Nancy Curry, Paper & Mixed Media Artist, Tells Her Story

I grew up believing I was an artist, an inventor, a “creative” and that I had the world by the tail in these areas. To be honest, I was a product of parents who suddenly had a child way after they expected, so they kept me fairly busy finding my niche. By the time I was twelve I’d immersed or dabbled (depending on skill set) in baton twirling, ballet, piano, clarinet, trumpet, swimming, basketball, softball, and took weekly art lessons every Saturday during the school year. I relished those art classes and learned to work in many different mediums. Then we moved and IT happened. I took my first and last school-based art class in eighth grade. Our grade was solely based on a creative project regarding an ad. After much work and detail, mine received a C with no remarks, no red comments, and no acknowledgement that she’d even looked at any part of it. 

“Every Child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” ~ Pablo Picasso

Topsy & Turvy 30" x 30" acrylic ink and paint

I walked away from the art I knew for years, but the creative in me found other ways to have an outlet in the forms of poetry, needlework and calligraphy. Fast forward to the 90s when paper crafting and stamp art were kings and I put my big toe in once again. For me, combining color, texture, and motifs without fear of representational art rejection was freeing. I was mentored and encouraged by some of the biggest names in the industry until I was ready to fly by my own wings.My workshop career blossomed, a book deal was signed and I continued to hone my techniques and define “my” style.

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” ~ Thomas Merton

Concerto  12" x 12" birch deep cradle  watermedia, metal powder, fibers, beads

Years went by and my options widened significantly, but my choices were rather selfish in nature. My “why” is wrapped up in where I’ve been and who I’m still becoming. Art has been transformative and where I’ve found passion and a sense of self I didn’t know existed. Those early days when I found my art voice again are never far from my thoughts. There was pep in my step and a seemingly endless enthusiasm for possibility. I couldn’t wait to have time to play. What excites me the most now is seeing those moments in others when I teach workshops around the country. That look of wonderment and the sounds of whispered giggles as they play with new techniques is intoxicating. I adore that moment of their discovery or rediscovery of their own possibility, the quick relationships that develop while barriers are down, and the knowledge that I’ve planted some empowering seeds in a world where judgment and shaming abound. Afterwards, I’m always renewed and ready to go back to my studio playground. 

Faith  5" x 7"  mixed media

“People need a powerful why if they are going to be able to endure any how.” ~ David Brooks

Tuscan Interlude  30" x 12"  acrylic ink & paint, India ink & dip pen

I will continue to teach and nurture others, but these days I am also using my art to take a look inward and to let my creative voice come to the surface. To that end and to keep things fresh for me, I’ve gone in some new directions in my art. I’ve returned to painting after the long respite and am enjoying using watermedia in an illustrative, whimsical style. It allows me to break some rules and once I put on my big girl panties and saw that my imperfect style and quirky imagination could be a strength, it’s been a lot of fun and almost meditative in nature. When I’m up for a challenge, my newest obsession has been manipulating and upcycling old magazine art. Depending on the original colors on the page, each initial manipulation will produce a unique abstract outcome that I can choose to leave more organic or bring in a traditional or whimsical element for juxtaposition. I can get lost for days in my studio working on these and they all have a different vibe based on what I am feeling and how deep the questions are that I asked myself that day. I’m a work in progress so the questions change daily as I peel back my own layers ... and that’s where the magic is.

Bloom 7" x 5"  mixed media  

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”  ~Zora Neale Hurston

Open House  6" x 12" acrylic ink and paint, India ink and dip pen

This is Week 22 of 52 Artists in 52 Weeks. Thank you for reading and sharing Nancy's story today. To see more of Nancy's work, please connect with her at the following links:

Website:  http://www.nancycurry.com

Blog:  http://2artsy.blogspot.com

Etsy:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/nancycurryart

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nancycurryart

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/2artsycurry/?etslf=12190&eq=Nancy%20Cur
Instagram: Nancycurryart

Haifa Bint-Kadi, Mosaic Artist, Tells Her Story

My youngest daughter recently told me that she thought my work had come full circle. Since I had already been an artist many years before she was even born, I wondered how she could make that observation. Apparently my mother had shared with her my very odd “art-making” activities from the time I could walk. I spent a great deal of time in nature. I was our neighborhood’s master tree climber. There was no canopy that had not seen me swaying, napping or sketching.  A 15-foot fall one day brought forth an immediate sanction from my parents, coupled with the hope that having the wind knocked out of me would forever end my career…to no avail.

Eel Mosaic Public Art, Smalti Mosaic,Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Public Park

Welded Recycled Steel from Water Towers, Oil Paint, 2013

When you’re an artist, it’s all about observation. I felt I was part of a secret world where I watched the hatching and growth of young chicks, I was fascinated by the textures and differing colors of bark in different stages of growth and collected bark peels from the ground to make rooftops for my various fairy houses. For me, nature was a sacred world that accepted me unconditionally and provided a safe space for reflection. I could belong, which was important for a first generation kid whose oddities and serious nature prevented me from making a good fit in any social circle.  On most of my childhood walks through the woods I would create tiny shrines, fairy houses and pole structures. I would use small pieces of wood, stones, feathers and ferns to make small constructions and shrines honoring my secret places in the woods. 

Eel Mosaic

I’m a classically trained mosaic artist, but like most artists, I explore a variety of other mediums like encaustic, painting, wabi-sabi and mixed-media.  I have been obsessed my entire life with collecting found objects, ephemera and in particular, objects from nature that seem to “speak” to me. I mostly look down when walking as I’ve never met a rusty object that I didn’t like, a habit that my children often bemoaned. I’m captivated by the physicality of nature objects and the histories they carry.  I continue to build shrines around or for objects that I feel are special, but in completely unexpected places like abandoned lots or on some weird building ledge. I try to position them in a way that honors them and gives pause for thought.

 

Sidewalk Surprises!

In the woods, I might put an interesting rock in the fork of a tree or I might tie a colorful bit of cloth on a branch. I’ve only recently begun showing objects from my work with hierotopy, basically creating the sacred in the profane or the creation of sacred spaces. Honestly, it’s only been very recently that a name has been created for such work, but the practice is ancient and has always been around. I was very lucky that I had parents who not only supported my collecting and my need to be in nature, but they celebrated every construction, sketch and my collections of objects. They made space for me as an artist and for my stuff!

I have two daughters who I also classify as creators and who were forced to live in my live-work loft which is like a giant cabinet of curiosities filled with shelves and shelves of mosaic tesserae, bird bones and nests, water-worn ceramics harvested from the Hudson River, tiny wooden tea caddies, vintage pencils and well you can imagine what fills the thousands of jars in my studio.

Sidewalk Mosaic: Art Intervention - Main Street, Recycled plates

2014-2015

I’m constantly exploring my cultural identities which are also connected to two very different yet similar diasporas. The Middle East, Spain, the Bahama Islands… I live in the knowledge that race is a construct so seeking identity is a common theme in my work…it changes and evolves and is never static. I feel the same way about my work. I question what “home” is and what one needs to construct a sense of place. For me, nature is that place where identity becomes unimportant as a philosophical or intellectual pursuit. In natural spaces all who worship are accepted.

Mazar Installation

 I have vast collections of product packaging from the Middle East which I also use to create constructions that challenge notions of orientalism by taking over power of the image.  I play with iconography from the Middle East in my Hamza Hand series as well as my shrine constructions using the vocabulary of art to reference cultural identities. Each one of my Hamza Hands tells a childhood story from countless diaries. I love story-telling and almost every work I do has some narrative quality. I also trace this back to when I would use storytelling as a way of connecting to others as a youth while keeping intact my protective armour. If you meet me, ask me to tell you a story…I love to tell them and I have plenty to tell, including my own.

Scholbohm: Chakra Labyrinth, Oil Paint, 2015

It’s complicated. As a Muslim, my spirituality is an essential part of my being, but I don’t believe that highly structured religious institutions are necessary for my spiritual practice, I can discover the sacred almost anywhere and I can create the sacred anywhere with a small reed construction or an inset of sidewalk mosaic or mosaic in the crack of a wall, which is why I recently removed my head covering or hijab. Did it make me less spiritual, not at all.  What I exhibited on the outside always had lived on the inside and it is the inside that I am most concerned with. I prefer to live my spirituality and connectedness to a Creator. I prefer to connect to others as myself, without a sort of proclamation which I felt my hijab had become. I’m not in the position of proclaiming anything to anyone….I’m still discovering everyday.

This is Week 21 of 52 Artists in 52 Weeks. Thank you for reading and sharing Haifa’s story today. To see more of Haifa's work please click on

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Stephanie Heidemann, Authentic Voicework Singer & Instructor, Tells Her Story

“The Tao does nothing, but leaves nothing undone.”

I am a singer, a lover and listener of nature … a woman, a poet, a mother.  My relationship with music has been that of a “conjurer”, rather than an obsession with notes running through my fingers and vocal cords. My passion is demonstrated through my voice. I have made many choices in commitment to the conjuring of music as energy, a divine partnership with the muse that is my beloved. A dear friend of mine (who was a devotee of Sri Satchidananda Swamiji) once said “why sing for people when you can sing for the gods?” That is my purpose, and a calling that haunts me when I don't listen to it.

“Your playing small does not serve the world. We were born to make

 manifest the glory of God that is within us.”

-Marianne Williamson, Return to Love  

The Resonance Founders, Julian Douglas & Stephanie Heidemann

My first experience hearing this type of music for the very first time was sitting in the woods of southern Indiana, in early spring, with drummer friends. I was 20 years old.  While they played the drums, I began to hear a song within the rhythmic pattern.  

And within the pattern, a tune that taunted me: “dum-da-dum-da-dum-dum-** - DOUBTS!”  

At first, I couldn't believe my ears, but then quickly I could not ignore the clarity of the message. I suddenly knew, that I had many doubts within myself that I still had to deal with -- and that they were “in the way” of something.  Shortly thereafter, I heard a voice from far off in the woods, as if the sun was rising on the horizon. At first, I looked for it, but there was no one there. Listening closely, it was the most pure and beautiful sound I had ever heard. The more I focused on it, the better I could hear it, as if it was coming closer. I suddenly put it all together ... if I could remove self-doubt, a great gift would be given - the gift of voice. 

                 

I quickly became committed to unraveling self-doubt and self-deprecating habits because it was the wall keeping me from this gift waiting to come in.  It was painful, facing them, but the more I did it, the less fear I had. My commitment to receiving the gift was more important. I obtained a Bachelors in Expressive Arts Therapy (Indiana University) through an Independent Major Program, as they did not represent the field yet at that time (1998).  Years later, I studied with Metropolitan Opera singer, Brenda Boozer. 

As my voice teacher would say “singing is a bridge between heaven and earth”.  The voice is a passageway for holding heavenly space for myself and others. We must clear these passages in order to elevate ourselves and others.

I gave birth to my son in 2009, and tried to keep singing yet the stress of trying to hold up my commitment to singing seemed impractical for me.  I have included links to my music, below, and invite you to listen. 

My music partner, Julian and our son

I did a TEDXSarasota performance and soon after fell into a depression. So, I went and got a full-time job to settle the threat to my psyche, finances and my family. I stopped trying to manage working full-time plus find ways to hold after-hours rehearsals. I took a hiatus from music altogether to raise my son, to recover financially and diminish my stress. Every day, I felt the calling of my voice, but was not able to answer. It was devastating, as if I was doing something wrong, by turning my back on my one true calling. I felt support from my parents to keep a steady job, without the stress of the financial burden.

Performing at TEDXSarasota

Three years later, I withstood office work for as long as I could and quit my job. Now, with more financial stability, and my son older and in school, (only one week ago), I decided to stop prioritizing my financial goals over my gifts, to refocus on singing and teaching my Authentic Voice workshops!

And here I am today, in this moment, facing the music. I have started practicing again, even taking lessons to touch base with classical voice foundations, to find myself and my voice again. I am registered for Yoyo Ma's Silk Road “Global Musician's Workshop” next month, to explore and perform with other musicians. I am working toward opening the creative path again and to hearing the divine flow of music again.  I know it is my path, though even still, I find it scary to face the music. Will I succeed? Will I support myself? Will I let my family down? Fear will always be there, but the ultimate act of courage is to sing into the face of fear, and  keep going.

Teaching an Authentic Voice Workshop

Thank you for reading my blog. Thank you Brenda for this wonderful platform, and your amazing angelic support! Please stay tuned for more to come.

This is Week 20 of 52 Artists in 52 Weeks. Thank you for reading and sharing Stephanie’s story today. You can connect with Stephanie through Facebook and her two websites: Authentic Voicework and Stephanie Heidemann. Links to Stephanie's music are listed below so please take a well-deserved break and enjoy listening to the magic she creates with her voice:

1) "Night's Horizon"  http://stephanieheidemann.com/music/*This is the first song I ever “heard”/composed- waking up in the middle of the night to the chord progressions here... (1997); A rendering composed by simply following instructions, not by trying or aspiring, but by simply recording what is heard. Music by Stephanie Heidemann & Julian Douglas.

2) "Hello Now Goodbye"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMuiMy3P-vI&feature=youtu.be*Video by David Gittens; Music by Julian Douglas, Stephanie Heidemann, David Gittens and Chinling Hsu.

3. "Devotion": (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XyeTAqMV_oM)
*Begins with a 13c Spanish Cantiga de Santa Maria.

4."Talafawa": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNQsb5E4nfc *Words and Music by Julian Douglas.

5."Awaken Tiamat" (Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_VC0HPHfxg&feature=youtu.be *Video by David Gittens; Music by Julian Dougas, Stephanie Heidemann, David Gittens. Includes an Ethiopian folksong “Ewa beleyo”.