As I write this article, I’m thinking about all that we accomplished in April. Our April meeting was full of spirited conversation, inspiring presentations from Marie Casamayor-Harvey and Gretchen McDaniel, drawings for the 2022 ECO Fund recipients, and a few moments of Zoom drama. The presentation of this grant is always special and is one of the primary ways in which we enable our members to advance their creative development. I’ve been on the receiving end of this grant, and it’s very exciting. However, I get just as excited to see whose name will be drawn each year. I know and respect this year’s recipients, and I can’t wait to see how Ellen Seaton and Mary Jean Carter will use their windfalls.
April has also seen us giving back to the communities in which we live. At the close of our HOPE Exhibition at Eugene Field Elementary School, we were asked if any of our artists would donate her pieces to the silent auction that was held on April 30 for the Fine Arts Program at Field Elementary School. Several members were able to donate their pieces, so involvement with the school continued throughout the month of April.
In addition, your board has been looking for other ways to infuse the community with our spirit of cooperation and invention. In April, WiVLA donated $500 to Neighbors In Action for the purchase of art supplies for the children’s Summer Arts Academy program. Keep a watchful eye out for other ways in which we can support the visual and literary arts in our communities. Feel free to contact me or any board member with your suggestions.
As we look forward to May, we have two in-person events—a studio tour with Gail Siptak and a picnic. I encourage you to gather at Smither Park for a picnic lunch under the covered pavilion on May 14. If you haven’t yet visited the park, you’ll be able to see our portion of the wall, tour the amazing shed of available mosaic supplies, and meet potential partners for the Reflection Collaboration. Check our calendar for details about both fun events.
- Melody -
Picnic at Smither Park
May 14, 2022 10:00am -1:00pm
Bring a chair. Fetch your lunch and a beverage. See where WiVLA is decorating part of the mosaic wall. Find a collaborator for the Reflection collaboration. Take some groovy selfies to post on your social media. Check out The Orange Show – home to all things weird and wonderful. https://www.orangeshow.org/hours-pricing. Get ready for some old-fashioned fun. It’s free, too. Log into the WiVLA website https://www.wivla.org/ and check the Calendar for updates.
Studio Visit with Gail Siptak
Saturday, May 28,2022, 10:00am
On Saturday, May 28th, 10 WiVLA members will enjoy a lush visit to Gail Siptak's art studio in the heart of Oak Forest. Come prepared to walk through her lovely garden and observe the stunning art in her studio. Maybe we'll treat our taste buds to a little brunch, afterwards. Register for this event by logging into the WiVLA website https://www.wivla.org/ and clicking on the Calendar.
Hooked on Ekphrastic
A workshop with Lorette C. Luzajic of The Ekphrastic Review
via ZOOM June 4, 2022 10:00am-1:00pm
Contemplating visual art can make you a better writer. And writing about art is the best way to study art history. Ekphrastic writing is an ancient practice of literary description, expanded today as a fountain of creative inspiration to take your writing practice to unexpected, enchanted places. In this virtual workshop, we will learn a little about the history of ekphrastic literature, read and discuss some works together, find new ways of looking at art and asking questions that can turn into poems or stories. We will also do several writing exercises together. Participants will receive a PDF of the program slides after the workshop.
We will use art work by WiVLA visual artists for inspiration. Send your artwork for consideration to Margo ~ bboop7@flash.net.
Lorette C. Luzajic is the founder and editor of The Ekphrastic Review, a journal of writing inspired by art. Her ekphrastic small stories and prose poetry are widely published, and have been awarded, nominated, and translated. She studied journalism formally, but her lifelong passion and quest is art history. She studies obsessively, in books, in museums, by travel, and online, because art is the divine spark, a time machine, a bridge, and a map of the world. She teaches ekphrastic writing, art appreciation, collage making, and creative writing. She is also a visual artist, making small surreal collages and large urban abstracts, with collectors in thirty countries from France to Saudi Arabia. Visit her at www.mixedupmedia.ca or at the journal, www.ekphrastic.net.
Register for this event by logging into the WiVLA website https://www.wivla.org/ and clicking on the Calendar.
The Magic of Contour Drawing Workship
by Shirl Riccetti
September 17, 2022 10:00am-1:00pm
Whether a novice doodler or seasoned visual artist, there is something for everyone in Shirl Riccetti’s workshop – The Magic of Contour Drawing. Learn how to reveal objects in your drawings by using a few strategic contour lines. Log in to the WiVLA website and check the Calendar for updates and to register.
Calling all WiVLA members! If you are interested in participating in a virtual exhibition the 2022 season you may apply on the WiVLA website. This is an excellent opportunity to add to your CV and is a great marketing tool for your artistic endeavors. This is a free benefit to all WiVLA members. If you are interested in learning more please reach out to our Visual Co-Chair, Aliza Bejarano at visual@wivla.org. If you would like to reserve a spot for the 2022 season you may do so by clicking the button below.
Time is running out to sign up for this year’s Collaboration, Reflection. Because of the time involved in planning and executing the collaborative pieces, now is the time to find a partner. Please take advantage of our member directory on the WiVLA website to find your co-collaborator, and keep an eye out for another match-up opportunity.
Dr. Cait Weiss Orcutt: Writing Your Story, Then Sharing It: How to Stop Doubting and Start Making Art on Paper, Canvas or the Dance Floor
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
6:00pm - 7:30pm
As creatives, we often have more trouble with self-doubt than with any other part of the artistic process. Sometimes self-doubt appears as procrastination, sometimes it's the urge to do laundry, and sometimes it's relationship drama or workaholism or existentialism or burnout. In her work as a writer, an editor, and an educator, Cait Weiss Orcutt has to not only face her own self-doubt but continually work to create generative art-making spaces where her students feel they can risk tuning out their own self-doubt, too. In this talk, she will discuss some of the ways she has learned to bolster her creative confidence and the creative confidence of the artists around her. She will also share why it's so important we get our stories down on the page, or the canvas, or the dance floor--whatever medium they appear to us as--and then out to a wider audience.
Cait Weiss Orcutt is the author of VALLEYSPEAK, winner of the 2017 Zone 3 First Book Prize. She holds an MFA from The Ohio State University and a PhD from the University of Houston. Her essays and poems have appeared in Boston Review, Bust Magazine, Chautauqua, FIELD, The Pinch, The Academy of American Poets and more. Currently based in the Midwest, Cait leads poetry and prose workshops and literary gatherings online for writers of all experience levels: www.caitweissorcutt.com and www.patreon.com/caitweissorcutt
Meeting Schedule
6:00 - 6:20 pm Social Time and Board Announcements.
6:20 - 7:20 pm Presentation with Q & A.
7:20 - 7:30 pm Time permitting, Member announcements.
*Some meetings may run slightly off schedule due to the nature of the conversation.
Zoom Meeting Information
Due to Zoom's security suggestions, we will send out another email with the Zoom meeting information one day before the meeting. Be certain to look for it. If you need the meeting code, please send an email to newsletter@wivla.org to get the meeting code no later than 5:00 pm the day of the meeting.
If you need information on how to use Zoom before the meeting date, please use the links below:
Jere Pfister is a writer and a storyteller. She has performed on stages and art galleries in Houston, Okemos Michigan, and Kansas City and New Orleans. She writes and tells stories of people and places where the tension of opposites come together. Raised in the 1940’s Jim Crow south her curiosity led her to reject the rules and customs of her small Louisiana town, Covington, and later she developed a passion for social justice. She has an MFA in Theatre from the University of Houston, where her play, “A Work in Granite” was work-shopped in the 2002, Edward Albee Play Festival.
Jere writes from and into experiences. She won two Eco prizes the first in 2002. She used the award to create a riverbed in the small back yard of her home in the Heights. Friends gave her trees, and she has spent the last twenty years watching the evolution of nature from her back porch. Her second Eco prize was in 2004 when she used the award to travel to Ft. Benning’s, Georgia for the march bringing attention to the School of the Americas.
Her work has been published a variety of publications including Mutabilis Anthology, Houston History Magazine: University of Houston, and Ten Spurs Best of the Best Literary Nonfiction of the Mayborn Conference University of North Texas 2007. Her letters have been published in the Houston Cornicle and the National Catholic Reporter. She loves taking part in the collaborative opportunities WIVLA has provided over the years.
MAY - JUNE
WiVLA Members Regina Vitolo and Lee Steiner are featured in the May-June virtual exhibition. To view their exhibition, please click here. For best results, view on full screen on your computer or laptop. You will be prompted to download the app if you view it on your mobile device.
This is an opportunity available to all WiVLA members. For information or to register to exhibit your work please visit our website.
Regina Vitolo, a Houston-native, harnesses the energy of her cat-muses to write poetry and prose in the wee-hours of the night. An avid consumer of coffee and culture, she uses mixed-media to illustrate her poems and loves to visit libraries while traveling.
Longtime WiVLA member and past president, Lee is a local book artist who makes one-of-a-kind handmade books that combine rescued vintage ephemera with archival materials and traditional bookbinding techniques.
A romantic nature and a love of the past led Lee to use her ECO Fund grant to give her photos of forgotten European bridge “love locks” cool back stories and WiVLA writers an audience for their own 30-word-max true love tales.
Infusing the Community with our Spirit of Cooperation and Invention
Neighbors In Action (NIA) serves Port Houston, where more than 96% of the residents are Hispanic, many migrating to the United States in search of a better life for their families. Many Port Houston families have struggled immensely to make ends meet. This area has been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, not only in number of cases, but also with regards to job loss, food insecurity, and eviction threats.
Following a visit by Gretchen McDaniel and me to Neighbors In Action, the board voted to approve a $500 grant for the purchase of art supplies for the children’s summer Arts Academy program.
Gretchen and I were able to deliver the check in person to Sandra Roberson, their Program Director, and we plan to return to the community center in July to see how the new supplies are being used.
After delivering the check to Sandra, we received the following thank-you note: Good afternoon, Melody & Gretchen,
So wonderful to see you both, again, yesterday at the Community Center. Thank you so much for the generous donation of $500.00, for our Summer Arts Academy. We are grateful for your generosity, thoughtfulness, interest and support for the children of Port Houston. I have enjoyed taking you for tours of the new building!! Cannot wait for you to see it all finished! I am excited to see that happen as well!!
We look forward to having both of you come out in July for our Arts Academy so that you can observe all the wonder and excitement that will go on. Many thanks to everyone involved with making the $500.00 donation possible. It is a true blessing.
Sandra Roberson Neighbors In Action/Vecinos en Accion Program Director
In addition to sharing our art with children, the WiVLA board agree that children need art to express their creativity and as an outlet during periods of stress. We believe that this gift furthers the goals and missions of WiVLA and NIA.
April Meeting Highlight:
ECO Fund Winners
At the April 19 WiVLA meeting, the recipients of the ECO Fund talked about their projects.
Gretchen McDaniel – recipient of the literary grant shared her story of shifting goals due to the COVID pandemic. What started out as a trip to Detroit ended up in Brainerd, Minnesota. Gretchen and her husband reconnected with Gretchen’s friend, Lori, and her family. Gretchen and Lori see magic in everything. They plan to use that magic to create a joint memoir piece.
Marie Casamayor-Harvey – recipient of the visual artist grant presented a variety of artwork she created with her grant: collage, contemporary art, improvisations on paper, and paints on large canvases. Her pieces were dramatic and lovely.
The advice from Gretchen and Marie is to find a person who “charges” you, creatively.
The drawing at the end of the meeting revealed the new ECO Fund recipients –
Literary – Ellen Seaton
Visual Art - Mary Jean Carter
Poetry by the Bay Caps off Poetry Month 2022
After a one-year pause in our annual in-person poetry readings, WiVLA poets enjoyed the opportunity to share their poetry with a live audience. La Porte Library has a good reputation as a great host, and they did not disappoint. While she was laying out the pasties and fruit, Kayla Keith, the Assistant Branch Manager, said that she had heard many positive comments from the staff about earlier poetry readings with WiVLA. She wanted to ensure that we were adequately nourished and caffeinated.
After greeting members and guests, our members shared some thought-provoking, humorous, and heartfelt poems. We were delighted when an eight-year-old guest told us how much she loved all of the poetry, and that she also writes poetry. Will she be our new literary co-chair in 2047?
Following the readings, most of us sampled the scrumptious seafood at the New Orleans Seafood Kitchen. Because we couldn’t leave the area without going to the beach, Glady Mae guided us to Sylvan Beach Park, which was practically around the corner from the restaurant.
Many, many thanks to our WiVLA poets for the wonderful readings at Poetry by the Bay, hosted by the always-gracious La Porte Library, and organized by Gladys Mae Bullock. To view some of our members’ poetry, check out the poetry readings on our YouTube channel.
Activities outside of WiVLA
Margo Stutts Toombs at the Best of Fringe Festival
Margo Stutts Toombs is performing spoken word poetry at the Best of Fringe Festival – Sunday, May 15, 2022 @ 8:00pm at the Midtown Arts and Theatre Center Houston. Get info and tickets here - https://matchouston.org/events/2022/best-fringe-2022
Having trouble logging into your Wivla.org membership profile? Click on the Member Login link at the top right of the home page. If you don't remember your password, click the Request Password button and enter your email address. Follow the prompts in the password reset email. If need assistance with accessing your Member Profile, contact the WiVLA membership chair, Gail Plunkett, at membership@wivla.org.
We'd love to celebrate your good news. If you are interested in sharing, please send your items to newsletter@wivla.org. The deadline for inclusion in the next month's newsletter is the 20th. Thank you.
As I write this article, I’m thinking about all that we accomplished in April. Our April meeting was full of spirited conversation, inspiring presentations from Marie Casamayor-Harvey and Gretchen McDaniel, drawings for the 2022 ECO Fund recipients, and a few moments of Zoom drama. The presentation of this grant is always special and is one of the primary ways in which we enable our members to advance their creative development. I’ve been on the receiving end of this grant, and it’s very exciting. However, I get just as excited to see whose name will be drawn each year. I know and respect this year’s recipients, and I can’t wait to see how Ellen Seaton and Mary Jean Carter will use their windfalls.
Calling all WiVLA members! If you are interested in participating in a virtual exhibition the 2022 season you may apply on the WiVLA website. This is an excellent opportunity to add to your CV and is a great marketing tool for your artistic endeavors. This is a free benefit to all WiVLA members. If you are interested in learning more please reach out to our Visual Co-Chair, Aliza Bejarano at visual@wivla.org. If you would like to reserve a spot for the 2022 season you may do so by clicking the button below.
Time is running out to sign up for this year’s Collaboration, Reflection. Because of the time involved in planning and executing the collaborative pieces, now is the time to find a partner. Please take advantage of our member directory on the WiVLA website to find your co-collaborator, and keep an eye out for another match-up opportunity.
Jere Pfister is a writer and a storyteller. She has performed on stages and art galleries in Houston, Okemos Michigan, and Kansas City and New Orleans. She writes and tells stories of people and places where the tension of opposites come together. Raised in the 1940’s Jim Crow south her curiosity led her to reject the rules and customs of her small Louisiana town, Covington, and later she developed a passion for social justice. She has an MFA in Theatre from the University of Houston, where her play, “A Work in Granite” was work-shopped in the 2002, Edward Albee Play Festival. 
