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I’m beginning to think the term “social distancing” should have been “physical distancing” since right now we really need to stay social. So, while you are alone in your home creative space, snap a few photos, and share what’s happening there with all of us!
Here are a few pictures of my home studio and works in progress (WIPs). Notice these are not staged, prettied up photos, this is how I really work.
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Send your home WIP photos to me at info@wivla.org and I will post them on our WiVLA Instagram (@wilvahouston) and public Facebook page (@wilva). Include your own contact info, if you want me to include it, or stay mysterious.
Remember, if you joined the WiVLA members closed group page, you can post your photos, writing, or links to your work directly, you don’t need me! To access the WiVLA, Private Facebook Group, click here. If you are searching for the group use this search thread, WIVLA Members (Women in the Visual and Literary Arts).
Keep your physical distance but stay social through WiVLA!
Watch for your notice about our July 21 st Zoom meeting and be ready to share your news. Also, continue to send Hayley ( newsletter@wivla.org) your news for the next newsletter. And send me pics of your Works In Progress, piles of supplies, overflowing wastebasket, cat draped on the keyboard, dried paint palette, or whatever images express your creative state at this time.
We’re in this together and we can all relate when we share what’s going on in our creative lives.
Keep it, and us, together,
Lee |
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WiVLA's July member meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 14th. The virtual meeting room will open at 6:00 pm. To join us you will need to have the link provided below:
Join Zoom Meeting
Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting now
Meeting ID: 837 1775 0169
Password: 834127
If you would like to learn more about using Zoom check out these resources provided below:
If you need to download Zoom, it's free: https://zoom.us/download.
Here is the link to a video on how to join a meeting:
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193-Joining-a-Meeting
Tom's Guide: How to Join a Zoom Meeting
https://www.tomsguide.com/news/how-to-join-a-zoom-meeting
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WiVLA’s first Lifetime Member, Leigh Owen, is deeply rooted in her native Texas heritage, her daily creative practice, and her natural gift as a connector of people and ideas. That innate need to form connections led Leigh to WiVLA in 1999 during Sue Liska’s presidency. She has remained a quintessential supporter and a crucial fixture in our organization both serving on and chairing the WiVLA advisory board.
Leigh hails from Jacksonville, a small East Texas town south of Tyler and near Leigh's alma mater of Stephen F. Austin State University. During her formative years, Leigh recalls her mother being an expert seamstress, sewing many of their clothes, and keeping an immaculate home for her family. An influential figure in her life, Leigh’s mother often referenced the William Morris quote, "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." It seems fitting that this would influence the work and life created by Leigh Owen.
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WiVLA has nourished and supported her creative endeavors providing new tools to enrich her work. In 2000 she attended SuZanne C. Cole's, WiVLA workshop the Art of Haiku. She continues to write haiku often taking inspiration from her birding excursions with her husband Tim.
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Leigh retired in 2018 from her lifetime career in publishing, book production, copywriting, and editing. She sits at her desks each day to journal and assemble the words and imagery she has carefully curated and placed amongst the pages of her chosen medium. She intertwines collage, bookmaking, and storytelling to convey her gratitude and record each day's events. It feels deeply intimate to experience the collection.
It is as if the delicate pieces are intended for their assembler alone; a diary laid bare in the form of a Travelers Notebook filled with cherished papers, short essays, quotes, and even her grandfather's WWI military discharge certificate.
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Foldouts, pockets, and graphics come together with papers collected over many years in Leigh’s Travelers Notebook.
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Leigh admits, “I'm a paper addict and can't throw away any paper that comes into this house without first scanning the pieces for collage fodder.” She even wrote a short "musing" on this process (see her “Homage to Collage” below).
During the virus shut down, she completed a journal she titled “Joys, Delights, and Loves.” It contains colorful collages in alphabetical order and features all the things she loves.
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Collaged images and text combined from Leigh's journal, "Joys, Delights, and Loves.", Page A.
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Leigh has an avid interest in preserving her family's history. She worked with her mother on memoirs by her grandmother and great grandmother and illustrated the covers of both books. She still has the scrapbook she started at age six. Through her genealogy work, she recently learned that her 3X great uncle was one of the defenders who died at the Alamo. She is a proud member of Houston's first DAR Chapter: The Lady Washington Chapter, which has over 600 members. She also belongs to Houston Book Arts Guild, Visual Journalers, Houston Calligraphy Guild, and Houston Focus on Concerns for Women.
If you ever saddle up to the Circle of Five or a project table, I promise you will enjoy the wisdom shared with you from our lovely member, Leigh Owen.
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Coming soon…
The WiVLA Quaran-Zine Project!
WiVLA creatives will be challenged to make an 8-page Zine to express your quarantine experience. Use any media, any words, anything you wish. Plenty of opportunities to show and share.
Watch for MailChimp email with details on July 6th!
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What is a Zine?
A zine /ZEEN; an abbreviation of magazine, most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. The term includes self-published work usually reproduced via photocopier or home printer.
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Samples from Lee’s Zine collection: Clockwise from top left- Hand-cut rubber-stamps; Jpeg quotes and images; Microsoft Publisher with clip art; Scanned drawings and words; hand-drawn black ink on white (no color printer needed to share); layered, collaged words, diagrams, and pictures; Clip art with collage and drawn animals.
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Marie Casamayor-Harvey has curated her first virtual solo exhibit, Inner Pulsation. Check it out by clicking here! To see more of her work, please visit her website, click here.
Amanda Wenger's manuscript was a finalist for the Writers’ League of Texas Manuscript Contest.
She has also been selected to perform a 20-minute standup comedy set at the first Queer Narratives Festival in Kansas City on Oct 31.
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We'd love to celebrate your good news. If you are interested in sharing, please send your items to newsletter@wivla.org. There is no deadline for this content.
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Public Poetry has an open call for Virus Poems. They will be due no later than August 31, 2020. For submission guidelines please visit their website, click here.
Gulf Coast Journal of Literature and Fine Arts is accepting entries for their 2020 awards: Barthelme Prize for Short Prose, Gulf Coast Prize in Translation, and Toni Beauchamp Prize in Critical Art Writing. The journal is also accepting poetry, nonfiction and lyric essay, critical art writing, and fiction. For further details please visit their website, click here.
Braeswood Farmers Market's organizer is now accepting vendor applications for their new Artisan Market. To learn more about the market you can check out their Facebook page, click here. Contact information regarding the artisan market opportunity, info@braeswoodartisanmarket.com.
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