Children of Eve

Newsweek magazine reported in 1988 that we are all descendants of one black woman in East Africa 50,000 to 70,000 years ago – the Real Eve. In 2002 Discovery channel followed up with a video that traced, using DNA research, Eve’s migration out of Africa and subsequent migrations by her children to all parts of the world. The video ended with two people in Chicago – a Native American man and a woman of Greek descent – each doing a cheek swab and discovering they have a common ancestry. What a lovely image of the one human family occupying planet earth!

In 2005, National Geographic and IBM teamed up to launch The Genographic Project," a multi-year research effort using DNA as a tool to map how humankind populated the planet." They began offering members of the public an opportunity to trace their genetic lineage back thousands of years using an anonymous process. I chose to participate in National Geographic’s project because resources paid for processing my sample go to further research and to help prevent extinction of indigenous peoples.

I have done my cheek swabs. My samples have been received and batched. My DNA has been extracted. I now await analysis of the results regarding my matrilineal heritage. These results will provide the backbone for my next creative project - a series of paintings about my ancestral connections back to genetic Eve.

I have spent hours enjoying the incredible information available at the website: https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/journey.html I encourage you to go to their website and peruse Atlas of Human Journey and Globe of Human History.

Workshop Announcement
During the latter part of May and early June I’ll be offering a four-session multi-media, multi-modal opportunity for you to get your creative juices flowing. Creativity is Your Birthright meets once a week in Eugene and addresses questions such as: Who are you? Where are you in your life? What’s next? If you are interested, contact me via email.

My First Museum Show

My first museum show opened in the Grants Pass Museum of Art on Friday, April 2, 2010. Despite a rainstorm, 400 people came during the three-hour event. That’s rather impressive for a town of 32,000 people.

While viewing Pilgrimage is a holistic experience, when viewers speak to me as the artist, they tend to focus on a particular impression:

• It’s anthropological.
• The symbols are powerful.
• All of your patterns and textures give the impression of fabric.
• There’s so much movement and rhythm in each painting.
• The feelings being expressed are touching me deeply.
• Clearly, you have something to say.
• You have captured the essence of each place.
• Your shapes are totally original and the colors are vibrant.
• It’s so overwhelming I’ll have to come back.
• Thank you for sharing this work.

This was the third opening of Pilgrimage and each experience has been different for me. I was scared at the first reception in the Hallie Brown Ford Gallery in Roseburg. Pilgrimage reflects so much of my interior that I felt totally exposed. I was grateful that people were friendly and willing to open themselves to abstract art.

The second reception at the Chessman Gallery in Lincoln City was exciting. Being close to the metropolitan center of Portland, people were accustomed to contemporary works. Viewers were so effusive in their affirmation of the quality of my artwork that I was able to begin distancing myself from its personal content.

With two openings behind me, I felt comfortable and relaxed in Grants Pass. I enjoyed meeting many local artists as well as members of the art department from Rogue Community College. Their interest in the creative process made the experience of giving my first official “artist talk” a positive one.

One of my granddaughters asked, “What’s next, Grandma?” I'm wondering that myself!

Lincoln City Opening

Pilgrimage opened to an appreciative audience on the Oregon coast.

When I walked into the Chessman Gallery and saw LiDoña’s work, I said, ‘Wow!’ This is the quality of work that you would see in the Metropolitan or MoMA* in New York!
Natacha Popovici
Executive Director, Lincoln City Cultural Center
(formerly Working Playground Program Director, Brooklyn, NY)

This is the work of a mature artist. It’s an honor for us to show LiDona’s work.
Sharon Maribona
Gallery Chairperson, Board Member, Lincoln City Cultural Center

You have given us a world tour.
Dean Ingram
Commercial Photographer, Board Member, Lincoln City Cultural Center

*Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art

Pilgrimage Gift Pack is Ready

PILGRIMAGE: WONDER ENCOUNTER WITNESS

The Pilgrimage Gift Pack includes:

Attractive Protective Cover

LiDoña Wagner Artist Biography

Introduction to the Pilgrimage Series

17 Art Cards, Anecdotal Stories, and Envelopes

WONDER: Places that evoked wonder in me

Australia

Malaysia

Mexico

Peru

Philippines

United States

ENCOUNTER: Encounters that challenged me to face myself

India

India

Indonesia

Kenya

Nigeria

WITNESS: People whose courage I witnessed

Egypt

Hong Kong

India

Japan

Sudan

Zambia

Price is $35 plus shipping when ordered on line

To order contact LiDoña via email

Also available are limited edition Giclee prints

8.5 x 11 $100

11 x 14 $150

16 x 20 $225

20 x 30 $325

Overflowing Gratitude

“This is the best show we’ve had in the gallery.” and “I’ve been a cop all of my adult life, but I get this show!” were comments made to me during the opening of the first Pilgrimage Exhibition at the Hallie Brown Ford Gallery in Roseburg, Oregon. These visitor statements on January 22 calmed my fears about sharing my interior universe with strangers.

While I’d like to take some credit for the receptive response, it was really the gallery manager, Aleta McGee, who had the vision for how to make my colorful symbolic works accessible to the Roseburg audience. She asked me to provide photos (black frames, please) and artifacts from places represented in my paintings. Aleta’s request put me in a bind; I never owned a camera during the years that I lived and worked in villages around the world. And those were years of poverty, so I  assumed I didn't own any artifacts.

But you, my friends and colleagues, enabled me to realize Aleta’s vision. Upon receiving my request for photos, many of you took time to dredge through your archives, scan your pictures according to my specifications, and send them to me digitally so I would receive them in time for the show. I received photos from villages in Australia, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia and Peru. You were awesome!

I soon discovered I was wrong about having artifacts. In my studio I found a small Egyptian bird plaque given to me by Anne Yallop, an Australian Aboriginal Wandjiru picture from Katrin Ogilvey, and a carved Kenyan woman’s bust from Alfrieda Wilkins. In my bedroom I discovered a blue butterfly scarf from Japan given to me by Joan Knudson, a red purse from China given to me by Katrin Ogilvey, Indonesian Batik cloth from Diane Dunlap, and a Chinese silk scarf with calligraphy - a gift to me from Phil and Nancy McCullum. In the living room I found a small Mexican pyramid from Rose Worden, a Filipino wicker handbag from the Bengals (now my sewing basket), and an Indian cloth painting given to me by my daughter after her semester in Gujarat. My penchant for all things Indian was revealed in Pier 1 purchases strewn throughout the house: silk scarves, pillows, napkins, and table runners made from old saris.

Day by day as I prepared for the show, I would turn around in my home and find another of these treasures. I had never really thought of them as cultural artifacts. They are simply the warp and woof of my daily life. In my jewelry drawer are other gifts that I am unwilling to risk in a public space: a silver necklace from India given to me by Kamala Parekh, an Australian Boab tree pin from Katrin Ogilvey, silver bracelets purchased on my honeymoon in Mexico, and the black Filipino bracelet given to me by the nuns from St. Mary’s School where I taught “new math.”

A number of people generously loaned things for the 2010 shows. Nancy Golden and Roger Guthrie and Joel and Terri Narva allowed me to borrow back village paintings from their art collections. Phyllis Hockley loaned me her precious Indonesian Tjangkul man statue.

Preparing for the Roseburg exhibition was a month-long marathon. (Remember, I still work full-time. Thankfully, the holidays gave me extra time.) When I finished framing all my paintings and getting them digitally documented, I turned to composing and framing photo collages. Aleta wanted brief descriptions for all 29 paintings to use as wall tags. So I wrote those. Then I collected, cleaned and tagged all the artifacts. Finally I packed everything so Wesley Lachman could help me transport the show to Roseburg. (In an earlier blog I shared why I do not own a vehicle.)

Am I tired? I am exhausted! My brain is so fried that I can’t remember the four-digit ATM pin code I’ve been using for years! But more than that I am grateful - grateful for the experiences that have made me who I am, grateful to Aleta for her vision, and grateful to each of you for your role in my life. Thank you.

PS 1 
As some of you have noted, I’m behind on updating my website. Hopefully it will be ready before the end of February. I’m also working on a Pilgrimage gift pack of 17 art cards that will be available for sale. Inserted into each card will be an anecdotal story that celebrates the wonder I experienced in that place, embraces the self-revelation that happened in that place, or honors the courage and ingenuity of the ordinary people of that place.  Giclee prints of the Pilgrimage paintings will also be available.

PS 2 
On Saturday Feb 6 the Umpqua Valley Arts Association will open at 2:00 for a special showing of Pilgrimage for people from out of town.

One-Man Yak Train

You may have met Greg Mortenson, founder of the Central Asia Institute, in his previous book, Three Cups of Tea. The sequel, Stones into Schools, is the ongoing saga of building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, an adventure in which Mortenson is not main protagonist but storyteller. As narrator, he describes unforgettable characters, incredible obstacles, and spectacular local color.

What you discover in Stones into Schools is that Mortenson is an astute judge of individual character. When he meets Sarfras Kahn, “the man with the broken hand”, Mortenson recognizes enormous potential in a high school graduate who knows seven languages. Then, as you follow Sarfras on missions in earthquake torn Kashmir and the remote Wakhan Corridor, you realize that this man’s life experiences have made him a quick study on cultural nuance and a mastermind with logistical puzzles. Possessing a stamina that puts athletes to shame, Sarfras modestly offers gratitude that Central Asia Institute (CAI) has allowed him to become something other than a merchant of yak butter.

In contrast, an inn-keeper when he first meets Mortenson, Wakil Karimi is a product of twenty-three years in a refugee camp. Wakil becomes something of a pest about wanting a school in the town of his birth, 30 miles southwest of Kabul. However, his persistence pays off and he is brought on board as CAI’s Afghanistan director. Wakil turns out to be a visionary who starts a regional movement of women’s literacy groups and has the patience to untangle an unworkable bureaucracy.

Meanwhile, high up in the Wakhan Corridor, an area that is isolated for six months of the year by snow too deep to traverse, lives Abdul Rashid Kahn. A dedicated tribal elder, Abdul goes to enormous lengths to find and bring opportunities to his people. Having exhausted all his resources, Abdul finds in his imminent death a way to rally his people around a project that represents a new future for them.

Mortenson brings to light the heroism of these and other descendants of peoples who were once at the apex of Silk Road trade. These individuals are at the forefront because Mortenson is forced to concentrate on the fund raising opportunity presented by the popularity of Three Cups of Tea. He obviously misses the on-the-ground experience of directly enabling the building of schools and describes himself as nothing more than a “one-man yak train faithfully transporting the donations of ordinary Americans to the far side of the world.” The love and support of his wife Tara and his two children enable him to go from one stretch of 115 presentations to another of 118, then another and another ad infinitum.

Threaded throughout Stones into Schools are stories of individual girls/women who benefit from CAI’s network of schools. Mortenson shows both the enormous difficulties women face in Central Asia, but also their strength and perseverance. Stones into Schools is a delightful and inspiring way to learn about the geography, history, and culture of Central Asia. When laying it down, the reader experiences hope that this geographic region so plagued by war and poverty might actually tap into the DNA of its ancient intellectual primacy and play a new role on the international stage.

The Future of You

Mine was the only gray head in a sea of young people chatting, munching on cookies, opening laptops, and checking their cell phones. I was not where anyone, including myself, would expect to find anti-consumerist me. I was attending a lecture by, gasp, an advertising creative director.

Creativity, Media and the Future of You, the lecture’s title, had struck some chord in my being. Creativity has been my theme song for eons and I’ve been struggling for the last few years to grasp and participate in social media. But it was “the future of you” that cinched my decision to give up my favorite yoga class to hear Simon Mainwaring speak. I sensed that “the future of you” was profoundly different than “your future” and I needed to know what that was.

“The future does not fit the past,“ Mainwaring told these 19-20 year olds. Speaking with an Australian accent, he challenged them to reframe their thinking about the advertizing profession – to think in terms of cyberspace rather than Madison Avenue. With 560 magazines ceasing operation in the last year (prime advertising space) and people finding numerous ways to avoid TV ads, the industry is in major transition. There will no longer be large advertising firms to join, no career ladder to climb.

That being the case, “You are your industry. You must put your brain under new management." He suggested that they spend ten years becoming an expert in something while at the same time keeping the attitude of a generalist and the mindset of an amateur. "Be an agent of your own imagination by asking, 'What if?'”

"You are your own brand." Your brand is what you care about, who you work with, how you behave, how hard you work. You are what you value. You are the curator of your own content. As walking ads for your values:

• Define your purpose
• Identify your values
• Prioritize your values
• Seek work in sync with your values
• Serve with integrity – be consistent with your values
• Leverage technology
• Resist definition
• Be curious – do lots of things
• Be newer – something you weren’t before

Mainwaring described himself as being about the business of social transformation. He told these aspiring advertising professionals that their role is to listen to what’s going on, advocate for what they care about, amplify their values and add meaning to people’s lives. They were to be storytellers who understand emotions, use media, and give meaning to events of the day.

I came away with the understanding that “your future” is similar to a threatening rain cloud you can’t avoid; it’s going to get you one way or the other. But “the future of you” is something you create, something for which you are responsible, and something for which you are the primary agent.