Our relationship to art is makes us feel alive! When we see art it brings up emotions and thoughts which are part of what animates us. Looking at is an art piece shows us that people can use their bodies to create beauty.
We use our physical senses to process the art making us more in touch with our own bodies. So think about making some art with your body and bring art to life for someone by participating in Free Art Friday Albuquerque.
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Stephanie Galloway
Stephanie Galloway is from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has been writing poetry since she was a child and still loves to explore the magic in words and their power to touch others deeply. She taught art to children as the Children Zone Leader of the Rail Yards Market and is the founder of Free Art Friday Albuquerque.
Community Publishing brings local artists of all mediums together in creative collaborations for distribution as Multimedia Books while promoting literacy in our communities.
the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.
“nylon is excellent in wearability and resilience”
the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
“the often remarkable resilience of so many Native American Nations”
In our everyday discourse it is estimated that on the average women speak 20,000 words a day compared to 7,000 for men. How many times we utter the word resilience probably depends on the who, when and what of our daily lives. In a world of conotations, condemnations and confirmations what does that word really mean?
For me Resilience means persevering through struggles. I was born and raised in NYC. I was lucky to have a mom that loved me and my brothers enough to work several jobs after my father left. It wasn’t easy and it involved many sacrifices but she preserved and gave us the opportunities she did not have. My mom comes from a long line of resilient people. A mestiza descendent of the Muisca/Chibcha people of central Colombia who survive today and are reclaiming their autonomy. For me, my mom is REZILIENCE.
“An unprecedented movement in Indigenous communities has arisen. It moves people to recover cultural memory, celebrate survival, and honor our ancestors. This generation is building that movement and we rise like water to quench the thirst for stories, demanding to be felt through song, dance, paint on canvas, and pen upon paper.
We come together to declare the REZILIENCE that has always been within us.
REZILIENCE will be a living, creative environment that bridges cultural knowledge with modern art-making processes. This immersive environment will entice all senses with vibrant visuals, stage performances, live art creations, hands-on activities, positive vibes and mind stimulating experiences. More than 100 Indigenous artists and art related professionals from the U.S. Canada and Mexico will be present for this full day event to share their talents, skills and knowledge in 8 creative arenas; including academics, poetry, music, wellness and visual arts. #LiveYourRezilience”
The REZILIENCE Indigenous Arts Experience will feature many local, regional, national and international artists of all mediums. Please consider donating to this wonderful cause and be a part of the REZILIENCE movement!
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The way you see and experience the world around you is important. Your creative expressions are a unique and valuable part of the community you live in.
The art you make is share on Free Art Friday is like a needed puzzle piece. Your artistic contribution helps to make the place you live in whole and complete. The images we create collectively make a larger picture of our city that we can admire and be proud of! The art you make matters and holds a special place in your community.
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Stephanie Galloway
Stephanie Galloway is from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has been writing poetry since she was a child and still loves to explore the magic in words and their power to touch others deeply. She taught art to children as the Children Zone Leader of the Rail Yards Market and is the founder of Free Art Friday Albuquerque.
Community Publishing brings local artists of all mediums together in creative collaborations for distribution as Multimedia Books while promoting literacy in our communities.
Just because something is free it does not mean it has no value. In a world where we often judge things my there price tag Free Art Friday Albuquerque helps to show us an alternative way of seeing the value in art. The importance of art in our culture can then be rooted in what it means to people beyond its monetary value.
Some of the most special pieces of art I have are gifts that were freely given to me. They are connected to emotional and spiritual experiences that I am able to revisit every time I see them. A person that finds a Free Art Friday art often associates the piece they find with its location and what they were doing at the time they found it.
So in a way Free Art Friday art helps to create a lasting memory for someone which can also give a sense of purpose and pride for the artist knowing that their art had an important part of making a memory.
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Stephanie Galloway
Stephanie Galloway is from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has been writing poetry since she was a child and still loves to explore the magic in words and their power to touch others deeply. She taught art to children as the Children Zone Leader of the Rail Yards Market and is the founder of Free Art Friday Albuquerque.
the predicament of predictability
is the necessity of change
in all of the ways a day is
constantly becoming its next self
always new
in all of the ways a day remains the same
there is a far off familiar look in their eyes
always knew
the white folks
sometimes of fancy
others a glimmer of contempt
perhaps indifference this time
observing and assessing us
invisible and unimportant
paralyzed shadows preserved
in the wake of a beacon
shadows who do not disappear under
the white gaze
shock of unruly untamed locks
flagrant blackness turned in on itself
wound tight and in unison
strands on one accord confront clouds
and dare them break apart to weep
disrupting the protest
sopping the revolution
it is difficult sometimes
to be a special shadow
it is difficult to watch the light
touch secrets in the eyes of strangers
somewhat invasive to see and feel it
pretend not to spread yourself over chasms
of the great human divide
stay close to the ground to keep
your dark and special figure from blocking the sun
careful not to show yourself exhausted by the routine
black magic woman
ignore the fear which is filed and felt
in response to their marvel at your splendor
the audacity of your unfettered breath
is also a potential threat
turn yourself into nighttime
dare your moon to take its turn lighting the sky
defy everything
refuse to disappear
*Publishers Note: Featured image/Art by artist Kara Walker. All Rights Reserved.
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New Jersey born Ebony “Isis Speaks” Booth is a living work of art and specializes in spoken-word poetry, singing, and creative writing. She uses various mediums for entertainment to unleash the potency in her performances, yet the over arching purpose in Isis’s art is her speaking. As a professional poet and performance artist Isis provides a dual function as educator and student in the area of empowerment.
Called upon as a featured guest facilitator for Denver Public Schools, she writes and teaches education curriculum to challenge traditional ideas and themes in society. A “jade of all trades,” if you will, the poet used her transformation as a multi-faceted artist to spread a message of self-awareness and healing. “Isis Speaks,” was born out of the beauty and scars she says developed her into an ever evolving womanhood. Find about more about Ms. Booth here.
A rainbow of colors is the perfect cure for the winter blues. In the winter it is common to feel a bit sad due to the colder temperatures and less sunlight. One thing that always helps to cheer me up is making a painting with bright and bold colors!
When I leave a painting outdoors for someone to take on Free Art Friday the contrast of bright colors in the painting stand out in comparison to the natural grays and browns of winter. It makes me smile to look at bright colors and helps me to remember that the colors of spring are underground and will soon show themselves as flowers! Until then we can make our own colors to share!
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Stephanie Galloway
Stephanie Galloway is from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has been writing poetry since she was a child and still loves to explore the magic in words and their power to touch others deeply. She taught art to children as the Children Zone Leader of the Rail Yards Market and is the founder of Free Art Friday Albuquerque.
Community Publishing brings local artists of all mediums together in creative collaborations for distribution as Multimedia Books while promoting literacy in our communities.
Free Art Friday is about community and art with a goal of building a connection between the two. Every member of a community has a unique creative gift to share making our city a beautifully diverse place to be.
Planting art in the city landscape has it bloom with color! So plant an art garden with Free Art Friday Albuquerque and watch it grow! Here is how to participate:
Make a work of art that is easily removable and leaves no damage to it’s environment.
Place a tag on it that lets the person seeing it know it is free for the taking
Find a public place to leave it in. (You can also take a photo and post it to the Free Art Friday Albuquerque facebook page https://www.facebook.com/FreeArtFridayAlbuquerque to give a clue where it can be found.
Sharing art with your community helps to make it a better place to live so please consider sharing your creativity!
Please check out some more of my articles here. Thank you for supporting local arts!
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Stephanie Galloway
Stephanie Galloway is from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has been writing poetry since she was a child and still loves to explore the magic in words and their power to touch others deeply. She taught art to children as the Children Zone Leader of the Rail Yards Market and is the founder of Free Art Friday Albuquerque.
Community Publishing brings local artists of all mediums together in creative collaborations for distribution as Multimedia Books while promoting literacy in our communities.
I have written several times about the importance of exposing and teaching all of our children to use current technologies. Children from all backgrounds need to have hands-on experience with the learning tools of today and tomorrow. Contrary to the trending meme about limiting your child’s exposure to “screens and monitors” I encourage the use of technology by children.
People seem to conflate, confuse and associate technology and video-games. The purpose of this article is not to bash video games (I do not endorse violence-based games/media) but rather to promote the use of technology to promote literacy/learning and support/endorse collaborative local arts. Let us all remember that the medium is not the message. A book printed with terrible messages, like those found in Mein Kampf, is no better because those messages are on paper as opposed to a tablet/screen. Our brains are constantly evolving and changing to suit the changes in our environment. Our preoccupation should be with promoting positive message rather than on the medium messages are promoted on.
Collaboration
Multimedia Books allow for artists of all mediums to collaborate in the at of story-making. For my book, Princess Marisol & the Moon Thieves, we brought together an illustrator (Audrey McNamara), talented musicians (Matias Pizarro, Juan Ramirez, Christian Orellana), Voice Actresses (Jackie Zamora, Sofia Zamora and Marisol Paramo) and an author (Me). We also utilized the talents of Audio Engineers to help tell our story.
For my latest Multimedia Book writing endeavor, the Grand Fantastic Life of DJ Flo Fader, I am collaborating with Alex Lopez (Photographer), DJ Flo Fader (Music), and an armada of local artists such as Xian Bass and Hakim Bellamy and legendary figures from the music business such as Masta Ace and J-Live. Here is a track from the forthcoming project called appropriately enough, Elevate Your Mind (by DJ Flo Fader).
Multiple-Media
Today our children are being bombarded with messages from multiple-media outlets: TV, Videos, Games, Books, Multimedia Book, eBooks, Blogs, Radio, Internet-Radio etc. Unlike yesterday where the “traditional” Book/Radio/TV industry was monopolized by a few and we had no alternatives, today we have the power to create our own content. Content that promotes our true values, and embraces our collaborative vision for tomorrow.
Those of us who have access to these new learning tools have a responsibility to share them with those that do not. We need to like, comment and share in order to create the world we have been longing for: a just and equitable world where we can all flourish individually and prosper as a whole.
*DJ Flo Fader produced the music for our 3rd multimedia children’s book Samuel’s Story. Available in print and digital formats get yours today!
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It seems it should be a simple task to answer why music is so important, but it’s rare that we actually stop to think about how it really fills our lives. Since ancient times the sounds around which we’ve gathered in the name of community, spirituality, ritual, and celebration, is music. It is the evocation of emotion, power, and drama in many areas of life; triumphant or melancholic, music brings the world and human emotion to life in ways that no other human creation can.
Plato said “ music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.”
Musical Inspiration
Powerful as it is, music is not esoteric but part of existence for the joy and inspiration of all. Large segments of our society are beginning to lose sight of the importance of music in every day life and instead relegating it to pop culture. Children, on the other hand, understand music instinctively. Whether it be a toddler moving his head in perfect rhythm, a young child beating on a makeshift drum, or a group of young people singing without fear of being heard, they possess a natural rhythm, a dance choreographed by the heart alone, that adults have difficulty recreating, but by which they are absolutely delighted.
A child’s channels of comprehension are untainted and wide open, and as they grow we slowly lead them to close these channels and instead utilize only those that allow for logic and pragmatism. The arts are not a priority and are whittled away by legislation year after year. Music and creativity, in terms of imagination, awaken not only our creative selves, but also our mathematical and scientific selves.
Einstein said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
As music and arts programs become less accessible to kids, a greater need for grass roots programs exists. Our education system does not value the power music has to help children learn and become confident students, and private instruction and camps are out of reach for many families. We want music to be attainable to all children in the community, and it’s for this reason that we’ve created the New Mexico Academy of Rock and Blues (NMARB).
At NMARB, our mission is to create a program for creativity that is affordable to all families. This is why we put together fundraisers; it’s our community effort to create a space that doesn’t exclude anyone merely based on finances.
We know that music is not just about the sounds created, but the creative expression they shape. Be it though lyrical execution, composition, or instrumental mastery, we want kids to express their true selves as they build their musical ability, their self-esteem, their ability to work as a team, and their confidence.
***** This article was originally published on January 8, 2015 in the Music Corner page found on the NMARB website. Community Publishing will be re-publishing this collection of articles by Keith and Ana Sanchez.
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Ana Romero Sanchez and Keith Sanchez are the founders of the New Mexico Academy of Rock & Blues, which is dedicated to granting equal access to the arts for children from all walks of life. Please contribute whatever you can by visiting: http://nmarb.org/
Attempts at participating in art shows can be discouraging and make people feel like outsiders. Art is not meant to be done and owned only by a few people. Everyone is an artist in their own way and should feel supported and encouraged and feel like they are an important part of the creative community.
Free Art Friday is a place where anyone is welcomed to participate. One of my goals with Free Art Friday Albuquerqueis to have it be something that values the contributions that artists offer to the community and have the artist feel like their art is key in making it a success and that they are included in a global art movement that brings people together through art.
Whether you are an artist, a seasoned veteran of the arts “scene” or just gearing up for your first visit to an Art Gallery, welcome to the family of artists that is inclusive and appreciative of your support!
Thank you for your support, find my previous Free Art Friday Albuquerque articles by clicking here. Happy Art Hunting!
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Stephanie Galloway
Stephanie Galloway is from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has been writing poetry since she was a child and still loves to explore the magic in words and their power to touch others deeply. She taught art to children as the Children Zone Leader of the Rail Yards Market and is the founder of Free Art Friday Albuquerque.
Community Publishing brings local artists of all mediums together in creative collaborations for distribution as Multimedia Books while promoting literacy in our communities.
Curated by Mary Ann Gilbreth, Ed.D., Department of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership and Policy, at the University of New Mexico. This collections includes the work of her students from several of her Reading Methods Classes, promoting cultural diversity in the classroom.
Alex Paramo
Pizarro, Juan Ramirez, Christian Orellana), Voice Actresses (Jackie Zamora, Sofia Zamora and Marisol Paramo) and an author (Me). We also utilized the talents of Audio Engineers to help tell our story.
