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.

On the Road in 2010!

Pilgrimage: Wonder, Encounter, Witness has been in process for over three and a half years. I'm starting to home in on the finale. In the last couple of months I’ve completed two paintings in the series. Completing them feels monumental.

I had started the Maliwada, India painting three years ago by putting several base coats on paper. That piece stood untouched at the back of my studio. Then last February I did seven small color studies, more than I've done for any of the other fifteen paintings that I’ve completed. That shows how anxious I was about trying to capture what this model village project in India means to me. The studies excited me but did not move me to action. Instead, they sat upon a shelf. Finally, in September I challenged myself to do the painting. It came together in about one month’s time. I guess three years of greasing the wheels of creativity finally got them to move!

I began the painting of Azpitia, Peru over a year ago, worked on it for several months, then set it aside when the section on Machu Pichu didn’t work. At the beginning of October, encouraged by completing Maliwada, I challenged myself to resolve the Peru painting. I spent four weekends putting in Machu Pichu with collage, removing a dark area, reconnecting with the Quechua writing that captured my imagination, putting in a vertical light line, glazing to match the shade of beige I had used in other parts of the painting, and making all the tiny adjustments necessitated by each of these changes. It’s done.

With Peru finished, there’s one final painting in this series: Oyubari, Japan. In August 2006, I did sketches and a study for this piece. I made an unsuccessful attempt at the painting over two years ago and quit. About a year ago, I had an idea for how to do the base coats, but didn’t attempt it. Now I’m challenging myself to complete the Oyubari painting by the end of November.

Why have I put this pressure for completion on myself? Because Pilgrimage is going on the road in 2010! Two exhibitions are scheduled, one in March and one in April-May. Five other sites are looking at shows in 2011 and 2012. And, it looks as though there may be a show catalog that shares both the paintings and stories that go with them. This new wrinkle came out of a visit I made last week to the gallery where Pilgrimage goes up in March.

The stories that accompany Pilgrimage have been evolving for even longer than the paintings. Two tales on my life in the village of Kendur, India were written in 1986. In 1990 I wrote a poem about my experience in the Philippines.  In 1996 I wrote a story based on my experience in El Bayad, Egypt. Last January I wrote anecdotes from Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Zambia. Now I’m working on stories from Hong Kong, Japan, Kenya, New Mexico, Peru, Sudan and Maliwada.

Working on paintings for the villages in which I have lived and worked has been like turning a sock inside out. My village experiences in diverse cultures have totally shaped who I am but I’ve always kept them on the inside, hidden from public view. As Pilgrimage goes on tour, my interior will be on the outside for anyone to see. That’s pretty scary, but I know that these paintings and stories need to have a life of their own. They don’t belong to me. They were gifts to me from the Mystery.

Family Food Fun

When Lily starts her brood of chickens, she selects their lineage with care. She wants those that will lay eggs during the winter so that she can keep her customers supplied year round. Lily is the nine-year-old daughter of Barbara Kingsolver and Steven Hopp and she has an entrepreneurial bent focused on chickens and eggs. She’s the character in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life who stole my heart. Her commitment, determination, excitement and downright love for her chickens make most adults look like wimps.

After twenty-four years of living in Tucson, Barbara Kingsolver returned to the area where she grew up, the tobacco growing area of Virginia. She and her family decided to spend one year eating only those foods grown in their local area, and most would come from their own farming efforts. The meals and recipes described in chapters such as Waiting for Asparagus: Late March, Zucchini Larceny: July, and Smashing Pumpkins: October are mouth watering. They go a long way toward convincing the reader that it’s possible to give up our petroleum-based food system and eat in a healthier and tastier way.

The major character in Kingsolver’s book is the family farm, a place overflowing with bounty of different kinds during various seasons of the year. To help us non-farm-based readers comprehend how the farm can feed a family throughout a year, Kingsolver invents the “vegetannual”, a mythical plant that bears spinach, kale, lettuce, and chard in April and May; snow peas, baby squash and cucumbers in June; green beans, green peppers, and small tomatoes in July; beefsteak tomatoes, eggplants, and yellow peppers in late July and August; cantaloupes, watermelon, and pumpkins in late August and September; and lastly the root crops.

One of my favorite chapters is Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast. It was cool to find out that husband Steven, who teaches environmental studies at Emory & Henry College, bakes the family’s bread almost every day, but  “What kind of weirdo makes cheese?” Well, it turns out that Kingsolver’s family members are those weirdos, treating the reader to some humorous moments in the description of a cheese-making class. In fact, the image of the whole family making mozzarella together, “all of us laughing, stretching the golden rope as far as we could pull it” is enough to make readers want to participate in all the fun.

Making cheese, canning tomatoes, baking bread, roasting turkey or lamb are all sources of delight for this family of four. Glimpsing their homegrown fun makes you wonder why we gave up all of this to pull a lever or sit at a computer all day!

Barbara Kingsolver authored most of this book, but her daughter Camille contributed great family recipes and short pieces on a young person’s reaction to all of this farm business. Husband Steven Hopp wrote informative sidebars on environmental issues. Only Lily, too busy with her chicken and egg enterprise, failed to pen any part of the family food narrative.

Encountering Living History

I’m not sure what I was expecting when I made plans to visit Washington D.C. with my two granddaughters, but I certainly never expected to be profoundly moved by live statues. “Live statue” is a Buddhist term that refers to statues that have been blessed and at which people have prayed. It means that the statue has acquired “living energy” that can be accessed by viewers. During last week’s visit to Washington I encountered the living history of the United States through many live statues.

Representative DeFazio’s office had arranged a national parks tour, capital tour, and tour of the National Archives for us. The parks tour began with the Washington Monument – an obelisk that provides a 360 degree view of the capital from its top. My granddaughter took the first picture above showing the WWII Memorial and the Lincoln Monument on one axis. From the Washington tower we went to the Viet Nam Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and the Korean War Memorial. Next we proceeded to the World War II Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, and finally the four outdoor rooms of the FDR Memorial.

Many persons have spoken about the power of the Viet Nam Memorial and that is true. However, one of the most moving moments of the week was standing in the presence of the Korean War Veterans Memorial – second picture above. The 19 statues sculpted by Frank Gaylord are heroic in scale (7’3”) and made from a reflective material that makes them appear to come to life in bright sunlight. They are reflected in a mural wall that is engraved with 15,000 photographs of the Korean War, making a total of 38 statues, symbolic of the 38th Parallel and the 38 months of the war. Blowing ponchos on the figures convey the feeling of a cold winter wind at the backs of these soldiers. One could not help but feel the loneliness and suffering endured by those who have elected to defend our values.

What is striking about the World War II Memorial is that it salutes the entire American people. It honors not only the 16 million who served in the armed forces and the 400,000 who died, but all who supported the war effort from home. Pillars for each of the states stand in a circle around a reflecting pool – commemorating the spirit, sacrifice, and commitment that made WWII the defining moment of the 20th century. Here one feels the strength that comes from standing together – the fruit of Lincoln’s efforts to save the union.

Since in contemporary times presidential terms of office are limited to two, I have never really thought about the fact that Franklyn Delano Roosevelt served four terms. As we walked through the four stone rooms, each representing one of his terms, I felt just how much influence this one leader had on our nation. Certainly Washington and Jefferson laid the foundation for our free democracy and Lincoln guided us through a Civil War that could have been our undoing. But it was FDR who led us into the global era and shaped our response to global crises – the depression and World War II. Eleanor Roosevelt played a key role in forging the United Nations. These two people ushered us into the world as we know it now.

I was moved, nurtured, and inspired by the energy emanating from these live statues. I appreciate the power and purpose of memorials for the deceased – to pass their creative force on to the living.