Where have I been?

It,s been a while since I posted anything here--I've been posting on www.joanleotta.wordpress.com Please check out my posts there on performance, writing, food, and parenting.

creative jump start

Creative Jump Start Notes from Babs Ludwig demo at Sunset River Marketplace When I am stymied on a writing project, I go and do something else--chores (ugh!) and I try to do something else creative. Photos. Cooking. Drawing (not so much since I am not too good). Preparing a performance piece. Making puppets for a performance. Taking a walk. Working on a different project, even if it is also writing. Reading a book for a while. All of these things jump start the mind. Today I got to visit with a local artist who is specializing in collage at this moment in her varied career. Babs Ludwig. She is a wonderful person as well as an incredibly talented artist so it was really a privilege to learn from her. Can you believe I did not have my notebook with me??? I didn’t, so I took notes on the backs of two business cards and a prayer note from the Church's Wednesday prayer group. In no particular order, here is some of what she said that I tried to record: I told her that to me, collage was like jazz on paper--she liked that because her husband, Flash, is a musician! Michael's, she said had the best cards to use to make cards--brand begins with an R I think or was it millennium?--fifty cards and envelopes for ten(less on sale) AC Moore brand, good cards but lousy envelopes. She said that AC Moore has the best cards to use with photos--both types are acid free paper. They are really expensive, but again, if you get them on sale….. Babs on technique--"When using colored paper for collage, make your own. Put medium on paper, color, and then cover with medium again. Using coffee filters, apply the dyes and then spray with medium or brush with medium." (she said art stores know what "medium" is.) She applied the Elmer's to bits of paper with a brush when she affixed them.. Spray with acrylic to cover at the end.Use a special spray for photos if you use photos in your collage. Creative notes Sumi-e book that she read talked about letting the energy flow into you before you begin a project Shakra colors are interesting her now--deep colors that come from within. She is interested in the third eye. Be like a five year old when you go about your art--full of confidence and not worrying what others think. Bits of straw and natural leaves (dried) and flowers are great in collage too--straw looks like birch trees. Sign your art prominently--make it a part of the picture. She told the story of her granddaughter who when they were putting a cat on the back of a quilt and wanted something more to add, decided on butterflies. She took to looking for a book on butterflies to study them and the granddaughter simply started cutting bits of material to make the 17 butterflies. "Never let the world guide your art--only your own creative energy." Babs "Naming your piece of art is very important".--Babs I was also taken by the still lifes she created with shapes of bottles and lines. She starts cutting with maybe an idea of the colors she likes, --others draw first and then do collage on it. Sometimes she does go back and find her old paintings and make them into collage. She does not use found objects in the collage--too much like craft, less like art "Art connects your spirit to everything going on in the universe"(Babs) After the seminar, I saw another wonderful person who creates both full size paintings in acrylic and wonderful miniatures on shells--Sue Coley. I wanted to purchase one of the shells but she had affixed it to a piece of driftwood that I absolutely did not care for, so I had to pass it up-- One of the artists they all knew (Waterway Art Group members who were there) developed macular degeneration and could not draw any more--so she switched to abstract art , reasoning that God gave her the degeneration and knew what He was doing so she switched to abstracts to continue to glorify God with her art." Many artists frame their work and this seems to be what is advised, but often I do not like the frame and that prevents me from purchasing the art--as in the case of the driftwood which "framed" this art on sand dollar--some of the best miniature paining I have ever seen---Sue has a real gift for recreating sea scenes and using perspective in miniatures to create stunning scenes. Creative idea I got from the demo: Good project--send things to a small group of other artists and have them create a collage with it. (She did this with fifteen people, so she had fifteen objects to include in the collage) I may do this in a seminar next time I give one. (BTW I also liked the idea a seminar person gave me two weeks ago of doing Nursery Rhyme haiku)

Family or Business

Yesterday I received the kind of call that every story performer loves. It was especially sweet for a performer/ writer like myself. I was asked to appear as a teller at a group meeting of writers! But the date was April 20, 2013. Therein lies the problem. The trip required an overnight stay. Not a problem except that April 20 is my husband's birthday. I asked him if he wanted to go--half hearted asking really because he hates to plan that far ahead and does not like to attend story functions. He has gone to a few but...... So after receiving his negative reply, I called the woman back and told her that I could not accept their generous fee, offer of potential prime billing. My husband's birthday comes first, I told her. And indeed it does. Gigs and money come and go. Famiiy if love and life and all things important.

CD Review

I hope you enjoy this review of my friend Linda's new story CD Please do check my other blog sites--I am trying to write more often on the www.joanleotta.wordpress.com Bobby Pins A CD by Linda Goodman Available at www.lindagoodmantstoryteller.com or http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/lindagoodman Review by Joan Leotta This is the chocolate fudge sundae of storytelling CDs, except that it is even better than my favorite forbidden treat. You can listen to it without guilt. No added fat, just food for thought. Linda shares stories from her heart, and her western Virginia mountain roots. Three of these stories were new to me. "Pearl" is adapted from one of the stories in Linda's book, Daughters of the Appalachians. The three personal tales delve deeply into Linda's own childhood. She says they are recalled "through the dim smoky haze of my mind's eye." "Nickels and Dimes" explores the relationship with a younger sister. Mustard Seed shows us the truth of the great powers of faith as Linda lived it in her childhood in the mountains. The last, "Bobby Pins" shows us Linda and her own mother in a relationship and leaves us on the positive thought of the positive effect that the little things we do have on others, especially those we love. Linda’s lilting presentation is flavored expertly with the cadence and laconic rhythms of her mountain origins. She delivers each tale through the ears directly to the listener's soul. Linda is as fine a writer as she is a teller. The arc of each tale flawlessly rolls to a fully satisfying end bolstered by superb choices of word dialect and the use of classic literary devices such as repetition, and parallelism. Listen to it for the pure pleasure of the experience or use it to teach yourself about story, Appalachia, people, families, dialect. This tape is appropriate for all ages and for men as well as women. Use it in schools if you want to tell of life in Appalachia or just explore family relationships. At the finish, I was tempted to shake the CD case to see if more stories would fall out. I suppose I will have to wait for Linda to open more of her heart to us. Joan Leotta is a published author and an accomplished storyteller in her own right. Her new ebook, Guilia Goes to War, will be available in July. Visit her blog at www.joanleotta.blogspot.com or mail her at joanleotta@atmc.net.

Joe Leotta's Birthday April 28

Today would have been our son's thirtieth birthday. Unfortunately, his life on this earth came to an end on March 30, 2002. We still miss him terribly but are comforted by knowing that we will be united with him again in heaven.
He loved Shakespeare so my contribution to the crime poem a day is from Hamlet.
Joe's favorite play if one can have such a thing, was King Lear. Joseph Gabriel Leotta never got to act the role of Lear but he did get to see it at the Glove in London with his sister, just a few months before the accident that took his life.
Here dear friends is a part of the poetry that is one of the soliloquies of Hamlet:

"For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
with most miraculous organ.
I'll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks
I'll tent him to the quick; if he but blench
I know my course. The spirit I have seen
May be the devil; and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea and perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me; I'll have grounds
More relative than this: the play's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king."

More Blogs Coming

The program performances are over but the program is not over until the paperwork is done! Have been ill and am now ready to finish the posts.

Third Day at Southport

Blog from Third Day at Southport Elementary

I was so sad to see the last day arrive for my work with the students and staff at Southport! The site is small and I got to know many of the children in the two days I was there.
On the last day, they delighted me by not only recalling (very well!) the tale of the Bear’s Breakfast, but also by wanting to tell it alone! So many wanted to do solo performances that I felt badly that we did not have the time to do that. But I encouraged them to tell their parents the stories when they were at home.
Only six parents were able to come—many work long hours. Some of the students expressed regret that their parents would not be able to come for that reason and I encouraged them to perform the stories at home and told them about my childhood—both of my parents worked so could never attend school events. They seemed somewhat comforted by the fact that I really understood how they felt.
Per prior arrangement with Kathy Smith, CIS After School Director, and the CIS Site Director, Miss Shelia, we began the “show” at 4:15.

I performed a North Carolina Version of Ming Lo Moves the Mountain for them. Then we did my version of Stone Soup, set in a school. Then I explained to parents what the week was about—stories with positive values to help with the problem of bullying by modeling right responses and encouraging creative thinking to deal with problems.
While I spoke, the students were given their Bear Breakfast puppets by the teachers. Then we acted out the story of the Bear’s Breakfast together for their parents. We gave them my grandmother’s chicken soup recipe to take home!

The staff served cookies to everyone afterwards and I stayed and talked with several students and parents.

The handouts for the stories should reinforce the learning in each story in future weeks. I forgot to hand out the evaluation sheets but will ask Kathy to email the sheet to Miss Shelia next week.

On Monday the program starts at Virginia Williamson where the format will be different, reflecting the much larger size of the program and lack of ability to have craft time at the site. For that program, I will perform three stories each day and give out the puppet forms as a take home craft rather than an on-site activity.