Rose Spud Thorn
To be clear, this is a newsletter
Dear reader, it’s been a little while, so let’s begin this Zoom meeting with a classic icebreaker. But instead of something you’re looking forward to (“bud”), what’s something you’ve recently planted that you’re excited to see propagate (“spud”)? Feel free to borrow that. OK, I’ll go first, and then we’ll go counter-clockwise.
🌹 Rose
Faithful readers will recall that this year, most of my energy in the art/business bucket is going towards my “Let’s Dance, Lowell!” public art series, which will culminate in eight sidewalk murals, one in each of Lowell’s residential neighborhoods, each featuring a dance diagram artwork choreographed by a different community member or group.
After months of conversations and outreach about this project (where in your neighborhood should a mural go? what dance styles/groups are important to you? who do you think I should work with? who else should I talk to?) I am quite excited to have reached the design phase for four of the eight murals!
I had my first choreography meeting last week with the Women Stars, a new troupe of Haitian-American dancers based at the International Institute of New England, and they are contributing a Kompa sequence to one of the murals. This dance tradition is brand-new to me, and I understand it’s derived from merengue. It is very beautiful, and the music that it is danced to will be a stirring addition to the series’ soundtrack.
For another, I am working with the popular husband/wife dance duo Salsa In Lowell. While I still haven’t been able to make up it for one of their free lessons or salsa nights at Panela’s (not for lack of trying), I have created a first draft of the Salsa mural and have logged their feedback for a second draft.
I’m thrilled to be working with Western Ave Studios artist Angela Alés to create a mural of the Cumbia, to represent the large Colombian community in Lowell. Her guidance has been prompt and helpful, and her painting work is incredible – if you’re local, I highly recommend paying a visit during Open Studios sometime.
And, I’ve had two wonderful choreography sessions with two rising seniors from the Lowell High School Step Team and their faculty coordinator, Bryanna. Last week they gave me feedback on the first draft of the mural design that I never would have thought to try otherwise – inverting the color scheme to white outlines on a black background, instead of black outlines on white. I really like it. I have never done a sidewalk mural with a very dark background. It will allow us to much more prominently showcase the color scheme for the mural, the colors of the Pan-African Flag, but it will also help the mural hide inevitable scuffs and stains for longer after it’s painted.
The fabulous Henry Martre, Lowell’s photographer-about-town, took some action shots of my most recent meeting with the steppers. I don’t have photo waivers for the students yet, so here’s one where you can’t see faces. 😊
Next week I’ll have my first choreography session for the fifth mural, a hip-hop sequence composed by a youth worker with the Lowell Community Health Center, who helps facilitate the annual Dance 4 Peace event. I’m really excited for the opportunity to connect the mural series with this awesome program.
🌹 Rose 1B
I have also contracted with two choreographers for my similar but smaller-scale project, “Let’s Dance, Brookline!”
My collaborator selection process for these two murals was very different from the wide-net, community-outreach model I have striven for in Lowell. Rather than collecting suggestions and then recruiting, in Brookline we (me, the Arts Commission and Town partners) disseminated a simple interest form. I received 19 applications, made a grading rubric (!), interviewed four people, and picked two.
It was harder to pick the two finalists than it was to pick the four semi-finalists – I think I could have worked happily towards great outcomes with any of them. But the two I am working with are certainly proving to be all-stars. Sutikshna is a local high school teacher and a nearly lifelong dancer in the South Indian Bharatanatyam tradition; and Caitlyn is a local researcher who volunteers teaching ballet at the Brookline Senior Center.
My process for the first steps of designing these murals is very different from when I piloted this idea for Roslintrail in 2022. When I was designing the Roslindale murals, it was during the pandemic, and all of my choreographer meetings were virtual; I was drawing exclusively from video sources. Perhaps especially because I have no dance background, it is very hard for me to accurately capture what’s going on with feet and bodies on the 2D plane from video alone. Despite being the most foundational part of creating a dance diagram, just getting the steps down in roughly the right arrangement is still the most daunting part of the process for me.
This year, I’ve been tracing my choreographers’ footsteps at our first meetings to introduce me to their choreography. I roll out big sheets of kraft paper and after we review their sequence and discuss it, I have them go literally step by step so I can trace (and sometimes number) each footfall. Back at my studio, I trace these outlines with thicker, more visible marker, snap a photo from above, and transfer over to my iPad, so I can start by tracing an accurate map of their footsteps. Paired with a video of the dance being performed, this makes my first-drafting process so much easier.
As an example, here’s a snippet of Caitlyn’s ballet routine. You can’t tell just how delightful her choreography is from just this crop of a sketch – I can’t wait for you to see it.
🌹 Rose 2
This project came about so quickly, I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before: It was a big highlight – and a big effort – to debut a new and new-format dance diagram for the Cambridge Art River Festival (CARF), created in collaboration with local multi-hyphenate extraordinaire Marissa Molinar. We call it "Working Tidal.”
(Photo by Jessie James – thanks Jessie!)
Since early this year, I have been in touch with the Cambridge Arts Council about how to do a dance diagram artwork/series with them involving members of the Cambridge dance community. After many discussions, we set on doing something that could align with two major summertime festivals involving performance and dance: the Cambridge Arts River Festival, or CARF (which was this past Saturday) and the Cambridge City Dance Party.
By the time we solidified a path forward, it was mid-May – an awfully quick turnaround for finding a collaborator, making a design, and managing the logistics of muralling. Not to mention, the CARF takes place along Memorial Drive by the Charles River, where the pathways are administered by a State agency that is not amenable to having its pathways painted.
Often creative constraints turn out to be a good thing, and this constraint – no painting allowed! – turned out to be a great thing. I rendered Marissa’s dance entirely digitally and got it printed as a 10’x10’ vinyl banner by a local print shop. Drawing it digitally allowed me to make it make it far and away more detailed, decorated, colorful, and (if I may) more beautiful than my dance diagram designs so far. Since it is just a vinyl banner, it has the new advantage of being moveable; it got danced on for 7 hours on Saturday, and then it went back in the truck to resurface, broken-in, for the City Dance Party next Friday.
I was actually pretty nervous about how a 8800x8800 pixel drawing at 600 dpi would look blown up so large, despite assurances from the printer. It is incredible to know that this is an option in the future – either for future portable dance diagrams, or for other art banner applications, should I think of any.
I can’t say enough good things about Marissa Molinar, my collaborator and choreographer for this dance diagram. Marissa is an incredible local dancer and the founder and executive director of Midday Movement Series. The diagram features a wonderful, short routine that is inspired by the movements and the rhythms of the Charles River. We both wanted to evoke the ecosystem of the Charles River watershed in the rendering of this choreography – you guys know I love featuring local flora and fauna in my illustrations – and Marissa's background in environmental science was a huge resource in brainstorming the decorative border.
If you want to check it out, join me at the Cambridge City Dance Party on 6/28 between 6pm and 8pm.
🌹 Roses 3–6
A leap forward in my ability to create Instagram reels: I made this one about Working Tidal using Canva. Still not amazing/there were some mistakes made (my best joke got cut off by captions), but still way more interesting than anything I’ve managed before, and a much easier process than making them on the Instagram app.
Big one from the political side: after weeks of discussion and negotiation, we were able to pass the City budget last week with several necessary conditions attached (longer-term revenue plan!).
I finally updated my website. *sound of bugles*
🌵 Thorn
A better project manager would have predicted the impact that adding so many more in-person meetings would have on my work life, but this year I have been figuring that out in real time. I actually enjoy having a lot of face-to-face work in my day, but it begs the question: when is the designing, revising, editing, emailing, and painting supposed to happen? To manage, I have been operating in triage mode over the past few weeks, which is fine, but I’m getting sick of the pace – and sick of myself. It’s a drag on my mood and self-esteem to play catch-up all the time.
Occasionally, I can snap out of my regular operating system enough to get some perspective, and reevaluate if my expectations are normal. Travis in particular has always been good at reminding me that contractors just have to manage their clients, schedules and priorities as best they can – and that things shifting in the queue from time to time, depending on what/how much is going on, is part of the deal. I think part of my future growth is getting more realistic about what I can handle comfortably, saying no more often, and/or bringing on more help to make it work. The other part, I suspect, is accepting it is sometimes unavoidable and fine to drop some balls.
A challenge for me in sharing this is it’s a major pet peeve of mine to talk about feeling tired and overworked. I fear it comes across braggy (subset: humble-braggy) or resentful of all the delightful opportunities I am extremely lucky and privileged to have. One of my dad’s many memorable isms from when we were kids was to caution us against playing the “whose life sucks more” game. Always a good check – especially since all my scheduliness is self-inflicted.
So in sharing this, I hope it doesn’t come across as humble-braggy or resentful. It’s good fortune to get to be self-employed (and optional to choose this path), but everything (even the good stuff) comes with its hard-to-navigate parts. To my fellows in self-bossery: I deeply appreciate all the solidarity and community I’ve ever felt in this arena, and I hope we can all keep striving to model the excellent work/life balance that all workers deserve.
🥔 Spud
It looks like I may get to return to Roslindale Village for another ground mural this summer (not a dance diagram, just shapes and color, thank god). It would be such a joy to work in this neighborhood again – stay tuned!
A few other potato seeds:
Getting to tag along with Julia Emiliani in her small-works show at Gray’s Hall which is opening next weekend – I’m so excited for both of us to join their cohort of featured local artists!
Participating in downtown Lowell’s window art series again this summer
I finished “The Cider House Rules” and I can’t wait to read more John Irving
How about you?
What is your rose, spud, and thorn? What icebreaker would you have suggested? Or are you, too, sick of me? Let me know in the comments.
Chic and spicy summer salad
Do you have a discerning, epicurean friend you want to impress? Me too; follow my lead. Nothing says “I, too, have weapons-grade taste” like a bitter, refreshing mélange of Market Basket produce.
1 bunch of watercress (an actual bunch of it, not the microgreens)
1/2 bunch of parsley
1 zucchini, sliced thin on a mandolin into halfmoons
5-10 red radishes, sliced thin on a mandolin into halfmoons
1/2 red onion, sliced thin on a mandolin
Lemon juice (very important)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Chop the greens, including stems. Slice the produce. Combine with the juice from half a lemon. Drizzle with olive oil. Toss and adjust the dressing and seasoning to taste. Serve with pasta salad, frittata, bread and cheese, your favorite jazz record.
Thanks for reading!
If you enjoy this newsletter, please consider forwarding to a friend, or supporting me a paid subscription. Speaking of such things: I’ve decided to drop the paid subscription price down to the minimum ($5/mo) because of my no-more-than-monthly newsletter frequency. Appreciate you, and thanks for being here.
