Robyn Hill Hendrix

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Drinking in the Darkness

October 20, 2013 By Administrator

CCLI Journal

“What if we were living our art in the service of skillful lives?” – Wendy Morris

“How can you have an existence that is simple and spacious and outrageously useful?” -Erik Takeshita

“Skepticism means you really care.” – Bill Cleveland

Two months ago…

During nap time, I sit in the dark surrounded by tiny little humans dozing away, and on a small device in the palm of my hand, I read about James Turrell, social entrepreneurship, feminism, gentrification, innovation, crowd sourcing, placemaking, crowd sourced placemaking, private-public partnerships, appropriation, social sculpture, sustainability, the “realest” tweets, vulnerability, baby boomers, millenials, thin privilege, Cindy Sherman, Theaster Gates, the many uses of chalkboard paint, rape culture, revolution on the other side of the world…and my heart beats hard, longing for action. And I sit still and listen to the children breathe in their peaceful slumber. Drinking in the darkness.

Drinking in the darkness. I didn’t get that phrase from teaching preschool. I heard it repeated ten, maybe eleven times, over the span of four and a half months, in improvised warm up exercises led by Wendy Morris at each convening of the Spring 2013 Creative Community Leadership Institute. Rub your hands together, she said. We let the rhythm spread to our shoulders, back, hips, whole body, two dozen souls inside flesh humming along. Stop. Put your hands, warmed from the friction, over your eyes. Drinking in the darkness.

I meant to write more about the Institute a while ago. Somehow the first paragraph above brought me back to that circle. It was originally just going to be a little Facebook status update. I wasn’t even thinking about CCLI. Yet suddenly that phrase came back to me, thinking about the darkened classroom where I hold a whispered vigil every afternoon, writing notes to parents and mixing tempera paint and catching up on an overwhelming backlog of “relevant” and “important” articles I’ve saved on my phone.

Skip ahead to October…

[Read more…]

Filed Under: art Tagged With: Artplace, arts leadership, Bill Cleveland, CCLI, community arts, community organizing, Creative Community Leadership Institute, Erik Takeshita, intermedia arts, irrigate, placemaking, springboard for the arts, Wendy Morris

Pinterest (my latest obsession)

October 1, 2011 By Administrator

I’m amassing a little collection of visual inspiration over on Pinterest, including placemaking ideas, things that make me giggle, artwork that gives me brain sparkles, and imagery/visual research for current works in progress.  Click the preview to check out my pin boards.

Filed Under: art Tagged With: collecting, curating, Pinterest, placemaking, research, visual bookmarking

celebrationizms, gratitudizms.

September 19, 2011 By Administrator

Thanks to everyone who came to our opening reception for “Resurfacing” at the Women’s Building, and also thanks to those who were there in spirit but didn’t make it in person.  If you didn’t make it, you missed cupcakes:

and art:

“Phantom Brain” and “Phantom Heart,” Watercolor on Paper, 2011.

These are the first two in what I hope will be a new series that I am calling my “phantom organ” series.  They are my tweak on the general concept of phantom limb syndrome, and address the way large, life changing decisions can sometimes feel like cutting away or giving up a part of oneself in order to preserve the whole.  I am considering making phantom ears, lungs, and bones; additional body part suggestions are welcome and encouraged!  Hoping to have two or three more body parts done before my solo show in November at the Baroque Room (opening reception Friday, Nov. 4th as a part of Lowertown First Fridays).

We had a lovely reception and I got all kinds of great comments on impressions people get from my artwork.  I love hearing all the different things people “see” in my paintings.  DNA unzipping itself was a particularly good one.  Thanks again to the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota for this exhibition opportunity and all my fellow exhibition committee members for their help to pull it off.  The exhibition is on display until October 21st and open building hours are 9am-4pm (actually I was told the doors auto-lock at 4:30, but the official hours on the postcards say 4:00 so…yeah).  Artwork is on all three floors and in the conference room, so if you go, make sure you wander around to see all of it.  The address for the Women’s Building is 550 Rice Street in St. Paul (just a couple blocks north of University).

Keep in touch!  I’ll be posting some of the newest artwork in the show on my website portfolio very soon and also revealing some new professional artist portraits taken with Suzanne of Suzanne Shaff Photography.  Like my facebook page too, if you haven’t already.

Speaking of exciting things in the works, but jumping way out of my league, the wonderful people over at Springboard for the Arts shared some huge, fantastic news this past week about new funding for arts placemaking along the central corridor in St. Paul.  Check out Irrigate to learn more, and/or watch this video of the exciting launch on Thursday.  I am so proud of Springboard and the other partners involved in this massive, inspiring undertaking, and feel very lucky to consider several of those Springboard peeps my friends and colleagues.

Filed Under: art Tagged With: art, events, mnarts, painting, placemaking, women's art registry of minnesota

painting some brains

August 20, 2011 By Administrator

Brains!

Work in progress:

brain painting, work in progress

brain painting, work in progress

Deborah and I are getting all the details set for our September WARM show.  We are titling it Resurfacing and the opening will be Friday, Sept. 16th, 5-8pm.  More details coming soon!  I will also be showing at the Baroque Room in Lowertown in St. Paul, November through January.

We had our final Placemaking Block Party with Friendly Streets on Friday at the Greater Frogtown Community Development Corporation garden.  I posted some photos on my facebook page here.  With both Fringe Festival and Placemaking over, I am having a major case of end-of-summer blues.  Good thing I have lots of exciting things coming up to distract me.  Still in denial about this thing called “fall” though.  I went to the lake today to soak up some sun while I still can.

Filed Under: art Tagged With: brains, painting, placemaking, watercolor, women's art registry of minnesota, work in progress

the fringe cometh

July 31, 2011 By Administrator

The Great Midwestern Drug Circus from Sean Neely on Vimeo.

(I can’t seem to get wordpress to let me embed this.  GRRR!  Maybe it just isn’t working in the preview & will kick in when I publish…hmm nope)  Anyway, Umm yeah, so…this is weird.  Which is why it is so, so awesomely fringeworthy.  In the fringe-for-all 3 minute preview,  the cardboard elephant got karate-chopped in half in a demonstration of a feat of unusual strength.  I gave it 4 out of 5 kitties* on my “do I want to see this” scorecard.

More Minnesota Fringe Festival news and recommendations coming soon!  I already have a freakishly long list to divulge.  Will try to make it more concise so as not to overwhelm those who are not quite as obsessed dedicated as me.

* (The MN Fringe review system is based on a rating of 1-5 “kitties”, which are far superior to “stars” in their ability to communicate the reviewer’s experience.  And they’re way cuter.)

P.S. Our Placemaking project at the Friendly Streets Initiative Block Parties is going well!  My group is presenting our pLaYMaGinAtiON sPaCE project at one more block party on August 19th.  The other artist’s projects are also very fun and worth checking out.  I’ve posted some photos of the shenanigans so far which can be found over here on my facebook page.

Filed Under: Theater Tagged With: Minnesota Fringe Festival, mnarts, mnfringe, placemaking

A Heart and a Yam

July 24, 2011 By Administrator

New painting started and finished all in one day yesterday.  The idea popped up a couple weeks ago and has been living inside me aching to get out.  I think it’s the beginning of a new series, and I’m a little hesitant to throw it out to the world immediately.  Almost as if it will jinx it somehow.  Here’s a small sneak peak though of only part of it:

Detail of Phantom Heart 1, Watercolor on Paper, 2011

Comes from the idea of phantom limb syndrome, except for organs instead.  I have visions of phantom ears and phantom livers floating around inside my brain; it’ll be interesting to see where it takes me.  Oooh, a phantom brain would be freakydeaky amazing…

I also brought more food inspiration home from work the other day:

Yammmmm (or sweet potato?)

Would it be possible to paint a heart that looks like a yam?  Or a yam that looks like a heart?  The really long tip on the end reminds me of a blood vessel.

Placemaking block parties are going well so far; for more news about that and pictures come on over to my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/robynhendrixart and also check out the Hamline Midway Coalition’s Friendly Streets Page for block party dates & locations!

Plus we have our next feminist art chat on Open Field this Wednesday evening coordinated by yours truly, and hosted by WARM, more details here.

Okay, off I go to do a google image search on brains.  Mmmm brains.

Filed Under: art Tagged With: block parties, feminist art, heart, open field, organs, phantom limb, placemaking, watercolor, women's art registry of minnesota, yam

Placemaking Block Party Details

July 7, 2011 By Administrator

The first block party for the Central Corridor Friendly Streets Initiative is tomorrow!  I made a little logo for my group’s project:

Nine other artists and I were selected to work with Jun-Li Wang from Springboard for the Arts to develop creative placemaking activities at summer block parties in the Hamline Midway and Frogtown neighborhoods of St. Paul, MN.  The events are designed as a way for residents in the Central Corridor to come together and collectively address some of the issues & concerns surrounding light rail construction and the overall changes in the neighborhood.

The website with all the details: http://hamlinemidway.org/friendly-streets

You don’t specifically have to live right near the block to come to the block party; the goal is to bring in people from throughout the community.  There will be free food and art activities at each event.  My team’s project is called the pLaYMaGinAtiON sPaCE and combines a visual art component with theater/drama/role play games.  We are presenting it on three dates: July 8th, July 29th and August 19th.  Other team’s projects include building ring toss benches, making paper mache bowls using recycled materials, bike tune-ups with bike flag stencils, a “vacant hearts” activity that addresses the many foreclosed homes in the area, and a “what I wish/what I will” photography project.  All the artists involved are phenomenal people to work with and I am so excited to see all of these activities brought to fruition in the next few weeks.  Two or three projects are scheduled for each block party.

Here’s a full list of the dates:

Block Party 1:

  • Friday July 8 from 3:30-7:30pm
  • On Charles Avenue between Syndicate and Griggs
  • Hosted by Erin at 1126 Charles

Block Party 2:

  • Friday July 22 from 3:30-7:30pm
  • On Charles Avenue between Pascal and Albert
  • Hosted by Kimberly at 1414 Charles

Block Party 3:

  • Friday July 29 from 3:30-7:30pm
  • On Charles Avenue between Milton and Victoria
  • Hosted by Cossandra at 891 Charles and Emily at 825 Charles

Block Party 4:

  • Friday August 5 from 3:30-7:30pm
  • On Charles Avenue somewhere between Western and Rice
  • Exact location and host TBD

Block Party 5:

  • Friday August 12 from 3:30-7:30pm
  • On Charles Avenue somewhere between Kent and Mackubin
  • hosted by Jeff at 529 Mackubin

Block Party 6:

  • Friday August 19 from 3:30-7:30pm
  • At 533 N Dale Street
  • hosted by Greater Frogtown Community Development Corporation

Filed Under: art Tagged With: artists, central corridor, creativity, friendly streets, frogtown, hamline midway, neighborhood development, placemaking, springboard for the arts

making new stuff, art a whirl recap, & fun news!

May 29, 2011 By Administrator

Made some new stuff this weekend.  Also spent a lot of time lying in bed reading Judy Chicago’s book Women & Art: Contested Territory.  Had dinner with my friend Jade, discussed art, relationships, and life choices.  Feeling a little bit more clear-headed now after several days of feeling stressed and getting strange dizzy spells (I blame my stupid never-satisfied metabolism, grr!).  Of course, staying up until midnight blogging again (why does the motivation always come at 11:30pm, huh?) instead of going to bed is probably going to set me back to ground zero when I get up for work tomorrow morning.  The holiday pay will make up for feeling completely scatterbrained, right?

New on the table:

new puddles of paint

And I finished one of them:

Untitled (for now), Watercolor, 8" x 10"

Last weekend was Art-a-Whirl in NE Minneapolis.  I did some studio crawling on Friday and Saturday, art swapped, chatted with lots of WARM artists (some of whom I hadn’t actually met in person before, yay!) and on Sunday I helped with the photo booth at Suzanne Shaff Photography in the California Building (Suzanne is fairly new to the area, & I’m helping her out w/web and social media stuff).  We saw the tornado that hit North Minneapolis from the windows on the 6th floor, and promptly panicked and hid in the stairwell for a little while until the sirens stopped.  Pretty freaky.  Ooh and I met Amy Rice!  Love her work 🙂

Also received the happy news this week that I am one of eleven artists selected as Placemaker Artists in Springboard’s Friendly Streets project with Jun-Li Wang!  I don’t know a lot of details yet, but here’s the description they had in their call for artists which is a nice summary of what we’ll be working on:

Placemaking is people coming together and actively working to turn generic public spaces into community places where people can create connections with one another. By “activating” spaces with elements that encourage human interaction – from physical objects such as art, furniture and plantings, to activities such as parties and games, a generic space can be turned into a place where community gathers, happens and thrives. Springboard for the Arts believes artists play an instrumental role in creating place and creating community.

The setting is the Central Corridor Friendly Streets Initiative, a project addressing the design and use of the residential streets immediately north of University Avenue during construction and operation of light rail. The Initiative will host a series of block parties this summer to introduce residents to concepts and methods such as creative placemaking and traffic calming to make streets more user friendly.

I took a workshop on developing successful community projects with Jun-Li in November and am really excited to be working with her again & building on those skills.  I am also really excited for the Northern Spark festival coming up next weekend!  I am going on the Megalops at 11:00 with an assortment of friends, and who knows where the night will take me from there.  It’s another one of those “so much going on that it’s completely overwhelming and impossible to see it all” type of events.  Sometimes I wonder if our art community here, as loveable as it is, occasionally tries to do too much at once.  Maybe I’m just being selfish because I don’t want to miss anything.  How can one possibly choose between listening to sound art radio stuff on top of the foshay tower, playing laser tag at the soap factory, taking in the short film festival at the central library, watching the egg & sperm ride and video projections near St. Anthony Bridge, not to mention all the stuff going on at the Walker’s Nightshift?  And that’s just a small portion of all the events going on.  AAAHHHHHH…………………………………..

Filed Under: art Tagged With: community art projects, megalops, mnarts, northern spark, painting, placemaking, springboard for the arts, watercolor

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