I dream of a world...

I just sent off this pennant to Mo Orkiszewski in Australia. She is creating a wonderful project for 2019 called Braille for the Soul dedicating to healing our broken world. It is built around a line from a song by her husband Rod Morgan (Old Man Crow): "I dream of a world where love is the answer." She has invited stitchers from around the world to create pennants from an old wedding dress and talismans to accompany them. Here's how she introduced the project on her blog:

“I dream of a world where love is the answer”
a line from a new song in process by Old Man Crow
remember that old wedding dress I was gifted a few weeks ago?
and how I was wondering what it could be?
I have invited Madeleine over to make the first cut, we will share a bottle of fine wine to fortify our spirits 
whilst listening to Rod Stewart singing The First Cut is the Deepest
and then cut the dress up into pennants along the creases
to be stitched with hopes & dreams
which will hang from a dreaming tree bound with the buttoned back for the trunk and the buttoned sleeves will make the branches
the tree will ride in a papier maché moon boat covered in egg shell with Honesty sprouting from the bow and stern on a sea of tulle floating on a rusted iron dress form that lives at Artsite Gallery
this is a call out for anyone interested in stitching their hopes and dreams into a pennant to fly in this dream?
once the first cut is made I will cut the skirt into long pennants and post them out
making crone magic for our beautiful broken world

I highly recommend visiting her blog, Its Crow Time, to see what has been done and what is yet to come. I am honored to be part of the project. The stitching was pure joy! Thank you Mo.

Bookmarks XV

I am so glad I got my act together to be part of Bookmarks XV as this is its last year. Each participant makes 100 signed and numbered bookmarks and in return gets a set of bookmarks from all the contributing artists. It's always a treat to open the package and see all the bookmarks and then make my way through the collection every time I start a new book. Additional sets are distributed to bookstores and libraries.

I chose a quote from Thomas Carlyle and lettered it on three different colors of Shizen design paper from India with Dr. Martin's Bleedproof White.

I encourage you to visit the website.  I think you'll enjoy seeing the bookmarks and reading what the artists wrote about them. It's a labor of love by both the artists and Sarah Bodman and the staff at Book Arts Program at University of the West of England in Bristol. They do amazing work there.

White-Ellery House

I thought today's post would be a long one about my installation at the White-Ellery House yesterday but it turns out that one long day of lettering and installation followed by a second shorter day of tweaking and photography followed by a third day of meeting visitors and then taking everything down means that there is no mental energy left for writing about it. I will leave that for next week. In the meantime, here's a few photos of the installation with texts from the journals of Hannah S. Babson (starting at age 12) from 1847–1850. Later I'll be posting images of all 33 texts on flickr so that you can read her words but right now it's time to decompress.

Third Grade Books Inspired by David McPhail

Third grade students at the Bresnahan School in Newburyport, MA made books inspired by the books of David McPhail. Retired librarian Karen Twomey returned to the school to guide the children through an exploration of David McPhail's books and the creation of their own. The books were on display at the Newbuyrport Public Library as part of the 2009 Newburyport Literary Festival.

The books were made by following the directions for the hot dog booklet and adding a cover of construction paper. You can find directions for the hot dog booklet here and a youtube tutorial here.

You can see more photos here.

A Celebration of the Books of David McPhail

This year the Newburyport Literary Festival is honoring children's book author and illustrator David McPhail who grew up in Newburyport. The Firehouse has a wonderful exhibit of David's illustrations downstairs. Upstairs is a companion exhibit of work inspired by David's books by kindergarten students from the Brown School in Newburyport. The vibrant and varied illustrations were done under the guidance of school librarian Judy Avery. She began by introducing the children to David's books and then gave them additional time to view his books on their own. They watched a DVD about David and his development as an artist. When he was a child, he drew all the time, often on brown paper bags. To prepare for their final illustrations, the students followed his lead and did sketches on brown paper bags. They did their final drawings on white drawing paper in their choice of media.

The complete schedule of events at the Newburyport Literary Festival including events for children and young adults throughout the day.
David McPhail will be signing books in the Children's Room of the Newburyport Public Library from 2:30 to 3:45.

More photos from the children's exhibit

Fourth Grade Poetry Books

I just did a project with the fourth grade students at the Molin Upper Elementary School in Newburyport, MA. It was funded by the Newburyport Education Business Coalition from a grant proposal by teacher Pat Levitt. The grant was for each student to produce a bound collection of poetry that was written throughout the year. I sent information on border design for the pages and cover design using cut and torn paper. The students had the pages and covers ready when I came to their classes to lead them through the binding process.


We displayed some of the finished products at the NEBC Annual meeting and were pleased to receive the award for the best project. They cited the facts that it involved all the fourth grades and it was sustainable with directions and the tools provided for teachers to continue on their own in coming years as the reasons for their choice.

The PoeTree Project

This year's Newburyport Literary Festival in Newburyport, MA honored local poet Rhina Espaillat. In honor of Rhina and the theme of poetry, I designed and coordinated The PoeTree Project, an outdoor installation of poems on trees near several of the Festival venues. I was inspired by an image of a folding screen by the seventeenth century Japanese artist Tosa Mitsuoki.



Students from the sixth and seventh grades at the Rupert A. Nock Middle School wrote poems on strips of tyvek with sharpie markers. They were tied to trees and bushes and were a beautiful sight fluttering in the breeze. The timing was perfect as several of the magnolias were in bloom.





In addition to the children's poems, participating Festival poets wrote poems for Rhina which were tied to the weeping cherry tree that is planted in front of the library in her name.



I was able to attend three of the poetry events: the opening evening with Dana Gioia, Rhina, Lewis Turco, and X.J. Kennedy, a breakfast with the poets with readings by members of the Powow River Poets, and the closing evening with a reading by Erica Funkhouser and Melopoeia: Poetry Recited with Musical Accompaniment with readings by Rhina and Alfred Nicol accompanied by John Tavano on guitar.

Children's Voices: A Celebration of Poetry

The Newburyport Literary Festival takes place on April 25-27. This year the Festival honors local poet Rhina Espaillat. In connection with the theme of poetry, the Firehouse Gallery has an exhibition of poems by children. Kindergartners from the Brown selected and illustrated poems while students from the Bresnahan wrote and illustrated ones of their own. The poems are on a variety of subjects: nature, the seasons, friendship, sports, food, and family and in a variety of forms: acrostic poems, limericks, diamante poems, rhyming verses, and free verse. Written on colored paper and graced with lively illustrations, the display is a visual as well as verbal treat.

Some of the poems:

I am the turquoise blue ocean of Bermuda.
It feels good when people dive in me.
I feel happy when the sun generously shines on me.
I get angry when people pollute me.

There once was a small lad from Cork.
He especially loved the pork.
He ate and he ate.
His size became great.
He realized he was a dork.

You can smell the chocolate,
You can taste the goodness,
Touch it and never stop,
And it all came from my mom.

Children's Voices will be on display through April 27 during normal Firehouse Gallery hours (Wednesday through Sunday 12-5 pm with extended viewing on performance mights until curtain time ) and throughout the Literary Festival.

Love Letters Final Report

The Love Letters exhbition at the Firehouse in Newburyport ended yesterday with a reception for the children and their parents. The response to the project has been fantastic from the children, librarians, and teachers in the creation of the work to the enthusiasm of the viewers who took such pleasure in reading the letters.

View a slide show of the opening evening of the Festival including the Love Letters exhibit by Chris McGarry.

For those who are interested in doing a similar project, here is a pdf of information and samples to get started.

Love Letters To Our Favorite Books

Love Letters To Our Favorite Books is a community celebration of reading in association with the Newburyport Literary Festival.The walls of the The Firehouse Center for the Arts in downtown Newburyport are covered with over 900 letters to favorite books, authors,or characters. Almost all the letters are from the children of Newburyport. School librarians Judy Avery, Karen McCarty, Karen Twomey, and Ellen Menesale coordinated the projects at the Brown, Kelly, Bresnahan, and Nock Schools. Children at the Newburyport Montessori School and Ann McCrea’s KidsArt classes also contributed letters. The project was the brain child of Festival director Vicki Hendrickson and organized by local artist and educator Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord. The installation was accomplished by Karen Dardinski, director of the Firehouse Art Gallery, and Susan with assistance from Kendra Gaylord and Ada Horne.

Love Letters To Our Favorite Books
Firehouse Center for the Arts
One Market Square
Newburyport, MA
April 12-29
Reception: April 29, 2-4 pm

a Newburyport Literary Festival event