The animals are from my personal symbolic non-hierarchical totemic taxonomy (whew! Taxonomy is a cool word for a system of classifying). My animals are not in any particular order, but they do mean specific things. Beginning at the bottom - the snake is a symbol of transformation because it sheds it's kin, the turtle tells me to slow down and that I carry "home" wherever I go, crocodiles and alligators are ancient survivors and can live both on land and in the water - they also remind me that I need to have a thicker skin at times, elephants with their trunks up signify good luck - they live in herds (community) are very soulful, and also have thick skins. Birds represent flight, the imagination, fragility and the world of ideas, and a mouse with an elephant represent the Indian God Ganesh - "the lord of obstacles" because together they can go absolutely anywhere." Finally, butterflies are the ultimate symbol of transformation emerging from their cocoons as caterpillars before shedding their caterpillar selves to be a glorious butterfly.

I am more in love with the concept of this painting, which is part homage to Mati Rose, part homage to Native American totem poles and partly based on the creation myth of turtles on top of turtles, than the image itself. The actual painting doesn't include the collaged word elements but I feel my background makes it too busy. I will simplify later. But here I am, impatient to post, and here it is - imperfect but present. Hope you enjoy.

Art Addiction and Studio Lies

2010-06-27T22:20:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about addiction and the many forms it comes in. For me it's art supplies, children's picture books, art books, other books (spirituality, history, novels, yiddishkeit) collecting art, making art, and a tendency to work too hard. Today I tried to sell some of my squillions of beloved social theory, art education, and qualitative research books today at our 2 local book buying places, but they weren't too interested. May make a posting here in future and see if anyone wants any cheap. Am really trying to pare down and do more with less but just watched this terrific video from Claudine Hellmuth on making art with beeswax (a simplified form of encaustic) http://www.artworkshops.tv/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=39&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=102 (it's free but you have to sign up and register) and now of course I want to buy all those supplies. My studio in Sacramento is the smallest that I've had in decades which means I need to get rid of stuff rather than getting more. Sigh.

The other thing I was thinking about was a conversation with my friend Caron Dunn who is another needle-felter and an exceptional teaching artist for all sorts of art forms. She too has a small studio in which she creates a lot of work and like mine it has a fair to excessive amount of chaos and mess. Anyway, we started complaining about our messy studios and comparing it to all those gorgeous artists studio you see online, when Caron exclaimed "Those pictures are lies! No one's studio is that tidy. They wouldn't be able to get any work done!" This instantly made me feel much better although tomorrow I am hoping to clean up my studio a little, even if it only is for a few precious days before I get down and dirty with my supplies.

Guido 1991-2010

2010-06-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

The results came back and they were very bad. The night before we were almost giddy, feeling somehow that we might have cheated death the way Grandma Beetle does in Yuyi Morales's Just a Minute book. When I told my 84 year old extraordinary mom-in-law about this she said in her Zen Buddhist way "no-one cheats death." Yesterday we put Guido down and buried him near the redwood grove in her yard. It was unbearably painful. He was between 96 to 100 years old in human years and as Guy often pointed out, he had a better life than many humans do. I have wonderful pictures of him from kittenhood on but can't find that darn album. Here are some pictures of him that I could access.

Guido and Guy

Guido and Possum

Guido and art. Our old cat gallery on left, and Guido's delight in jumping onto my art table, especially into wet paint, with which he would then gleefully run tracking throughout the apartment.

Guido in art. Guido snuck into this painting detail from a commission I did of someone's Pacific Height's view (it was a much larger painting). On right, Guido (and Possum) in Just Like Me

Some of the many faces of Guido starting with the "I know I am a little cat but I want to dominate you" look. He also had an incredible range of vocalizations from tiny little squeaky sounds to loud disapproving yowls. He was a brilliant communicator with both his voice and actions.

Guido's last day. I hope he's either in kitty heaven climbing trees and chasing birds and butterflies, or that he gets to come back as the human he always wanted to be in a really good life.

Guido's reprieve

2010-06-24T23:05:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm pathetic. After days of weeping we took Guido to be put down and he suddenly rallied wolfing down the food the vet put on the table for his final meal, acting all frisky. So, the vet presented us with the possibility of a few more years of Guidoness and we jumped on it. We spent $320 on tests, a hinie wipe, a nail clipping so that he can get more traction, and tomorrow we find out the results. Whatever happens we are happy to get at least another day with "the greatest kitty in the universe" (Guy's nickname for Guido).

Saying goodbye to Guido

2010-06-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

Have made an appointment to put my nearly 20 year old cat Guido to sleep tomorrow. He's failing fast, falling over, just gone blind in one eye, not eating, skeletal, and yet his beautiful presence still shines through making it hard to let go. I named him Guido because the house I lived in at the time had once been an Italian boarding house and Guido means guide, which he has been in many ways in my life. I've known him since he was a little over a week old when I was visiting my neighbors Miya Masaoka and Jesse Drew in the Mission District. Guido climbed up my body and sat on my shoulder purring. I picked him up and he fell asleep in the palm of my hand. He became my cat. When I fell in love with Guy, Guido was not thrilled and expressed this clearly by jumping on the bed and sitting with his back towards us. After he got to know Guy, he fell in love with him too and up until a few days ago still rode around on Guy's shoulders pretending he was a parrot. Guido along with his best friend Possum have appeared in many of my kid's books like Just Like Me where they are featured and then as random eccentric cats in other books and paintings. My heart hurts and am finding it hard to imagine life without him. Poor Possum and Guy will be devastated too.

Teaching children's book writing illustrating and publishing

2010-06-19T20:41:00.000-07:00

Today was the first class in my second series of teaching in Sacramento and what a treat. My courses usually attract amazing students and we go on this journey together that is pretty mind blowing. I love the total unknowingness of - here's our starting point, here's what we are going to do, and all we know is that we are going to be in a very different place than where we started and have a fabulous time along the way. I often provide the bus analogy of - I'm the driver and we're all in this together going off on a big adventure. I have a deal with my students where if they get published, they take me out for a fancy dinner and give me a signed copy of their books. Today I upped the ante that if they sell millions of books they take me on a fabulous vacation. Not sure if this is ethical but it sounded good to all of us.

I love teaching this course and have taught it in San Francisco at UC Berkeley Extension, SF City College Extension, and Northern Illinois University. I taught a kid lit course at Washington State University but the 2 university courses involved grading, accountability, standards, and all that stuff that makes it less of a free exploration/adventure. I've also taught 3 hr intensives at schools for teacher-in-services, which is also a blast. Now that 17 of my students have been published I feel like a proud mama. My area of research as a PhD student and professor was the intersection of race, place, and culture in children's picture books. I imagine that I am one of the few people who has illustrated, written, art directed, designed, researched, edited, published, presented on, and taught about children's picture books. I also have this amazing library (yes, kid lit is one of my major passions/obsessions).

After teaching my last course and assigning a text book, I realized that I was frustrated that some books had some info and others had other info but none of them combined all the info that I wanted to share with my students so, I wrote my own book. Because of copyright, I only included my own art from my kid's books and personal art, wrote accessible text to cover everything I believe is important, created my own exercises for writers and illustrators and wrote synopsis and recommendations for kids books supporting the text. Am delighted to announce that it's now on my etsy site www.MiraArt.etsy.com as a downloadable pdf (or e-book) for $12. I hope this is reasonable for 20 plus years of experience and a lot of hard work, heart, and soul, but there are a few typos, which when time allows I will correct. Still, I think I like the idea of imperfection, like Turkish carpets where they pull a small thread because the only thing that should be perfect is God.

oops screwed up my treasury link

2010-06-18T15:43:00.000-07:00

Here's the correct link http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c1bc3617b076d91dc9b0209/happy-b-day-etsy
and I forgot to mention Caroline who kindly put together the treasury.

Making the etsy treasury and painting bliss

2010-06-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

One of my paintings "Happy Alligator" was featured in an etsy treasury today. Am so thrilled. Yay. Here's the link. It's kinda humbling to see how thrilled I was having someone I don't know recommend my painting. Somehow, am connecting this little external validation to Kelly Rae Roberts e-course which has been quite extra-ordinary and all the internal work I've been doing about clarifying who I want to be in the world of work, i.e someone whose happy and gives service or happiness to others.
I've also been painting up a storm the past 2 days and can't wait to finish and post some of the new paintings. I can tease you with the titles tho - "Sisterhood is powerful" is about my twin sister Leonie and I for her birthday pressie, "Here comes the sun" reflects how I feel coming out of this hibernation/gestation period of darkness, "Creation Myths or a Taxonomy of Things I Love" which is an homage to my friend Mati Rose whose work I also love and an homage to the turtles on top of turtles creation myth, and "Gestation, inspiration, contemplation, transformation" which is about all the things in the title. Sometimes naming paintings is a total struggle and sometimes the who and what they are is just totally evident. Today I am loving being an artist. Tomorrow I will be a children's picture book teacher and imagine that I will love that just as much.

The Shame of It and Where I've Been All These Months

2010-06-13T23:25:00.000-07:00

OK I know the worst thing a blogger can do is be inconsistent and not blog regularly, but here I am returned from the dead (kind of). I managed to get a freak inner ear viral infection with extreme acute vertigo, so was flat on my back spinning out into the universe for a month then staggering around getting better bit by bit for around the same time. It really was the 7th circle of hell but that time of incapacitation was also a gestational period so that even tho I couldn't write or read or make art, something was going on that is now beginning to bear fruit. I was in a place of deepest despair and now I've moved out of the winter of my discontent into a place of hope and blossoming.

I am developing a new transformative pedagogy that I'm very excited about, making art, reading terrific books, taking courses and workshops, participating in an amazing art therapy group with Majica Phillips of Midtown Art Therapy and a fabulous e-course with Kelly Rae Roberts focused on growing a creative business, writing and creating art for two books (one for adults and the other for kids) and feeling full of possibility and promise.

I have posted a special on my etsy site www.MiraArt.etsy.com reducing prints from $28.00 to $15, written and self-published a book teaching others how to write, illustrate, and publish children's picture books (also on my etsy shop as a downloadable pdf book) that while not perfect, I'm extremely proud of. Meanwhile am getting ready to teach two new courses at University Art in Sacramento and teach future teachers how to integrate art across the curriculum at Brandman University. One of the things I'm looking at is how to be less extreme with my time. This image, for educational purposes only, is about my relationship to time - either I'm late, I'm late doing way too many things, or I'm just this delighted sloth hanging around doing nothing. Hmmm. Oscar Wilde's line "moderation in all things, including moderation" used to be my motto, but now I'm just seeking simple moderation and balance.

Effie Yeaw Nature Center Fundraiser and Adventure California

2010-02-26T23:36:00.000-08:00

Attended the Effie Yeaw fundraiser last night at the iMax downtown. Effie Yeaw is a nature center that cares for injured animals located in one of Sacramento's greatest jewels - Ancil Hoffman Park. The fundraiser had a screening of "Adventure California" which was pretty breathtaking in parts. They had aerial footage of air surfers (something that I hadn't heard of before) as well as some beautiful and moving footage of a woman scientist who helps endangered sea otter orphans return to the wild by modeling sea otter behavior with them. The narration spoke of California as a place of reinvention and innovation and it reinforced my awe and appreciation for this place. The nature center also had a King snake and a young orphaned possum for people to meet at the theater, and tho the snake didn't seem to mind, the possum wasn't exactly friendly. It was amazing looking tho. Very intense with a somewhat bizarre kind of beauty. Quite different to Australian possums which are much higher on the cuteness factor, tho this one in the picture above is pretty darn cute.

Powerful William Kentridge animation

2010-02-13T23:49:00.000-08:00

William Kentridge is one of my favorite artists. His drawing skills, intellectual ideas, and aesthetic are inspiring. I saw this video at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art last year (or the year before)and watched it several times. It's "dark," powerful, and moving. Having made some short animations I am in awe of how much work went into this. Kentridge's work makes me reflect on the power and potential of art and the ways that artists use art for healing on personal and social/political levels. Makes me feel very humble. Here is the blurb from the YouTube video. "History of the Main Complaint is the sixth film in the series and is based on twenty-one drawings. It was made shortly after the establishment in South Africa of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission." You can find out lots more about him on the web if this piques your interest. Hope you enjoy.

A tale of a mouse, snail, and hamster and other workshop stories

2010-02-13T20:34:00.000-08:00

No-one had signed up for a class I was teaching on felting totem animals. Perhaps it was the long weekend, perhaps it was that people here don't really know how wonderful felting is, perhaps it's Sacramento, or time, or the economy. So, I thought I was going to cancel it, which was also OK, when I got an email from 12 year old Julia saying she and her friend wanted to come. I was impressed by her initiative and that she really wanted to take the class. Plus there's something so magical about teaching friends and Julia's mum ended up coming too, which made it even more special. We talked a little about totem animals and they each chose an animal. I had them write some qualities that they either felt their animals had or that they themselves wanted. Interestingly, most of the qualities that they wrote were qualities that they already had themselves. Julia ~ Mouse: shy, intelligent, resourceful. Nina ~ Rabbit: curious, playful, cuddly, loveable. Anne ~ Cat: fun, athletic, lazy (which Anne loves to be when she can), independent. They all also had many other qualities such as ~ smart, amazing, and fabulous!
I showed them some of my animals, and then introduced them to the needle, the roving (wool) and its different qualities, and some techniques. We then spent 3 very focused hours together. I was very happy to be their teacher. Julia had the simplest animal, plus she was just really fast, so she ended up making her mouse, 2 snails, a hamster and a finger puppet. I was amazed at how experimental she was and delighted with the results.

Nina worked slower and more methodically, felting densely and securely to make a lovely bunny which she held tenderly.

Anne's was also impressive and she too had great focus. Together they made quite the menagerie.

From left - my beginning baby abonimable sowman (not quite a totem animal) Nina's bunny (the photo doesn't do it justice), my little kitty, Anne's big kitty, Julia's 2 snails, mouse, finger puppet, and wee hamster.

Because Julia finished way before the rest of us, I asked her to write a story about her creations. She asked the name of my pig and I told her along with the story of what "treyf" means (forbidden or non-kosher). Here is her story.

One day, Piccolo the mouse, Humphrey the hamster, and Arnold the snail took a walk. They heard an odd noise coming from behind a bush. "What is it?" they cried. They had never heard anything like it before. "Help!" they heard a voice cry. They cautiously peeked around the bush. They saw a little pink pig stuck in the brush. "Oh no!" screeched Piccolo. "Please help me!" begged the pig. The threesome helped him out of the brush. The pig told them that his name was Treyf. They all became friends.

The End.

Moral: Don't play in bushes :)

Fabulous free blogging backgrounds

2010-02-12T10:48:00.000-08:00

This woman, Itkupilli (she's Finnish) is wonderful. She has a bunch of free background patterns like the one I am using and of course you then wander over to her etsy shop where you can't help but buy a bunch of her fabulous vintage images for collage. Here's the free background link http://blo64rt.blogspot.com/

Here's her etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/Itkupilli. Above is one of the sample images from her shop for those of you who like vintage mermaids and octopii.

The Vintage Moth - wonderful free vintage ephemera

2010-02-12T08:02:00.000-08:00

There is so much (almost too much) amazing stuff out there on the web including tons of free stuff. I will try and start posting things I come across here. Vintage Moth is a great site of free vintage imagery for mixed media and other artists. I had way too much fun and spent way too much time looking at it. Below is the link. Enjoy!

The Vintage Moth..: The NEW site is UP!

Yiddish Class

2010-02-11T18:12:00.000-08:00

I started Yiddish classes with Golde Block yesterday. Golde was a professional singer from New York and grew up surrounded by the world of Yiddishkeit (Jewishness). Yiddish was my first language but where I grew up, we were teh only Jews. As soon as I started school I wanted to be "normal." So when my parents spoke Yiddish, I would respond in English telling them that they needed to speak English in the new country. Like many immigrant kids, the desire to fit in versus the desire to please/honor parents was a constant battle. Flash forward many years and I've joined "Yiddish Club" at the Albert Einstein Senior Residence Center, organized by Golde who is also teaching or reteaching some of us younger folks. I have started collecting stories of peoples experiences with Yiddish also known as the "mamneloschen" or mother-tongue for a book I hope to make and went to the Einstein Center to do a workshop with some of the seniors there. We did both stories and art and it was quite magical. The only requirement was knowledge of a Yiddish word or phrase and then we developed the stories about how we came to know these words or phrases and of course the stories told us so much more than just what the word or phrase meant. The stories told tales of history, humor, culture, tragedy, family, community, loss, and love. Of course I fell in love the people and joined Yiddish Club and then I waited in line until Golde could fit me in as one of her individual students.

We met at her warm and welcoming house, not ostentatious - as she pointed out, but warm and comfy. I asked if I could take pictures of when she sang professionally and she said "sure - why not?" Learning Yiddish was more than just learning the words, grammar, alphabet or aleph bet. It was learning about Golde's life, history, and world, hearing Jewish and Yiddish jokes, and learning about Yiddish and Jewish culture. It was also remembering about my own history that I had tried for so many years to escape and sharing small snippets from that, amazed at how much Yiddish I remembered, tho reading was a big challenge. I love the idea that at some point I might be able to read Sholem Aleichem or I.L Peretz. I love that I will get to know more about Golde as I continue Yiddish class with her. I love that I am becoming more comfortable and at home in my Jewishness.

Fair Oaks Sacramento - like Marin turned down to 2 but with roaming chickens

2010-02-08T22:28:00.000-08:00

A meeting of the minds. Stumbled upon lovely Fair Oaks today not too far from where I live. It reminded me of Marin, the hills, nature, loveliness, (excessive wealth), artistic looking alternative types, but on a very small scale. Downtown was especially charming for many reasons including the free range chickens that have taken roost in the plaza there. Evidently they rule the place. I spotted a few Rhode Island Reds reminding me of when I lived in the Obi Obi Valley of Queensland Australia and my boyfriend and I kept chickens. We named them after my girlfriends and when they started getting killed off, it was especially upsetting. Turns out there was a massive carpet-snake slithering in to the chicken coop after dark and partially gobbling them up. Aark. Boyfriend went down one night with a flashlight and gun and that was the end of the snake. Although we named the girls after friends, we named the rooster after Elvis for his impressive vocalizations and sex appeal to the hens. Jump forward a couple of decades to Northern California. Went for a walk across the bridge over the mighty American River into some gorgeous park land. Truly stunning. Every day I feel grateful to be here although I do sometimes miss some of the many other wonderful places I've been fortunate enough to spend time in.

The pictures were taken by a lovely young woman from LA who was gracious enough to take them and email them to me via her iPhone (appliance lust here). She did a good job, although it wasn't too difficult considering how camera friendly these fowls were.

School visit, school transformation, One Health proposal, sea otters, raptor rescue: Dinner with Megan, Melissa, and Julio

2010-02-05T11:12:00.000-08:00

Wondering how other people balance living a full life, being creative, and using social media like Facebook and blogging. There's the experience and then there's the experience of writing about the experience. Had dinner at fabulous Sacramento restaurant Tapas the World with some really interesting friends and ended up taking notes for my blog. Not sure if this is healthy. I've known Megan since she was little and became her fairy godmother. Now she's married and in grad school at UC Davis. I met her when her mom, an elementary school teacher, invited me to come do a school visit and 'show and tell' about my kids books to the entire school. It was in El Grenada California, near Half Moon Bay. I ended up becoming close friends her mom Melissa and Megan. Came back to paint some murals with the students. Thus began the process of transforming the school from institutional greys into a vibrant and exciting place of learning. They now have learning gardens, many more murals, and fabulous sculptures. But I digress.

The following is from my notes from a couple of weeks ago: We talked about Megan's experiences in Vet school - guest speaker from One Health where AMVA and AMA have finally gotten together to make a proposal bringing Human Animal and Environmental concerns/relationships together. Cars caused diminishing of vet schools as we were no longer so dependent on horses e.g. closing of Harvard's vet school. Julio's work at the Natural History Museum and how Southern Sea Otters eat sea urchins which turn their teeth and bones light purple. How passionate Megan has always been about sea otters and when she was 15 she made and exhibited 2317 images that she made to bring attention to how few remained (Megan is a fantastic artist). It was a powerful show. Julio's volunteer work with the Raptor Center where he climbed a 50' tree to rescue a Red Tail that had gotten caught in a kite and couldn't escape. Pretty terrifying. Melissa's fabulous new student teacher. How great it is having her but the amount of extra work in training her. We also talked about the movie The Fantastic Mr. Fox, which we all loved. I especially loved the eating scenes. Delightfully feral. Also talked about much more such as the demographic differences between MySpace and Facebook (MySpace - high schoolers, artists, people of color), Facebook (White, middle-class, educated) and much more. But life calls and must go. Next to come - writing retreat in Santa Rosa.

Children's Books and Children's Book Press

2010-01-18T21:33:00.001-08:00

One of my many passions is for children's picture books. I was lucky enough to be one of the earlier multicultural picture book artists working for Children's Book Press. They were the first publisher to show the beauty of all children, not just Anglo-Americans and to help challenge and change old racist ideas by presenting books by and about the many different cultural groups in America.

I illustrated Uncle Nacho's Hat, Baby Rattlesnake Where Fireflies Dance, and was honored to be in the anthologies Honoring Our Ancestors, and Just Like Me. I also got to art direct and design other books and through various CBP events got to know some of CBP's authors and artists such as the amazing Maya Christina Gonzales, Elizabeth Gomez, Enrique Chagoya, Carmen Lomas Garza, Elly Simmons, George Littlechild, Joe Sam, Felicia Hoshino, and Carl Angel who, among others, have all created ground breaking art for books that address important themes such as environment, lbgt, immigration, racism, war, feminism, special needs, spirituality, you name a social justice issue and it's in one of their books but in a gentle non-didactic, playful and whimsical way. Children's Book Press books have won just about every award except the Caldecott, which will hopefully happen soon. I have some annotated reading lists on my website for anyone interested in finding out more about multicultural picturebooks.

This year CBP is celebrating their 35th anniversary but like many small non-profits they have been hit hard by the recession in terms of donations and funding and the difficulties schools are having purchasing books. Other mainstream publishers have jumped on the bandwagon doing "vanilla" multiculturalism that imitate CBPs work but don't quite have the same heart, soul, and guts. While there is definitely a place for all kinds of books I really want to encourage anyone with any discretionary funding to head on over to Children's Book Presses website, check out their work, and donate. You'll feel really good afterwards. http://www.childrensbookpress.org/get-involved

Danny does blue-tongue

2010-01-13T13:39:00.000-08:00

Here's my nephew Danny with the effects of a "pop ring." He wanted me to include the ring so that people could see cause and effect and know that he didn't naturally have a blue tongue. When I lived in Australia I loved the blue tongue lizards, so these images are particularly evocative. Fortunately, Danny is much friendlier than the lizards.

Teaching Danny to needle-felt

2010-01-13T13:18:00.000-08:00

I am working on a book about needle-felting (more will be revealed later) and one aspect will be kids making totem animals. As my delightfully talented nephew Danny was visiting over the holidays we decided to do some needle felting together. He's an extremely focused and precocious seven year old and I doubt that most seven year olds could do this, especially in a classroom setting. I would recommend ages 9 and up if the kids are fairly focused. It's enormously fun. Danny loves penguins because of how they walk (waddle), how they look (cute) and their color. He recently received Club Penguin membership, which he was over the moon about. We didn't talk much about totem or power animals as he just wanted to make art and not think about it too much. Here are some of Danny's comments during the process and when I told him the pictures might end up in a book. Click on the image to enlarge for step-by-step directions.

This is worth doing. It gets you real excited.
How does the technology of this work?
Wings are easy.
Sometimes getting an idea is harder than making it.

On needle felting - Fast motion, slow motion, medium motion.
When I asked him what kind of penguin he'd be he said "Emperor penguin, because then I could do whatever I wanted but I'd rather be human. I'd really like to know what fish tastes like straight from the sea. I'd be a good penguin.

On being in a book. I want to be famous. No I don't want to be famous. I was just saying it.

So there you have it, a glimpse of my delightful nephew Danny. I love how smart, funny, and passionate about art he is. Quite a treat for this Auntie.

I will be teaching a class on felted totem animals Saturday Feb. 13, 1-4 at University Art 2610 Marconi Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95821. Kids over 10 welcome. Contact me through my website if you are interested in coming. www.mirareisberg.com

2010-01-11T19:22:00.000-08:00

Beauty at the old cemetery in Sacramento.

The cheerful side of cemeteries

2010-01-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I was feeling a little blue with the winter greys so my husband Guy took me to a beautiful cemetery to cheer me up. It always works astoundingly well. I'm not sure if it's the beauty, or the reminder of mortality and how lucky I am to be alive, but I always find old cemeteries very uplifting. My favorites are Pere lachaise in Paris, an old cemetery in Brooklyn, there's a beautiful one in Palouse Washington, and of course Colma outside of San Francisco, a city of many cemeteries. Guy saw a bumper sticker there that said "Colma, a great place to live" - the irony was not lost on him.

This particular cemetery had tributes to the early pioneers of the area. It also featured a lot of beautiful statuary, mostly ethereal and solemn looking statues of women in portent poses. I thought I'd share some here. These are color pictures and it was a delightfully eerie and refreshing afternoon.

More picture from Esthers Place - goats, cheviot sheep and chickens

2010-01-11T13:56:00.000-08:00

It was getting late in the day and the animals had either come in or were coming in. I loved how curious and expressive the goats were. The sheep also looked happy and of course I was drawn to the graphic patterning of the chickens.

Missing Esthers Place Fibers, Needle Felting, Art Education

2010-01-11T10:35:00.000-08:00

When I lived in Northern Illinois, one of my favorite things was going to Donna and Natasha's fiber arts studio (www.esthersplacefibers.com) named after their first ewe Esther. This is where I learned to needle-felt, wet felt, nuno felt and so on. It was always incredibly warm and welcoming, most of the time they'd feed you or at least make you delicious teas in wonderful old thrift store china depending on how busy the store or classes were. People were always dropping in asking for advice or showing off what they'd just made in this beautiful old Victorian in the middle of farming country and I would walk around ooohing and aahing, touching all the different colored and textured wools, locks and rovings and feeling blissed.

Donna and Natasha came and visited my classes at NIU where we got to teach future art teachers and future elementary teachers about sustainability and the magic of making art from organic wool. We made future sustainable animals (I'll post some in the future) that were imaginative creations of how farm animals and farming might evolve in the future. Natasha and Donna also demonstrated how to make felted soap bar loofahs for younger kids and talked about the difficulties of farming for small farmers. Many of my students said that it was their favorite project. I got to visit their organic farm with some of my students and meet the sheep whose wool has sustained me creatively through many projects. It was quite a magical time and I was so happy to see farm animals living a good life. They were free range with a lovely big barn to come into. These are some of the pictures I took of the farm. I have been searching for something similar to the fiber arts studio in Northern California but have yet to find anywhere with the warmth and generosity and wonderful sense of community. I still get roving from Donna and Natasha by mail but I sure miss the place. If anyone knows of a place like this here - please let me know.

More pics from my day with Helene

2010-01-04T21:20:00.000-08:00

Beautifully restored Old Town Sacramento (note the busker on right who played well and was doing quite nicely); shop window - Helene was struck by the boy doll on the tractor while I was taken with the strange baby in the carriage (pity about the reflections and yet they form a kind of commentary on time and context); bottom pic of the new Crocker extension (check out the fabulous trees on the right). Am looking forward to it opening and am hoping it will take risks and show a lot more contemporary and multicultural art and not just mainstream stuff.

Sacramento with Helene

2010-01-04T17:58:00.000-08:00

We visited Old Town Sacramento and walked along the American River, had a yummy lunch on the Delta King, an old boat converted into a restaurant and hotel, and then went to the Crocker Art Museum before I took her back to the train station. It was wonderful being tourists and enjoying getting to point out the influence of the Gold Rush on Old Town and talk about the comodification and kitchiness of history while also enjoying the architecture and craftsmanship of the old timey typography. The Crocker's main exhibit consisted of artifacts from the early days "Treasures, Curiosities, and Secrets: The Crockers and the Gilded Age" but we were more interested in the contemporary art on the top floor. The Crocker is building an addition which I'll post a pic of in my next post along with more pics from our day in Sacramento.

A day with Helene

2009-12-25T22:32:00.000-08:00

(Started on Wednesday) Our visit today was so wonderful. Here we are two working class immigrants made good (sort of). Helene is laughing at this. Well at least creatively navigating life anyway. We've known each other going on nearly 22 years from the early years in San Francisco during the punk heyday. After we quit smoking a lot of anger came up and Helene taught a women's wrestling class (she had 5 brothers) but San Francisco style where we "processed" how we were feeling before and after we wrestled. It was in a qonset hut in the Mission. At one point we went to a professional women's wrestling competition where most of the women were on steroids and we were um "processing our feelings." One of us would go out to wrestle and the rest of us were yelling to the other wrestler "don't hurt her." Everyone looked at us as if we were from another planet. I wasn't a very good wrestler, too flyweight and wimpy. But I was good at monkey moves, jumping on and hanging on, but I never had the gravitas to actually pin anyone. Over the years we've worked on many wonderful projects together - mostly art (Helene did the ants in Baby Rattlesnake and some of the lizards in Uncle Nacho's Hat)(see http://www.childrensbookpress.org/our-books/native-american/baby-rattlesnake or Amazon)among other projects.

Here are some of the things we talked about:
Aging and how difficult it is without positive public models thanks to cosmetic surgery and the media fixation with youth. We talked about mourning our youthful good looks and how even Meryl Streep had her wrinkles Photoshopped out to the point of looking unreal. I confessed that I sometimes Photoshop myself to look better. Interesting article on botched cosmetic surgeries http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/12/15/hearstmagbeauty603638.DTL&type=living#ixzz0aZn7HXUn The author writes that the reason women go to shady plastic surgeons is because they are cheap but she misses the important step before that the reason women who don't have the money to go to expensive reputable plastic surgeons go to shady plastic surgeons is because of the incredible pressure to look young and how difficult it is for this generation of older women to age gracefully with practically no media models. Aargh.

We talked about a time ago when Helene gave me $150. I was broke at the time and she just said "Mira sometimes accepting is a gift. I want you to have this because I can give it right now and I want you to not give it back or do anything in return but just accept it." Evidently some time later when her dad was visiting I told him this story and unbeknown to me it had a powerful impact on him because it showed him a side of her that he didn't know about and he repeated the story years later. I know that at one point I was in a position to do a friend the same service and I basically repeated Helene's words and it felt wonderful.

We talked about the creative process and being artists and Helene's passion for performance art. I shared my dissertation text and the art I created for it and told her how when it came time to defend the dissertation I was very nervous and decided at the last minute that I wanted to have a good time, that this was the culmination of an insane amount of effort and that I wanted this to be more about me than about the institution so I dressed up as a pirate and had an 11 year old friend who wore a pirate eye patch and a hello kitty T-shirt that said "it's all about the booty!" as my assistant. The dissertation referenced pirates in that I wrote about crossing and transgressing boundaries and going in search of academic treasure and freedom. I made a self-portrait as a pirate steering with a color wheel and a spyglass with one eye looking to the future and the other to the past and a treasure chest of academic books and art supplies. I had a wonderful time as did the people at my defense. It was great talking with Helene about this and about her own PHD path which I know will be spectacular. I'd love to share more about it but will wait till she starts her own blog which I'll link to here so she can share her own stories.

I could write a book about Helene and perhaps one day I will. I feel very fortunate to know her. In one of my next posts I'll share some of the places we visited and sites we saw playing tourists in Sacramento

Helene's visit and the American River

2009-12-23T09:13:00.000-08:00

My beautiful friend Helene is visiting from Toronto where she is doing a PhD. I've known her for over 20 years from when we met in a cigarette cessation program. She's an extraordinary woman who I greatly admire. If she's up for it I want to take her to some galleries downtown (Solomon Dubnick, Axis, Museum of Contemporary Art) and then for a walk along the American River at my current favorite Sacramento park - Ancil Hoffman, before bringing her here to talk about dissertations and cultural studies. Ancil Park includes the Effie Yeaw Nature Center, which has an animal rescue program with animals that cannot be returned to the wild (I wish their cages were bigger, or better yet that they didn't have to be in cages) and lots of land with a multitude of animals. My favorites have been deer and wild turkeys. Here are some pics from the last time I was there with my friend Diane. If it's OK with Helene, I'll blog about some of her accomplishments in my next post.

Felting Class

2009-11-29T18:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's class was delightful. I especially loved having a couple of mother and daughter teams. I didn't get to make a pomegranate, too busy going around and helping folks but will make one another time. Everyone wanted to make flowers - so we did. Still, within the basic flower form there was so much variety in how people approached things. Some people went for layering and mixing colors, others were more interested in pattern than form. It was fascinating to watch and be a part of this process. The thing with needle-felting is that it is very forgiving - if you don't like something you can simply pull it off (if its not felted on too hard) or felt over the top of it. I showed the students some of the many things you can do with needle-felting. Unfortunately, I got so caught up in the moment I forgot to take finished pictures of most of the brooches. Oh well. At least this gives a glimpse. I'm going to be teaching a felted animals class in January and will get to show some of the pics from the PowerPoint I put together from when I was teaching at NIU. When I get a chance I'll post some of the pics from this slide show though am not sure about copyright issues. Hopefully its OK. Here are the pics from the workshop with permission from the lovely ladies. The first one shows the room set up (transforming my living room into a studio) and then the felting frenzy (actually it was both calming and stimulating) then a couple of individual pics of Elana and Kim modeling their brooches that still had wet glue on the back.

Needle-felting workshop and the Creative Process

2009-11-28T11:47:00.000-08:00

Am teaching a needle felting workshop today. Very excited. My first in Sacramento. We're making needle felted jewelry for gifts. Will post the before and after pictures later. I love the magic of creativity where you start with blankness or raw material and see what evolves. In teaching, it's fascinating to see which approach people take. I see my job as a facilitator, to nurture and encourage, but also to show techniques and tricks to demystify the technical aspects so that students are empowered to explore and have fun. Often this means challenging the old critical voices. Let's see where today leads us. I'm thinking of making a beaded pomegranate. Pomegranates symbolize life (and fertility) in the Jewish tradition and are associated with the Jewish New Year. They are also a rich symbol in many cultural traditions - plus they are just very beautiful.

Part 1 - The long promised photos of the long trip to California

2009-11-27T19:33:00.001-08:00

It's been an awfully long time. Two moves, an accident with a 1 night hospital stay and a $36,000 bill, looking for and applying for work, writing grants, making art, making websites, writing stories, and sorting through images, but here are some long ago promised pics from the trip across the country moving from Illinois to Sacramento. They show a variety of things - unhappy cats, nature and the great indoors, our truck (yes we have too much stuff - it's time for a big purge), Guy driving. Part 2 shows a stretch of the magnificent Salt Lake area - who knew?

Pictures from the cross country trip part 2

2009-11-27T19:27:00.000-08:00

Here's part 2 of the cross country trip featuring photos of the Salt Lakes area. Looks like ocean, which it was once millions of years ago. I found it hard to believe that this area so far inland was once ocean. I found it very beautiful. I also enjoyed the signage.

The lomg long journey and the joys of California

2009-08-17T23:00:00.000-07:00

After 4 days of driving and three nights of vocally unhappy cats we made it to Sacramento. We saw some awesome sights including the Salt Lakes area which was once an ocean in the middle of Utah. Boggles the mind. Miles and miles of salt stretching on and on. I wanted to go and lick it but thought better of it.

What I love about Northern California in the summer:
The way the air caresses your skin at night, lots of trees and big skies, lots of eccentrics and artsy types, Black Mission figs and all sorts of fabulous fruits, lots to see and do. Warmth and friendliness. I am so happy to be here. Got to spend a few days in the Sierra Foothills in a town called Volcano on Fiddletown rd. It was truly stunning. The smell of fresh pines and the beauty of mountains, manzanitas, pine and oak with breathtaking sunsets. Our old 1989 Honda broke down and had to have it towed back to Sacramento (quite a ways). Fortunately, the young tow-truck driver had lots of information about local lakes (that I want to visit) and some info about Fiddletown that used to boast the best fiddlers in the old days. Still some good fiddlers there evidently. The Sierras are 49er territory, where there was lots of gold mining craziness. You feel like you are soaking in history there with the old buildings and winding roads. Fascinating. Will share photos from our trip in my next blog. Promise.

Social environmental connections in visual culture

2009-07-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

Finishing up an article for IJEA (En)Countering Social and Environmental Messages in
The Rainforest Cafe, Children’s Picturebooks, and Other Visual Culture Sites. Long title I know but clear about what it is. Language is a bit academese I know but that's the professor's life. I explored mixed messages in visual culture focusing on the Rainforest Cafe and kids books and how they forget that indigenous people live in rainforests and are affected. The article also looks at how things that provide environmental messages often have unsustainable practices within the paradigm of uber capitalism. Am looking forward to being done. Mostly tedious work of putting in references at this point. I was delighted to include Animal Poems of the Iguazú by Fancisco Alarcón and Maya Gonzalez. My favorite kids book. You can see a film I made about Maya that Francisco is in at http://www.mirareisberg.com/maya_movie2.html

Here's what I'm doing

2009-07-09T21:53:00.001-07:00

Leaving being an art education university professor in Illinois to return to Northern California to be an artist, kids book illustrator, web designer, and teach in more informal settings, redesigning my website, designing Jane Ryder's website www.janeryder.com (should be up next week), setting up my first blog, teaching a class on eco-felted jewelry next Wednesday at Bliss Beads Studio and Gallery www.blissbeadstudio.com using beautiful organic wools from www.esthersplacefibers.com where the lusty ram jumped the fence to impregnate ALL the sheep and now there are lots of darlin lambs, trying to get back to adding more stuff to my Etsy site www.MiraArt.etsy.com, trying to figure out how to remove the Blogger bar from the top and how to bring images in, finishing up an article on teaching peace through picturebooks about war, finishing another article about mixed-message rainforest images in visual culture and edutainment, working on grant applications to do a fabulous project with seniors in Sacramento, and quietly reprimanding myself for such a shockingly long run-on-sentence.