China Brotsky Art Gallery: Healing Spirit Boats “open your heart and take the journey”.
fascinating what one can encounter when they pop their head around the corner..
San Francisco Thoreau Center
Thoreau Center for Sustainability San Francisco is a thriving 150,000 square foot nonprofit center located in the historic Presidio, a national park in San Francisco, California. Comprising 12 buildings, the environmentally and financially sustainable facility houses over 60 nonprofits working for a healthy environment and a just world. Through Thoreau Center’s program development office, these organizations are encouraged to participate in community-building activities and information sharing. The center is designed to incorporate both green building principles and historic preservation.
Henry David Thoreau
Dedicated to social, cultural and environmental sustainability, Thoreau Centers are named after the American writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau. As America’s first notable naturalist, Thoreau believed in the importance of democracy and advocated living in harmony with nature.
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| Leo becoming a Spirit Boatist |
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| Almost done with 4 decades showing here |
Working with dramatic light, Leo and I are busy in the studio hanging my 65 boats as the installation
“Autoboat
ography”.
This will be a large installation- 14′ wide x 7′ tall featured in the China Brotsky Gallery as part of my Shaman Show.
10 boats are hung in a row to represent a decade of my life.
They are very lightweight and seem to float in the air but are in reality, hung with fishing line and secured with little lead balls that are called shot weights and have taken a long time to affix. For many years, I have wanted to see a large grouping of small white boats in some arrangement. I was not sure how this would develop. But when I was asked to show my work in conjunction with Connie Grauds’ non-profit, the Living Shaman Museum, the whole idea jelled for me as a chance to tell a story. -Jennifer Ewing
Kristine Mays, “breathing life into wire”:
Formed from hundreds of individual pieces of wire, Kristine Mays has developed a way of expressing the human form through wire.
“My artwork is about time, memory, and the emotions that are stirred when we pause and reflect. The work points to the soul and spirit, transporting the viewer into another place. It’s about reconnecting to a deeper purpose – seeing beyond the stuff of the moment, beyond the superficial and into the being — the soul and spirit of our lives. There are many dichotomies in my work. I transform hard rigid wire into soft flowing movement. I create the outer shell, the exterior of a human being, but provoke you to see what’s within. With metal wire I have timelessly captured a fleeting moment that I hope will last for decades. As an artist I am very aware of the impermanence of life. Memories and the way we have loved one another far outweigh our status or possessions — and yet sometimes a simple dress might trigger a memory from the past, allowing us to visit that which has imprinted our lives.”
Kristine Mays has been an exhibiting artist since 1993. She has raised thousands of dollars for AIDS research through the sale of her work. Collectors of her work include an eclectic mix of people, with her work displayed in many Bay Area homes and private collections throughout the USA.
More info about the artist: http://www.kristinemays.com
GET FIT WITH KATE 