Throwback Thursday with Jim Manngard

photo of me by Faith Brzostowski

artwork by Jim Manngard

© 2015

Jim Manngard made the art work of me from a photo from when I was sixteen. He made it for my birthday in May. He is a personal assistant and part of the sound team for the band, Blackmores Night. He takes many photos of the band. Here is just one from their facebook page. 

For the uninitiated, Blackmores Night is made up of Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple fame, a band that used to play huge stadiums, sometimes in front of hundreds of thousands of fans. Ritchie made a leap into playing Renaissance music in an innovative way with his wife, Candice Night. They also perform with band members.

And therein lies the connection: I sing and perform new interpretations of Renaissance music too. I produced a CD of Renaissance songs (called Wingd With Hopes, New Interpretations of Renaissance Songs) with Scott Petito (James Taylor, The Band, Aigne Minogue, Pete Seeger, Jay Unger and Molly Mason for Ken Burns PBS series). 

Jim Manngard has been working for Ritchie and Candice since the Deep Purple days and he is always taking photos and making artwork for the band (he also gets the photo perspectives from the stage area since he is running around trying to make sure the sound is working just as it should).

Here is one such photo he took of the band facing him backstage with their enthusiastic audience behind them:

So I feel blessed that I am sometimes picked to be his muse. And the thing about being a muse is that as he understands me more and more, he makes artwork of me in the lexicon for which I am noted. These include:

color: off-white

spirit animal: unicorn
spirit bird: dove
spirit flower: dandelion
affiliation with time period: Renaissance

my most common art image: butterfly

Here are some more images he has made of me (with more to come).

This is a closer version of the photo he used:

my memorial piece for my father

my father
photo © the Winne family

We called my father "Dood" because when I was a little girl I couldn't say "Dad." It stuck. And so my younger brother, Tom, also called him that.

Dood was a deep and profound thinker, always writing notes and keeping articles on spirituality, music, art, community and architecture. Our conversations on subjects could drag on for hours and even days. In speech he was always careful and thoughtful about what he said; in thought he tried to see all sides of an issue before formulating an opinion. Never one to be impulsive, his thought processes could get mired in many, many details and possibilities before they were formulated into speech, thus in order to really know Bob Winne you had to be patient enough to hear his words.

He told me many, many times throughout my life that I was like him in health, mind and spirit. Indeed we could talk with ease and intuitive understanding about all kinds of subjects. Our love of long walks and conversation dominated our relationship. We rarely parted ways in taste or opinion.

My father fought in World War II in the Battle of the Bulge. Shortly afterwards, he got to know some of the German soldiers he had fought against. He said he realized how impersonal war was from that experience, shooting and killing souls who could be saints -- only because their respective governments told them to do it.

Because of his experiences in war, he became a Quaker, heavily influenced by his conversations with Ken Webb who had started Farm and Wilderness Camps. From there he went on to study the writings and teachings of Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

My brother and I were also brought up Quaker, and in the Quaker way, taught by our parents to respect the speech, identities and life experiences of each person equally, to be humble, to be non-ostentatious, to be careful of our speech towards others in terms of how we effected others. He loved deeply and with sensitivity.

Dood also was constantly working on his own integrity, to be pure and full of heart in his deeds and actions towards other people. He always tried to see the best in everyone around him and take into consideration the challenges they faced; indeed he expressed anger very rarely. During our childhood, I had seen him break into anger only a handful of times and then by the time I was 11, he stopped.

I asked him when I was a teenager why he didn't show anger. His response was that anger was mostly unproductive; it is good only insofar that it serves justice, not hatred or intimidation or for motives which aren't moral.

When I was 18 and leaving home, I thought there were more people like Dood. I came to find out that Dood was rare. Throughout my long life, Dood and I had cross words only 4 times, and three of those times it was trivial: turning down loud music for instance. The more I got beat up in the outside world, the more I sought out the heart and advice of my father.

When he got dementia, it was my cue that I was on my own now and that I had to use what he had taught me to the best effect. Our conversations became about simpler things, but I will always be thankful that his dementia didn't progress to the point where he forgot my name or our common goals and interests.

I feel honored that I was the one who got to spend the last minutes of his life with him. He turned and looked at me as he took his last breath. In many shamanistic cultures, if a dying person looks into your eyes as they take their last breath, their soul merges with yours. I sure hope that is the case and I will let you know...

I don't relish my life without him, but I hope I will hear his voice in my head as I go through all of life's challenges. I hope that I will see certain scenes over and over in my head like the one time Jim and I parked in the driveway where Dood was waiting for us and he outstretched his arms to me and we danced in the driveway. Every moment with him was precious, a gem of enrichment in my life. I hope I can go forward with the joy of having known him rather than the grief of having lost him.

I hope all of you will too.

Mom and Me

devastation from Hurricane Irene and how it has touched my life

what Hurricane Irene did to a road less than a mile from where I spent many of my childhood years
(you may have to click to get a bigger picture)

For a change, this post isn't about art. Frankly, the devastation that Irene has caused to my childhood heart and home from that time has made it hard to create the usual kind of fantasy, Renaissance and holiday art and music I am known for. In fact, it is an event like this that makes me do a double-take, wondering what I am doing with my art (and life in general). I feel so sad about what has happened as I still know many people from the area. 

The sadness has intermingled with another sadness over the death of a childhood friend from the same area around the time as the hurricane, someone who put his life out for other people, someone who gave selflessly to those less fortunate.

This next picture is a road (that hurricane Irene turned into a river). It is the road my parents drove on a lot. I drove on it too when I got my license, in fact I barreled down it with abandon because it had so little traffic. You can see the remnants of the road where the dog is standing:

I have heard from a number of sources that the municipality in which it dwells will probably never rebuild it: they will just consider it a "lost road".

The next picture is a road going into the nearby town, only a few miles down the road:

Many people in the area have lost their homes permanently because insurance doesn't pay for flooding.

I have a bit of that "innocence lost" kind of feeling at this time. This was a wonderfully idyllic place to live as a child. It was rural, mountainous and one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen anywhere. And the community! ... let's just say it was a childhood of peace, beauty, deep conversations and purpose in world-wide causes. Think "underground railroad" with lots of like-minded people.

It was such a stark contrast to the life I have now where community is tenuous and often baffling, where I seem to have stepped "down a rabbit hole" and haven't come out yet, for lack of a better metaphor. Where do I find the child I once was who was part of causes, fighting for rights, helping others struck by prejudice and injustice and speaking out fearlessly? 

I am not finding it in my recent art. And that is a part of me that is missing that I suddenly wanted back in the wake of this recent turn of events. In fact, life as a child was sometimes so intense (and sometimes dangerous) that I used art as an escape. Obviously I am still escaping and not using art to engage. This is what struck me about the hurricane. It blew into my mind and woke me up about that. Perhaps I need a new path.

When I look at the piece I did just before the hurricane ("Hurricane of Doves and Hearts" on this page), it began to have a new poignancy for me. Indeed, as in the painting, my childhood home of love and peace was disrupted by a hurricane. I hope the doves and hearts are just merely displaced, not missing.  

Card Games Tree I and II

Note: copyright watermarks do not appear in actual art.

You never can plan anything in art. I originally designed this piece as a tag. Yup, that's right, very small with string through it, nothing too consequential. I acually painted the tree and border seperately. The original painting of the tree has red & black to match the border design. However, when I married the 2, I didn't like it. The tree did not differentiate with the border design enough (which made it look like a muddled mess). I fudged around with different experiments to try to resolve these issues. Then I found I liked it much more with the leaves turned a different color (to make it autumn-like while still keeping the playing card symbols). Success! I also decided to make prints from it. I will see if they make good tags, but for now I like them as prints.

Then I decided to try a different version. See below:

 

In this one, the tree has the same colors as the original painting while the border design does not.

The original mediums are: pen & ink, watercolor and a little oil based colored pencils to make the grass.

My relatives from my mother's side of the family are avid card players. Card games include bridge, Oh Hell and hearts with trumps. My grandfather insisted on games every night with all family members participating. Card symbols bring forth memories for me of good times with my family.

Both pieces are available in my Etsy store as small 5 x 7 prints. Perhaps there will be tags and other products with these designs after the date of this post. I still don't know what kinds of products will manifest for the brick and mortar stores that I am in.

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store and Artfire on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

The Unicorn and the Egg (and other Easter designs)

Continuing with my post from last time...

This is another older card design (from 2009). Have I said before that I like the olde Renaissance style unicorns more than the present-day horse unicorns who are more associated with acid drenched rainbows and mountain vistas than gardens and pretty Renaissance maidens? When I was around 13 years old, my mother pinned up prints of the Unicorn Tapestries (from the MOMA cloisters) in my room. Then my grandmother gave me a book about Renaissance era unicorns at Christmas shortly afterward. Who knows why they wanted to impress me with unicorns and millefleur (it wasn't something I sought out or asked for, in other words). Anyway, the art made an impression even after I grew up, left home and the prints disappeared. I always seemed to be thinking and dreaming about millefleur through the years, even when I was making big statement art in my twenties and thirties (which I don't show on the web at the present time since it is adult & I wouldn't want to confuse my fantasy-artist/ethereal-musician public image, at least not at present). Ornate tapestries from the era are the only pieces of art that can make me cry. I like millefleur even more now than then, as natural paradises are bulldozed and modern, hard edges take up every available visual space in every aspect of our lives. 

Granted, this is a very unpopular niche to be in, especially in the art world. I am not a "serious artist" (and frankly surprised when this art was accepted by the jury at the Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Center for a show). Okay, I am not serious. And why should I be? My unicorn designs seem to appeal to 13 year olds and that seems fitting.

More Unicorns are here on my website.

Here is a close-up:

Giant eggs, eggs falling from the sky, celestial eggs & other assorted wacky Easter ideas are in some of the shops in my area as well as newly listed in my Etsy store here.

Celestial Egg:

Easter:

Bunny with Red and Gold Eggs:

How Spirit is Born:

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store and Artfire on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my new blog. This blog is being created to keep you abreast of what I am doing and creating on a more consistent level than my once-a-year blog on my website. I plan to post my newest art creations, photos and blogs from the road with the band and any other thing that comes to mind.

For those of you who are not so familiar with me or my work, I’d like to introduce myself. I am a visual artist and a musician.

I got here through many twists and turns.

I began singing and playing a classical guitar and recorder when I was 10, but I never considered music to be a good career choice for me (I had severe asthma). But I still loved to play for family and friends and for a giant contra dance band at a summer camp. I continued despite setbacks.

My other passions were art and writing. I thought these interests might be a more practical career choice for me. I learned to throw pots on the potters wheel when I was 10. I also learned weaving, drawing, painting, sewing and beading. My brother and I made a lot of our own toys which included ships and space ships and other wooden toys in our father’s wood shop in the basement. I made my own doll’s clothes and often embroidered them. I filled composition books with stories and illustrations (modeled after children’s books).

My brother and I also made a lot of our own card games and board games, drawing all of the designs and making the cards. I still have a fascination with composing aesthetically beautiful games together with a mindful and exemplary strategy.

When I went to college, I majored in studio art. I applied for an art scholarship and won it. Then I got a masters degree in art education. Around the time of getting my masters, the schools were cutting back on art teachers which meant that there were a lot of us floating around looking for jobs. Many of my colleagues found work in art galleries, teaching at art centers and substitute teaching, but I decided to be a potter. It worked for awhile (barely). I was subsidizing the pottery business with performing at local venues during weekends.

Then things shifted again: the music business became more and more lucrative and overtook the pottery business to the point where I was hardly making any pottery at all. I was performing 3 – 4 times a week. Audiences were asking for recordings. So, my time went towards tracking all kinds of music, practicing or creating new compositions. I still had an urge to make art, but even a miniscule pottery business wasn’t so compatible with a music career. Pottery takes constant vigilance as the clay is always drying. So I drew and painted instead.

The greeting card business grew very, very slowly and by surprise, starting with one card design in 1998. It started because I needed a wedding card for a friend’s wedding and I didn’t like any of the designs I found, so I made my own. I thought I might try selling the design at a small local shop (at the prodding of the bride). The shop took 50 cards of the same design and they sold out in 2 months. I have been making greeting cards ever since.

During my performances, I was throwing in Renaissance songs here and there. My audiences were asking for a recording of it. So I decided to take a 2 year break from performing and concentrate on getting a Renaissance band together (we called ourselves The Spirites Consort). We recorded “Wing’d With Hopes, New Interpretations of Renaissance Songs”. The album did very well, better than expected (and because of it, I won a grant to record my next CD), but the band’s full potential was not realized because venues in the USA were not so keen to hire a Renaissance band except concert halls that are geared towards the historical perspective like art centers and libraries. By the time we figured that out, one of our members married and moved away, joining some other bands, and it became more difficult to book a consistent tour of concerts. Some of the remaining members thought we should branch out more musically and not pigeon-hole ourselves by being exclusively Renaissance. Eventually we ended up in another band called “Saratoga Faire” (3 of us from The Spirites Consort plus violinist, Frank Orsini). We are just starting to market the band and brand new CD now.

So in bits and starts, making art became more of a focus again while the musical tides of my life were shifting. In order not to drive myself crazy with two careers, most of my present art-making is in the same genres as my music and each contributes to the other and makes for a fulfilling life.

Some other tidbits about me: I love blueberries and eat a lot of them. When I go for walks I am always looking up at the sky and at the birds in the trees. Crows seem to have the best vantage point. Hummingbirds are joy on wings. Robins are a sign that my surroundings are relatively healthy. I don’t like coffee or drink it. Popcorn is my comfort food in winter.

Thank you for reading!

Website

Music MYSPACE

My Etsy on-line store for some of my CDs and some of my art