ASPEN GUARD STATION VISIT

Aspen forest in Montezuma County, Colorado

Recently, W. and I took a drive west and above Mancos, Colorado to revisit the site where in the mid-90's I had an artist residency. Friend Jane Pedersen was having her residency for the week, making books in the quiet atmosphere of the aspen forest. Just as beautiful as we remember it, the visit brought back fond memories of my time there. I had made site installations through the land adjacent to the old cabin...stone circles, carved logs, sculpture out of natural elements, all connected with a path through the aspen meadow.

NEW WORK

Ancient Embroidery Revisit 4

Ancient Embroidery Revisit 3

A transformation of the variable print edition of the past into ANCIENT EMBROIDERY REVISIT SERIES. The addition of handmade paper and other elements layers my intaglio embossed prints. I am continuing to enjoy recycling older work into new visions

KUMI KORF COMES TO DURANGO

A wonderful occassion for the Four Corners:
Kumi is an amazing artist and teacher and I encourage signing up for her workshop and/or seeing her exhibit and attending the opening reception after which a film about Kumi will be introduced by the artist herself.

SUMMER WORKSHOPS

BELOW IS MY WORKSHOP SCHEDULE FOR MY HOME STUDIO. JUST FINISHED THE PAPERMAKING CLASS WHERE BEAUTIFUL PAPERS WERE CREATED BY WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS.


2011 ARTIST STUDIO WORKSHOPS

MARY ELLEN LONG
209 EL DIENTE DRIVE, DURANGO


PAPERMAKING
JUNE 11& AUGUST 20
basic “kitchen” techniques
western and eastern style methods
emphasis on local fibers

COLLAGE
JUNE 18 & AUGUST 13
basic techniques
understanding of adhesives

BOOK ARTS
AUGUST 27
review of all styles
bindings and sculptural forms


ALL WORKSHOPS
beginning to experienced
consultation on individual projects
all materials supplied
small classes

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER: wmelart@yahoo.com

MEMORIAL

Celebration of the life of Red Bird

I was honored to be part of the dance and poetry performance at the memorial celebration of the life of Leonard "Red" Bird, a professor, peace activist, author/poet who was a friend, living many years in Durango, CO. The site was the campus of Fort Lewis College in Durango.
Flight performance

I contributed by unfurling Japanese-style handmade paper tendrils and giving them to the dancers. The paper was used as a symbol for the connection that Red Bird had with the people of Japan. The dancers were Anne Bartlett, Desiree Henderson, and Kathryn Moller. The music was performed by Jonathan Latta and the words were spoken by Charles Eagan. Simone Kelly, 2 years old, performed by placing a red folded paper crane on an aspen branch to end the performance.

PHOTOGRAPHY ON THE REZ

Navajo Code-Talkers

Traveling home from the west these photographs plus others were spied from the car. Chip Thomas, an ER doc/photographer on the Navajo reservation, has been wheatpasting large photographs of Native American people on sides of barns and abandoned buildings in the Four Corners for a number of years. These photographs are examples seen between Tuba City and Kayenta on Highway 160. I hope to see and photograph more as I travel south and west of where I live.

Native American women

DR. SEUSS

Dr. Seuss and The Cat in the Hat sculpture

At the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, I visited the Geisel Library (Special Collections Library) and viewed selections of the Seuss Collection (original drawings of Ted Geisel aka Dr. Seuss).

SAN DIEGO BOOK FAIRE

While in California I participated in the San Diego Book Faire, held in the Seuss Room, Special Collections at the Geisel Library, University of California, San Diego. Well attended, the visitors viewed artists' book exhibits and demonstrations, and participated in a silent auction and a raffle.
Book Sculpture by Sally Hagy-Boyer

Geisel Library, UCSD, La Jolla, CA

The Book Faire scene

WASHI WORKSHOP

Papermaking

The April workshop at the Durango Arts Center was quite successful with students exploring the special qualities of fibers such as kozo and mitsumata and the techiques that are used in Japan and Asia. The 2 day session was prefaced with the showing of the film on sheetforming of paper throughout the world by Elaine Koretsky.

APRIL TRAVEL

A week on the island of Molokai was a relaxing interlude. An island without much tourist presence, beautiful in its simplicity and magnificent terrain yet haunting with its history of the once leper colony and Father Damien, caregiver to these abandoned people.

Offering: Molokai, Hawaii

Offering: Molokai, Hawaii

Another site - Sandy Beach on the island of Molokai, Hawaii - for my continuing series of floating handmade paper circles on bodies of water as symbols for peace and healing

Flotsam on the Beach

The beauty of washed up neting and ropes on the beach is bittersweet - floating debris in the ocean being one of our environmental problems

Croton Plant

One of my favorite plants in Hawaii

Raft Floating

Another piece of flotsam found on the beach, pictured as it floats with the tidal current along the shore.