{"id":7313,"date":"2009-12-13T13:05:04","date_gmt":"2009-12-13T17:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wtb.org\/?p=7313"},"modified":"2018-12-26T21:46:55","modified_gmt":"2018-12-27T01:46:55","slug":"transcending-boundaries-through-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/?p=7313","title":{"rendered":"Transcending Boundaries Through Art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We met to celebrate the artistic process that seems to exist in all of us.\u00a0Prior to the meeting, some of our members enjoyed a docent tour of the current exhibition at the Everson Museum, \u201cTurner to Cezanne.\u201d\u00a0WTB member Betty Lamb had arranged this tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WTB Program Chair <strong>Tanya Atwood-Adams<\/strong> read an introduction\nby one of the presenting artists, Joan Burstyn.&nbsp;\u201cToday at our meeting, we\ncelebrate transcending boundaries through music, literature, arts and\ncrafts.&nbsp;In all cultures, women contribute to the rich variety of artistic\nexpression whether through dance, song, stories, poetry, painting, sculpture,\nthe production of traditional meals, clothes, jewelry, house wares, ritual\nobjects, or everyday plates and bowls.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs women who seek to transcend the boundaries of our various faiths, we women of WTB may find ways to express this desire of ours in the very topics we choose to portray in our art and in our crafts.&nbsp;We may, for instance, draw from other faiths to enrich our visualizations, or use modalities from the music of other faiths to enrich our own compositions.&nbsp;Or we may, through our work, reach out to explain the importance to us of our own spiritual home, while, at the same time, seeking to enlarge our understanding of the spiritual home of others.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"vp1nPYrD\" title=\"Video Player\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/embed.animoto.com\/play.html?w=swf\/production\/vp1&amp;e=1545412438&amp;f=nPYrDuNOL60AsErQ0AWrIw&amp;d=0&amp;m=p&amp;r=360p+720p&amp;volume=100&amp;start_res=720p&amp;i=m&amp;asset_domain=s3-p.animoto.com&amp;animoto_domain=animoto.com&amp;options=\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"306\" width=\"544\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>Tanya then explained how this meeting would be organized. Ten tables were arranged around the perimeter of the room, each with displays by one of our artists.&nbsp;We were to distribute ourselves evenly around these tables, and the artists would discuss their work to the small group gathered in front of them.&nbsp;At the end of five minutes Tanya would signal with her drum (a lovely sound!) that it was time to move on. Then we would each move to our right to the next table and repeat the progression until we had learned about each artist\u2019s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The table of <strong>Lory Black<\/strong>, who has a love affair with clay,\nwas a good place to begin. Lory grew up in Utica, N.Y., in a home with much love\nbut little money.&nbsp;Her parents signed her up for a variety of free classes\nincluding painting at the Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute in her home\ntown.&nbsp;She was expected to follow in the footsteps of her grandfather, a\npainter.&nbsp;However, Lory tended to skip the class so that she could stand in\nthe doorway of another classroom and watch the clay class.&nbsp;Without telling\nher parents, she signed up for clay for the next term.&nbsp;Lory handed her\nlisteners small pieces of clay so that they could sense its spirit as she\ndiscussed her work. Listeners formed their clay into various shapes (flowers,\nanimals) as that spirit moved them.&nbsp;The largest sculpture Lory brought is\nentitled \u201cWar is Not Healthy for People, Pots, and All Living Things.\u201d&nbsp;Small,\ndark, burned-looking pots on the surface represent destruction, and the piece\nis embellished with barbed wire representing the horror of war.&nbsp;\u201cBonding\u201d\nis a figure of a woman carrying a child on her back, representing the fierce\nbond that exists between women and their children and grandchildren.&nbsp;\u201cSpirit\nFamily\u201d represents indigenous people and the art that they have created on\ntheir own walls. Several of Lory\u2019s pieces are included in a current exhibit of\nthe Syracuse Ceramic Guild at the Delavan Art Gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Joy Pople<\/strong> displayed a black cloth on which she had appliqu\u00e9d a Nigerian\ndesign called a kano knot, created with small pieces of fabric from around the\nworld.&nbsp;The design represents endless unity and bonding.&nbsp;Joy also\ndisplayed a quilt consisting of large X\u2019s and O\u2019s.&nbsp;In Joy\u2019s Mennonite\nbackground, children were given a quilt to play with while they were told\nstories.&nbsp;To continue the idea of stitching, Joy showed a music video of\nour \u201cJourney to the Tent of Abraham\u201d walk on her laptop.&nbsp;She had \u201cstitched\ntogether\u201d a variety of images and added music and captions using the program\nAnimoto. Finally Joy showed us photographs that she had taken during the 1980s\nof her husband\u2019s grandfather and of a fallow field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emily Bran<\/strong> is a wife, mother, and college student. She has worked in\ncharcoal, pencil, pastels, and clay, but chose to display her first oil\npainting.&nbsp;This is a marvelous portrait of a woman facing famine in\nEthiopia. Emily was fascinated by her face, which expressed hopelessness and\nthe poignancy of the unknown. Emily wanted to give the woman a voice.&nbsp;Expressive\ncolor was vital, so she painted a deep red background, a beautifully modeled\nblue face, and a vibrant green head scarf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Betsy Wiggins<\/strong> spoke for <strong>Maurine McIntyre Watts<\/strong>, the owner of the Fair\nWorld Marketplace.&nbsp; This is the only store in the Syracuse metropolitan\narea that sells fairly traded gifts from around the world.&nbsp;The mission of\nfair trade is to promote social justice and economic independence for\ndisadvantaged people in countries around the world by providing a market for\ntheir original handmade crafts and food products.&nbsp;Fair World Marketplace\nsells fair trade crafts, coffee and chocolate from worker\u2019s co-operatives in\nmore than 40 countries, including some all-female co-ops. Sales support equal\nopportunity for women, sustainable job growth, the fight against child labor,\nand the right of all workers to support themselves and their families through a\nliving wage in dignified and non-exploitative working conditions.&nbsp;Maurine\nbecame involved in fair trade after more than 20 years as a nurse and family\nnurse practitioner who served primarily low-income clients in Florida, Nebraska\nand New York. She also did volunteer work overseas. Following a trip to\nCalcutta, India, she decided to try to address poverty from the ground up\nthrough fair-trade economic development.&nbsp;Betsy displayed several items\nfrom the store: fashionable purses made from recycled materials including one\nmade in Brazil from pop-tops and another made from recycled plastic bags in\nIndia; trivets made from magazine paper in the Philippines;&nbsp;beads made in\nUganda from recycled paper and then shellacked; organic olive oil made in an\nIsraeli co-op by Jewish and Muslim women; small angel ornaments made from\norange peels; a silky rayon scarf made in Guatemala; pearls handstrung in the\nPhilippines; and a necklace made of Zulu grass that has been dried, painted,\ncut, and strung.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Renee-Noelle Felice<\/strong> is a storyteller, writer, and poet.&nbsp;She\nsaid she is not good with her hands, but she loves color, so photography and\ncollage are her visual media. She displayed photographs and collages that\ndepict 40 years of demonstrations and celebrations.&nbsp;Her interest is individual\nfaces, not crowd shots.&nbsp;Her collection ranges from the well-known (Ruth\nMessinger, Grace Paley, Kate Millett) to the unknown (homeless people who\nremind her of her own blessing of a home).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Joan Burstyn<\/strong> introduced herself as someone who has transcended many boundaries\nin her life.&nbsp; She is from England, so she transcended the national\nboundary.&nbsp;She has always worked, even when her children were young, an\nuncommon choice for women of that time. And Joan has always been active in the\nwomen\u2019s movement, crossing the boundary of \u201cwomen\u2019s place.\u201d&nbsp; Additionally,\nJoan has always expressed herself through poetry and art. In her academic\ncareer, Joan attends many lectures where she doodles in pen and ink as she\nlistens.&nbsp;A dean of art once advised her to use proper paper as she\ncreates, so she switched from lined notebook sheets to drawing vellum.&nbsp;We,\nher audience, were amazed at the complexity and precision of these\ndrawings.&nbsp;Joan chooses her favorites and makes prints of them, even using\nthem as the cover of one of her published books and headers on poetry\npages.&nbsp;Joan read us one of her poems, written when she was in her\ntwenties.&nbsp;The poem \u201cAutumn in the Tea Garden\u201d has different meaning to her\nnow that she is in the fall of her own life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Francine Berg<\/strong> was raised in Geneva, N.Y. Her mother was a singer and dancer,\nand taught Francine to sing and dance. The cantor at her temple would let her\nsing.&nbsp;After she graduated from college, she wanted to attend cantorial\nschool, but the program was five years long and she couldn\u2019t afford that.&nbsp;Cantor\nHarold Lerner at Temple Adath Yeshuran recommended that Francine be hired for a\ntemporary position as cantor at Colgate University.&nbsp;When she sang a\ncappella for the High Holy Days, it was such a spiritual experience that she\ndecided she had to do this.&nbsp;In 1980 a friend knew that Temple Concord was\nlooking for a part-time cantor and mentioned Francine to Rabbi Theodore\nLevy.&nbsp;When Francine was hired, she was the first female cantor in Central\nNew York. The men were unsure that this was right, but the women were ecstatic!\nFrancine sang a bit of Hebrew for us, and displayed a CD of different types of\nJewish music that she recorded for her 25th anniversary at the temple.&nbsp;She\nalso shared a dreidel, a hanakiah (the candelabra for Chanukah), and to the\ndelight of her audience, she blew the shofar, the ceremonial ram\u2019s horn.&nbsp;Finally,\nFrancine pointed out the shawl, called a tallit, that she was wearing.&nbsp;She\nhad it made using a variety of family fabrics appliqu\u00e9d to the surface,\nincluding two lace gloves and crocheted collars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1999 <strong>Kafi Ahmad<\/strong> came to the United States from Bagdad,\nIraq, where she had made documentary films for television.&nbsp;She now\nvolunteers in the Syracuse University photography department.&nbsp;She has\ntaken other classes in art since arriving here.&nbsp;Kafi displayed and\nexplained several pieces she has made, including jewelry, a jeweled frame,\npencil drawings, an oil painting of eyes crying, another of Iraqi caskets\nbleeding blood and oil.&nbsp;Her experiences in Iraq have clearly influenced\nher art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eleni Roumpapas<\/strong> was born and raised in Rochester, NY.&nbsp;She\nmoved to Syracuse 30 years ago and has worked for Onondaga County for 22\nyears.&nbsp;She has been a member of WTB for five years, serving first on the\nCouncil for two years and since then on the Advisory Board.&nbsp;Eleni is of\nGreek and Scottish descent.&nbsp;Her Greek grandmother crocheted doilies and\nlace; her Scottish grandmother was a seamstress.&nbsp;Eleni grew up with a\nsewing basket and made doll clothes, but had no time for that when she started\nworking in her father\u2019s restaurant.&nbsp;Recently she bought herself a\nteach-yourself-to-knit book from the Barnes &amp; Noble bargain bin. Finding\nthis difficult, she went to an aunt in Cicero who gave her lessons and\nmaterials.&nbsp;Her initial reaction to a pattern for house slippers was \u201cThose\nhorrible slippers!\u201d but now she can\u2019t stop making them, and jokes that she\nneeds a twelve-step program to help her stay away from the yarn aisle of A.C.\nMoore.&nbsp; Eleni illustrated how she uses two strands, one variegated and one\nsolid, to make her slippers.&nbsp; So far, she has sold them at one craft\nshow.&nbsp;But sales are not the point: Knitting gives her a Zen-like calm\nafter stressful days at work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Daryl Files<\/strong> spoke for the refugees at the Center for New Americans.&nbsp;Her\ntable was filled with sewing, knitting, weaving, and craft projects completed\nby women from Bhutan, Burma, Burundi, Congo, and Nepal; many of these new\nAmericans were present at today\u2019s meeting. &nbsp; Sarah Too has created\nbeautiful clothing on her loom, and we admired the intricate designs and\nsoftness of her woven blouses.&nbsp; Several women are champion knitters, and\nDaryl showed us some of their hats.&nbsp;WTB volunteers meet the New American\nwomen weekly and share American culture and holiday traditions through song,\ndance, illustrated books, and art projects.&nbsp; Many of these art projects\nwere on display, including bottles decorated with paper mosaic and filled with\nflowers, jewelry, small painted elephants formed from clay, and cute turkeys\nfor Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At this point we had interacted with every artist and the drum called us to form a circle \u2013 in fact, the group was so large that we needed two concentric circles.\u00a0Francine Berg taught us all the lyrics and steps of dancing the hora.\u00a0At the end of several rounds of joyous song, we parted to consider our own artistic talents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We celebrated transcending boundaries through music, literature, arts and crafts. In all cultures, women contribute to the rich variety of artistic expression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":626,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-programs",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7313"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8342,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7313\/revisions\/8342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}