COLLABORATIVE WORK: FORDITE JEWELRY
CYNTHIA McGRATH
This “stone” is referred to as FORDITE, DETROIT AGATE or MOTOR AGATE. It is actually the remains of old car paint from automobile plants. During the mid 1900s, cars were painted in paint booths with sprayers. Over time, overspray would build up on the walls and drains in these facilities. There can be thousands of layers of paint that make up a single Fordite stone. After a while, this overspray would need to be cut and removed.
Then some creative minds looked at these colorful chunks & realized they could be upcycled into cabochons. My favorite pieces of Fordite were made between the 1950s – 1970s when cars were being painted in vibrant colors, like these pieces from a Corvette dealership in Kentucky.
Upcycling from this scrap waste is a unique and challenging process.
It involves many steps and is not achieved easily. It starts with breaking up the layers, then cutting, shaping, sanding and then polishing.
Sometimes multiple times before it is ready to sell off in chunks.
I admire and appreciate the folks that do this, and I am more than happy to support them by buying the materials they have upcycled. And I love the end result.
COLLABORATIVE WORK: “CHERRY BLOSSOM”
Oil Painting – Kanta Lipsky
Free Improvisation – David Stanwood
COLLABORATIVE WORK: “PHASES”
DanceTheYard – Dancers
Sally Cohn – Photography Slough Farm – Venue
“PHASES”, was a socially distanced site-specific dance performance by its internal dance collective, DanceTheYard, in collaboration with Slough Farm. The performance took place outdoors, moving around Slough Farm in Katama. The 45-minute event was a guided, walking experience for audience members that followed Massachusetts mandated physical distancing, and health and safety protocols.
MULTI-GENRE WORK: POETRY AND PAINTING
Margaret Emerson
“To Do List”
walk slower when you smell the sun
look up at faces in the clouds
remember how it felt to be kind
to the stranger and her daughter
wander through city streets
without purpose or destination
learn lamp posts and parks
where benches offer welcome
call your niece and your friend
both states and states away
keep connections with love
feel warm coals in your pockets
taste sugared tea silence
hear the furnace kick on
read your favorite book of poetry
welcome dandelions in your lawn
bake ginger cake frosted with cream cheese
topped with an orange zest crown
cut into twelve pieces
wrap eleven for the freezer
make cardboard cutouts
of you granddaughter
invite her to lunch
followed by time to paint together
send the book I liked so much
to Elaine, then call her
to analyze the marriage plot
almost gone wrong
count your lucky stars
that there’s always
the internet waiting
for your question to the answer
put the shower mat in the tub
save yourself from slipping
into pain and fracture
into elder-walker land
keep your neighbor on your side
and have her back
when she needs you
to be a good neighbor
get out your paints
and just paint
let the colors and textures
tell it
find a quiet
out-of-the-way cove
to marvel at the
milky way dome
make a list of what is good
about the pandemic
hide it in your closet
with your Christmas decorations
keep your UFO sighting
to yourself, unless
the dessert is haunted
by aliens at night
watch for bobby traps
when the Uber driver goes
over steam tunnel grates
and cemetery garlands
call your sisters
and their children
if you want
to stay a family
tell the truth
if you see injustice
even if it is
only your truth
volunteer for something
that lights your passion
even if you don’t
yet know what that is
January 5, 2021
PANDEMIC ESCAPE BY MARGARET EMERSONMULTI-GENRE WORK: POETRY AND PAINTING
Harry Seymour
DOG DAY AFTERNOON...HARRY SEYMOUR...16x20" scratchboard/pastel paintingSummer of 2020
Dog days of summer
On a cozy vineyard porch
Slothfully we slumber
In chairs that rock
On pine wood floors
The dog reigns sublime
With drooping eyes
Of apathy
And pouting snout
Of lethargy
How emblematic
Of dog days of summer
Even in a pandemic
With anxiety going viral
About the microscopic
Those menacing aerosol droplets
Blowing in hot sultry air
No one can see
And only masks can conceal
What is surely here
In the summer of 2020
COLLABORATIVE PROJECT: “LINKED IN MOTION”
Music – Jan Hulka
Graphics – Graham Smith
Movement – Holly Jones
A COLLABORATIVE PROJECT: “UNEXQUISITE CORPSE”
Halloween 2020 MV Museum – Venue
Sally Cohn – Photography
The Yard and Built On Stilts production & collaboration
with the community.
The show, performed in a series of scenes that circled the museum grounds, was the brainchild of two leading dance advocates on Martha’s Vineyard, Abby Bender of Built on Stilts and Jesse Keller Jason of the Yard, who gathered a wide group of other Island performers for the spooky revue. From Vineyard Gazette, 11/2/2020