Making Meaning

Let me listen to me and not to them.
-Gertrude Stein

I admire people who make meaning from experience. I admire people who choose learning instead of defeat. I admire people who give credit to others. I so enjoy the act of paying tribute to all of these things.

Water Saves Her

I just happened to be painting a series of paintings for the Art Access plates show all about water when I got this email from poetic Kate about what saves her...

Water. When the whirlwind of my thoughts sucks me out of my body and into the air, when I am fevered and fire-brained and anxious, when I am lost, I go to the water, and it brings me home. Back into my body. Back to earth. Back to the self that lives each day with gratitude and wonder.

Your Stories

The stories I have received so far have caught me a little off guard. Maybe it's honesty, vulnerability and depth which people have shared that are in contrast to the interactions in of my everyday life. These stories make me want to look closer at the people around me and to love everyone I meet a little more.
Thank you so much to those of you who have shared. And to those of you who want to...do it.
cassandrabarney@gmail.com

What Saved Me

I want to use this blog as a space to document a new body of work. I originally posted about this project on my other blog, churningsandburnings.blogspot.com

Invitation for Collaboration

I heard a presentation by Jana Napoli this last week. In her lecture she said something about doing her artwork was what saved her. Dan Barney and I talked about that idea, about what saves us. I could give testimony to how painting saves me. I can't imagine my life without painting. I also thought about knitting. I thought about how when at one time in my life, when my heart was knotted up, I knit with red yarn. As I knit, the rhythm and repetition untangled my heart. Knitting saved me. In the winter when the days are short and grey, I cut paper flowers. Cutting flowers saves me.

I've been thinking about doing a series of exvotos for an upcoming show that Dan and I are having at Kayo Gallery in Salt Lake in June. I want to paint stories about being saved.

ExVoto means 'votive offering.' They are personal stories, hung in public to share and inspire. They are little tin paintings depicting stories, explaining why the giver is giving thanks.

If you have a story about What Saved You, that needs to be painted, send it to me at cassandrabarney@gmail.com preferably by May 6.