A story of Renewal

It’s been a long time since I have written. The last post that I wrote talked about hard times and furious dancing, and much has happened since then.

My father passed away soon after that post. My mom also had a heart attack and a stroke at the same time, but she is has recovered well and is getting wonderful support from her friends.

So today, I want to tell you the story of renewal, and of a recent project we completed and installed in the middle of life doing what life does: “Spirit of Renewal”

In late 2015, our friend Mary Lynn Kelly who created an arts nonprofit in Phoenix ( Restore Arts) invited us to partner with her in a very special project by creating a proposal for a sculpture at this unique location.

When we went to the informational meeting for artists, Adam and I knew it was an ideal project for Dream Big Sculpture.

The history of the place

This 301-unit, 38-acre public housing development was originally built for returning Korean War veterans and migrant and seasonal farm workers in 1954 and now houses low-income people, families, seniors and households with disabilities in the Phoenix area.

The original plan was to demolish the Coffelt development. It was deteriorated and dangerous, and would be more difficult and expensive to renew and retrofit than it would to demolish and move the families to other locations. However, with 75% of the student body at the adjacent Hamilton Elementary School residing at Coffelt, they community wanted to stay where they were, and the County quickly realized that closing Coffelt would result in closing the school.

Combining a creative and visionary approach with a true dedication to the community, Maricopa County HUD partnered with developer Gorman and company and petitioned to have Coffelt recognized as a Historical Site. this status enabled them to find ways to creatively leverage low-income and historic housing tax credits to finance the redevelopment and renewal of this historical site instead of demolishing the entire area as originally planned. As part of this project, Gloria Munoz, the director of Maricopa county housing, suggested that Gorman include Public Art for the project and encouraged them to include recycled materials saved from the demolition to the final design for this community.

Here’s where we came in.

From the beginning Adam said that my work would be perfect for this project with the themes of hope, renewal, and transformation running throughout. We were so inspired by all that we saw happening in the community of Coffelt-Lamorueax that we designed a sculpture that told their story.

As part of this project, we were honored to be asked to present the sculpture to the community. Here’s a video of part of that presentation. What fun it was!

Once we installed “Spirit of Renewal” celebration of this project was glorious. Hundreds of people were there to celebrate what can happen with vision, creativity, and partnerships. The community came out wearing their t-shirts.

Most of all, this project at this time in my life was profound. We were deeply touched by the incredible work everyone on our team did to make this happen on time. My beloved husband took complete control of this project while I was dealing with the loss of my dad and my mom’s hospitalization. Our fabricator, Bryan Buikema worked with Adam to make sure the sculpture was beautifully finished, delivered and installed. Our patina artist Debbie Bakel did a beautiful job translating my vision through phone conversations, drawings, and photos without us able to oversee anything on site in Colorado where they were assembling the sculpture.

We know that we have the best team anywhere, and they proved it to us once again.

And then we got the letter from Quincy:

” I stopped by to see “Spirit of Renewal”, here in Phoenix today and stood there in awe. I look around where your sculpture stands tall looking over the community. I know this community. I grew up in a community like this one but in the rougher part of South Phoenix. This piece brings me peace, Lorri. I look at her high up there with her hands in the air and dancing like no one is watching. I study the butterflies that flutter in those nurturing hands. She invites others to grow and to join her in the dance of life. She brings hope, Lorri. This community she stands in is a community of the forgotten. Society looks down on this type of community. Some people see fear when they are here, I feel love. This sculpture brings hope and community together. It’s the bond between I can and we can. I imagine the children of this neighborhood looking up at her and realizing they too can stand tall and be at peace. They will know they can grow and be bigger than society says they can be. They will dare to dream and bring change that they want to see. If I saw this kind of art when I was younger, in the ghetto I grew up in, I too would have realized sooner that I too can dance like no one is watching. Thank you, Lorri, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for bringing peace to people who search for it.”

And that’s why what we do is important. Maybe we can make the world better. Maybe we can inspire people to reach for hope.

I think dad would be proud.

February 11, 2018

Furious Dancing

“Hard Times Require Furious Dancing”

is the title of a wonderful book of poems by Alice Walker.

Recognizing this as truth, Adam and I decided at the beginning of the year that we need more “furious dancing” in our lives. Since our lives are centered around art, much of our furious dancing will be centered around art as well.

As part of this “Furious Dancing” we’ll be

giving away small sculptures
and Adam’s napkin drawings,
holding contests
making new work
planning Dream Big events, adventures, and workshops.
We’re going to fill this year with unexpected joy and laughter wherever we can.

On Wednesday we gave away our first collaborative paperclay sculpture

We had busy schedule on the day of the drawing so we did it before we left home at 6 am. We wanted to take the sculpture down to town with us so that we could send it out right away. Here’s a 59 second video that I put together to show the drawing and the result. I am proud of my effort 🙂

I have to say, this give away made a difference in MY life.

I’ve been struggling daily with the sadness about my Dad’s rapid and extraordinary decline and with exponentially increasing concerns about my mom. I know that lots of you can relate. It’s been a tough 8 months or so.

From the outset, the decision to give the sculpture away has lifted our spirits. What fun for us to be able to do something that shows our appreciation to you.

We both so appreciate the people that support and encourage us in many ways

buying sculptures,
Sharing our work with others,
taking the time to tell us how our work impacts you
rooting for us and sharing and watching our journey and more

All of you touch our hearts and remind us that what we do and who we are has value.

Mary was SO happy

After we used the random number generator and found out Mary was the winner, I messaged her immediately so we could get her address and ship”Queen of Hearts” out right away.

Her response was fabulous!! …Something about jumping up and down in excitement. Her joy was so contagious that our happy, fuzzy feeling lasted all day long, and continues today, three days later.

We had breakfast…feeling so happy

We drove the 1.5 hours to Loveland…. happy, happy

We went around and met with the professionals and friends in the foundry business …checking waxes, checking metal, picking up sculptures, planning projects…..happy, happy, joy joy

Then we went to Shipper’s Supply in Loveland to mail the sculpture.

We always use Shippers. They do a great job and are wonderful human beings. Over the years we’ve watched them quietly make a difference in people’s lives and in the community, and we are proud to know and work with them.

Sheree knew about the give away, and she and Jim packed and shipped Mary’s fragile gift at no cost to us. She said she wanted to pay it forward.

Happy. really happy.

Finding a way to spread joy is an amazing thing. When people join in, it’s even more amazing. Mary and Sheree took my mind off my worries and created a fun and celebratory day for both Adam and I.

Like I said, we will be doing more of these kinds of things.

Because it makes us feel good.

We’ll be finding other creative ways to celebrate life, and play more, and of course, give stuff away to those of you who are following along with us.

We’ll announce our next give away soon. If you have friends who might want to play, please pass our blog on to them and tell them that just subscribing enters them in our next round of fun.

I wonder what should be next….

February 4, 2018

3 simple ways to enjoy a more creative life

So, we’ve been thinking about creativity lately.

Since Adam and I are artists, one would think that we live a very creative life.

And we do….

But not often enough.

We think and talk about it a lot, but it’s easy to get stuck in our comfortable ways of seeing and doing things. It’s often a surprise to realize we are thinking along some deep rutted paths, even though we actively practice looking at challenges in new ways.

The truth is, creative thinkers have real advantages, not just in art, but in the real world. If you spend a few minutes surfing the web you’ll find articles about why creativity is important in the workplace, science, relationships, and in everyday life. Creative people are better problem solvers, and have less stress, and have more options in managing it.

What is Creativity?

Creative thinking is a way to look at and solve problems from a different perspective, avoiding typical solutions, and looking outside our everyday boxes. This creative process allows you to explore connections, meet new challenges and seek solutions that are unusual, original and fresh.

Creative thinking doesn’t just have to be about art or music or writing. It can apply in any occupation, relationship or life hack problem that you need to solve. The skills are transferable across all areas, and the better you get at thinking creatively, the more applications you’ll see in your life.

All things ebb and flow, so when we find that our creative juices are more at an ebb than a flow, Adam and I have come up with a few ways that we know will help us get back into the creative flow:

1. Play More

Yep. Play more.

It sounds counter intuitive to stop and play when you are already feeling overwhelmed. But it can change everything.

All kinds of play is important to enhance creativity. The act of physically doing something that takes your mind away from the seriousness of life will often open the door to new ideas. Taking hikes in the woods, drawing cartoons, ridiculous laughter, going to the beach, and making fun stuff just because it is fun takes our minds off problems long enough for new nonlinear solutions to show themselves. When we play we remove the constraints that limit our thinking to what we currently believe to be possible. We open ourselves us to a world of creative insights.

And when we do this often enough, these insights become our habit.

In addition to actively playing, approaching life with a spirit of play can be an essential part of creativity. Trying new things just to see what might happen is a great place to start. New foods, new kinds of movies; new colors of paint on the wall. Sometimes we don’t want to try something new because we’re afraid we won’t like it. When you approach it with the spirit of play, it’s not such a big deal.

Does it really matter if you don’t care for the new dish you tried or that movie that you weren’t too sure about? Nope. And maybe you’ll see or hear or taste something that you never would have otherwise.

2. Engage in the Arts

It’s true that our creative thinking doesn’t only apply to art, music or writing.

Some interesting news though, is that the arts actually make you a more creative thinker. In this Article coming out of the University of Michigan, they essentially show that the more successful a scientist is, the more likely it is that he or she engages in arts and crafts. Some of these artistic scientists found connections between their research and their artistic pursuits. Even Albert Einstein said “The theory of relativity occurred to me by intuition, and music is the driving force behind this intuition…my new discovery is the result of musical perception”.

You don’t have to be a master artist or musician. Just engaging in the arts stretches your mind and opens you up to perceive things in new ways.

In our studio and home, we play music and sing, learn new skills like knitting or crochet, or just for fun engage in any interesting art or craft form to stimulate the flow of creativity.

3. Feel the fear and do it anyway

“What if I fail? What if people make fun of me? What if people think I am stupid? What if I actually AM stupid”

Fear can kill creativity.

Writing this blog is really scary for me. What do we actually have to say that would interest anybody? I can imagine people asking why we think anyone would want to read about us.

Almost every time I make sculpture that explores new ideas or comes from deep within me, I am afraid of what people might think. Most the time I’m not even sure what I think. When I try new materials or try to learn a new skill, I have to consciously let go of fear because I know that it will not serve me to listen to it.

Elizabeth Gilbert, in her book Big Magic says that “Fear is Boring”. in this little blog post , she talks about how fear can “mistake creativity and inspiration for saber tooth tigers and wolf packs” , and that it is up to us to have a conversation with fear and tell it that it is not in charge. Every successful person I have ever met moves past their fear to create. It’s not that they don’t feel fear, it’s just that they do it anyway.

If we stay in our comfortable ways of thinking and doing, we can only think what we have thought before and we can only do what we have done before. We cannot grow. We cannot get better, be better, do more.

In this article in “BrainWorld” about the science of creative insight, the author sums it up beautifully: “In other words, embrace curiosity. Do stuff. Go places. Collect experiences and gain knowledge.” This will be what creates connections that will increase creative insights throughout your life.

How do you unleash YOUR creativity? How do you play, and how do you deal with fear that would keep you immobile? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

January 29, 2018January 29, 2018

A sculpture gift drawing for subscribers

We’re giving away a mini sculpture!

We started this blog to have some fun and connect with people interested in our sculpture and in what kind of crazy things we might be doing next.

So, in spirit of spreading joy, we are planning many fun opportunities to thank those of you that are following us.

We’ll be drawing names for our very first give- away on February 7 and hope to get it to the winner by Valentine’s Day :-). Check out the little heart on her flag!

If you are receiving this by email, you’re already in the drawing. If you have friends that might enjoy being in on the fun, please pass it on to them. I’m so excited to see who wins!!