Downtown Lawrence's Final Friday, Intentions, and Bread!KC
Image: courtesy of the artist, via the gallery for press purposes; may not be reproduced without artist's permission
"Intention" is a powerful tool. It's also tricky. We rumble through the week, working on projects that put food on the table, keep the roof over our heads literally from falling in—from mundane housecleaning to major repairs and renovations—or, if blessed with both a creative spirit and time, that fulfill our human need to make things of beauty. In these cases, are we really doing what we intend?
Sometimes what we believe to be our intentions are masking a deeper truth. It's not necessarily deliberate, but we start turning obligations into intentions, as a way to make ourselves more content with carrying them out. "I don't have to, I want to" becomes a little fib. Obligations are things you have to do—they run you. If you call them intentions, then you're in control.
We're quick to abandon "our intentions" when things go wrong, though: "Oh, I didn't intend to offend anyone;" "I didn't intend to spend $100 at Target the other day …."
Well, guess what? You did come off as ridiculously thoughtless, and you did drop a thousand dimes at the, um, dime store.
"The Power of Intention" is also a buzz-word right now; it's in advertising as well as in the spiritual communities' parlance.
For artist Maria Calderon, it's a way of life. Her work is about, in her words, connecting with the individual through ritual and visual experience. She writes in an artist statement on her website:
"My goal is to awaken and heighten universal consciousness within the viewer through various modes of engaging the senses."Tonight, I'm torn, as usual for a Final Friday, between taking in the array of great offerings in Lawrence or going to Maria's closing ceremony of The Power of Intention, at Mattie Rhodes Art Center.
You are lucky and don't have to make this choice if you happened to be at the opening. I'm sure I had intended to go, but … (you're laughing with me, right now, I hope : )
Rachel Scribner's drawings at Teller's look interesting; I'm not sure if these are single-line contour works, but I'm intrigued. Natale Collar's first solo exhibition—Trash Lion—is at one of my favorite places to spend time sipping wine or getting coffee with my friend, Diane, The Bourgeois Pig.
At the Lawrence Arts Center, a new site-specific installation by Hong Chun Zhang awaits, and Jennifer Crupi's The Articulate Body asks whether we are losing touch of our sensitivity to nonverbal communication, using her hand-crafted aluminum and sterling silver interactive objects for us to contemplate the meanings of our gestures and postures. A bit like intentions:
"An old proverb rightfully claims, 'Actions speak louder than words.' Although our body movements may be mute to the ears, they are inevitably far more revealing than the spoken word which often disguises."There's more at the LAC, but be sure to get up to the second floor, too, to see Rex Hausmann's painting and the other "left-behind" works that have been made there during the Dannon Art Project living studio (January 23-March 3).
Finally (for me; full list=click below), I know I would be energized to witness Chop Chop at Wonder Fair, where the genuine and talented Matt Jacobs and Lee Piechocki are showing work together. The statement on the Lawrence Final Friday site is a hoot.
Friday, February 24:
Final Fridays in Downtown Lawrence
Exhibits and performing arts
Click above for a full listing, including images
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The Power of Intention
A series of spatially engaging portraits and interactive sculpture by Maria Calderon; opening night, expect an Energetic Ceremony, Messengers of Light, and full sensory awareness stations: Stephen Bushman (handmade chai), Maria Calderon (root/herbal medicinal tea), Pedro Calderon (improvisational Andean pan flute), Dalton Carter and Jim Button (astrological sash distribution), and Lacey Wozny (Palo Santo smoke immersions), with live music also by Andean Express
at Mattie Rhodes Art Center and Gallery, 919 West 17th Street, Kansas City, Missouri: 816-221-2349
Opening Reception and Performances First Friday: February 3, 2012, 6-9 p.m.
Closing Reception Ceremony: February 24, 6-9 p.m., with all the ritual described above (though astrological signs will be noted by loops of yarn in lieu of sashes)
Open: Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday: 10 a.m.-4 p.m., through February 24, 2012
Sunday, February 26:
BREAD!
Based on Sunday Soups, "Bread! is a public dinner designed to use community-driven financial support to democratically fund new and emerging projects." In exchange for $10, you receive a meal and the opportunity to choose which of (usually) three presenters' projects you'd like to see the money go to, right then and there. For February, the Bread! KC team has chosen a menu based entirely on aprhodisiacs.
at Cameron Gee Photographee, 2010 Baltimore Avenue, #305, Kansas City, Missouri
Presentations and Dinner: February 26, 5-8 p.m. Reservations are very necessary to ensure the right amount of food is prepared. Please email breadkc@gmail.com or reply on the Facebook event page.
Note: I a defining beauty broadly. I don't care if you think your painting is terrible, for example. At its core, the act of creating something because you wanted to create it or because you felt the fundamental burning of needing to express a thought, feeling, memory, dream, etc., is beautiful.
PS, All opinions here are my own, and no one edits this, so any errors are also solely mine. Corrections are appreciated.
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