It’s that season once again; I’m painting team shirts, hats, and helmets. In this case parents reward there star children with softball helmets painted with team mascot and player names.
I hear the team is doing stellar! Keep up the good work girls!
Monthly Archives: April 2012
What do Steve Jobs, Tom Cruise, Lewis Carroll, Steven Spielberg and Leonardo daVinci have in common?
I met Serena Kovalosky years ago at the winter carnival in Whitehall NY. Where I drove my team of North American Spotted Draft Horses as the hay ride entertainment. We had lovely conversation and come to find we use the same photographer Jim McLaughlin. We have also enjoyed her work.
Now years later she published and article interviewing me on dyslexia, art and life.
So here goes-
– While not all Artists are dyslexic, the Artist Mind is the portal through which dyslexics experience their world.
A vivid imagination. An appreciation for color, tone, texture and form. Exceptionally visual and highly innovative. These are some of the characteristics of an Artist. They also represent the positive side of dyslexia.
I met miChelle M. Vara many years ago and, being a fellow artist, our conversation quickly turned to the subjects of art and the creative process. Vara works in a variety of mediums, from sculptural work in metal to paintings and murals, to airbrush commissions, faux-finishes and installations. She is a whirlwind of creative energy.
Our paths crossed again recently as a result of this blog, and as I researched her work and background, I discovered she is severely dyslexic.
Vara has what’s known as “crossed optic lobe”, where incoming information goes to the opposite side of the brain, and is therefore received upside-down and backwards. “I think in pictures,” says Vara. “I remember people, events and ideas as if they were photographed. I also remember feelings, emotions, textures, lighting,…..but no words. I connect very differently from everyone else.”
At a young age, miChelle Vara’s father placed her in a Montessori school system. “I was considered an extreme case,” says Vara. “It took a very long time for me to develop verbal and reading skills. Had I been left to a parent who was not understanding and caring, I would have been labelled as retarded. I would not have blossomed in a public school system, even though my IQ is actually well above average, because I am unable to take regular tests.”
“Neon Flames” by miChelle Vara
How has art figured into her life? “I’ve been an artist from Day One,”answers Vara. “Thankfully. I grew up in an environment that embraced my differences, feeding my imagination. But don’t let me kid you, my path has not always been easy. I still received enormous pressure from the outside world – people would call me stupid, make fun of me. I got picked on terribly by adults as well as children.”
“Art is my refuge,” she continues, “and any uncomfortable situation would send me into creation mode. My best friends were a thoroughbred horse named Socks and a dog named Cherice. I am thankful I have always had the ease of art and the love of animal friends and I think all handicapped children should have a pet and a safe place to escape.”
I ask Vara if art helped her with her understanding of how her mind works.
“No,” Vara replies. “My mind works because of my art.”
“Art is where I feel safe and at home. I am driven on a soul level to create, which is why I feel a compulsion to be in that creative state continually, making visual statements and conversations. My art is my life – it’s all very metaphorical.”
“I draw daily,” she continues. “My life is one artistic picture after another – it is nothing more than visual accounts of time. I create sculptural work because I often feel compelled to create an idea/statement of dimension that is not only ascetically pleasing but structurally sound. I often don’t have time to get all my ideas and thoughts into a physical object, so I may come back to it years later.”
“The Guide” by miChelle M. Vara
Over the past 30+ years, miChelle Vara’s artwork has won numerous awards, and she regularly receives commissions from museums, corporations, individuals and municipal clients. The artist recently created a large-scale sculpture especially for the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, NY, using the museum’s logo as her inspiration for the fascinating work entitled, “The Guide”.
Vara wants to make one thing perfectly clear. “Please understand that I do not see dyslexia as a handicap to who I am and what my work is,” she says. “It is my greatest birth gift. “
Life is what you make it. miChelle Vara knows how to make the best of her life, and she has the artwork to prove it.
- SerenaK
The Knox Trail Honor Walk
Today we met Benjamin Smith and Copy editor Alex Culpepper, staff members of Patriots of the American Revolution Magazine they are walking the Knox Trail. Their goal today was to stop at the sculpture that I made “General Knox and the Train of Artillery” and marker. they served a small set back as Culperpper got a foot blister. The Hudson Crossing; Knox Trail Pocket Park is located Route 4 and 32 on the corner of Starks Knob Rd. in Northumberland NY.
Their mission: to honor Henry Knox and his “Noble Train of Artillery,” to raise awareness of and promote the Knox Trail as a unique American historical route, and to help the American Revolution Association raise needed money for history-based museums and parks with connections to Henry Knox and the Knox Trail. Starting from Fort Ticonderoga on Friday, April 6, 2012, Patriots of the American Revolution Managing Editor Benjamin Smith and Copyeditor Alex Culpepper will march south along Lake George and the Hudson River to Kinderhook, New York, where they will veer east into Massachusetts, aiming to reach Dorchester Heights in Boston National Historical Park on Wednesday, April 18. Along the way they will take photographs of the various markers along the Knox Trail and document their trip for in-depth articles about the Trail that will run in future issues of Patriots of the American Revolution magazine.
Donations received by corporations and private individuals will be collected by the American Revolution Association and distributed directly and equally to the following four museums and parks.
Fort Ticonderoga (www.fortticonderoga.org)
New York State Military Museum (http://dmna.state.ny.us/historic/mil-hist.htm)
Boston National Historical Park (www.nps.gov/bost/index.htm)
Montpelier, The General Henry Knox Museum (www.generalknoxmuseum.org)
Patriots of the American Revolution and the American Revolution Association will keep none of the donations.
Artist miChelle M. Vara of Ballard Road Art Studio, Wilton NY used event painted by Tom Lovell called
“The Nobel Train of Artillery”
The famous painting consisted of Col. Henry Knox and men was used as the reference and name sake of metal sculpture. The sculpture was created using recycled materials and galvanized in finish. The Hudson Crossing; Knox Trail
Through this place passed Gen. Henry Knox in the winter of 1775 – 1776
To Deliver To Gen. George Washington at Cambridge The Train of Artillery from Fort Ticonderoga
used to force the British Army to Evacuate Boston. Commissions
During the winter of 1775–1776, Colonel Henry Knox left Boston, marched to New York’s Fort Ticonderoga, and—with a team of men and oxen—hauled more than 50 tons of cannons and other arms back to Boston’s Dorchester Heights. The threat of these cannons firing on British ships in Boston Harbor led to the British evacuation of Boston, a major victory for the fledging Continental Army.
In 1926, New York and Massachusetts began installing commemorative markers that traced the so-called “Knox Trail” at locations in the two states.
http://www.hudsoncrossingpark.org/master-plan/knox-trail.cfm
Keep an eye out for these men they may need some upstate Hospitality!
Passover and Easter a time of rejuvienation.
Passover and Easter are a few days away. Signs of Spring are budding, nature teaches us that life is always rejuvenating. Though art and life’s experiences, I reach to expand ideas and thought, in the quest for expansion. This powerful energy surrounds us with abundant love and magical beauty. Wishing all the abundance of newness.
Happy Spring & Easter with Peace- m
