Join us for Global Slow Art Day at WAM

Admiring art ... slowly

Take a day to "see" artwork at the Worcester Art Museum
In the footsteps of the Slow Food movement comes Slow Art. On April 17, 46 cities around the world are participating in International Slow Art Day.

Research shows that people spend as few as eight seconds looking at a single work of art in a museum. The aim of Slow Art Day, powered by the dynamic Phil Terry and Reading Odyssey last summer in New York, is to encourage people to spend more time and fully admire single pieces of art.

Both expert and novice art lovers are invited to join Slow Art Day in Worcester at the Worcester Art Museum, where the event will be hosted by Michelle May and Kathleen Horgan. It will be followed by a meet up in the Museum Cafe, where everyone can purchase lunch or a beverage and enjoy lively conversation about what they experienced.

We will provide participants with a list of works to look at and a map for locating them in WAM. Participants will view the art on their own or with a friend. Organizers encourage people to attend with a friend or family member. We request that children under 12 years attend with a parent.

Slow Art Worcester Details:

Saturday, April 17, 2010
Slow Art
Worcester Art Museum
55 Salisbury Street | Worcester, MA
11:00AM - 12:30PM - art viewing, 1:00PM -2:00PM Lunch The Museum Cafe

Meet at 10:30 in the Lancaster lobby if you can for a quick hello and you are off on your own to enjoy the selections. Remember, sharing is fun with friends, so I urge you to sign up with a friend, your mom, or the personal next to you at the Bean Counter!

The list and map are provided with online registration at http://slowartworcester2010.eventbrite.com.

If you are on Facebook, check out the fan page for Slow Art, you can get inspiration from the global community that is involved. I just love how Facebook makes this world a little smaller!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/SlowArt?ref=ts

Twitter hashtag for Slowart: #slowart

For more information and to see the expanse of global ideas and to learn more about the Reading Odyssey, see http://showsupport.typepad.com/odyssey/

Thanks and we hope to see you there!
~Michelle and Kathy

Sunshine, please

{image of bike at sunset, constanta, ro 2008}

I would like to go for a bikeride in the sunshine, buy some bread and strap it to my bike.

Logo work

Recently a friend came to me and asked if I could help her do her daughter's ASA team logo and banner for the website. She told me the colors and the text that had to be on it and let me decide on the rest. The top were the finals. I have to say I whipped them out and there are a few things I would clean up, but overall they look so great on the uniforms. This one was a freebie, I just have a soft spot in my heart for this team. We went to ASA Nationals last year with many of them.

This one is a version that I really liked, adding some girly fluff to the tribalish throwing star, but they went with the edgy one above. Hopefully the team and the coach like it.

Networking and Collaboration for Innovation

{images borrowed from the blog of eInvite.com featuring photos by michele m. waite}

{image of silk kimono cake by something sweet by michelle}

{image via cookie creatives}

It 's spring here in the US and every wedding vendor is starting to feel the bustle. As the skies turn blue and the trees burst to life once again, we start to feel energetic and excited for the coming warm season. This is such a fun time for wedding vendors. If you are paper, there is the National Stationery Show, if you are flora, photog or sweet, your calendars are probably already full.

I am paper. Our new designs are about to be revealed to our clients in NY in May. We are brimming with excitement and last minute touches for the show. This year I had the pleasure of working with outside vendors on a collaborative project for one of our wedding stationery albums, Unveiled. Discovered on all the best wedding blogs, like Style Me Pretty and 100 Layer Cake, was Michèle M. Waite. Her unconventional photographic signature caught my eye and when I contacted her she was simply incredible. My idea was a little time consuming even in the bustle of spring business, but Michele was attentive and helpful, making my idea a lot more concrete and exciting. In the months prior it had been just an idea, a pitch to my management and administrators, but now it was coming together and becoming validated. Exciting, yes. {yay} The fun of creative people working together makes me insanely prolific in the idea department. So I continued with my adventure.

Earlier this year I met up with Michelle Bohigian, yes a 3rd Michelle, at Taste of the Nation in Worcester where she was serving up some incredible chocolate cake. I had seen her business, Something Sweet by Michelle featured in major wedding mags and on the Today Show. I knew if she was the creme de la creme of cakes then maybe a taste would be a great idea. A year later, at one of Michelle's personal tastings at local Tuckerman Hall, she introduced to me to yet another incredible wedding vendor, Jennifer Burkhart from Cookie Creatives. She had a sweet mention of us on her blog today. Great relationships come from open conversation. Both women proved to be amazing from hello and I instantly started bouncing ideas off each.
With finishing touches from our photoshoot earlier in the month with my Worcester girl Cathy Walsh from Sprout, plentiful flora was added to the mix.

{sprout worcester, a trend setter in flowers, a community advocate in the woo. love her!}

When my brain stopped spinning ideas, a brand new concept was created for a beautiful collaboration of talents and trades. From paper to imagery, cake to cookie we were all brought together by the wonders of media. From the far corner of the west coast to the opposite side of the country, a fun creative collaboration has come to fruition. I just want to tell you what amazing people and businesswomen they are. Each helping me develop my idea and work innovation into an industry that is constantly evolving with fashion, technology, the environment, and recently the economy.

What is the collaboration? The finishing touches are being added now. I will sneak a few tidbits out as they are available! Let's just say, your eyes will look at wedding invitations a whole new way! From networking and collaboration on the internet and locally, by getting involved with a community abundant with talent, together I hope we make a splash at the NYSS in May. It will all be "Unveiled" soon!

Lesson learned: never be afraid to reach out to people who you admire, it could lead to great ideas and wonderful places.

One last thing tonight before I say goodnight, Taste of the Nation mentioned above benefits the Worcester County Food Bank. You know I am a huge supporter personally and professionally, Checkerboard Ltd. where I design has contributed invitations to the event for years. Please come {empty} and enjoy amazing food and cocktails from the best restaurants in Worcester while supporting a great cause.

Taste of the Nation Worcester
April 19, 2010
5:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Crowne Plaza Hotel
10 Lincoln Square
Worcester, MA 01608

For ticket information to this premier national culinary event, visit Share Our Strength.

sweet dreams...

Slow Art Worcester

{Opal: Zorn, WAM selection for SLOW ART}

{images of young Pete Townsend and Elvis featured at Who Shot Rock, NOW at the Worcester Art Museum}

April 17th is Slow Art Day around the world.

Come join over 46 cities around the world and us right here at the Worcester Art Museum that Saturday morning, when your visit is absolutely free. Some may forget that works of Monet, Renoir, Kandinsky, Picasso, Sargent and the like are right down the street from you. We drive by a few times a week and should really stop by. The Worcester Art Museum has been rocking and we are inviting you to be a part of it. "Rocking", I really mean it. Who Shot Rock, from the Brooklyn Museum is a current exhibit at the Worcester Art Museum and will be a part of Slow Art. What an appropriate town to have the Rock exhibit, with all the amazing musical talent here, most of it born here.

The tag line for the Worcester Art Museum is "Where Art Celebrates Life". Perfect. Art is life. Art is the interpretation of life and perhaps the largest and the most amazing level of personal gifts to the viewer, a museum and history. Slow Art gives you a chance and an open invitation to STOP and enjoy every brush stroke or nuance, the details that really capture the essence of what the painter, photographer, sculptor...what the artist was trying to express.


Since we are thinking about art, music and celebrating, I urge you also, not to miss:

Wormtown Rocks! Exhibition
In collaboration with ARTSWorcester.
April 6 - May 14
Public Reception: April 8, 6-8pm
{when prizes will be awarded}
Higgins Education Wing

Worcester has been known for its incredible and diverse music scene and its ability to nurture artists of all these genres. The exhibit is also a photo competition featuring this incredible look into the of the music scene of Worcester, amid the incredible musical talent are the photographers who capture the moments. You have seen them out and about if you are a supporter of live music in Worcester. {Louie Despres you had better be one of them!} Winners of this juried competition will be presented with cash awards on Thursday, April 8th, at the opening reception. Why check it out? All your friends will be there. Want to get involved in some Worcester art events? email me!

Louie was invited to photograph Cirque Du Noir 2009 and he captured the evening in such an amazing way. His lighting is signature and when you see a Louie photo, you know it. Louie and his wife Tina Zlody get around town supporting and contributing to the thriving art and music scene here. They are only two, together they do an incredible job spreading good vibes and community efforts around town. I hope to see some of Louie's images at this show. Every time I get the chance to see some music or go to some Worcester event, there are ALWAYS photographers present, capturing life. Scott Erb and Donna Dufault are always out and about with cameras in hand.

Worcester is thriving with life in all it's corners. Come check out Slow Art, Wormtown Rocks, the next Pecha Kucha Night. Come out and see what you have been missing. Talk to someone who has enjoyed Worcester lately. I bet you haven't been to Dr. Gonzo's Road Kill cook off lately have you? Walk by his shop on Main Street, you may hear him tickling the ivories, or enjoying the company of friends and neighbors in his little condiment shop with a big topless hot pepper out front, a prelude to the hot flavor of his passion for the Worcester community, music and art in town.

Want a taste of what I and chatting about? Watch Karl Connolly talk about his passion for mixing music at Pecha Kucha Worcester. A law student by day a dj by night. The diversity of the speakers are as diverse as the talent around Worcester. Keith Cross shares some letterpress with us at the first PKN.

Visit Worcester Art Museum on April 17th for Slow Art. Meet some new people, share the unbelievable collection we have in the galleries. The beauty of Slow Art is that you don't have to be educated in art, you need only to love it! Stop by, open your eyes and after, join us for some lunch or a beverage to chat about what you experienced. Don't stop there...there are alot more to keep you busy.

To stay on top of current events in Worcester, please visit the Social Web or the Worcester Cultural Coalition.

TO REGISTER FOR SLOW ART:
Please visit Worcester Slow Art on eventbrite to reserve your spot and enable us to send you the list of art you will be looking at. Learn more about Slow Art, its origins by the Reading Odyssey and the global movement here.

{yellena james via yellena.com}

{images by yellena james via ffffound}

I love Zentangle, so when I saw the work of Yellena James it really caught my eye. I love her palette and constant infusion of riotous color. Her drawings (top) are incredibly vibrant and her paintings (bottom two) have a more subdued and calm color.

Visit her site, yellena.com...and her Etsy shop for more scrumptous artwork. Nice discovery this morning. You should also check out her designs applied to Schoolhouse Electric lamps. They are incredible.