Margaret Almon Mosaics

Wordless Wednesday: Anthem of Joy in Glass by Vera Liskova

Margaret Almon — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:04:15 +0000

Anthem of Joy in Glass by Vera Liskova. Corning Museum of Glass. Photo by Wayne Stratz.

Matthew Scissorhands: Matt W. Moore’s Cut Paper Collage

Margaret Almon — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:40:49 +0000

Source: mwmgraphics.com via Margaret on Pinterest

Before I made mosaics, I made collages, and sometimes a work like this one by Matt W. Moore gives me a hankering for cut paper. I also have to dig a guy who calls this series Matthew Scissorhands. He also does spray painted murals, skateboards, watercolor mandalas and Vectorfunk(another cool name).

Source: mwmgraphics.com via Margaret on Pinterest

More Orange love on my Orange Tuesdays Board on Pinterest.

Wordless Wednesday: Sunset Spiral Mandala by Margaret Almon

Margaret Almon — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:30:07 +0000

Sunset Spiral Mandala by Margaret Almon

More Wordless Here.

For All the Passions of the Heart

Margaret Almon — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:19:02 +0000

Flaming Heart by Margaret Almon.

The love you liberate in your work is the only love you keep. (Elbert Hubbard)

Here’s to all the love liberated in our works of the heart.

More Orange at my Orange Tuesdays Pinterest Board.

Wordless Wednesday: Bird and Nest Switch Plate

Margaret Almon — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:27:30 +0000

Bird and Nest Switch Plate for Turning on the Light in My Studio. Photo by Margaret Almon.

More Wordless Here.

John Dahlsen: An Artist’s Palette Picked From Ocean Debris

Margaret Almon — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:23:06 +0000

Source: johndahlsen.com via Margaret on Pinterest

John Dahlsen‘s environmental art came to my attention via Pinterest. Originally he was a landscape painter in Australia, and as he began collecting driftwood on the coastline to make furniture, he discovered a staggering amount of debris, much of it plastic, washed up on the shore. He collected 80 jumbo trash bags, and as he sorted the items by color, a painter’s palette emerged. Dahlsen found intriguing hues and forms shaped by the wind and sun and water, and began making assemblages, totems and installations. He sees it as alchemy:

My work is in a constant state of evolution. I see this largely as alchemical. It is the process of nature’s elements redefining the man-made that created the initial alchemy in working with these found objects, taking the objects beyond the mundane. The second step was achieved through the transportation of these plastics to my studio and the process of sorting and assembling. A further and more vital transformation took place as I assembled them. These found objects then started to tell their story and become transformed into artworks.

Dahlsen describes the contradictory feelings of being outraged by the magnitude of trash being dumped into the ocean, and at the same time going back repeatedly to collect more items for his palette, and eloquently says that as he sorted piles of objects in his studio they took on an “unspeakable, indefinable and quite a magical beauty.” This is “found” art and yet finding the debris was only the first step toward finding the qualities and stories of these discards, and in making his art, Dahlsen also found a way to express his own passionate concern about the environment, and his creativity in recycling.

More Orange on my Orange Tuesdays Pinterest Board.

Margaret Goldie(1905-1997): Teacher of the Alexander Technique

Margaret Almon — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:42:13 +0000

Source: mouritz.co.uk via Margaret on Pinterest

Margaret Goldie(1905-1997), was a first generation teacher of the Alexander Technique(AT). She’s pictured here with F.M. Alexander, the persistent studier of himself, and of the ways we move by habit, and how these can cause us difficulties and pain. I started AT lessons a couple months ago when my back was complaining about how I was working in the studio. When I discovered Margaret Goldie’s name, I tried to find a photo, and after searching, this is the only one. Miss Goldie(as she was called), didn’t want any photos taken of her teaching, and published no books(see Miss Goldie: A Little for the Record.)

Alexander developed his technique of “good use” of the body through his relentless observations of his own movements after repeatedly losing his voice while doing public speaking. He started taking students, and these students then started various schools of AT. Miss Goldie was not one to turn her teaching into an industry. She wanted people to experience the same kind of awareness that Alexander found for himself, and that she found for herself. She left a distinct impression on her students, who often write of being both awed and scared of her. John Hunter writes of his experience with Miss Goldie:

This brings us to decision. If we have choice, then we have to make a decision. It is here that many of us get stuck. In my first or second lesson with Margaret Goldie she said, ‘Now I am going to ask you to make a decision, and it will be the first decision you’ve ever made.’ At the time I found this a very strange thing for her to say. Had I not been making decisions all my life? Had I not decided that very day to get out of bed and come and have a lesson with her? This is a very interesting question. We assume that because we end up taking one course of action rather than another that we have made a decision. But is that the case? My suspicion is that we have merely acquiesced to impulses following the path of least resistance.

This moment of freedom, before we act out of habit, is powerful. I see glimpses of it when observing myself, but there are many habits entrenched in how I move, and I get frustrated with all I need to notice, like the proverbial onion, layer after layer. I am learning it is not about “doing” Alexander, but about letting my body go into the positions of most ease. As Fiona Robb quotes Margaret Goldie(as cited in Robert Rickover’s article on Miss Goldie) : ”Any doing is an overdoing.” I like that.

More Margarets at my Margarets Pinterest Board.

My new Alexander Technique Pinterest Board.

Miss Goldie: Teacher of the Alexander Technique by Robert Rickover

Wordless Wednesday: Imagine in Mosaic by Margaret Almon and Wayne Stratz of Nutmeg Designs

Margaret Almon — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:28:01 +0000

Imagine in Mosaic by Margaret Almon and Wayne Stratz of Nutmeg Designs

More Wordless Here.

UnaOdd and Tangerine Tango-ing

Margaret Almon — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:44:15 +0000

Source: unaodd.blogspot.com via Margaret on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Margaret on Pinterest

UnaOdd (aka Lynn Lunger) has been in the sisterhood of orange for the time that I have known her, and 2012, the Pantone Year of the Tangerine Tango is made for her. Recently, we had her and her husband and kids over for a pizza party, and it was great fun! Shrimp was the only orange topping, and it went quickly. . .

More orange at my Pinterest Orange Tuesdays Board.

UnaOdd’s Etsy Shop

UnaOdd Blog

Wordless Wednesday: Keys for My 1900 House

Margaret Almon — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:59:03 +0000

Keys to All the Inside Doors in My House. Photo by Margaret Almon.

More Wordless Here.