New York Expressive Arts newsletter archives
Tripping Down Memory Lane
Looking for quotes, messages or information from a past announcement? Choose from the list:
Oct 08 • Sept 08 • Aug 08 • Jul 08 • Jun 08 • May 08 • Apr 08 • Feb 08 • Jan 08
Dec 07 • Oct 07 • Aug 07 • Jul 07 • Jun 07 • May 07 • Apr 07 • Mar 07 • Feb 07 • Jan 07
Dec 06 • Oct 06 • Aug 06 • Jul 06 • Jun 06 • May 06
Dec 05
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Quote of the Month
I have eaten the plums
that were in the icebox
and which you were probably
saving for breakfast
Forgive me – they were delicious
so sweet and so cold
— William Carlos Williams
Ode to old-fashioned porch sitting
(August 2008)
There is a quiet around us
a living breathing presence that holds us
separate yet connected
the same soft summer breeze
that carries the universal hum
`nothing to do, nowhere to be'
The world-chair hangs at the top of the arc
yet everything continues on
without us at the wheel
suspended in time for a moment
the circle completes itself
now we can go on.
Message from Denie
Hi everyone,
A while ago, I had the great pleasure of welcoming a few expressive arts colleagues and friends to a weekend that turned out to be a time for old-fashioned porch sitting. During the last year or so, several of us who live on a line up and down the Hudson Valley have been meeting on a regular basis for support and sharing the woes and joys of living in expressive arts.
In August, we came together at my home in Feura Bush after a summer of extraordinary happenings for many of us. And a most amazing thing happened. Usually when we get together, we check in and then move into some kind of art making together. This time, for whatever reason, a response to the very quiet setting, the soft summer weather we had that weekend, the collective need and desire for doing absolutely nothing but sitting in the company of each other, we spent most of our time sitting quietly on the porch. Yes, we talked a bit, shared our stories of the past few months, and then dropped into the quiet of the surrounding nature and our own being. The quiet and non-doing of that time is still with me and continues to subtly change how I am in my day-to-day living. For me this was truly the art of living and I am so grateful.
— Denie
(Written to remember the time with Susanna Armbruster, who was drawn to Miksang photography; Terri Chester, who flew up from North Carolina with material for prayer flags; Bekah Lancto, the food maven; and Steve Podry, who filled the air with his music. We missed Rebekah Windmiller, yet her presence was felt.)
Quote of the Month
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
— Rumi
Message from Denie
Hello everyone,
First, a word of congratulations is in order for Susanna Armbruster (whom many of you know from past Harvest Symposia, workshops and teaching at our Albany studio) and her husband, Greg. The pair have just returned from the European Graduate School in Switzerland, where they presented a gift of song: an entire concert dedicated to poet Elizabeth McKim in honor of her birthday. Greg’s original music accompanied Susanna, as she sang the words of Elizabeth's poetry. It was a beautiful birthday gift — one that had been in the making by Susanna and Greg for a whole year.
I have just returned from a week-long Expressive Arts workshop at the Women’s Writing Retreat in the Adirondacks. While I no longer am surprised by the power of expressive arts work, I can still be amazed by its ability to inspire, unite and change lives. It does seem as if the work truly attracts open-hearted people willing to dig inside, and, as Mary Oliver puts it, "to pay attention, be astonished and tell about it."
We met every morning in a large, airy, light-filled boathouse on the edge of the lake, with loons calling in the distance. Over the course of five days — through the magic of creating together, moving together, writing, painting and shaping papier-mache — we explored the beauty of our individual voices in the nurturing atmosphere of a like-minded, like-hearted community. If ever I needed evidence that expressing our deepest thoughts and feelings is in our DNA, like a gift from the gods to be unwrapped at our pleasure, this week with this extraordinary group of women would satisfy that need. We all are changed after this week of art making.
On the radio!
Denie has recently appeared on the College of Saint Rose radio station to talk about the field of expressive arts and NYEA's new partnership with the college. Missed the broadcasts? No problem: You can have a listen by clicking here, and then on the link of your choice in the Contemporary Health and Well Being Series section.
Quote of the month
With the music inside,
Dance like there is no outside
Become subtle enough
To hear a tree breathe
— Excerpt from “Axioms for Wildness” in John O'Donohue's "To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings"
A message at the end of the year from NYEA Director Denie Whalen
Just as the summer school at the European Graduate School (EGS) in Switzerland fires up, our studio becomes quiet for the summer. Not silent — the community art reach with Clearview Center and The Next Step, private consultations and the monthly painting classes continue — but more quiet, as our training programs have been completed for the year.
So now comes a bit of time to take stock — to literally do an inventory of supplies on the shelves, order what is needed and plan ahead for next year. And we'll be using the tried-and-true "Take 2" method of looking at what worked and what needs to be tweaked.
As we look ahead to next year, it's exciting to consider our new partnership with the College of St. Rose. The college will support our program with administration and marketing, while taking a respectful stance to the field of expressive arts and to our program as it has been shaped over the years. We are building a bright and resourceful body of graduates who are taking expressive arts work into the world with a steady hand and a true and developing understanding of the power of the arts and art making. I feel incredibly blessed and grateful to be part of this community.
Thanks to all who contribute so much of themselves to this work.
Quote of the month
"There's no bar to us proclaiming our delight and that's the strength of poetry."
— Allen Ginsberg
Quote of the month
“The highest thing we can do is practice art. There is only one mind, and so whatever we do in that mind – when we create more beauty there, more opening, more understanding, more light, when we shed more light in our own mind – affects the great mind.”
— from "Breaking the Alabaster Jar: Conversations with Li-Young Lee"
1st Friday: Albany • Karen Beetle: "Softening"
Administered by the Upstate Artists Guild and held on the first Friday of every month, 1st Friday is a popular, free event that aims to introduce a wider audience to the unique vitality of the artists and venues of Albany. NYEA is a proud participant in the event. In April 2008, we featured art work by Karen Beetle in the Hall Gallery on the first floor at 4 Central Avenue, Albany. Karen's one-night show was titled "Softening," and she had this to say about it:
What draws me to paint, again and again, is that incredible opportunity to create a visual expression of just what is so in my being — a portrait of the moment. In that moment of stepping back and observing the creation, I have framed this moment in awareness. And there is a visible relief in my body as my eyes observe the shadows and light, the dance of color and form. This moment is visible and available and yet it is also held or connected with — just as it is.
And embedded in the present moment is that edge of unknown — that connection with what is emerging but not yet knowable. For more than two years, I have been in dialogue with the unknown. I have watched as my paintings have gotten wetter and wetter. Many are rivulets of paint dripping and merging and soaking the paper. It began with a few squirts from a spray bottle and has evolved into torrents and flash floods. As the colors and boundaries blend and merge — new possibilities arrive. My eyes are drawn to these as I step back and look deeply. Fluidity has become my teacher.
In this early spring time — I am softening. All around me winter is losing its grip. I feel a gentleness emerging in me and care for all that is thawing and opening in this early spring. Last year, as the crocuses pushed up through the snow — I felt their frozen petals — and marveled at their faith. As they lean into spring, spring arrives. As we allow for the darkness and confusion of the unknown, we arrive, not on the shore of certainty but in the stream of life. Carried as we unfurl our petals.
Quote of the month
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then…I contradict myself;
I am large…I contain multitudes
— SONG OF MYSELF by Walt Whitman
Quote of the month
Here’s a thought from Rumi that feels like it can carry us into the New Year and beyond.
Something opens my wings
Something takes my hurt and boredom away
Something fills my cup
I only feel sacredness
— Rumi
December 2007
Quote of the month
Here are some of the things my 5-year-old granddaughter, Celia, says about making art:
“…because it’s fun.”
“I love it (drawing and painting) because I feel it in my heart…all the beautiful colors!”
October 2007
Quote of the month
Here is a poem passed on to me from Yaacov Naor, written by Robert Bly...
This spring water
with gold snakes and fish in it
is the soul
It does nothing if you do nothing
If you light a fire, it chops wood.
If you build a boat, it becomes the ocean.
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August 2007
Quote of the month
"I believe that the creativity of artists can be applied to real world problems and can have an effect on urgent social and environmental issues. I am increasingly aware that the greatest challenge faced by other species is the need for change in human values and attitudes toward conflicting rights, wants, and needs. I hope my work offers models for equitable solutions."
— Lynne Hull, 2007 Recipient of the Arts and Healing Network Award
• In the words of historian Arnold Toynbee: “The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.”
The arts can help with that.
• From the latest issue of ArtScene, the quarterly online publication of Albany-based Community Arts United:
“Take a moment this summer to stop, look, enjoy, and partake in the art that is happening around you in the wonderful city or town you call home — attend an art festival, go to a museum, attend a Friday gallery event, or just take a moment to paint for 10 minutes more before your vacation starts. The art that happens in your own backyard can blow you away.”
— Jeremy Ward, Vice President & Co-Founder, Community Arts United
NYEA in the News
See what the Times Union, Albany's largest daily newspaper, had to say about us in a recent issue! Visit the site directly by clicking here, or download a copy of the article "A space where art-making flourishes" in PDF format. As always, if you have trouble with this link, just email webmaster Tony Pallone for assistance.
“With respect to the physical materials that enter into the formation of a work of art, every one knows that they must undergo change. Marble must be chipped; pigments must be laid on canvas; words must be put together. It is not so generally recognized that a similar transformation takes place on the side of ‘inner’ materials, images, observations, memories and emotions. They are also progressively re-formed…(This) is the building up of a truly expressive act.”
— John Dewey, Art as Experience
An Anchor of Hope
A report titled "An Anchor of Hope," written by Denie Whalen and Susan Moran on the year-long expressive arts program at Marjorie Doyle Rockwell Center in Cohoes, N.Y., is now available. Click here to download a copy in Microsoft Word format (if you need to receive it in a different format, email webmaster Tony Pallone). The report tells what happened when expressive arts approaches to art and art making were used with persons with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
"Art is simply a result of expression during right feeling. It’s a result of a grip on the fundamentals of nature, the spirit of life, the constructive force, the secret of growth, a real understanding of the relative importance of things, order, balance. Any material will do. After all, the object is not to make art, but to be in the wonderful state which makes art inevitable."
— From The Art of Spirit by Robert Henri
Words from Denie
I have just returned from a week of springtime in Sweden and the 20th anniversary of the European Symposium, the granddaddy of expressive arts gatherings and midwife to our Harvest Symposium in North America. From the opening champagne reception and moonlight procession on Tuesday to the Saturday night festival finale featuring most everyone in elaborate costume or finery of their own making, it was an experience to remember. As we danced the wind and sang the birds of spring to life inside the 16th century Manor House in Lofstabruk, the weather warmed outside. Poetry arrived, exotic “laundry” of all kinds was hung between the ancient trees, singing invited the dancer home and the Emperor ruled benignly over all. A very special alternate world was created.
Quote of the month
“Expressive arts training kicks your butt all over the place.”
— This comment, from a a graduate of the three-year Expressive Arts Training Program offered at NYEA, is a bit irreverent but expresses a common response to this life-changing course of study.
Poetry Against War
Steve Levine, one of the leaders in the field of expressive arts, has announced the publication of his new book, Song the Only Victory: Poetry Against War. The work also features artwork by Ellen Levine.
Quote of the month
"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves."
— Carl Jung
Quote of the month
"It is winter proper; the cold weather, such as it is, has come to stay. I bloom indoors like a forced forsythia; I come in to come out."
— Annie Dillard
A call for volunteers…
Art buddies are needed at Marjorie Doyle Rockwell Center in Cohoes, N.Y. to spend time with the residents making art. Orientation and all materials provided. After a year-long grant funded program to bring expressive arts to the residents, we are hoping to expand the art-making opportunities into the evening hours and weekends. If you have an hour on a weeknight or on a Sunday afternoon, weekly or once in a while, please let us know. Call Denie at 518.768.2708 or e-mail denie@newyorkexpressivearts.com.
Greetings and Happy New Year from all of us at New York Expressive Arts! May this year move us closer to a world of peace and love where there is more room to make art than war.
Quote of the month
I thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
— E. E. Cummings
Art Journal Travels
by Holly Huzar
I love the idea, but not the practice, of keeping a journal. There's a drawer in my dresser full of partially-filled journals. Most start out with long essays about the meaning of life, and how keeping a journal every day will deepen my connection with my inner self, spirit, wellness, and blah blah blah. Starting something new always feels great.
Sometimes, much later, I re-read that first entry and think, "Wow, that's deep! Who wrote that, and why isn't she writing like that now?" In just a few short weeks, the daily entry has deteriorated to this: "Too busy to write! Worked late on a report, brought Ms. Kitty to the vet, replaced the muffler, baked a cake for Mom's b-day. Tired; will write tomorrow!" The writing then dribbles off except for an occasional update: "June 13, my birthday. Haven't written in ages! So much has happened; huge upset at work with P., and I'm taking 2 night classes! Will write more tomorrow!" (Suspicion: the exclamation points are a scam, something to excite myself to write.) But I never follow up, and later have no remembrance of who "P" was, and why he/she caused such an upset.
This fall, I began Expressive Arts training. Our fabulous teacher, Denie, talks about keeping an Art Journal. Hmm, a diary to write in only when I’m inspired, and one I can doodle in. That appeals. I start the journal. Shortly after, I leave for a trip to Africa through my workplace, the Community Hospice. What great timing. The journal offers space for all the pre-trip musings, fears and excitement.
I buy oil pastel crayons, and color the la
st vibrant New York foliage of October before leaving. On the plane, writing and sketching sweetens the 20-plus hour trip.
Once in South Africa, we tour hospice clinics, visit patients in small shacks and sit at the bedsides of young men and women dying with AIDS. As a Massage Therapist, I give comfort touch to patients and staff. The trip is equally heart-warming and wrenching, both exhilarating and exhausting. The remnants of apartheid and colonization still sit heavy on society. Extreme contrasts are everywhere: gray shanty town cities and opulent gated estates; wide gulfs between poor and rich, black and white; the vibrant blue Indian Ocean and the stark red dirt desert vistas.
Notes from my journal: “Tiny tin roofed houses, the tops held down with rocks. A maze of rutted trails are the roads. We visit several rural homes after hours of driving, delivering medicine and bags of food. Thin mamas with TB or AIDS, with their small children sitting large-eyed on the bed. Watching, waiting. One woman being taken care of by her elderly mother, who peeled chicken feet to stew on a kerosene cooker.
“Another very long drive to visit a blind young Zulu woman with HIV who spoke no English, and had severe circulation problems in her hands and feet. We visited her in a tiny cinderblock home, which was neat as a pin and spotless down to the swept dirt floor. I massaged her ice-cold hands with an herbal lotion. As we were leaving, she kept bringing her hands to her face, smelling the sweet lavendar and smiling.
“A different focus today — we visited a hospice respite center, where patients can come to spend their last days. I met Ernest, with bone cancer, big expressive eyes full of pain and a beautiful smile. Muso, sweet and shy, concerned that I was kneeling on the floor to massage his feet. I wonder about these strong Zulu men, with their warrior ancestry, lying frail and helpless, how their sense of self must ache. Worked on staff, also, shoulder massages for the “domestics” who are something of the backbone of the operations. Not only do they cook and clean, but they’re the ones smiling and joking with patients in Zulu and holding their hands with comforting pats. What names: “Gladness” “Blessed” and “Happiness” and what beautiful rich voices, as they sing through their work. The Zulu women are strong and tough, taking care of place, patients and often many children at home. I want to know them better. We sat in the kitchen at close of day and talked about families and food, sharing funny stories. Perhaps there isn’t really such a big gap between us after all?”
In the evenings, the day’s observations and energy pour out onto the journal. After words have been spent, the reward is to play with color, laying down scenes of nature’s beauty to balance the heavy memory of sitting with a dying young mother.
The Art Journal becomes my means for recording and processing what I see; it becomes my therapy. Layering the soft colors becomes a deep relaxing breath, a soothing mental and spiritual massage for my soul.
"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy."
— Rabindranath Tagore
This quote seems to fit the announcement of two new programs, both emanating from Canada but with worldwide implications, who aim to bring the good news of expressive arts into the world at large. The first news comes from Steve Levine in Toronto where ISIS-Canada, in collaboration with EGS, has launched a new program.
A message from Steve LevineHi Everyone,
I'm writing to let you know that our website launch at ISIS-Canada last night for the new program in Expressive Arts and Social Change at EGS was a big success. We had a substantial and enthusiastic crowd. Ellen and I introduced the program, and Ellen showed the website with a video projector.
Carrie Macleod, a CAGS grad who'll be the Teaching Associate in the program this year, gave a great presentation on her international work, particularly her time in Sierra Leone working with child war amputees, using slides that made the reality there come alive. I gave a poetry performance (I'll attach the poem to this message for those of you who are interested), and then Mark Wallace, of the Children's Peace Theatre in Toronto, also gave a presentation on his amazing work with youth at risk. There was drumming, food and drink, and a generally convivial atmosphere.
I sense that the program is generating a lot of interest and excitement, especially since we've begun to let people know that affiliated-institute students can go on to get a Masters of Expressive Arts Therapy with a Concentration in Social Change by completing one more summer session and writing a thesis (Independent Study students can also go on for the Masters by completing a course of supervised independent study instead of the affiliate training). The program can also count for one CAGS summer session for those who already have the MA or equivalent.
Please spread the word about this important new venture to your students and all those who you think might be interested. We need to bring the work of expressive arts into the world.
The other news comes from Edmonton, home base of Markus and Leilah Alexander, where they are collaborating on creating the World Arts Organization, a service organization dedicated to training volunteers who will then go out to work with underserved populations throughout the world using the arts. Be sure to have a look at both of the new websites to keep up with the latest in what is happening in the world of expressive arts.
News from EdmontonFrom the homepage of the World Arts Organization: “WAO believes that art making and the contemplative reflection upon the creative act enable more profound coming-together within the human being; that integrating a wide range of qualities and aptitudes produces balance and an ongoing, developing experience of wholeness.”
NYEA in the news
New York Expressive Arts is featured in the September issue of Art Scene, a quarterly publication of Community Arts United. You can access the article directly at www.communityartsunited.org.
News from our recent graduates of NYEA Training Program
Dawn Collins Ouellette, M.A., is pleased to announce the completion of her studio, HeArts Delight Center for Expressive Arts, located in Stuyvesant, Columbia County, N.Y. Private therapeutic expressive arts consultations are available by appointment. The 16' by 25' main room of the studio can accommodate 8 to 10 people for group art work or movement classes with ample natural light. There is a 10' by 10' room set up for individual music lessons in acoustic guitar and mountain dulcimer, vocalizing and soundwork, and Reiki energy balancing. Classes in Kripalu DansKinetics and Music Togethersong, movement, and rhythm play for preschoolers and their parents/caregivers are planned for the near future. For further information, please contact Dawn at (518) 758-8369 or email songbrd@nycap.rr.com. You can also visit http://www.expressiveartscenter.net or http://www.oletsmakemusic.com
Quote of the month
It is good to be back from an amazing vacation on the Beara peninsula in Ireland where the beauty of the natural landscape inspired these words by Irish poet Seamus Heaney:
"You will uncode all landscapes
By this: 'things founded clean in their own shapes,
water and ground in their extremity.'"
So I am back, grounded and watered.
Quote of the month
“The noun of self becomes a verb. This flashpoint of creation in the present moment is where work and play merge.”
— Stephen Nachmanovich
Graduation photos
Jennah Foronda-Fischer, one of the 2006 graduates of the Expressive Arts Training Program at NYEA has made three albums of photos from the graduation weekend. You can check them out at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31355137@N00/.
You also can download any pictures you wish. To DOWNLOAD:
1. click on thumbnail of picture you like to enlarge it
2. above the picture, click on ALL SIZES
3. click on size you want to download (thumbnail, small, medium, large)
4. click on DOWNLOAD SIZE
Anniversary photos
You now can see photos from the anniversary event at NYEA on our web site. Just click here. Armelle Lefebvre, one of the third year graduating students form our training program and Sharon Melius, graduate who traveled from Long Island to attend, took the photos.
20th anniversary celebration
Well it’s official. Glass Lake Studio will now be known as New York Expressive Arts. The name may have changed but the foundation of heart-based and thoughtful exploration and accompaniment of our selves and our world using the arts remains the same. What has gone before supports what is happening now and constructs the scaffolding for what is becoming.
A large and celebratory group of old and new friends and family came together on Friday night, April 28th to remember the 20 year history of Glass Lake Studio and honor Markus Alexander and simultaneously to witness the passing of the torch and support our expressive arts community as we carry the work forward. Markus will be returning to teach in our training program and to offer master classes. Thanks to everyone who was present Friday evening. With a great deal of humility and respect for what has come before me, I welcome the opportunity to nurture and be nurtured by this work.
Congratulations to our graduating expressive arts students, a remarkable group of individuals who are completing their theoretical and experiential study of expressive arts therapy. Here they are: Karma Cloud, Dawn Collins, Jennah Foronda-Fischer, Bonnie Harlan Stankus, Armelle Lefebvre, Judith Prest and Liz Smith. Dawn and Armelle will also receive their master’s degree from the European Graduate School (EGS) in June. Short descriptions of the final projects and theses will be appearing on the website soon.
Good luck to Fran Ross who is moving to Asheville, North Carolina this month. She has been involved with Glass Lake Studio and NYEA for over 15 years and received her PhD from EGS in 2002. We wish her well as she continues her work in more southerly climes.
Name Change!
Our name has changed. Our mission hasn't. The heartfelt ideas that have shaped Glass Lake Studio, founded by Markus Alexander in 1986, are shifting into an entity named New York Expressive Arts. Bringing art, play and imagination into the everyday lives of the community where we live. Making sense of the world through art and art making.
Markus will be visiting a couple of times a year and staying in touch with the happenings here.
Please update your bookmarks for our web site to www.newyorkexpressivearts.com. Update emails in your address book, too...denie@glasslakestudio.com, for instance, is now denie@newyorkexpressivearts.com.
• During the first week in November, amidst bright autumn sunshine and surprisingly warm temperatures, New York Expressive Arts hosted the 2005 Harvest Symposium, the annual gathering to celebrate and explore the role of intermodal expressive arts in therapy, education and coaching. Over fifty... (more) Click on "more" to read the rest of the text and view photos from the 2005 Harvest Symposium. Photos can also be accessed from the "Harvest Photos" button on the left.
• The third year students in our Expressive Arts Training program welcomed Barbara Thompson's graduate level Occupational Therapy class to the Albany studio... (more) Click on "more" to read the rest of the text and view photos from the OT visit. Photos can also be accessed from the "People Gallery" button on the left.
• Denie Whalen, Director of New York Expressive Arts in Albany, NY and Susan Moran, Director of the Marjorie Doyle Rockwell Center, an affiliate of the Eddy, a division of Northeast Health located in Cohoes, NY, will lead a team of artists to implement a year-long grant from the NYS Department of Health to bring a program of intermodal expressive arts to persons with memory impairment and Alzheimer's Disease. "The design of this proposal springs from our deep trust in the power of the arts in situations of grief and loss and the effectiveness of intermodal expressive arts methods in reaching out to persons with memory impairment and in giving them ways to stay engaged with their world." The program will include professionally facilitated weekly arts-based work in small groups, reinforced during the week by trained facility staff using storytelling, movement, visual art and writing. Our interest in is what happens in the daily life of the residents and staff when the arts are introduced in a structured way to this population. We will look at what happens to basic self care abilities, socialization skills and the quality of interpersonal relationships between residents and also residents and staff.
Gift CertificatesGift certificates are now available for an artful holiday gift. Call the Studio at (518) 434-2412 or e-mail denie@newyorkexpressivearts.com.