sea magic

just found... sea spiral, curl of the wave



evening by the pool, casa señoritas

Post Colombia

Not able to do and write and the same time, I must write after I do. So this installation will begin my doing in Colombia in September and October, and into November. This is Latin America, remember and everything seems to go on a little longer than planned here. I arrived in Medellín at the beginning of September with too much luggage, and as I write from Peru I still carry with me too many books, documents, paper, pencils, pens, etc. But I continue to leave things along the way, books and bike with Lisa in Lee, camping equipment with Young Wha in CA, car with Tamia in Seattle, books and documents in Medellín,…I’m a global litter bug! So in Colombia the eating and drinking stopped being the primary focus of my life, since I became very involved in research and teaching.

I started with the presentation at the English Language Teaching Conference at the Centro Colombo Americano in Medellín on critical visual literacy (my trip was sponsored by Partners of the Americas, which links Massachusetts and Antioquia. Also offered a workshop for teachers from Envigado on using the arts in language teaching. And jumped right in with the research on Desearte Paz (from this art, peace), the network of social/artistic projects created among various national and international artists and organizations with the mission of creating a culture of peace in Medellín.

Desearte Paz was the vision of Juan Alberto Gaviria, the director of the contemporary art gallery at the Colombo, and the best research collaborator I could have asked for. He set up interviews with artists, teachers and administrators across town, opening up doors for me everywhere. He took me to visits at cultural arts centers, government offices, schools, universities and even a high security prison where we spent a whole morning. Together we walked the streets of Moravia, rode the MetroCable above the city, and were interviewed by prisoners. I attended exhibits, special cultural events, and was offered a never ending agenda of opportunities for learning about this project that has capacities of transformation. If you want to know more about the project see the website of the Colombo

(www.colomboworld.com) and read my research articles that will appear in academic journals beginning next year!

In addition to the research I offered a workshop on the Pedagogies of Art for the arts faculty (dance, music, theatre and visual arts) at the Universidad de Antioquia (UdeA) which was very much like a Creative Arts in Learning class at Lesley. I was a visiting professor in the education faculty in their master’s cohort on Pedagogy and Cultural Diversity. And learned with and from the group of educators in the new master’s degree in the Pedagogy
of Mother Earth, designed to prepare indigenous teachers to teach in their own communities.

I presented another talk for the Network of Arts Teachers on the Art of Pedagogy in Medellín, offered a lecture on action research in the faculty of foreign languages at UdeA, and led a conversation with arts faculty at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá on qualitative arts based research. As a Lesley University representative I visited the lovely bi-lingual school Colegio Los Nogales outside of Bogotá, and lunched with the lively administrators of the bi-lingual university, UNICA.

Meanwhile, I read five novels in Spanish, painted a few little water colors, gone on long walks up anearby hill (El Volador) and visited the countryside around Medellin and Bogotá with friends. Taking full advantage of the many gorgeous flowers in Colombia.

I’ve made good use of the digital zoom on my camera. Some of the images here are watercolors, others are closeups of flowers and plants. All sing of Colombia.

Green Hills of Colombia

Blue emerald beauty

Strangely warm

In the depths of velvet folds

Patches of screaming chartreuse outline

Mysterious shadows,

Undulating curves

and barren terra cotta

All the shades of the earth

live here beneath the

transparent blue sky

always partially dressed

in grey and while tule,

like a stripper with

desires of ballet

The very mystery of life

huddles in these hills

where fragrant growth

of eucalyptus and pine

surround the startling

white of Yoruba leaves,

like one silver

umbrella among so

many somber black ones.

Wherever they call me

I must attend the

Song of the land

The green hills of Colombia

live within me.

Lag in the blog....

This is called a blag, it’s a blog that lags in time…..I’m getting there gradually, but so many adventures leave little time to write. Its always on to the next day. So here’s more to the story of where I’ve been.

After reaching the west coast of the states I slowed down considerably. My dear friend Young Wha welcomed me with her delicious cooking, from tastes of Thailand to French apple tart, and all the flavors of goodness in between. We walked the shores of Pebble Beach, met with sunsets in the evening and fog in the morning, read books, enjoyed her lovely garden, and laughed a lot. She left for home in Korea as I left to meet Tamia in San Jose for our drive north to Seattle.

We made it just north of San Jose, to a little town called San Francisco, and had to stop by the quaint little wharf and eat those long-legged critters the locals call “dangerous crabs.” Dangerous?? Anyway, we won the battle of the butter and gloried in our slurpiness as we stood over a trash can depositing vanquished and emptied shells. Then north to Sausalito, little willow, on the bay of SF, where Doreen and Maya met us on their catamaran in the harbor. Tamia and I walked the town – we needed to walk – eating and drinking along the way, then chattered into the night with yet more laughter. The next day we made it as far as the vineyards in Sonoma, oh my, and yet more eating and much tasting of wines. Up and up the coast we went, find room at an small cab/inn just before Oregon, where we slept to the lullaby of the waves (sometimes within the plumbing!).

Ahh, the lovely coast of Oregon, we traveled the whole day, Tamia driving, me gazing in awe at the cliffs, the forests, the beaches. We stopped here and there briefly, until we got to the brewery-by-the-sea, Pelican Pub in Pacific City. Warm sunshine with cool breezes and sparkling ocean accompanied our lunch with all the tastes that they produce in house. We left with growlers and bottles in the cooler for our trip up to La Conner, north of Washington. And we made it all the way to Astoria that evening, where Tamia had booked us into the historic Hotel Elliot. Not much rest for the weary travelers, however, since we connected with Sig Paulson and his lovely wife that night for singing, dancing and frolicking on the roof of the hotel! From Astoria we made it to La Conner, stopping to briefly hold hands with Hans in Seattle. We got stuck in the most delicious traffic in Bellington, that consisted of smoked trout dip spiced with smoked salmon and gobbled up on organic corn chips, until Tamia had to drive and had to abandon chips.

Celeste and Lucas from Vancouver awaited us in the cottage in La Conner and we all went to a lively dinner at Stella’s house. Can you tell that my life is all about eating and drinking with friends? The next night we attended a special opening of the newest addition to the cultural arts scene in the area, where we….you know the chorus by now…ate and drank and laughed some more. Back to Vancouver for them, back to Seattle for Tamia and me, and back to Cambridge after a day visiting the new SAM art park with Tam, Hans and friends. Almost time to make it down to Colombia……

the journey began in my wilderness...

...when I joined with generous friends and an inspirational teacher, Peter London. Together at Kripalu in western Massachusetts we explored artistic connections to the environment, to each other, to the cosmos, as we drew closer to nature. From there I ventured across the country, stopping first at friends' homes in Massachusetts (Lovely Lisa and family), Vermont (SillySally and Bill), Ontario (AlwaysEruditeAlison & Harvey, JoyfulJudy & Pablo), and then camping my way across the land. I found the waterways to Killarney in Ontario, the Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior, and many hot, dry and desecated streams and reservoirs across the middle of the continent. After swimming in what was once a frigid Lake Superior 5 times in one day I relaxed into the warmth of the earth below me. Lying in my tent under the stars in Utah as they slid down the sky in the shower of meteors in August my eyes reflected the wonders of the night sky. Many deer and elk crossed my path, and even a small bear wandered by into the green shade.


This image is from my campsite at Pictured Rocks in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The water in the daytime was the color of Caribbean green, clear to the toes. The image of rocks in the pool below was taken as I stood in the water up to my waist, no sand, just rocks, colors of sunset.....














...later in my travels I noticed an interest in abandoned dwellings that showed up in my photographs. What was it about their weathered walls, sagging sides, the vacant stares from their windows that called to me so strongly? Why did I stop the car, turn around, and stand pondering and wondering where the former dwellers were now? Images speak so clearly we sometimes are unable to decipher their messages through our cluttered interpretations. I was on a journey through the land, and through my life, that left abandoned dwellings, always temporary, enduring only until I moved on. From my treehouse in Cambridge to my friends' homes, my campsites and occasional hotel stops, I left behind dwellings, spaces where I once was. Even my body is a temporary dwelling.......