Wednesday, October 7, 2015

"new/mind/ritualz" archive (chronological)

kelly shaw nyala by Statia Grossman
Punta Uva, Costa Rica, 2016

new/mind/ritualz (movement 6)

new/mind/ritualz launched in the spring of 2014; it is a 56-movement performance art piece released one movement at a time until complete.

* new/mind/ritualz, artist's statement ~ CLICK HERE


* new/mind/ritualz (movement 1) was taken down by Vimeo. i am working to repost it online within 2023.


* new/mind/ritualz (movement 2) was taken down. i am working to repost it online within 2023.


* new/mind/ritualz (movement 3) was taken down. i am working to repost it online within 2023.


* new/mind/ritualz (movement 4) was taken down on Vimeo. i am working to repost it online within 2023.


* new/mind/ritualz (movement 5) was taken down. i am working to repost it online within 2023.


n/m/r (movement 6) ~ CLICK HERE


n/m/r (movement 7) ~ CLICK HERE

n/m/r (movement 8) ~ CLICK HERE


n/m/r (movement 9) is being reworked. (noted on 2.17.2022)  


n/m/r (movement 10) ~ CLICK HERE

* n/m/r (movement 11) ~ CLICK HERE

n/m/r (movement 12) ~ CLICK HERE

n/m/r (movement 13) ~ CLICK HERE & HERE

* n/m/r (movement 14) ~ CLICK HERE


kelly shaw willman by Lotte Karlsen
Brooklyn/NYC, Fall 2018

new/mind/ritualz (movement 11)

Boreal + Jesse +

recent collabs + self-portrait$

foto + concept: Boreal/Art Boreal, 
styling/model: kelly shaw willman


alien-life/power 2 the fresa, 
foto: Jesse Artavia


alien-life/power 2 the fresa, 
foto: Jesse Artavia


self-portrait


self-portrait


self-portrait

Saturday, August 29, 2015

darkne$$ collab w/ Jesse Artavia

Jesse Artavia messaged me 2 work together after reading about my newfound creative obsession w/ darkness. 

we met in my casita, and then bloomed some aliens and ghosts. 

friends forever. te amo, hermanito. xo, k

~ images/shared copyright: 
Jesse Artavia y kelly shaw willman

~ artista/model: kelly shaw willman














Sunday, August 16, 2015

artist's interview: ELIZABETH BREESE, #2

Beth as "beehand" for my story, "the fruit forest." 
illustrated by: Marissa Arterberry

i am tickled pink to share with you my second artist's interview with Elizabeth Breese. Beth is primarily a poetess, quite published at that (!), and she also works a lot with paper arts, which i love. Beth grew up in Wisconsin, resides in Ohio, and is truly one of the smartest, funniest, most interesting women i know. for fun, here is my first interview with her way back when ~ CLICK HERE


Bethy, xo to you, and thanks for this delightful interview.



Beth, by: Lily Glass

1. kelly:: girl, i miss you. you've always been such a source of intrigue to me. so smart. so honey-dipped. … wtf is going on with poetry these days? like, yours?

Beth:: Wtf, is right! In terms of quantity, we’re talking a trickle of poetry right now. The work is very, very slow. I do a lot of thinking and percolating before actually sitting down to write. The physical writing (or typing) of a poem seems to be the shortest part of the process, kapow!, while the collecting, thinking, and noting is ongoing, never ending, just a train rumbling along in the distance. The kawpows are few and far between and that’s frustrating. I think if I developed a schedule, rather than writing when I felt ready, I’d have a lot more work to show. That said, I have been quite fond of the last few poems I’ve written. They seem to come out whole.

I think I’ve also become less persona driven and more language driven. It seems like if I ever have a motive or goal for a poem, it will be utterly terrible. Clunky. Sad. Deflated. If I can remind myself to return to the language, it can become magical. Open. Vibrant. Still, I’d say a few themes or ideas continue to surface naturally. Faith and the faithful (people who have faith in anything). Negative space (the valley of the mountain). Paper (artifacts of—, documents, origami).



Beth's bunnies #origamilife

2.  kelly:: i'm really proud of you, because you're a published poet. what goals (and hopes) do you have for your poetry in the near future?


Beth:: I think to write with more discipline and regularity would go a long way towards achieving my two really basic goals: get better and submit more. Maybe if I were more specific about my goals, I’d have a better chance of achieving them. "Get better" is a little low stakes, huh? Goal 1: get better goals.


3. kelly:: it is my opinion that you have a really cool job. you are surrounded by beautiful things, inspiration. what do you learn there? tell the peeps about it a bit …  



so, this foto de Beth drives me nutz. #lesigh #gorg

Beth:: I am super grateful for my job. I am the assistant manager of a stationery and gift shop in Columbus, Ohio. A big portion of my job is working with customers as they select/design their wedding invitations. It’s a really happy time in these peoples’ lives and I benefit from being around that energy. I also am fascinated by family dynamics, which are certainly on display during our appointments. I’m an avid people watcher.


4. kelly:: i love your presence on Pinterest. you post of lot of woodland animal prints that are darling. you also post origami projects. what is it about woodland animals? and when did your interest in making origami art come about? i wonder, is it soothing to work with your hands on intricate things? 




Beth:: Woodland creatures! I’m from Wisconsin and my mom is from the Northwoods. We spent a lot of time at a cabin my Grandpa built in the Nicolet National Forest. There were times when I found the woods really frightening and ominous, but the presence of diminutive, weensy fuzz balls is distracting and reassuring. They seem to have a playful energy, which is joyous to observe. I mean, everyday is Friday for a chipmunk. 



And, origami! I started doing it to quiet my mind after my Dad passed away. Writing was absolutely too hard and I felt I really needed a hobby to pass the time. So, I attempted my first fold, "cormorant on a rock," at a crafternoon among friends and I’ve been folding ever since. My mind isn’t necessarily geared for origami—I mean I’m not a math person, so I go through a lot of paper—but it’s hugely satisfying to stick with a model and figure it out. Origami tessellations are my latest interest. I’m probably most proud of tackling a tessellated hexagon. 


dino origami by Beth

5. kelly:: what's it like to have a man in your life who you love so much? 

Beth:: I should be effusive, but it’s not really my way to talk too much about lurv and romance (especially on the internet), but I do feel both safe and exhilarated and it’s a lovely combination. I often think how bizarre it is that we are both only children and our moms are, too. We’re going extinct. Pterodactyl love.


foto: Lily Glass

6. kelly:: i know Ireland is a special place to you. tell us about that.

Beth:: I like Ireland so much partly because it seems like sadness is such an accepted part of its history and culture. That resonates with me. I don’t have a sad history, per se, but I think my personality and emotional life tend toward the gloomy. 


  
7. kelly:: come vizzy me in Costa Rica sometime!! do you like to swim?
 
Beth:: DOY.  

8. kelly:: i think about money every day. you do too? what would you do with $20,000 if it came to you today?


Beth:: I do and I think that money would go straight to buying a house. I’m tired of sharing walls with strangers. And, a trip to Costa Rica.




9. kelly:: what are you reading right now? what are you watching?

Beth:: I am reading and really, truly loving Mary Szybist’s "Incarnadine." It has been nourishing and refreshing. I say reading, because it’s the book I carry room to room and take with me on trips. I have already read it once, but I so enjoy opening to any page and reading what is there. I also have recently purchased and intend to read a book I’m really excited about—"The Paper Garden" by Molly Peacock. It’s nonfiction and is, I understand, about an elderly woman in the 1790’s whose grief essentially led her to art and the creation of over 900 botanically correct, cut paper flowers. (I’m basically copying the jacket of the book, so you know.) Anyway, I’m intrigued!


As for watching: it’s all M*A*S*H*, all the time right now. It strikes me as pretty ahead of its time. 


box of Beth's origami

10. kelly:: have you tried out any new baking projects lately? do you have specialties?

Beth:: I haven’t tried anything new in a long time. I really enjoy baking muffins—they’re so wholesome. I really like the idea of using edible flowers and have made lavender muffins before. They were a delight. 




11. kelly:: bee, are you fluent in French? where did you learn it? you love it why?

Beth:: I feel at one time I wasn’t fluent, but quite conversant. It’s been a long, long time since I was able to practice/speak on a regular basis, so I’m so very rusty. I learned it at a French immersion camp in northern Minnesota. I’d go in the summer for a month at a time. It was everything summer camp was supposed to be: sunny, buggy, rustic, cheery, crafty. I think because of those summers, I had a certain nostalgia for French. I stuck with it because I had such fond memories of using it, though by the end of college I was definitely burned out.

Dad and Little Beth

12. kelly:: okay, please note that i am transitioning to a less playful topic. you lost your Dad awhile back. you were very brave and open about it on social media and in letters/emails. has time been a healing salve for you? do you commune with him still on a daily basis somehow? i image so. 

Beth:: Just over three years ago— time is healing and bewildering. It seems impossible that I haven’t seen him or spoken with him in that long. I really resent the passage of time, it keeps taking him further away. At the same time, yes, I am grateful that the pain isn’t so acute. I sometimes speak out loud to him. I’ve left notes for him places. These are very literal ways of trying to speak with him and I don’t have the expectation that they “work,” except that it’s soothing to me. I think more than anything, I feel him with me. And not in a ghostly sense, but in the sense that he feels a part of me, an organ.
 



   
13. kelly:: what are 3 of your favorite memories of him that come to mind right off?

Beth:: He would wake me for school by throwing "pillow bombs" on me. It made me so angry, but it was wonderful. 


He packed my lunch and would write letters from my dog and put them in my lunch box. Everyday. He started sending letters from this same dog (long deceased) when I moved away for graduate school. 


We played a game of tag in winter. I think we called it "fox and goose." We’d start by making little trails in the snow. Then, those were the only places you were allowed to run during the game. We’d sometimes get my nextdoor neighbor, Ben, who was also an only child, to join in. I was always really proud of how playful and fun my dad was.


14. kelly:: … another transition … what is your favorite Arhia Kohlmoos drawing? also, favorite painting?! do tell.



"Mind Mansion Mandala for Memory Meditation:
artist: Arhia Kohlmoos

Beth :: I love her drawing "Mind Mansion Mandala for Memory Meditation." It reminds me of some children’s books that show cutaways of living spaces. It feels secretive and magical. Her painting "Lady with a Langur" is fantastic—her imagery and use of space feels centuries old, while the colors and whimsy feel timeless. She’s one of the most incredibly talented people I (sort of) know. I loved college, but realize from a distance that I wasn’t connected with a lot of people I would have truly enjoyed knowing. Arhia is one of those people.


"Lady with a Langur," artist: Arhia Kohlmoos

15. kelly:: in closing, let's pretend we're going out on a dinner date in Paris. what are we eating and drinking? and omg, let's be soooooo leisurely about it. i want to stay for at least two hours, beginning at dusk … then we go dancing …  

Beth:: Aren’t we eating tarts with sugared flowers for dinner? I’m not sure if you’re eating cheese, but I’m going to have an entire cheese plate for dessert. We’re certainly drinking champagne with petals floating in it.





Friday, August 14, 2015

INDIEGOGO $PENDING

hey, y'all ~

sssoooo, keeping my word here and am sharing how my Indiegogo funds were spent today. 


i raised $1208 and some change. (gracias 4 that!! #grateful)


Indiegogo had two fees ~ one to use their forum, and a processing fee too. after said fees were deducted, i had $1062.18

$250 was set aside for 2 reasons:

1. it will cost me about $60-$100 to have all supplies ship down here to Costa Rica. they arrive first at my bff's place in the States and she will safely send them onward to me. we have what has been (thus far!!) a fool-proof system w/ the postal powers that be. my goodies should be here by mid-September, can't wait. (sidenote :: my brother has Amazon Prime, so i was able to ship for free to the U.S., the bead companies had free shipping, and i had free shipping on the majority of items i ordered thru Etsy, so no "doubling up" on shipping w/ your donation dollars.)

2. what remains after shipping will be used late in the year to purchase more jewelry-making supplies from my favorite online beading company. they have a killer "year-end" sale.

* fatty jewelry supply order from my favorite online company = $243.48

* petite jewelry supply order from my 2nd favorite online company = $64.13

* amazon.com = jewelry supplies and GoPro (for documenting performance art) ~ this supply item was listed as something i wanted in my "tier 1" budget.
$327.97

* etsy.com (jewelry supplies) = $121.77

* SJ weekend collaboration = $60 ~ next weekend, i will be in San José for 2-3 days to collaborate. while not initially on my budget, i am choosing to use $60 towards art supplies on this trip.

* $1067.35 ~ just a few bucks over budget.

final notes :: while my focus with the $ raised was to get supplies for my small biz launch, i wanted also to keep tiers 2 and 3 of our Indiegogo proposal energized, if you will. tiers 2 and 3 focused on performance art projects and a solo art show, which i will keep working toward.

thank you ssssoooo much for supporting me. 

have a great weekend ~

kelly

Monday, June 8, 2015

artist's interview: MARISSA ARTERBERRY, #2

Grandmother, Ancestor

it is an honor to share with you my second artist's interview with my sister, Marissa Arterberry. Marissa is "an artist in love with life and all its possibilities." she is based in Oakland, CA. here, for fun, is my first interview with her way back in 2010. love u so, guapa. our friendship is a lustrous thing.



from her "Funkstress Series," copyright: Marissa Arterberry

Marissa y Kelly en Brooklyn


MA & Baby Sage

1. kelly :: what are you working on right now, queen? Marissa :: ​Sooo many things! I'm painting a fan for Oshun, collaborating with a friend on a series of Oracle cards, storyboarding a children's book ... my artist brain is like a faucet, a lot shows up at once!

La Virgen de Regla

2. kelly :: what are some of your creative goals for the next 2-­3 years? Marissa :: ​I should preface my answer by saying that I'm coming out of a period of disillusionment with the "art world" that caused me to withdraw and really rethink how and where my work is presented. This questioning led to the presentation of an exhibit in my apartment where 40+ people showed up, and also showing my work primarily online through platforms like Tumblr and Instagram. So I feel like my goals, aside from completing projects, are really shifting. I have a house full of work, so I would love to manifest a solo show in the next couple of years. I would like to show work in a community garden (have always wanted to do an outdoor installation,) and get my work into some publications.

Untitled, Marissa Arterberry

3. kelly :: how does being a new mom influence your creative processes? Marissa :: ​Oh man, it's a fascinating journey! I work while he naps. Anytime my son closes his eyes, I try to pick up a pencil or a paintbrush. Sometimes it's only for 10 minutes, but the good thing about having such limited time is that it helps me to work with more focus and intention. I don't have time to hem and haw over a particular shape or color in a piece like I did before. I just have to dive right in to whatever I'm doing. So I guess creatively, having my son has made me bolder.

from the "Funkstress Series"

4. kelly :: talk to me about the pertinence of sisterhood in your life. does sisterhood as a concept and practice find its way into your art? your spiritual life too? Marissa :: I've been very blessed to have amazing women friends in my life (you being one of them!) and I'm deeply appreciative of these connections. I'm in awe of the divinity that surrounds me in the form of powerful women. My artwork honors the divine feminine, and conversations and experiences with my sisters lead to paintings. Or sometimes I'll see a woman walking down the street or through an airport, and something about her tells a story. So I make up those stories and paint them. For example 'The Journey' was inspired by a woman I saw walking through the Charlotte airport laughing with her friends.

"The Journey"


5. kelly :: one of my favorite drawings of yours is "Don't Mess With Me Oshun." kindly tell the folks about Oshun and if you care to, what influenced this painting. (sidenote: i'd love to get her tattooed on me w/ your permission.) Marissa :: ​Permission granted! It would be an honor. Oshun is a goddess from Yoruba culture who presides over fresh water and fertility, in a nutshell. She is the source, the life force. She is also very beautiful and sensual, and because of her sweetness, sometimes her strength and her warrior aspect is overlooked and she is taken for granted. But when she is taken for granted, things don't flow. This piece serves as a reminder that although she's sweet and graceful, she's also strong as hell and not to be messed with.

"Don't Mess With Me Oshun"

6. kelly :: i think it is really beautiful that you live in a community where your art is often part of shows. you also have lots of kindreds in spirit, faith, and community. are you feeling at home in Oakland these days? Marissa :: ​Yes, Oakland feels like home! My time in Brooklyn (the place I consider my second home) made me appreciate Oakland even more. I love the community and I'm excited to raise my son here. We got our little spot just in time though, Oakland is rapidly being gentrified, rents are skyrocketing and competition for housing is fierce. A lot of folks, artists and families who have been here for generations, are being priced out. I don't know what will happen when we need a bigger space.

"From the Sketchbook," Oshun-vibes

7. kelly :: we both have our "staples," like, the artists who inspire us visually, and those who we listen to at least weekly, etc. name a few of your staples for us. also, are there any new artists you've discovered who are speaking to you? ... i really love that feeling when you happen upon something new that excites the $*&# outta you, you know? have you felt that lately?​ Marissa :: My staples are for sure Kara Walker and Frida Kahlo. I'm also watching and listening to a lot of Stevie Nicks. Currently gobsmacked by these 5 artists: 

* Sage Stargate
* Emily Butterfly 
* Saya Woolfalk 
* Elrod 
* Amaryllis DeJesus Moleski

8. kelly :: so, this is a big shift, but i want to touch on it. there have been some really sad things happening to Black Men and Boys (in particular) at the hands of the police and racist groups for far too long. in recent times, i'm talking Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Eric Garner ... each death brought me to my knees, literally. i think we both agree that discussions among "white and black folks," as you wrote in an email, need to be happening more in regard to these atrocities ​and ​about change ... how we get there. i acknowledge that it's really delicate stuff, but i was wondering if you could expand on two things. 1: what do you hope we achieve in having these conversations? are they happening in your circles? 2: you said in our first interview that, "I can't let a photograph of a lynching or the traumatic history of slavery just 'be.' My paintings and drawings essentially amount to 'laying hands on' a particular memory or person. At the same time, these healing rites are a celebration of life and survival, and the strength and beauty that emerges when one comes out on the other side of pain." when our world knows so much pain right now as a result of these continued unjust deaths, why is expression as medicine or activism in art so very important? Marissa :: ​Great question! The conversations need to happen so that we can hear and feel each other better. If we want real progress and change in race relations, we have to be willing to ask questions and have conversations, even when it’s tough. We have to have real conversations about the effects of things like white privilege and oppression, about trauma and what triggers us. Part of the reason these things have festered is because we are living on land that was stolen from Native Americans with industry built using enslaved Africans. Atrocities took place that carry a heavy energy with them, and from the beginning, that ugly truth and all that came with it has been glossed over and swept under the rug by those in power. This whole nation is choking on that silence and lack of acknowledgement. And some say "get over it," but that’s hard to do when we’re still dealing with the effects of these horrors in the form of institutionalized racism. Painful tensions will continue to boil over until we address these issues in a meaningful way. I was watching an awesome bell hooks talk recently where she spoke of giving someone a "loving critique." When we talk to each other, I think that’s what it’s all about. It’s speaking truth to power, and knowing the message is delivered with love even when it is hard to stomach. Art is part of the healing process. It’s a way to release pain, and to express what we feel when mere words are not enough.

Oshun Altar in Brooklyn

9. kelly :: we both have very active dream worlds. it goes without saying that you've painted scenes from your dreams ... tell me how your dreams have lent to your creative processes lately. Marissa :: To be honest, my sleep comes in such short bursts these days that my dreams are a blur, if I even have them! Abundance has been a running theme in my dreams lately. It comes in the form of money, food, cute baby clothes ... I’ll take it! Yemaya (Orisha goddess of the sea) has also been present. 



10. kelly :: i'm also interested in how your dream life impacts your waking life. what you got?​ Marissa :: My dreams definitely direct my prayers and rituals. A dream will inform me about a particular deity or ancestor that needs attention, and when I take action on those dream messages, it opens the door for blessings to flow in my waking life.

11. kelly :: if you received a grant for $20,000 today, and it could be used for art projects, supplies, and housing/family/life in general, how would you use it up? Marissa :: I would use it to purchase or rent a house somewhere down south, in Africa, or the Caribbean. A little artist's retreat for me and my friends! I would also use some of it for field research. I've been working on this big painting of Bahia, a place I've never been (but my soul has traveled to) ... it would be awesome to travel to some of the places my artwork is based on. 


12. kelly :: i've been talking a lot w/ Arhia lately about our lives as artists ~ they are full of beautiful challenges sometimes, but i'd not trade it in for anything. you? you wrote me that this artist's life is hard­wired into our DNA, and i agree with all of my heart in this truth. it is hard for our world (our parents, sometimes our communities) to understand this path. what do we do with our days? what is our job? how do we make money or aspire to make more? can you speak to all of this in whatever ways you are drawn to do so? i feel it is important to talk about it all, to educate others who may tend to judge our path rather than understand it ... Marissa :: Yes. It can be tough to explain to folks that you are following your calling and that if you don't create art you can't breathe. We live in this odd culture where we are bombarded with the message "do what you love," but if what you love is not immediately lucrative people dismiss it as a waste of time. As far as making money, I'm not very focused on making a living from my art at this point (maybe that will change one day.) I'm really enjoying making things, and I'm less into the business side. Because of that, having a job works well for me. I substitute teach and work in after school programs, which is work that allows for lots of creativity, so I enjoy it. We'll see how well I balance art, a job, and motherhood once my maternity leave is over! In a recent panel discussion about the arts in Oakland, Anyka Barber, owner of Betti Ono Gallery, said that part of the problem is we tend not to view artists as people, and that statement really resonated with me. Artists are not seen as people who need affordable housing, who have to pay bills and put food on the table just like anyone else. Our finished work is seen as beautiful and valuable, but the process of making it­­, our time, materials, having space to produce in­­ is constantly devalued by the larger society and that can be tough.

13. kelly :: what fruits and veggies you got up in your life these days? i know you're a geek for fresh goodies! Marissa :: Right now I’m very into cantaloupe, and also yams!


14. kelly :: and on a light ending note, what 3 shades of glitter are you most drawn to own and work with right now? we both love working w/ glitter ... Marissa :: I am OBSESSED with this pack of Martha Stewart super fine neon glitter I got! All the colors are spectacular, but I’m particularly drawn to the hot pink, neon fuschia, and neon orange.

"Mother Protector"


view Marissa's tumblr here !!!

~ plz appropriately credit the artist if re-sharing images on other sites. all artwork is originally created by Marissa Arterberry. xoxoxo y gracias 4 reading.


Oya

Art Archives: February-June 2017

in this blog article, i share my personal creative work since  SOUL SEED GATHERING  in Guatemala this past February 2017, and through early...