A Blue Moon That's Also a Paschal Moon

 Today, Saturday, March 31st, the second blue moon in 2018 will occur; this means that for the second time this year, two full moons will appear during a single month (moon-th). Double blue moon years are relatively rare, with the last occurring in 1999, and the next in 2037.  

 This blue moon is also a Paschal Moon. The date of Easter is set (in the Western churches) as the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. This year the equinox occurred on March 20th and Saturday’s blue moon is the first full moon since then. Tomorrow is Sunday and thus becomes Easter Sunday.

Compassion and the Artist

The Winter 2018 issue of The Compassion Anthology contains my essay on compassion and the artist.  This essay answers the question "Do artists show compassion to themselves when they create works of art?"

Compassion and the Artist

Ellen Halloran

Compassion is defined as a sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress and sorrow accompanied by a desire to relieve that suffering. It can refer to both the understanding of another’s pain and the action that stems from that feeling.

Does an artist offer compassion to herself/himself in the process of creating a work of art? 

How does an artist’s work begin? We have an idea that appears  in our mind, something with a  life of its own that wants to be realized in the material world. We may have a feeling of apprehension. Can we fully and worthily realize this idea that wants to come forth?  Avoidance brings us to a state of intellectual paralysis, to a sense of being locked inside of ourselves as the idea searches for a material existence. Some artists speak of being “blocked,” of feeling depressed. Other artists experience this as a kind of anxiety.

Movement unlocks our feeling of helplessness. We move from an idea to a finished form by simple actions—picking up a pencil, making a mark, tearing a sheet of paper, executing a brushstroke,  joining surfaces together—until what was once only a thought achieves a palpable existence in the material world. 

Flannery O’Connor wrote that in art the self, (the artist) becomes “self-forgetful” to facilitate the demands of the ideas that we see in our minds and the things that we actually create from those ideas. In this self-forgetfulness artists act compassionately toward themselves by keeping their ideas  in motion, alleviating their own anxieties, and bringing them forward as gifts to the world in lyrical, energetic and beautiful forms. 

Ellen Halloran is a visual artist working in several media. She has worked as a metalsmith, jeweler, legal proofreader, art teacher and art therapist. She developed and implemented art programs for child victims of sexual abuse, children who witnessed violence, and children recovering from traumatic events. Her work has been seen in galleries and is in many private collections. 

                                                                                   

Happy Groundhog Day!

Here we are again, midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox!  It's the midpoint of calendrical winter in the northern hemisphere and time for the fun and silliness of Groundhog Day. Get ready to celebrate on Friday, February 2nd.

On February 2nd, 1887 Groundhog Day was officially celebrated for the first time at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. In Europe it had been an old German tradition to predict how long and cold the weather would be by observing the emergence of hedgehogs from their burrows in mid winter. Once they came to America, German settlers in Pennsylvania chose the ubiquitous groundhog as a replacement for their rodent meteorologist. A newspaper editor in Punxsutawney declared that Phil, the Punxsutawney groundhog, was the country's most reliable weather prognosticator.

There has been a long line of groundhogs known as Punxsutawney Phil ever since then. Phil has come to face competition from other groundhogs in other locations. Among many others, there's Staten Island Chuck in New York and Jimmy of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin and Shubenacadie Sam in Nova Scotia, Canada. What will they say today?

RE-Formation Ready to Go

On its way to a new home

RE-Formation:Moon and Moth

I think of "reformation" as change, transformation, a state of transition and even as metamorphosis.

Materials themselves provide me with ideas. The fabrics of this work inspired me as I changed disposable cardboard packaging, something that is usually tossed without a glance or hesitation, into an object to be considered with joy and wonder. I covered it with handmade papers that contain fragments of leaves and plant fibers. The pre-cut circles in the cardboard seemed like windows through which the constantly changing moon can be seen.  I thought of moths seeking light at the time of the new moon and I remembered that a friend had given me some oieces of moth cocoon, traces of a very real metamorphosis.

All of the materials here have gone through changes, have been re-formed. Trees and plants and insects have been changed into a small book that I have named "RE-Formation:Moon and Moths."

Our Saviour's Atonement Church in Washington Heights, NYC is sponsoring a Reformation-themed show opening on Saturday, October 14, 2017.

www.osanyc.org/calendar.html

Hello to the Flower Moon - or is it the Frog Moon?

 Native American people called the the full moon in May the Flower Moon as the warmer temperatures brought the landscape into colorful bloom. (No flowers in this photo!) With spring clearly underway and the threat of frost diminishing it is a time when animals begin to bear their young. People of the Cree Nation named it the Frog Moon as those amphibians become active at this time of year. It has also been called the Corn Planting Moon as this staple crop is sown  in May.

Art for Aleppo Postcard Art Project Book - Art in Action

If you missed the opportunity to purchase an artist-donated postcard in the Art for Aleppo gallery show you can now purchase the book with images of all the postcards. All proceeds from the sale of the book and the donated postcards go to Save the Children Syria.

blurb.com/b/7898748-art-for-aleppo-postcard-art-project

Artist's name, location, and website are included along with an image of the front and back of each postcard.