Tam dec

THE ARTFUL MIND

DECEMBER 2014 MONTHLY BERKSHIRE ARTZINE

Jennifer Browdy

Photographed by Sabine Vollmer von Falken

THE SOURCE FOR PROMOTING ART SINCE 1994

KK Kozik

Home and Away New Paintings

December 7 - January 11, 2015 Opening Reception Sunday December 7, 4 - 6pm

ober gallery 6 North Main Street, Kent CT 06757 860. 927. 5030 obergallery@yahoo.com www.obergallery.com

Vault Gallery 413. 854. 7744

GUARDIAN

Marilyn Kalish marilynkalish.com

LAuRen CLARk Fine ARt presents

Secrets of the Season Beverly Bourassa

Through December Artists’ reception December 6th, Saturday, 3-6pm.

Come celebrate and enjoy

Saint Francis Gallery LEE. MA (next to fire dept.) complete schedule: www.saintfrancisgallery.com 413.717. 5199 open fri-mon 10-5 pm

1370 Pleasant street. route 102

1 • DECEMBER 2014 THE ARTFUL MIND

“Small Works in Several Dimensions, 2014” 20+ Artists from the Berkshires and Beyond Nov 22, 2014 - Jan 11, 2015 LAureN CLArk FiNe Art

25 Railroad Street, Great Barrington, MA 413.528.0432

LaurenClarkFineArt.com

N Calendar of Events N DECEMBER 2014

museums & galleries

510 WARREN STREET GALLERY Hudson, NY • 518-822-0510 “Sharpening the Edges”, Jonathan Pazer. New photography ad video. Opening reception Dec 6, 4-7pm and live music by Sam Rosen.

CARRIE HADDAD GALLERY 622 Warren St., Hudson, NY • 518-828-1915 carriehaddadgallery.com PHOTOGRAPHY: Opening Wed, Dec 17, Carrie Haddad New work on view Sun, Jan 25 with an opening reception for the artists on Sat, Dec 20, 6-8pm. All are welcome to attend.

FRONT STREET GALLERY 129 Front St., Housatonic, MA • 413-274-6607 / 413-5289546, or cell at 413-429-7141 Housatonic Gallery for students and artists. Featuring watercolors by Kate Knapp (Saturday and Sunday 12-5pm or by appointment) GOOD PURPOSE GALLERY 40 Main St., Lee, MA Jimmy Reagan, opens Nov 21 and runs through Jan 5, 2015

LAUREN CLARK FINE ART 25 Railroad Street, Great Barrington, MA • 413-528-0432 / www.LaurenClarkFineArt.com; Lauren@LaurenClarkFineArt.com “Small Works in Several Dimensions, 2014”, more than 20 artists, Nov 22 - Jan 11. Deborah Alecson reads from her newest collection of poems “Complicated Grief”, Sat Dec 20, 6-7:30pm. Homespun Theatre will present the reading on Sat Dec 6, 7pm & Sun Dec 7, 3pm. Staged reading of Dead Man’s Cell Phone by Sara Ruhl.

MARGUERITE BRIDE NUarts Studios, Studio #9, 311 North St., Pittsfield, MA margebride-paintings.com • 413-841-1659 Original Watercolors, house portraits, commissions, lessons OBER GALLERY

6 North Main St, Kent, CT • 860-927-5030 obergallery@yahoo.com / www.obergallery.com “Home and Away” new paintings by KK Kozik. Dec 7 - Jan 11. Opening reception Dec 7, 4-6pm THE MORRISON GALLERY 208 Old Barn Road near the inters. Rts 7 & 341 in Kent, CT. • 860-927-4501 / wm@morrisongallery.com / www.morrisongallery.com Special holiday exhibition through December, please check website for details.

NO. SIX DEPOT ROASTERY AND CAFÉ 6 Depot Street in West Stockbridge, MA • www.sixdepot.com In the gallery: Stephanie Anderson drawings and watercolors In the cafe: Chris Young photography, Richard Patterson boxes, Sherry Steiner plaster reliefs NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM Rte 183, Stockbridge, MA • 413-298-4100 Mort Künstler: The Art of Adventure: Nov 8 - March 8, 2015.

SAMUEL DORSKY MUSEUM OF ART State University of New York at New Paltz 1 Hawk Drive, New Paltz, NY • 845-257-3844 Hours: Wednesday-Sunday: 11 am - 5 pm Dick Polich: Transforming Metal into Art. Curated by Daniel Belasco. Morgan Anderson Gallery, Howard Greenberg Family Gallery, and Corridor, thru December 14, 2014 SANDISFIELD ART CENTER 5 Hammertown Rd, Sandisfield, MA Isabeth Hardy, “Joy”, Oct 4 - Dec 14.

SCHANTZ GALLERIES 3 Elm St, Stockbridge, MA • 413-298-3044 www.schantzgalleries.com A destination for those seeking premier artists working in glass. (11 - 5 daily)

ST. FRANCIS GALLERY Rt 102, South Lee, MA (2 mi. east from the Red Lion Inn) “Secrets of the Season”, through Dec. Paintings of the season by over 20 artists. Festive and joyful! Artist reception Dec. 6, 36pm.

THE OXBOW GALLERY 273 Pleasant St., Northampton, MA • 413-586-6300 front room for Frances Kidder September 2014 RECENT LANDSCAPES by FRANCES KIDDER Dec 4, 2014 – Jan 4, 2015. Reception Fri, Dec 12, 5 - 8pm.

music/theatre

workshops

BLUE HORSE REPETORY COMPANY Loralee@Bluehorserep.com • 845 721-2493 The Theatre Institute At Sage College, in Troy NY Classes at the Capital Districts premier acting school. Perfect your craft and study with the Blue Horse Repertory Company

IS183 ART SCHOOL OF THE BERKSHIRES 13 Willard Hill Rd.,Stockbridge, MA • 413-298-5252 Full schedule of workshops and classes available on the website is183.org

SABINE VOLLMER VON FALKEN PHOTOGRAPHIC WORKSHOPS • 413-298-4933 www.sabinephotoart.com, info@sabinephotoart.com Photographic one on one workshops, scheduled throughout the winter months: BEHIND THE CAMERA - Sabine’s eye for detail provides the students with everlasting creative tools. Explore the beauty of patterns, textures, layers, depth of detail in the real. Participants learn how natural light can create dramatic or lyrical images. Designed for the serious learner who is interested in improving her/his skills. The hope is to concentrate on the artistic and critical eye. You are asked to bring a digital SLR camera. December 1, 2014 – May 31, 2015

film

HISTORIC NORTHAMPTON 46 Bridge St., Northampton, MA • 413.584.6011 www.historic-northampton.org Sun Dec 14, 2014, 3pm. The final event for our fall Fast Forward film series will be “The Message in Light.” Light allows us to see the world around us but, perhaps even more importantly, it allows us to see things from the past. In this program we will see two aspects of light.

Please send us your calendar listings no later than the 10th of the month prior to publication. Have a safe and wonderful holiday season!

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Gt. Barrington, MA • 413-528-0100 / www.cewm.org Best of the Baroque, Saturday, December 6, 6PM

TOWN PLAYERS of PITTSFIELD Whitney Center for the Arts, 42 Wendell Avenue in Pittsfield, MA • 413-443-9279 / www.townplayers.org “Christmastime in the City” Friday and Saturday, December 12 and 13 at 8pm and Sunday, December 14 at 2pm .

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER 2014 •3

Sale

Holiday

Happy Holidays!

FRont StReet GALLeRY

Kate Knapp

Come to Front St Gallery for Christmas Holiday discount!

Please call for appointment or show up during studio hours Mon, Wed, thur 10-1pm. Hope to see you! ALL WeLCoMe!

Painting Classes on Monday and Wednesday mornings 10 - 1pm at the Studio and Thursday mornings 10am - 1pm out in the field. Open to all

413-274-6607 413-429-7141 (cell) 413-528-9546 Gallery Hours: Saturday and Sunday 12-5 or by appointment

FRONT STREET, downtown HOUSATONIC, MA

4 • DECEMBER 2014

THE ARTFUL MIND

Feliz Navidad! I want to wish you a merry artful holiday!

HOLIDAY HOURS: Mon-Fri 10-6, Sat 10-5, Sun 12-4

OBER GALLERY KK KOzIK

FRONT STREET GALLERY KATE KNAPP

Come to Front St Gallery for Christmas, Holiday

BLACK BEAR 1, ALUMINUM-LEAFED HAND marbled paper

Ober Gallery In Kent, Connecticut announces the opening of “Home and Away,” an exhibition of new paintings by KK Kozik. This exhibition features paintings from two different bodies of Kozik’s work: oil on linen landscapes and interiors and oil on gold- and aluminum-leafed paper.

Of the former, Kozik states, “Once I moved to Sharon, I became much more in touch with the natural world and my new habits of observation started to influence choices I was making in the studio. I am always scanning everything for material to use in paintings but in the past it was rare that something as mundane as the house next door would seem enough in itself. My mind would always want to intellectualize and complicate. I’m relying more on my visual and intuitive capacities now. Instead of gauging my progress toward a mental target image, I am kind of feeling my way through the process, painting more loosely and letting randomness have its say, sometimes letting the sketchy underpainting come through. The game I played in these paintings was to paint them in as few strokes as possible in order to keep them fresh. “ Kozik credits these changes to what she has learned from the other series, the gold- and aluminum-leafed paintings on paper. As Kozik says now, “I had to really pay attention to the surface in a different way. The gold in particular has a very strong visual character and can easily invert traditional notions of figure and ground. Also, gold is a very expensive material on which to make mistakes! I held myself to a doit –once-and-get-it-right ethic which required ore preparation – these are all figured out in studies before they are painted. The subject matter is an echo of an earlier body of work that examined Exoticism and the images are derived from personal experience, art history and popular culture.”

KK Kozik lives and works in Sharon, Connecticut and Brooklyn, New York. Recent group shows include “Reflections” at the Tremaine Gallery at Hotchkiss School., “Gravity Racers”” at Boiler in Brooklyn, and “Feral Objects” at Creon Gallery in Manhattan. Her most recent solo show took place at Storefront Bushwick in late 2012 and was listed as an Editor’s Pick in New York Magazine. Kozik’s exhibitions have been reviewed in the New York Times, the New Yorker, Artforum, Art in America, Artnews, and Timeout New York, among others. The recently released New York’s Underground Art Museum by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority reproduces Kozik’s Arts for Transit subway commission. Ann Fensterstock’s 2013 Art on the Block also mentions her work. Kozik’s paintings and works on paper are included in numerous public and private collections.

Ober Gallery is located at 6 North Main Street, Kent CT. 860. 927. 5030 / obergallery@yahoo.com www.obergallery.com / KK Kozik - www.k2kozik.com

discount! Please call for appointment or show up

GOOD PURPOSE GALLERY JIMMY REAGAN

The Good Purpose Gallery is exhibiting the bright and colorful works of artist Jimmy Reagan. The exhibit which opened November 21 will run through January 5, 2015.

Jimmy Reagan was born on July 6, 1993 in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In 2011, he burst into the creative world as a dynamic, young artist. He currently lives and creates in Mendota Heights, Minnesota. Reagan works primarily in oil pastels, colored pencils, pen and paint to create single and multi-media pieces. The imagery in his art radiates his ability to bring fresh perspective to an image or a simple form. Reagan often re-imagines the world in bright and sometimes shocking color that draw the viewer into his work. His unique style is born out of a struggle to communicate his ideas, his needs, and his perspective to the world verbally.

Diagnosed at age three with Autism, art expression became a way to give visual voice to his dreams and experiences. “I love color. By using small ‘tick’ marks and blocks of color, I create emotion and beauty in my pictures. I find joy in my work and my art allows me to communicate with others without using words.” The viewer learns about me through my pictures.”

Reagan’s favorite subjects are portraits – both people and animals. The subjects of Reagan’s portraiture often depict a clear, sometimes striking, direct gaze. Eye contact is an interesting and reoccurring theme.

Good Purpose Gallery and Spectrum Playhouse are professional venues that exist to offer students real-life training, experience and integration with the community. Both venues host professional artists and events on a regular basis throughout the year, including student events such as plays, performances, art exhibits, and more.

Good Purpose Gallery - 40 Main Street Lee, MA; 413-394-5045; gallery@cipberkshire.org; goodpurpose.org

during studio hours: Mon Wed Thur 10-1pm .

Hope to see you!

Pastels, oils, acrylics and watercolors…..abstract and representational…..landscapes, still lifes and portraits….a unique variety of painting technique and styles….you will be transported to another world and see things in a way you never have before…. join us and experience something different.

Painting classes continue on Monday and Wednesday mornings 10-1:30pm at the studio and Thursday mornings out in the field. These classes are open to all...come to one or come again if it works for you. All levels and materials welcome.

Classes at Front Street are for those wishing to learn, those who just want to be involved in the pure enjoyment of art, and/or those who have some experience under their belt.

A teacher for many years, Kate Knapp has a keen sense of each student’s artistic needs to take a step beyond. Perfect setting for setting up still lifes; lighting and space are excellent.

Kate Knapp’s paintings are also on display at 510 Warren St. Gallery in Hudson, NY. Please stop by to see all the many works of art by exceptional artists.

Front Street Gallery – Front Street, Housatonic, MA. Gallery open by appointment or chance. 413-528-9546 or 413-429-7141 (cell).

THE ARTFUL MIND

DECEMBER 2014

•5

THE ARTFUL MIND ARTZINE December 2014

“Not made in China.”

Jennifer Browdy Photographs bySabineVollmer von Falken An interview with Jennifer Browdy Harryet Candee... 8 Fiction Sampler Amy Tanner ...11

Simply Sasha Delicious holiday recipe!

Sasha Seymour...11 Planet Waves for DECEMBER Eric Francis.....14 Marie Anoinette Easts Cake Richard Britell ... 20

Contributing Writers and Monthly Columnists Eunice Agar, Richard Britell, Jane Feldman, Eric Francis, Sasha Seymour, Amy Tanner Photographers Cassandra Sohn, Jane Feldman Sabine Vollmer von Falken Publisher Harryet Candee

Copy Editor Marguerite Bride

Advertising and Graphic Design Harryet Candee

Box 985, Great Barrington, MA 01230 artfulmind@yahoo.com

READ MANY ISSUES of THE ARTFUL MIND on ISSUU.COM Example at this link: http://issuu.com/theartfulmindartzine/docs/the_artful_mind_f or_issuu.com_aug_2/0

413 854 4400

ALL MATERIAL due the 10th of the month prior to publication

FYI: ©Copyright laws in effect throughout The Artful Mind for logo & all graphics including text material. Copyright laws for photographers and writers throughout The Artful Mind. Permission to reprint is required in all instances. In any case the issue does not appear on the stands as planned due to unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, advertisers will be compensated on a one to one basis. Disclaimer rights available upon request.

Serving the Art community with the intention of enhancing communication and sharing positive creativity in all aspects of our lives.

6 • DECEMBER 2014 THE ARTFUL MIND

THE MUSIC STORE

The Season of Light and Giving is upon us. Why not give music? Why not buy local? Why not play? Because it matters, because its affordable and exciting and because you CAN! The Music Store has begun its fifteenth year in business in Great Barrington! Helping the community, near and far, make music has been an enjoyable and productive enterprise for us. And we look forward to continuing this mission into the second half of our second decade.

Some of the fun . . .

• Composite Acoustic guitars (the forever guitar!) and their peerless travel guitar, the Cargo, made of carbon graphite and impervious to most changes of temperature and humidity • UKULELES! 50+ DIFFERENT models: Soprano, Concert, Tenor and Baritone, acoustic and acoustic/electric, six string, resonator and the remarkable U-Bass!

• How about a Cordoba Cuatro?

• Or a West African Djembe with a SMASHING carry bag?

• Try Takamine for a guitar to suit almost any budget (Limited Editions and GREAT SALES, too)! And so many more brands and types from $150-$5000 . . . .

• Ever heard of Dr. Easy’s Drunk Bay Cigar Boxes?

Acoustic/electric cigar box guitars, exquisitely made, which bring the past into the present with a delightful punch, acoustically AND plugged in!

• Harmonicas, in (almost) every key (try a Suzuki Hammond ‘Mouth Organ’).

• Picks (exotic, too!), strings (!!), sticks and reeds • Violins, Mandolins, Dulcimers, Banjos, even Banjo Ukes!

• Handmade and international percussion instruments!

• Dreamy Native American and locally made bamboo and wooden flutes and walking stick flutes!

And there is more to delight the eyes, intrigue the ears and bring warm joy to the heart!

We remain your neighborhood music store, where advice and help are free and music is the universal language.

Working with local luthiers and repairmen we offer stringed and band instrument repair. And we just may have something you haven’t seen before (an acoustic/electric Kalimba, perhaps?). We match (or BEAT) most on-line prices for the merchandise that we sell, and do so IN PERSON, for the most part cheerfully (though we reserve the right to glower a little when asked if we can ‘do better’ on the price of a pick!)!

Come and see us soon and help us celebrate our 15th year!!! Your patronage helps the community and makes it a more tuneful and happy place! Happy playing and may the Season of Light find and keep you warm!

The Music Store, located at 87 Railroad Street in Great Barrington, is open Wednesdays through Sundays and by appointment. Call us at 413-528-2460, or visit us on line at www.themusicstoreplus.com

COLLINS/EDITIONS formerly BERKSHIRE DIGITAL

After seven years of working for artists and photographers as Berkshire Digital, we have changed our name to collins|editions. We are a fine art reproduction service that offers the highest quality digital photography & reproduction of paintings as well as Giclée printing on archival papers and canvas with sizes up to 42” x 90”. Artists & photographers use us to create limited editions of their images. Private collectors and galleries use us to document their collections.

Whether the reproduction needs are for archiving, printing, books, magazines, postcards or internet use, BD adheres to very strict color controls along with delivering stunning detail by using either a large format camera with a Better Light™ digital scanning back for making giclee prints as well as the best DSLR cameras for publication & internet uses.

In addition to the photography and printing services, collins|editions also offers graphic design, enabling clients to create show announcements, post cards and brochures.

The website, www.CollinsEditions.com has a complete overview, lots of information and pricing.

The owner, Fred Collins, has been a commercial photographer for over 30 years having had studios in Boston and Stamford. He offers 20 years of experience with Photoshop™ enabling retouching, restoration and enhancement.

The studio is located in Mt Washington but dropoff and PU

ACTING

For Non-Actors... and Actors Patrick Bonavitacola is now offering classes and private coaching

413. 637. 9913

pjb5@verizon.net

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC A HOLIDAY CELEBRATION

“A Holiday Celebration — Best of the Barouque” on Saturday, December 6 at 6 PM at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, MA. Works by Vivaldi, Handel, Pergolesi, Monteverdi, Telemann and J. S. Bach Bring Baroque Exuberance and Grandeur to the Concert Stage.

“A Holiday Celebration—Best of the Baroque” is the second in Close Encounters With Music’s 23rd season of concerts in the Berkshires. In this instance, “best” alludes not only to the selection of works and composers, but also to the guest artists, “historically informed” members of dedicated baroque performance groups—the Diderot Quartet, Apollo’s Fire, the Handel and Haydn Society, Les Arts Florrisants, and New Utrecht Baroque.

For Concerts at the Mahaiwe: Tickets, $45 (Orchestra and Mezzanine) and $25 (Balcony), are available at The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center box office, 413-528-0100.

Subscriptions are pro-rated for a series of 5 more concerts PLUS one subscriber-only concert.

Close Encounters With Music - Post Office Box 34, Great Barrington, MA 01230, 800-843-0778. www.cewm.org, cewmusic@aol.com Mahaiwe Box Office: 413-528-0100

LAUREN CLARK FINE ART SMALL WORKS

LORRAINE KLAGSBRUN, “BLOCK PARTY”, COLLAGE, 6” x 10”

Lauren Clark Fine Art invites you to the showing of “Small Works in Several Dimensions, 2014”. More than twenty artists from the Berkshires and beyond with work including drawings, etchings, paintings and sculpture from the small to the very small.

The show runs from November 22 through January 11, 2015. Come, celebrate the season and the many artists who make our lives more wonderful.

Lauren Clark Fine Art, 25 Railroad Street, Great Barrington, MA. For more information call the gallery at 413528-0432 or visit the website at LaurenClarkFineArt.com Artists can color the sky red because they know it’s blue. Those of us who aren’t artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we’re stupid. ~Jules Feiffer

SABINE PHOTO ART

Sabine Vollmer von Falken, a published and collected fine art photographer, has a number of specialties. One of these is a focus on commercial and editorial portraiture, collaborating with professionals to provide their publishers / labels with an image portfolio.

Sabine’s talent lies in both choosing the location and working with the subtleties of lighting. Her eye for the “Yes Moment” results in timeless imagery. She has the talent to bring introspection to the art of life style photography. She is the interviewer, catalyst and image-maker. Her INSIDE and OUT studio is located in Stockbridge, MA. Photographic one on one workshops, scheduled throughout the winter months:BEHIND THE CAMERA - Sabine’s eye for detail provides the students with everlasting creative tools. Explore the beauty of patterns, textures, layers, depth of detail in the real. Participants learn how natural light can create dramatic or lyrical images. Designed for the serious learner who is interested in improving her/his skills. The hope is to concentrate on the artistic and critical eye. You are asked to bring a digital SLR camera. December 1, 2014 – May 31, 2015 Signed books: “WOODLAND STYLE” and “SHELL CHIC “, M. H. Marshall, published by Storey, all photography by Sabine. She is a member of The American Society of Media Photographers asmp. The International Center of Photography ICP, and the Wedding Photojournalist Association, WPJA. Sabine Vollmer von Falken Photography info@sabinephotoart.com, 413-298 -4933

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER 2014 • 7

Jennifer, tell us about your background. Where did you grow up? How did you end up living in the Berkshires?

I grew up in New York City, Manhattan to be precise; my parents had a weekend house in Hillsdale N.Y. and I always preferred the country to the city. I transferred from Hunter College High School in New York to Bard College at Simon’s Rock, then known as Simon’s Rock College, in part just because I really wanted to live in the country. I majored in English and Journalism at Simon’s Rock, and I was lucky enough to get an internship at The Berkshire Courier in Great Barrington. By the age of 17 I was the beat reporter for Stockbridge and West Stockbridge, covering the town meetings and doing lots of interviews and features—my very first cover story for the Courier was about the renovation of Alice’s Church, before it became the Guthrie Center.

It was wonderful experience, and it hooked me on journalism— after my B.A. I worked as a staff reporter for The Winsted Citizen for a while, and then moved back to New York to take a job as staff writer for a trade magazine for police chiefs put out by John Jay College of Criminal Justice. A stint as managing editor of New York Business Speaks followed—that’s the quarterly magazine of the New York Chamber of Commerce. And then I decided to go back to graduate school. I earned my M.A. and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at New York University, defending my dissertation in 1994 when my older son had just turned two. My husband and I had moved to Hillsdale when he was born, so it came naturally to me to visit Simon’s Rock after completing my doctorate, to see if they had any teaching work for me. Twenty years later, I’m still there.

JENNIFER BROWDY AN INTERVIEW WITH

by Harryet Candee

Photography by Sabine Vollmer von Falken

Congratulations! You are now going into your fifth year of this wonderful annual event you have founded, known to all as the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers. Can you begin by explaining what this is all about?

Sure, Harryet. The mission of the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers is to nourish and strengthen the voices and visions of women and girls in the Berkshire region. I started it in 2011 after having been the lead organizer for a decade of an annual conference in observance of International Women’s Day, sponsored by Bard College at Simon’s Rock and Berkshire Women for Women Worldwide, a local organization. At a certain point I began to realize how much talent was sitting in the audience at these confer-

8• DECEMBER 2014 THE ARTFUL MIND

ences, and to think about how we needed more time than just a day to share our visions as women concerned about the most important issues of our time.

Although the International Women’s Day events had different themes over the years, I decided to focus on women writers for the Festival because writing is so dear to my own heart, and because I think all women, even if they don’t think of themselves as “writers,” have important stories to tell. The Festival is designed to open up lots of opportunities in March, Women’s History Month, for women to share their stories with local audiences. It really brightens up the month of March in the Berkshires, that’s for sure!

How did you first begin your long and winding road in the writers’ world? Was it a book that inspired you?

From the time I could write, I wanted to be a writer, and I was always carrying a notebook and keeping a journal. My first short story was about a wood nymph named Estrella, who was upset about the cutting of the forests, and set out on a quest to save them.

But I never finished that story, because I couldn’t imagine a solution. How could she successfully confront men with chainsaws and bulldozers? Now, all these years later, I’ve come back to putting this question on the front burner of my writing, teaching and community activism.

The memoir I’ll be publishing next year, What I Forgot…And Why I Remembered: A Purposeful Memoir of Personal and Planetary Transformation, recalls the fierce nature girl I was, investigates how I lost that fire and the connection to the natural world that was so important to me as a child, and sets my personal story against the larger social and environmental landscape of my generation, recognizing that if we don’t start remembering and honoring our Mother Earth, the resulting destabilization could very well destroy us. There’s a lot of urgency in my writing now, and I hope that my memoir will inspire others to become more active around the environmental issues that I see as the great challenge of our time.

Both of us went to Bronx House Emanuel Camp, in Copake, New York. Something about that camp leaves such a big impression I think for everyone that was once a camper or counselor. Can you recall one of your fondest memories?

I was never a camper or a counselor there, but I did live there for a couple of summers in my early childhood, while my mom worked as an arts counselor and my dad was working in the city.

I have powerful memories of the bonfires we would have on weekends in the pine forest by the lake; my dad, who had been the head music counselor at the camp in his time, would lead us all in singing his favorite folk songs—sad love ballads, freedom-loving blues and ardent union songs were his specialty. I learned all the words and sang along lustily as the sparks flew from the fire up towards the stars overhead. It was magical. Today he’s still singing those songs with his old friend Alan Chartock (they met at Bronx house back in the 1950s) as part of the Berkshire Ramblers—those wonderful songs still delight and inspire me.

So, back to the Festival… You must have made a ton of dear friends just from the Festival. There’s nothing like having close girlfriends that you can spend time working on projects with and in general, having fun and talking. Do you find this one of the top perks of being the creative mind behind this event?

What have you learned?

One of the main reasons I founded the Festival was out of the loneliness I was feeling as a Berkshire woman writer. There really wasn’t any good way to network with other women, we were all off in our own corners trying to write, struggling with the changing

publishing landscape, feeling isolated whether we were wanting to celebrate our successes or vent about our frustrations.

I am so fortunate to be working with a marvelous organizing committee of great women, some of whom, like Vera Kalm and Judy Nardacci, starting working with me years ago on the International Women’s Day conferences. There have been so many wonderful women who have worked and played with me over the years, including Claudette Webster, Hannah Fries, Erin Connor, Courtney Maum, Lorrin Krouss, Johanna Janssen, Joanne Cooney, Robin zeamer, Pooja Ru Prema, Jan Hutchinson, Pauline Dongala, Maureen Hickey—the list could go on, and these are just the women who have served on the Festival organizing committee.

The list of incredible women who have participated in the Festival by sharing their talents at events during the Festival month of March reaches into the hundreds. In the first four years of the Festival, literally hundreds of women, of all ages and backgrounds, have participated, and our audiences have been in the thousands.

Each year we grow in size and reach, but we stay true to our initial ethos of being a mostly homegrown Festival aimed at sharing our talents in order to inspire other women to do the same. We don’t want to be a Festival that only highlights celebrities—though of course we’ve been happy to host a few over the years, such as Diane Patrick, Gloria Steinem, Peggy Seeger, Jayne Atkinson, Alison Larkin, Sally-Jane Heit, and in the coming year Dani Shapiro, Mary Pope Osborne and Karen Allen. It’s wonderful to have these successful women come to inspire the rest of us to stick with our visions and do the hard work necessary to get our work out in the world. But we never want to become the kind of Festival that has no room for the quieter voices, the emerging writers, the older women and teens or the women whose writing practice is hidden away in their journals. We have a really inclusive vision, and at least as long as I’m leading the charge at the Festival, it will stay that way.

How does the Festival enrich the lives of women writers?

It’s really all about community-building. Under the Festival banner, we run writing workshops, readings and networking events year-round, not only in the special Festival month of March. Our monthly women writers’ group, “Lean In with the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers” (co-sponsored last year by Lesley Ann Beck at the Berkshire Museum, and this year by Anastasia Stanmeyer, editor of Berkshire Magazine), offers women a chance to come together, share short pieces of writing and get constructive, affirming feedback from each other.

I have been so impressed at the sensitive, positive way these women interact with each other—the total opposite of the horror stories we often hear of savage critiques in writing workshops.

The atmosphere at all our events is collaborative and warm—we want to encourage each other to become the best writers we can be, and part of that is simply gaining confidence in our own voices and visions. Not to say that people are totally uncritical of each other’s work at our Lean In circles—but we have some ground rules about offering criticism in constructive ways, always pointing to what works as well as what may need strengthening. Judging from the numbers of women coming to these events, I’d say our approach is being well-received.

Year to year, what have you have learned to make the Festival stronger and more encompassing for participants and audiences?

Well, the first couple of years we just did the month-long Festival in March, but we started hearing from participants and audience members that they wanted more—more opportunities for readings, workshops and networking events all year round. So we’ve started to open up more spaces these kinds of events to happen. In addition to the monthly Lean In sessions, we have a new Festival Reading Series starting in February 2015 , with readings hosted by Suzi Banks Baum, Michelle Gillett and yours truly at 6 Depot, the Olga Dunn Dance Studio and the Sandisfield Arts Center—you’ll hear more details about that when it gets closer.

and memoirist Dani Shapiro opening the Festival with a keynote on March 1 at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, and we will be featuring her latest book, Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life, as our March Festival Women’s Book Club pick. I love the book and certainly encourage everyone to read it, along with Dani’s other novels and memoirs, in advance of her public talk at the Festival!

At the other end of the month, I’m so excited that Mary Pope Osborne, author of the Magic Treehouse series of books for young readers and many other children’s and young adult books—someone whose books have sold millions of copies and turned millions of children on to the pleasures of reading—will be giving a special talk on March 29 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, just before the opening of our Book Expo, about her own writing process and career, interviewed by local author Jenny Laird. The Magic Treehouse books were family favorites for me and my two sons, and I can’t wait to learn more about how Mary not only got such a great idea for a series, but launched it so successfully in the world too.

But really, I always hate having to pull out specific wonderful events and authors from our Festival because the truth is they’re all so good! In March 2015 we will have more than 50 events featuring women writers from all walks of life who write about all kinds of topics, in all kinds of genres, and I know I’m not alone in wanting to get to every single event!

JENNIFER BROWDY

PHOTO:

SABINE VOLLMER VON FALKEN

One of the things I am learning year to year is how to reach out and involve more of our community in the effort in various ways.

For instance, last year for the first time we began to offer opportunities for businesses to sponsor individual Festival events, and we’ve gotten a great response on that so far. In 2015, we’ll be hosting a Book Expo at the Crowne Plaza in Pittsfield as part of our gala closing weekend at the Festival, and that opens up the possibility for authors and booksellers, publishers and all kinds of related businesses (including the massage therapist who can sooth a writer’s aching shoulders!) to come together, display their work, and make new contacts. We’re also doing more on our website, Berkshirewomenwriters.org, to help Festival authors connect with potential readers through our Festival Bookshelf and display advertising.

We are so fortunate in the Berkshires to have a multitude of wonderful venues whose managers are generous in being willing to host our events—in last year’s Festival alone, we had 36 host venues from one end of Berkshire County to the other! This is what I mean when I say that the Festival is a grand collaborative effort—it truly does take a village to put a Festival like this on, and I should also say that for me, the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers is not just about women and it’s not just about writers. It’s really a community project focuses on raising the profile of women’s voices and stories because, as Terry Tempest Williams puts it, “In a voiced community, we all flourish.” I truly believe that when women begin to speak their truths more often in the public sphere, our entire society benefits. And I know that the many men in our audiences are very appreciative of what the women up on stage at our events have to offer!

We certainly have some wonderful writers in the Berkshires!

Is there a novelist that you would like to tell us about? Or their book you would want to turn us on to reading?

The 2015 Festival will be bookended by two marvelous writers who actually live in northwest Connecticut, which I consider to be part of the Berkshire region, along with eastern New York and southern Vermont. We are so fortunate to have acclaimed novelist

I’m just curious, Jennifer, can you describe what a day in your life is like? What do you do when you wake up until you hit the hay and go to sleep?

Oh goodness! I am constantly reading, writing and connecting with people via every means of communication, that is for sure. On the side of all that, I’m the mother of two sons, one of whom is a teenager who still needs me for rides—so I’m in the car a lot, too. I’m at Simon’s Rock for teaching and meetings three days a week, and the rest of the time I’m working on the Festival or writing posts for my blog, Transition Times, or working on projects that help get other women’s writing out into the world, like the new EDGE WISE column I’m writing and curating at The Berkshire Edge, or the Festival anthology, Writing Fire, that I’m co-editing with Jana Laiz and Sahra Bateson Brubeck.

That brings up another way that I’m working to help get worthy voices out into the world: Jana and I have just founded Green Fire Press together, and our aim is to offer publishing services for authors who have great material but don’t want to deal with the big scary world of traditional publishing, and/or don’t want to go it all alone in the big noisy world of self-publishing. Green Fire Press will publish my memoir and Writing Fire in spring 2015, and then we’ll start considering others’ work as well. We’ll be putting together a team of outstanding locally based freelancers who offer a variety of author services, and we already have had many expressions of interest from the local writing community, who know they can trust that whatever we undertake, we will do well. By the way, Green Fire Press will be happy to publish men as well as women!

One other thing about how I spend my time: I try to get in an hour’s hike in the Berkshire hills every single day, no matter the weather. Grounding myself with the glacial boulders, the deeprooted old trees, and the rich ecology of our beautiful landscape is the thing that keeps me sane in the midst of so much busyness.

Now that the winter is setting in, it also means plans are underway for the upcoming Festival. What challenges are you facing? I am always interested in How Things Work. In this case, the in-works. You are all like sculptors at this point, yes?

Yes, that is an apt metaphor for how we construct the Festival.

The process actually started back in June, when we issued the call for proposals for the 2015 Festival. The deadline for submissions was in September, and we have a Program Committee that reviews all the proposals and does the sculpting part—trying to ensure balance, scope and interest, making sure we bring in new voices every year while also retaining space for some Festival favorites. Once we’ve selected the events, our Program Coordinator (a post that Robin zeamer is filling very ably for the first time this year) goes to work on matching presenters, dates and venues—a complex process!

CONTINUED ON NExT PAGE . .

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER 2014 • 9

JeNNiFer BrOWDY...

Meanwhile, anyone who runs a non-profit knows that part of the work is raising the funding to do the work! So we also have to put quite a bit of time and energy into reaching out to the community in various ways, for sponsorships, donations, grants and advertising. Along the way we make lots of new friends and have the chance to tell everyone why we think it’s so valuable to make more spaces for women’s voices and stories to be heard in our community. It’s very heartwarming to see the positive response we’re getting now, going into our Fifth Anniversary season.

I have a question about writing from the heart. What are your thoughts about people keeping journals?

I have kept a journal all my life, and it’s essential for processing what happens to me on a day-to-day level. It’s also the place where I learned to write fluently. I have notebooks and notebooks filled with my childhood journals, and it’s amazing to look back and see how clearly I wrote, with very little in the way of scratching out. That helped me so much when I began to write as a journalist, under deadline pressure, and it’s still helping me now. Basically, the more you write, the better a writer you’ll become. Journal writing, when you’re just writing for yourself, is great exercise for that writing muscle.

How does one start to be a writer? I cannot imagine being a published writer, although these days it seems much easier to get your work out to the public.

Well, just by coming up with these questions and publishing our interview, you are a published writer, Harryet! Generally speaking, you’re right, it is easier and easier to get your writing out to the public these days.

For instance, when I teach students how to start blogging in my digital media classes, we start up their first blogs in a single class period, and away they go! The problem is more about how to find your audience, since the field is so crowded and noisy, and very few of us will manage to get out ahead of the pack by being published by one of the literary giants like Random House.

So I not only teach students how to write and how to create their own blogs, I also teach them how to start promoting their blogs—how to identify their target audience and reach out to them directly through social media.

Most writers have to be self-promoters as well these days—we need to have some marketing savvy and learn how to work across a variety of media platforms. The Festival has offered some great workshops about these skills and the business of writing, and we’ve got more coming up in 2015.

So, attending a Festival workshop can get some of those closet writers out and busy writing? I mean, Jennifer, ya’ gotta know good grammar!! Where does one start?

Yes, attending the Festival workshops can make a big difference—I have women coming up to tell me so all the time. From writers who are just timidly starting to share their work in public to established authors looking for new audiences, getting out there together and strengthening our sense of community goes a long way.

It’s true that you have to know grammar to be a writer— but it’s also true that that’s what editors are for! We have had some great sessions bringing writers and editors together, as well as writers and publishers. Making connections is essential for success in this field as in most fields—and the Festival provides a marvelous local hub for women writers.

What experience can you bring up that you had at the Festival that would be memorable to you? Was it something you think about that keeps you going when the going gets rough, maybe?

As I said, it’s hard to pull out just a couple of events when we’ve had hundreds of wonderful presenters and events over the first four years of the Festival—the diversity has just been wonderful.

But I’d say what sticks in my mind especially are the events featuring teen writers, and the events featuring older women writers.

Listening to brave teenage girls share their writing up on stage is so inspiring, whether it’s the Rites of Passage Empowerment group sharing the play they wrote about their lives and performed at the Festival with the guidance of Shirley Edgerton, playwright Yvette Jamuna Sirker and poet Nakeida Bethel-Smith, or the students from schools like Miss Hall’s School, Monument Mountain Regional High School or Bard College at Simon’s Rock sharing

10 • DECEMBER 2014

THE ARTFUL MIND

some of their challenges, hopes and visions for the future.

The voices of older women have also inspired me greatly— women like Sally-Jane Heit, Hilda Banks Shapiro or Sondra zeidenstein, coming from very different walks of life but having in common powerful stories to share and the willingness to get up in the spotlight and be honest about their life experiences. One of the visions I have for the Festival is to create a mentoring structure to enable older women to come together with young women to write and share experiences together. I don’t think there are enough opportunities for intergenerational sharing like this to happen in our busy society, and I know so many talented older women who have such a wealth of life experience and wisdom that they would love to make available to younger women. And as a teacher, I know I learn from my students all the time—so I know that these mentoring relationships would definitely be a two-way street. That’s one of my hopes for the next five years of the Festival, to make this vision come to life with the support of our community.

laborate and share and see how we can widen our community, for the benefit of all.

I bet you’re surprised it has taken such amazing shape and has such a life of its own, the BFWW…. Did you ever think it would turn out to be so marvelous and big?

I remember very distinctly the day it occurred to me to organize a bunch of events featuring local women writers, during Women’s History Month, and unite them all under the banner of a Festival.

I was walking in the woods—where all my great ideas come to me—and poof! I saw it clearly, knew we could do it, and was willing to throw myself into all the hard work I knew it would take to manifest the vision.

I think I started in a pretty naïve way. I didn’t have a “business plan” or a “strategic plan.” I didn’t have a fundraising platform established, and I didn’t have a Board of Directors—we started the Festival as a non-profit under the fiscal sponsorship of Bard College at Simon’s Rock, which is still our structure today.

So in the eyes of a business or non-profit consultant, what I did would have seemed very risky, and they might have advised me against it. But I’m glad I took the leap, having faith that so many talented local women would see the importance of the effort and support it, as indeed they have. We who are involved with the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers know in our hearts, without having to see it on a spreadsheet, that we make a very positive contribution to our community.

I am so happy we had the chance to feature you in The Artful Mind for December. Do you have any closing thoughts?

Well, you know Harryet, I think a lot about climate change and the environment these days, and although the connections between working for a sustainable future and working to promote women’s voices may not be immediately apparent, I do think that they are connected. It’s no accident after all, that in every language I know, the Earth is called our Mother. It’s no accident that the years when women have had the least social power, all through the Industrial Revolution for example, were the same years when the most damage to the Earth was done.

I don’t want to be mistaken as a “man-hating feminist” because I most certainly am not one. But I do believe that women have to take a stronger role in shifting our social values from domination, consumption and extraction to collaboration and nurturing. All of us, men and women, are being called upon now to become the stewards of the Earth that we humans are meant to be. Women, who perforce know so much about nurturing because of the biology that ties us intimately to child-rearing, have a special role and responsibility to step up, overcome whatever timidity or shyness that holds us back, and insist that our politicians and world leaders do the right thing for future generations. If those currently in office won’t listen, we have to start running for office ourselves.

So there is a hidden agenda behind my Festival: bringing more women to voice so that women’s perspectives—whatever they may be—will have greater outlet and influence in the public sphere. Of course, I know there are many women who don’t JENNIFER BROWDY PHOTO: SABINE VOLLMER VON FALKEN share my values, and the Festival has room for everyone—we don’t espouse any party line. But How does the Festival affect woman outside of Berkshire can’t we all agree that we want to leave this Earth a better place County? Around the world, even? than we found it? Can’t we agree that we should do everything We’re beginning to attract some national attention with our Festiwe can to stop spoiling our own nest with pollution and toxins? val, and with good reason—it’s the only month-long Festival of Can’t we agree that it makes sense to shift to clean energy sources Women Writers I am aware of anywhere in the country or the that will halt the frightening acceleration of global warming? In world. In fact, it’s probably the most extensive celebration of many areas of my life, these are the questions I want to be asking, Women’s History Month any community anywhere is undertaking and the work I want to be doing with other women and men who at present. My secret desire is to see our model replicate and care about our future as a species and a world. I hope the big tent spread: I’d love to see women in many more communities mobiof the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers will advance this conlizing to start Festivals like this too! I’m happy to share the model versation, spawn others, and in its own way make the world a betand what I’ve learned about how to make it happen—who knows, ter place for all of us. maybe someday we’ll become a national organization with local ...THANK YOU, Jennifer! chapters all over the country or even all over the world! I think there’s a need and a hunger for this kind of community-building in other places, and nothing would make me happier than to col-

Kaspar was settling back in his seat when Joaquin began.

“Cuando yo naci...”

When I was born there was a plague of locusts. That’s what my grandmother said. Rumor was she’d been a revolutionary, back in the day. Deported from Sonora into slavery in Yucatan, shot her way out. Rode with Pancho Villa, they say. Everybody rode with Pancho Villa.

My father had left my mother—told her he was going north to look for work at one of the plantations. He never came back. That’s a Mexican for you, Grandmother said. The locusts ate all the food and my mother died soon after. My

aunts said she starved to death. Grandmother said that was just an excuse. She’d died pining for that bastard of a man.

Anyway, Grandmother raised me.

One morning I was walking her to the doctor’s in Tucson.

I was around fifteen and Grandmother was older than God. She liked to wear the traditional Yoeme clothes, my grandma.

Long skirts, shawls—that kind of thing. These Mexican boys walking by started making fun of her. Said her clothes were funny, called her a dirty Indian. Told her to go back to the hole in the ground she crawled out of. They just ignored me. That was their undoing. I wasn’t that big, not yet. But I was stronger than I looked. One of them reached down and threw a handful of dirt at her. That did it. I grabbed him and punched him in the face. I think I broke his nose. And I jumped on the next one, who was just standing there, staring at me like I was crazy, pushed him to the ground and beat his face bloody. The third one tried to jump me and I pulled him down on top of the second one and started hitting him. He fought back. He shouldn’t have. I was completely out of control and beat him until he lay on the ground, curled up into a ball, weeping and bleeding. Llorando y sangrando. My grandma watched me. I think she called my name a few times, but she didn’t try to stop me. Hell, she probably found the situation plenty satisfying.

And somebody else was watching. When those kids had taken off running and Grandmother was spitting on her hanky to wipe their blood off my face, a white guy called to me from a car that had pulled up to the curb. I thought maybe I was in trouble, but I didn’t give a shit. I walked up to him, dirty and bloody and angry. Turned out he owned a gym and said he was willing to train me to fight if I would make a “concentrated effort to control my temper.”

Joaquin smiled at the memory.

I trained like a madman. Anything to make something of

FIC

TI

O

myself and get out of Pascua.

N Sa Kaspar had fallen asleep halfway mp ler through Joaquin’s tale, but Joaquin didn’t care.

When he had finally talked himself into silence, he felt as though a rainstorm had broken out inside him and then moved off, leaving him fresh and empty and moist with something resembling promise.

Excerpted from The Virgin of Hopeless Causes by Amy Tanner, available in electronic and softcover versions on Amazon.com. Visit www.amytanner.net for news and unfounded rumors.

Simply Sasha Holiday Loaf!

by Sasha Seymour

This month I approached researching for the December Artful Mind recipe a bit differently than I usually do. I was feeling somewhat nostalgic, December being the last month of the year and all, so I decided to go through my old cookbooks to find a winning dish instead of trolling on the internet to find one! What a walk down memory lane it was! I found this recipe and I thought it was the correct one to use. I remember it to be extremely easy to make and very tasty. Get creative! Throw on some feta! Add some Mushrooms! Maybe an artichoke heart or two! This loaf will warm the soul! Happy Holidays to all!!! ~ 4 10oz. packages of frozen spinach, thawed ~ 1 large sweet onion, chopped ~ 2/3 cup walnut pieces, ground ~ 1 cup of soft breadcrumbs ~ 2 garlic cloves, minced oil for sauteing ~ 2 Tbsp cornstarch ~ 1/2 tsp salt and pepper ~ 1 cup tomato sauce

Preheat oven to 350 1. Saute breadcrumbs and garlic in the oil for a few minutes 2. In a bowl, mix together spinach, walnuts 3/4 cup of breadcrumbs, onion, cornstarch, salt and pepper 3. Place spinach mixture in a casserole dish coated with cooking spray, and flatten 4. Pull edges of spinach mixture away from the sides of the dish, and pour the tomato sauce around the edge 5. Sprinkle remaining bread crumbs on top, and bake uncovered for 45 minutes

Enjoy!

YUMMY, SASHA!!! THANK YOU!!

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER 2014 • 11

ACTING

PAT BONAVITACOLA

FOR NON-ACTORS AND ACTORS

Patrick Bonavitacola is now offering classes and private coaching for non-actors and actors.

Pat received his training at the Lee Strasberg Institute and the world famous Actors Studio. At the Actors Studio he worked under Strasberg’s guidance along with Elia Kazan, Lee Grant, Shelley Winters, Mark Rydell, John Lehne, and William Greaves. William Greaves, Pat’s mentor, described him as follows: “One of the most talented actors I’ve come across in years—He could very well become the next Pacino or DeNiro.”

Pat teaches non-actors and actors the craft that was taught to him at the Studio—“Method Acting” techniques for relaxation, concentration, sensory exploration, affective memory, character development, and scene study, along with the mechanics of emotional expression. His students learn to get in touch with their feelings and to express them without inhibitions.

Pat works with actors, therapists, people wishing to improve their presentation skills (lawyers, businessmen and women, sales and marketing executives, etc.), along with others whose main concern is personal development and growth. This work will benefit anyone wishing to understand human behavior and motivation as well those wishing to unlock their imagination and creativity.

Those interested in classes, private coaching, or further information call 413-637-9913. pjb5@verizon.net

TOWN PLAYERS of PITTSFIELD CHRISTMASTIME IN THE CITY

Town Players of Pittsfield Presents “Christmastime in the City” Friday and Saturday, December 12 and 13 at 8pm and Sunday, December 14 at 2pm at the Whitney Center for the Arts, 42 Wendell Avenue in Pittsfield.

A holiday variety show directed by Monica Bliss with accompanist Jeff Hunt, “Christmastime in the City” will celebrate the many varieties of entertainment you would expect to find in the “City”: music, theater, dance, stand-up comedy and slam poetry – all with a holiday twist! With Cabaret seating, holiday snacks and beverages will be available at concessions and be enjoyed during the show.

Please join us for a funny, heartwarming evening of wonderful holiday entertainment! The star-studded cast includes Wanda Libardi, Marcella Bradway, Erin Laundry, Diedre Bollinger, Lelia Gillespie, Kevin Paul Wixsom, Joe Pickett, Fabio Malangone, Devin Trager, Ivan Trabka, Gayle Schechtman, Thomas Attila Lewis, Melissa Quirk Cairns and Jess Robinson.

Tickets are $15 and $12 for seniors, students and groups of 10 or more. Tickets are $10 for Town Players members.

Tickets may be reserved by calling the Town Players Box Office at 413-443-9279. To find out more and to learn about becoming a Town Players member, please visit us online. Town Players of Pittsfield - www.townplayers.org

MARGUERITE BRIDE WATERCOLORS

Marguerite Bride will be exhibiting at the 6th annual holiday show in Pittsfield sponsored by Alchemy Initiative. The Handmade Holiday Festival will run Saturday, December 6 from 10am to 5pm and Sunday, December 7 from 10am to 3pm at the Paterson Field House at BCC in Pittsfield, MA. You will find incredible foods, high end crafts and pottery, and of course, art, plus so much more. One-stop shopping for all those on your holiday gift list.

Reproductions in many sizes and holiday ornaments are always a fun gift to give during the holidays. Contact the artist and meet in her studio at your convenience. Gift certificates for lessons, commissions, any of her art items are always available.

Each week Bride has been featuring a special offer…some with discounts up to 40%. Visit Bride’s facebook page “Marguerite Bride Watercolors” for the special of the week; it lasts only one week and then expires! There’s something different every week. Take a look!

In addition to private and semi-private lessons in watercolor technique, Bride is writing technique tutorials. Check out her “What’s New” post on her website for her experience and tips while painting on watercolor canvas.

Looking ahead…Bride was one of the 10 artists invited to exhibit in the annual “Ten-Spot” art exhibit to be held in February 2016at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts…more details to follow.

Marguerite Bride, NUarts Studios, 311 North Street, Pittsfield, Studio #9, by appointment. Call 413-442-7718, or 413-841-1659 (cell); website: margebridepaintings.com, email: margebride@aol.com

The Emporium Antiques & Art Center 319 Main St. Gt. BArrington

White Art Show Opening Dec 6, 2 - 5pm

Andrew Zolziarski, Kelly Young, Sherry Steiner, Susan McVeety, Lisa Merullo, Harry Lazare, Sandy Kreger, Rick Costello, Janet Cooper, Roselle Chartock, Bethy Bacon.....& more

12 • DECEMBER 2014 THE ARTFUL MIND

ST. FRANCIS GALLERY SECRETS OF THE SEASON

VILMA MARE Sartorial Arts and Svcs. www.vilmamare.com 177 Main St., Great Barrington, MA

Our last show of the season captures the magic that envelops the Berkshires at this time of year. The colors and patterns that peek thru the blankets of snow and frost are an inspiration for our talented creators. The paintings of this season are a must see, where the landscape and snowfall are captured in renditions that are both elegant and beautiful. In addition the color white and the half hidden forms of winter become a muse for other artwork, as well as the spiritual inspiration of the season itself. As the light dwindles we must be illuminated from within so the imaginative work of our artists creates a glow, a smile, and a warmth. Please come to our festival of artwork from classic to contemporary thru the month of December until the new year with song, food, and the secrets of the season. The gallery will have wonderful gifts handmade by our artisans and the cooperatives that St. Francis sponsors in Kenya-beautifully made with artistic excellence. The gallery will close after this show for the season and profits collected over the year will be put toward our hands on projects in Africa during the winter months. The gallery will open in the spring as a celebration of renewal and continue the cycle of work supporting newly emerging and local artists along with the non-profit work in Kenya. Artists’ reception December 6th, Saturday, 3-6pm.

Come celebrate and enjoy.

MARGIE BIENER ArtworkForKidsRooms.com MARGIE BIENER, COUNTING SHEEP, ACRYLIC AND INK

Prints and Originals make perfect gifts!

Announcing the launching of a new, vibrant, creative online art gallery, ARTWORKFORKIDSROOMS.COM, featuring the colorful, whimsical, imaginative creations of artist, Margie Biener.

Margie, a Great Neck, NY and Great Barrington, MA artist started her career at an early age painting murals in homes, hospitals and various businesses. Her creative imagination, artistic skills and interest in advertising led her to jobs at several prestigious advertising agencies, such as Ogilvy & Mather, Young & Rubicam, and Deutsch Inc. Her love for art and children led her to be the Art Director for commercials for Disney and Jell-O. Margie’s printed textile designs can also be found on newborn and infant’s clothing. Botticelli, Rocky & Bullwinkle as well as Mother Nature influenced her designs.

Margie’s medium for her creations is acrylic paints and ink on both canvas and paper.

Be sure to “walk” through Margie’s Gallery, ARTWORKFORKIDSROOMS.COM, enjoy her ingenious artistic style of mixing colors, imagination and childhood. Her artwork inspires us to smile, and remember the child within all of us.

Margie Biener - ARTWORKFORKIDSROOMS.COM

ARTWORKFORKIDSROOMS.COM

Dressed Up for Breakfast, acrylic and ink

Artist Margie Biener

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER 2014 • 13

Planet Waves

ARIES (March 20-April 19)

Eric Francis

There is big business moving in your chart, and right at the same time planets come storming through your house of achievement and success, Saturn makes its first move into Sagittarius. The theme is ethics.

Seen one way, your astrology is perfect for you to take a success-atall-costs approach to life. It would probably work, remembering the 'all costs' factor. Saturn, for its part, is saying that you must be mindful of the spiritual ground you stand on, which would include (for example) the relationship between what you achieve and how you get there.

It would include making sure that every statement you make is true for you and also for the person hearing the message. Yes, planets are strongly hinting at a time of boldly claiming your power, your talent and your authority. Yet unlike most business situations, the final result when we do the calculus on your chart comes down to do the right thing for the right reason. There is one other element: If you encounter a voice of parental authority, whether in the form of guilt, some religious regulation or a personal hangup with success, listen carefully. I suggest you take notes and map it out. Nobody else can tell you what's right and what's wrong, though voices from the past are trying to hijack the issue. It's not up to them -- this is your call.

TAURUS (April 19-May 20)

You may have the sensation that something is out of balance, though the way it looks in your astrology, you're working to put that very thing into balance. Yet you might not feel that way while it's happening. The changes you want to make are drawing you in like the vortex that they are. In truth you are catching up with yourself. You are closing the gap between what you were told about yourself, and the reality of who you actually are. You have made a respectable investment in clearing out karma, clutter and beliefs to which other people are attached. There are two parts to the equation of what you're doing -- identifying and letting go of what was not true or has served its purpose, and taking full ownership of what is true for you based on actual understanding.

The catch is how unstable you might feel through this process. Internally and externally, large forces are at work. This may have you feeling like the substance of who you are is not strong enough to stand up to existence. I would offer this -- the seeming substance of who you are not is what is threatened. What you were in the past, what you believed, what you thought you wanted, will crumble under the changes.

Who you are is what will be revealed for its enduring strength and vision.

GEMINI (May 20-June 21)

You will need to put extra care this month and into January into all matters of a joint financial nature, taxes, investments and shared resources. You may find this irritating or challenging, though I suggest you devote yourself to the tasks at hand. The thing to avoid is rebellion, whether in words, actions or even thoughts. Go along with the program and your process of tidying up the past. People of power and influence may be paying attention, and your job is to make sure that you do what you're obliged to do. The most positive aspect of this is that once you clear this material out of the way, you will have a much lighter approach to existence. In addition, the relationships that are involved are struggling under the burden of too much in the way, too many unresolved commitments and a corresponding energy drain.

Events this month are your invitation to get clear. You may be nervous about this because fearing that in the process, something will have to give. What is actually happening is that everyone is learning how to give and how to receive. The underlying skill that will make this possible is listening. Learn to do it and do it well. Listen carefully enough and you will get actual insights, and convey the idea that paying attention actually helps. Absolutely radical, I know.

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

Calmly watch the world and observe the subtle fact that you're in a position of power. You will have to do some sorting out what that power is, how it manifests and how you may use it, but the fact remains, you are in a strong place. This will be helpful information when you get into that moment when so much is happening that you have no idea how to handle it. Come back to the core concept; come back to the egg. Your strength is not power over anyone else. It's based on having a wide perspective and also on confidence coming from the inside-out. You may think that everything else, everything going on around you, is so much more substantial, so much more tangible. But that does not translate to meaningful, or to longterm influence. It will help if you get in the habit of speaking second rather than first. It will help immensely if you focus your intuition on what is being said to you, and figure out the message under the message. Then you can unravel the psychology of the people around you, and once you do that, you will be unstoppable. Meanwhile, you have an assignment, which is to notice the ways you've done things the same way and had the same result. New information will provide the means to new methods and, consequently, new effects.

14 • DECEMBER 2014 THE ARTFUL MIND

LEO (July 22-Aug. 23)

December 2014

Get ready for an adventure -- artistic, creative, erotic, childish, challenging, risky -- and remember to pace yourself. You can be as bold of an adventurer as you want, as long as you remember to sleep at night and eat real food. I know that what often seems like the most fun involves being up 24 hours a day, neglecting one's health and otherwise going over the deep end. You may be inclined to do that, though I am looking ahead to the charts after you come back down to the ground, and they are suggesting a conscious approach to whatever bold thing you do. In essence I am saying to take a balanced approach when you will have lots of opportunities not to do that. Perhaps as encouragement I can offer the idea that you will go deeper, learn more and get more accomplished if you do the food/water/sleep thing than if you don't. The kinds of edgy adventures, experiments and thought excursions indicated by your charts will benefit from presence of mind. Much of what you learn will come across in subtle ways, in hints and in cues. Plus, in anything risky there is at least some potential danger, and the way to mitigate that is to be present in your own mind and body. That said, your astrology really is calling for a bold and fearless approach to it all.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)

What does it take to unravel conditioning, guilt and resistance? What does it take to be the person you are every minute of the day, with no pretense? Usually it takes a process. For some people there can be a breakthrough or sudden awakening, and ultimately no matter what the process or lead-in may be there is that moment of choice, of full awakening. Your chart suggests two parallel experiences, as if you're digging a tunnel from two sides of the river. From one side of the river is a trip through your conditioning, which is resulting in heightened awareness of your environment. You may have some shocking insights as you take this journey, and you may figure out that your perception is mostly the result of past impressions. At times they may seem impossible to escape, but once you see them you're most of the way there.

From the other side of the river, you are determined to express yourself. This is the external side of the journey, where you are setting yourself free to say what you want to say and make what you want to make. No matter how you look at this experience, the ultimate point of arrival is the same thing: not being trapped in the past. To most, this seems like a pipe dream or an absurd notion. To you it's a necessity.

LIBRA (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)

We all live in 'the environment', which we usually think of as the air, the water, the neighborhood, the cityscape or some other external factor. You're about to be taken on a journey through your mental environment. You will have the option and the ability to see how real, or unreal, it is. Yet real or unreal is not the actual dilemma. The dilemma is the relationship between inner and outer. To what extent is your inner environment influencing or even controlling your perception?

The boundary between inner and outer may seem extremely thin at times, and at others, it may seem like it's as wide as a canyon. The thing to do, while you have an excellent opportunity, is to experiment.

Is it really true that when you smile the world smiles with you? Is it true that when you're feeling depressed you cannot tune into happiness in a sincere way? How powerful is the mental filter? This question matters a lot, because if the answer is, 'It controls everything else', then you may decide that you need to learn how to master this element of yourself. Or at least, you may decide that you need to master the art of exploring your own mental environment. Events over the next few weeks will facilitate that, as long as you remember that everything you perceive is not necessarily what it seems to be.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)

This month a pressure you've endured for quite a while starts to come off of you. You might also think of it as an external support system.

Its absence will be an experiment, and a test of how strong you've become. You may not feel entirely confident, similar to the end of healing a physical injury, uncertain whether you're up to who you were before.

Yet this experiment is about going far beyond who you were, and it's about exploring and developing new forms of strength. In the past, you have put great reliance on your emotional power to get the world to bend to your will. What you are learning is how to reason carefully.

You have also been able to sidestep the idea of self-reliance, in part due to your ability to take part in structured entities and know how to work within the tribe. Yet Saturn making its first foray out of your sign this month is an indication that you will be learning some significant ways to be self-sustaining and emotionally independent. This also translates to a greater degree of freedom, which often you've been willing to sacrifice in exchange for certain social bonds that have sustained you. This will be a gentler process than you may think. Yet it will also be more meaningful and more necessary than you believe.

PlanetWaves.net

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)

This month, Saturn enters your sign for the first time since Nov. 12, 1988, when the prior Saturn in Sagittarius phase ended. Since this promises to be big news on the Internet, here are some time details, then one thought: Saturn enters your sign on Dec. 23, then retrogrades back into Scorpio on June 14, 2015, and finally settles into Sagittarius on Sept. 17, 2015 (where it will remain for two years). As for that thought: You're entering a time of transition. Part of what will make that real is focusing what you've learned about yourself since this time in 2012, and taking that to heart. In particular, the central topic is the nature of fear and how you respond to it. You might say we live in the age of, 'I know a lot, but I don't do anything with the information'. You are entering the age of, 'I must use everything I know about myself'.

In essence, this is the time of mastering your accountability for yourself, which means being accountable for that elusive thing known as self-knowledge. This is the thing you've been waiting for. You may not think so, but as this quality of existence begins to pick up momentum, I think you will get the idea. Central to the theme is being the master of your own life. Yes, you can do it.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)

If this isn't the most interesting month of your life, it will likely come up on the top 10 list. It may be challenging to hold your center. You may feel like some vast change is about to sweep through your world.

The astrology illustrates a scenario where you are surrounded by a vast amount of activity and energy, yet you appear holding yourself steady at a still point. Let the energy move around you. Allow yourself to be central rather than peripheral. Allow yourself to be the one sought after rather than the seeker. Allow others to be changed by you, without imposing any plans or intentions on them. There is so much momentum carrying you and your whole environment that you don't need to. You will feel sane and stable if you observe rather than explain, if you allow your attention to expand rather than reacting to what others are saying or doing. I know that on Earth this is all easier said than done, but that's true of just about anything. This will be worth the relatively small effort, with the greatest reward being the recognition of how many options you have open. To succeed at this you must do one thing, really -- resist the temptation to rebel for its own sake. Speak softly and clearly when you truly have something to say -- and trust that you will be heard.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)

Don't let the pressure get to you. Keep your sense of humor. Get as much of your work out of the way before the holidays as you can, and give yourself a little space to live and breathe. Make sure that you plan plenty of time alone, get enough sleep as if it's as important as oxygen or food. You are processing a lot. By that I mean that many of the revelations of past years are starting to make sense to you. Their truth and relevance is catching up with you and you are catching up with them.

Yet this may be overwhelming, and I would propose that you need a vent. It might be a creative vent, an erotic one, or some time-shifting experience that helps you shift your context. Remember this if the inner pressure gets to be too much. While it's also true that you have many worldly responsibilities at the moment, that is about to shift, and shift suddenly. You will still possess your influence, your insight and your modes of participation, but the burden of responsibility and perhaps of leadership is about to let up. I suggest you move with that, which for you will be a matter of trust. You have accomplished a lot the past two years, and I suggest you reflect on that with some true appreciation.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

You're about to get a taste of a kind of success that you may have decided was in the past, or that existed only in theory. You will not get there alone. What you are doing now, however, will take you further, and has a tangible quality that you may have been lacking. You are certainly someone who is motivated, even driven, by your dreams -though that is not nearly enough to satisfy you. From the look of your chart, what you want is accomplishment, which brings me to the 'not alone' part. The wealth in your life is the people in your life. This is not a fact that's lost on them, and neither is their respect for you as an organizing principle. That, if anything, is how to think of yourself, rather than (say for example) as an achiever or leader. Your job is to pull the scene into focus. Your role is to propose purpose and to serve as a stabilizing factor in what is clearly an increasingly chaotic world.

Your own stability will come from your ability to dance with the chaos rather than to resist it; and to gather energy rather than have it be depleted from you. To this end, food is a critical factor right now, as is water in all forms. Yet the real message of your charts in this rather large moment is to notice who is around you.

MARIE ANTOINETTE EATS CAKE

FROM: NO CURE FOR THE MEDIEVAL MIND RICHARD BRITELL PART 1

As I hope you know, Marie Antoinette was the daughter of Maria Teresa, Empress of Austria, and one of 15 children. Hers was a typical royal upbringing. Her tutors schooled her in several languages, drawing and painting, and especially music from an early age. Little Marie was very precocious and did well in all of these subjects except for music. It is not that she had no musical ability, but she was an average child when it came to learning to play an instrument.

Music was important to the Empress and she saw to it that Marie had the best teachers, but as one of the music masters informed her, “A ten year old cannot be expected to play Bach fugues.” The Empress would not listen to negative pronouncements about her daughter and replied, “They say Mozart is ten and is not only playing Bach fugues, but composing them as well you katunz.” (Katunz was a German word used by peasants to describe a blockhead.)

Marie and Amadeus were only a few months apart in age, and the stories the Empress was hearing about the little Mozart had given her a very misguided notion of what could be expected of Marie Antoinette. She thought to herself, “My Marie is of royal birth. Therefore she has royal abilities as her birthright. How can you compare royal abilities to the abilities or ordinary people?”

Empress did not even believe all of the stories floating around about Mozart, and she was sure they were just impossible exaggerations. Just the previous month she had visited a village to have a look at a three-headed calf, which turned out to be only an ordinary two-headed calf. She was used to rumors and exaggerations and often said, “Look, until they invent photography you can’t trust anything anyone says.”

And her advisers agreed with her saying that the eventual invention of photography would not solve anything because of Photoshop. You just had to trust your own judgment. And when it came to the question of five-year-old prodigies playing Bach

fugues, she just did not believe it. Furthermore she really did not like Bach’s music all that much, having heard him play the organ once when she was a child.

“I heard that Bach person playing the organ in Salzburg when I was a child,” she exclaimed. “He should have stuck to making mechanisms for cuckoo clocks and not bothered with music composition, but what can you expect from heretic Lutheran fanatics.”

Maria Teresa was curious about the Bach fugues that the ten year old Mozart person was able to play so she asked the director of her music library to bring her a copy of some of Bach’s keyboard works. The music library director brought her a work titled Anna Magdelana, Bach’s lesson book, and she opened it to the first page. What she saw was a simple minuet that even she could play, and she was not an accomplished player.

“See here,” she said to the librarian who was standing next to the music tutor, “this is just another example of a calf with three heads. So what if Mozart can play this simple thing, anyone with half a brain could play it.” “But Most Revered Holy Imperial Madame, I humbly beg you to consider that you don't know stonmitz about this.” (Stonmitz was a peasant expression of the time meaning goat excrement.)

It was very dangerous to contradict the Empress, especially about the subject of music, but the tutor made so bold as to correct her. “There are some Bach fugues that are much more complicated than these. Look at this for example,” and he unfolded a score of a more complicated work. What the Empress saw was a score that looked like an aunt hill of swarming black notes. “What the stonmitz is this,” she exclaimed.

The Empress handed the Bach scores to the music tutor and demanded that he teach little Marie to master at least some of the easier pieces in a few weeks in time to be ready for the visit of Mozart to the court, which was scheduled for the end of the month.

The Empress was confident that her royal daughter would have no difficulty impressing everyone with her abilities, but the music tutor had his doubts.

Marie, only ten years old, was taxed with learning to play a difficult piece of keyboard music when her tutor knew that she was having difficulty mastering the 18th century version of “Mary had a Little Lamb.” A week went by, Marie made no progress, the music tutor was fired and replaced, and Mozart’s visit was put off for another month.

Marie’s new tutor was an overweight Italian whose expertise was opera; he had a great reputation as a teacher. He had an interview with the Empress and she said to him, “I want Marie to learn to play Bach fugues by the end of the month. If she will not work hard I want to be informed and if she will not practice she will be punished.” To make her point she slapped the palm of her hand with her letter opener.

Describing Marie Antoinette's new music tutor is beyond my abilities, so I have to resort to mentioning a clip from a movie. In the movie Babette's Feast one can see a music teacher who looks and acts just like Marie's music tutor, and not only that, but you can see him singing a Mozart duet with his pupil. That is the sort of person the music tutor was.

He was a big-hearted generous easygoing man without an angry bone in his body, and he

had been given a job, that would lead inevitably to his young charge being punished. He would not have to inflict the punishment himself, but that did not matter to him, just the fact that he was going to be responsible for the child's punishment was unacceptable to him.

He set to work with all his skills to teach Marie to play a Bach fugue, but he ran into an insurmountable problem from the first moment. Marie hated the music of Bach just like her mother the Empress. “I don't want to play any of this stonmitz,” shouted little Marie when she saw the Bach fugue on her clavichord. “Take this away you katunz, I will not play it!” She shouted, pounding her little fists on the keyboard.

“Now Marie,” said the music tutor, ‘please watch what you say, what would the Empress think if she heard you using words like that, she would not be pleased.” “My mother is just a stupid old flombat” shouted Marie in a fury. (Flombat was a peasant word meaning an old cow that no longer gives any milk.)

-Richard Britell

Artist

Eleanor Lord

One of the many artists at...

510 WARREN STREET, HUDSON, NY

WWW.510WARRENSTREETGALLERY.COM

518-822-0510

THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER 2014 • 15

SCULPTURENOW CALL FOR ARTISTS

SculptureNow is pleased to announce an exhibition of large-scale outdoor sculptures at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s Home, in Lenox, MA. The show is scheduled to run from June 1 to October 31, 2015.

Proposals from established and emerging artists are now being accepted. Existing or new sculptures may be submitted for consideration. Innovative and interactive works are encouraged. Up to 25 sculptures may be accepted. A guided tour of the site will be offered to interested artists on Sunday December 14, 2014.

Please call 413 623 2068 for details.

For additional information and application forms please visit www.sculpturenow.org “IN THE WORKS”, or email annjon@bcn.net. For more information about The Mount, please visit www.edithwharton.org The postmark deadline is February 2, 2015

16 • THE ARTFUL MIND DECEMBER 2014

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