coolest girls in the uknow

I was telling KT a story about MRI's and tattoos and ran across this posting on a tattoo blog.

Nicolas (from belgium)
there's a guy in my town and he had the word 'elbow' tattooed on his knee. And he says that every morning, when he wakes up, he laughes at it. cheers

Susan P. told me about this...

Can a Tattoo React with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)?
From Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.,Your Guide to Chemistry.

Yes, there is medical evidence that a tattoo can cause a reaction during magnetic resonance imaging (an MRI). The tattoo inks expected to cause a reaction are those containing iron oxide (some black, brown, red, flesh, yellow, orange). Not all dyes of these colors contain iron oxide. Also, some dyes of other colors may contain lesser quantities of magnetic metal.
Magnetic metals can convert the radio-frequency pulses of an MRI machine into electricity. The burning sensation that would be felt at the site of the tattoo may be a result of electricity running through the tattoo or from the 'pull' exerted on the magnetic material in the tattoo.
I am unaware of any state laws requiring a technician to warn patients of a potential interaction between a tattoo and an MRI, so if you believe you may have a tattoo containing an iron oxide pigment, you need to bring this up with your physician.

Yesterday Paula Cleggett and I, as board members of SAH, had a wonderful meeting with Jennifer Bott who is a Chief Executive Officer in the Australian Government (and from what I can gather is the Dana Gioia of Australia). Listening to Jennifer and Paula I felt I was in a masters class on culture and the arts.

Jennifer is in DC for the exhibit Dreaming Their Way: Australian Aboriginal Women Painters at the National Museum of Women in the arts, web site here.

The Australian Government is starting a major mental health and arts initiative - helping boys at risk. It is through the community rather than a hospital environment. It was fascinating to realize we all have the same need for hard research to sell the beneficial role the arts play in healing.

We also talked about the class divide that is being created by the those who have technology available to them and those who do not. How the "have nots" are limited in their access to music, books - popular culture in general - as more and more local bookstores, music stores, small newspapers, radio stations can't compete.

And how much our common identity as a nation has changed because for some of the population there are limitless choices, not the old 4 network tv chanels and PBS, and for others in the country their cultural choices are narrowing. Sounds simplistic when I write it here but it was a really interesting conversation.

Happy Birthday Ann!

terrible terrible traffic

very nice exhibit and wonderful evening.

this is what I'll be doing tonight...

PROGRAM Celebrating The Positive Effects Of Art
In The Lives Of Older Adults
Adele G. Nickbarg – Emerging Artist
AAHSA – Sharon Sullivan
SAH – Lillian Fitzgerald
DCAHC – Lionell Thomas
NIA - Jeanine Mjoseth
Art For Your Walls – Patricia Dubroof
WHEN: Tuesday, June 27, 2006Reception 5:00-6:00 p.m.Education Program 6:00-7:30 p.m.WHERE: AAHSA Headquarters,2519 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20008 Funded in part by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

rain rain rain

Isabel's bugs

After seeing her show at Mudhouse last month we commissioned Isabel to create this sweet embroidery for Martha Jefferson Hospital for the acute care treatment room where they treat children.

I don't know what is is with me and old movies lately but I watched Now Voyager last night and loved it ! Also the first Bridget Jones movie was on TV for the first time that I know of. Great good fun.

This sweet ceramic by Novie Trump was sold at NIH. it has lovely rough edges but I took the photo on bubblewrap which didn't do it justice. We just took down her show and I'm making arrangements to meet with the Children's Inn to show them her work before I return it. I think her work would be perfect for their collection!
Gabe and I are totally thrilled it's pouring rain. He because he doesn't have to lifeguard and me because (as you might have guessed from all of my posts this am) I can go through all of my emails and make my to-do lists for next week. I can not remember the last day I didn't have something pressing to do. bliss this... It's also very fun to have my brother Alan hooked on the blog and sending me stuff.

this from e&e

Legally blind, artist finds comfort in painting
--------------------
By Erik Lacitis
Knight Ridder/Tribune news
May 2, 2006
SEATTLE -- His whole life had been about being an artist, and about teaching art to others. Then it all became a blur. Details of a scene disappeared, and outlines turned into grays.
In December 2004, Ray Gerring, 79, became legally blind.
Gerring had been a relatively healthy man in his retirement years, mentally and physically active.
With the loss of most of his sight, Gerring began a journey into depression.
There were the times when June, his wife of 58 years, would see him sitting with his head in his hands. There were the times he would cry.
There were the times he'd get angry over something minor.
"It'd be something like knocking a glass of water over, and I couldn't even see to clean it up," Gerring said. "She had to clean it up.
"It'd just destroy me. I'd get so angry. I was like a crazy person."
In his retirement, he had been doing what he loved so much, which was to paint.
Over the years, along with his work as a commercial artist and advertising-agency art director and 24 years as an art instructor at Seattle Central Community College before retiring in 1988, he had always painted.
Then the ailments of age caught up with him.
It was on a spring day in 1994 that he woke up on a Saturday, opened his eyes and went into emotional shock.
"What my left eye saw was like some crazy stained-window mosaic, like shattered glass," he remembered.
Gerring got the diagnosis, and had to make adjustments for loss of depth perception, but he still could paint. Then, in December 2004, the same happened to his right eye.
Gerring said he estimates his left-eye vision at 10 percent of what it used to be. His right eye is better, testing at 20/400, but it still means he's legally blind.
He was prescribed anti-depressants. "I didn't have the patience to take those drugs," he said. For a while, much of his day was spent sleeping.
But he always had emotional support from his wife, three grown children and friends.
Gerring suffers from central retinal vein occlusion -- a blockage of circulation that drains blood from the retina -- which occurs with much higher frequency in people over 65.
"It sends folks on an emotional roller-coaster ride," said Marcia Appleton, supervisor of social services for the Community Services for the Blind and Partially Sighted in Seattle.
But what happens, said Appleton, is that the creative pull "is so compelling that eventually it becomes stronger than the fears of uncertainty and lack of confidence."
In March 2005, Gerring happened to be in his studio when he picked up a jar of acrylic paint. He did some dabbing.
"Hey, I think that works as abstract painting," he thought to himself.
The abstracts wouldn't require the fine detail of his earlier works.
Now he sometimes paints an inch away from the canvas, using everything from his fingertips to brushes to rags.
Last November, Gerring had a show at the Arthead Gallery in Wallingford, Wash. Three of his paintings were sold.
One of the gallery's owners, Bill Wikstrom, said of Gerring's work, "It's bold and bright and comes from somebody who understands color very well."
Gerring's paintings have been accepted by a committee that selected art for a two-month show to be scheduled for 2007.
Sometimes, Gerring still has to face the demons of depression. He then often goes to his art studio.
"You can feel something happening, and my mood changes," he said.
"I hope this doesn't sound corny, but it's like the paintings have this spirit."

Copyright (c) 2006, Knight-Ridder/Tribune (KRT)

Thanks Alan!

TOPSHAM, Vt. — They served as backdrops for countless high school performances of "A Christmas Carol" at the town hall here, and elsewhere in Vermont they set the stage for Gilbert and Sullivan operas, traveling minstrel shows and vaudeville acts.

Over the past few years, hundreds of hand-painted theater curtains that once hung on small stages in Vermont's opera houses and in its town and Grange halls have been found and are being revived thanks to a statewide preservation effort, the Vermont Painted Theater Curtain Project.
The project began in 1998, when the Vermont Museum and Gallery Alliance tried to inventory the state's theater curtains, asking all 251 of the state's town and city clerks for help.
In 2001, Chris Hadsel, who started the project while at the alliance, began to solicit state and federal money to repair the drapes. The grants, now totaling about $500,000, paid for most of the project, along with money from each city or town involved.
Most of the curtains were made and used from 1880 to 1940, when traveling acts and local productions performed in opera houses or town halls, most of which also housed a community center with a stage. The towns bought the drapes from local artists or from mass producers. But acts stopped coming, opera houses closed, local performances shifted to high schools and towns began ignoring their stages.
The painted-curtain tradition is largely a New England phenomenon, though some places in the Midwest and the mid-Atlantic have also used the drapes. Vermont is the first state to do this kind of inventory, and there are efforts to duplicate the project in New Hampshire. Read the rest of the article here

Touchstone Gallery

The deadline for entries of July 7th is quickly approaching for Touchstone Gallery's exhibition:
Mud, Sand & Straw - A regional show of ceramics, glass, fiber and wood,
juried by Binnie B. Fry.

Touchstone Gallery
406 7th Street NW
Washington, DC 20004
202-347-2787
fax: 202-347-3339
http://www.touchstonegallery.com/
hours: wed-fri, 11-5; sat & sun, 12-5

US News and World Report

Wonderful article about healing and the arts from US News and World Report read it here. It does not specifically mention SAH but our dear Gay Hanna was responsible for making it happen.

I went to AU yesterday after buying some lighting fixtures for a project at NIH. Raph was interviewed by a post reporter and leaves this morning for the beach. (So at least that will be the last post about him for a week!) Today we change the shows at NIH and Gabe works at his lifeguarding job.

Alexandria's Gazette Packet

T.C. Lacrosse's True Titan: Ray Fitzgerald
Coach Juris says the senior "Changed the culture of our team."

By Rich Sanders June 23, 2006

Ray Fitzgerald grew up playing such sports as baseball, soccer, and basketball at the youth level. But it was lacrosse he fell in love with once he got into high school."I like the whole contact thing and thought [lacrosse] was something I could excel in," said Fitzgerald.Fitzgerald, a team leader and part of a Titans lacrosse squad which captured the Patriot District title this spring, credits T.C. coach Charlie Juris and his coaching staff with teaching him the basics of the game."[Learning the game] was a challenge my first year," said Fitzgerald. "It's a whole different game. Charlie Juris and the assistants made it easier, made my transition easier."Fitzgerald played on the Titan varsity both his junior and senior years when the program was evolving into one of the top teams in the district. This past season's magical moment came when the Titans defeated Hayfield, 8-7, for the program's first-ever district crown."It was awesome," said Fitzgerald, a midfielder. "There were definitely people who didn't believe in us. There were times we didn't believe in ourselves. We lost some major players from last year [to graduation]. Last year we had a lot more stars on the team. [This year] we were better team players."Fitzgerald, who often played in pain this season with a high ankle sprain, said he did not have as good a season on the field (10 goals) as he would have liked. Still, he earned All-District Honorable mention accolades and, according to coach Juris, the youngster's leadership and emotional contributions came through loud and clear."We would not have won the Patriot District without Ray Fitzgerald [encouraging] everybody and energizing everybody the way he did," said Juris. "He really tried to adapt his game to help the team. He played hurt and he hobbled most of the season."Prior to the start of the playoffs, Juris said Fitzgerald helped get the Titans into the proper mindset."Ray is the one who went to the team and said, `We've got to pick it up,'" recalled Juris. "He did that just before the playoffs."During one particularly bad day of practice in which Juris was not pleased with his club's play earlier this season, Fitzgerald approached Juris afterwards."Ray came to me and asked `What do we have to do to make things right?'" recalled Juris. ..."The difference between this year's team and [last year's] was Ray Fitzgerald."FITZGERALD ALSO EXCELLED in football at T.C. where he played outside linebacker on the Titans' varsity the past two seasons. Fitzgerald, who credits coach Greg Sullivan with T.C.'s overall improvement on the gridiron in recent years, said he loved getting in on the defensive action."I like defending the run and getting in there and messing [plays] up," said Fitzgerald, who made Honorable Mention All-District his senior season.One of Fitzgerald's favorite hobbies is oil painting. He has created oil paintings of such figures as actor Robert Dinero and music icon Bob Marley. Ray said his parents — Ray Fitzgerald III and Lillian have always encouraged him and attended his athletic events. He said his dad has been an outstanding role model to him."He's a hard worker but doesn't ever complain," said the youngster. "That's who I model myself after."Fitzgerald said a profile on him would not be complete without mentioning the friends he has made over his four years in high school."I've made some great friends in all my sports," he said. Fitzgerald, who took numerous honors classes and finished with a 3.6 GPA his senior year, will be playing lacrosse collegiately next school year at Christopher Newport (Norfolk) where he plans to study engineering.Juris will never forget what Fitzgerald brought to his program."He's the closest thing T.C. Williams lacrosse has had that's a team captain," said Juris. "He changed the culture of our team and did it for the benefit of the team. This kid is a true Titan and he cares about the school."

As much as I really wanted to go to Tim Tate's party last night it was Mom's birthday and we had tickets to see Christine Baranski at the Kennedy Center in Mame. It was a total delight, wonderful singing, great costumes. Beautiful night on the river.

Grace Taylor

After putting in a full day at NIH including trying to rein in a very rambunctious group in the art committee meeting, I stopped by to see Grace Taylor's lovely exhibit of rock portraits at Glen Echo. I love them! so subtle, a beautiful presentation. My photos don't do them justice so go see the show for yourself. Grace's web site here

Arts as instruments of healing

By Patrice M. Jones Tribune staff reporter
Published May 2, 2006

Even at a conference where artistic expression was around every corner, it was difficult not to stop and stare at Nancy O'Brien as she played her harp. O'Brien is not a nurse or a doctor but the face of an evolving health-care industry in which the serene sounds of her melodious instrument, poetry written by patients, even soft lighting and comfy surroundings are believed to be important parts of healing. O'Brien, a 51-year-old music therapist from Joliet, could go on for hours about her success stories -- the angry man at a rehab facility who was so agitated when she first met him she thought he might punch her.Or the children who received cardiac catheterization as she played to calm them during their procedures, or the patients in one psychiatric facility who were allowed to experiment with music -- all were soothed, comforted and even healed by the power of music and art.Those involved with health care -- whether health-care providers, artists or architects -- have been saying for decades that artistic expression and welcoming environments can make a pivotal difference for ailing patients, but now that message is going mainstream.The statistics touted at the 15th annual Society for the Arts in Healthcare conference last week in Chicago were impressive: In a survey of 2,500 hospitals, 96 percent reported that they invested in the arts to serve patients; 78 percent use the arts to create a healing environment and a majority employ arts coordinators."We are now moving towards a dramatic shift from arts in health care being something hospitals should do to something they have got to do," said Blair L. Sadler, president and CEO of Children's Hospital and Health Center in San Diego.Sadler, a featured speaker at the conference, pointed to a variety of empirical research.One such study included recent findings in a joint project between Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and Florida State University, Sadler said, which showed that 88 percent of children receiving CT scans and 98 percent of children receiving an echocardiogram needed no sedation when a guitarist played songs during their procedure.What's more, the music's calming effects on the children cut down on the time it took to conduct the procedures, and over a year's time saved the hospital $250,000 because of reduced costs for nursing and other staff."So a big part of this change in attitude is that now those in health care see having art makes business sense as well as helps patients," he said. Gay Hanna, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Society for the Arts in Healthcare, said the field has come a long way since the 1970s when as a college student she walked the sterile, depressing hallways of a Norfolk, Va., hospital. Now a massive building boom to upgrade or construct new hospital facilities across the nation is giving the arts in health care even more of a push.The conference highlighted a variety of innovative programs -- from a "healing garden" at one Oregon health facility to a program that let Cleveland youth use cameras to chronicle the effects of HIV on their families. The featured programs also included Chicago-based Snow City Arts Foundation, which works inside three area hospitals to provide arts education programs for children. O'Brien said she was impressed by the way her field is changing."There is, of course, a need for more research, but I always knew what I was doing was working," she said, "because I have seen it help people for years."

Bridget Walsh

We have some really interesting artists exhibiting with us at NIH this summer - I'm delighted with the variety of imagery and media. Summer is a good time to come by NIH, so if you have some free time, send me an email and I'll give you the grand tour. Still on display are two beautiful Bill Mould sculptures, Michael Janis, Margaret Boozer, Philip Kohn's interactive mirror and our lovely Tim Tate. An earlier post about Bridget's work here.

Brooke Rogers

Artist Statement
The common yellow pencil serves in these works as a metaphor for creation. The poet writes with it, the artist sketches with it. Twisted and curling, looping and leaping, the work of creation is a muscular and robust activity. By extension, the pencil suggests the written word, specifically the central role played by ‘The Word’ in the Biblical creation narrative. The works shown at NIH are from a series of gouache paintings, (gouache is like watercolor, but more opaque), entitled Psalter – an old word for the Bible book of Psalms. As often as not, it is God’s role as creator that the psalmist magnifies through his hymns of praise. It is as hymns of a sort that these pencil paintings not only describe an energetic and encompassing space, but fill that space with the music of creative utterance.

Art Historian Ursula Ehrhardt, in an essay written to accompany the artist’s debut New York solo exhibition in 2005, wrote:
"A familiar, common object, the pencil is associated with both writing and drawing, as well as art-making in general. It is used to form both words and images which, in turn, can be related to language and art, understood as different signifying systems that structure how we view and represent reality.
Rogers’ Pencil paintings seamlessly blend abstraction and figurative imagery, word and image, painting and drawing, art and popular culture, and familiar objects with fantastic visual effects. They are at once amusing, absurd, and intensely serious, exploring the intelligibility of images and words as signifying systems."

Crystal and I saw Brooke's work at the Arlington Art Center when we were there purchasing a Tim Tate piece for NIH. So we were delighted when he sent us slides, requesting a show.

Judith Coady

I met Judith when I did a portfolio review for The Capitol Hill Art League. She's one of the only artists I know doing figurative etchings. They are beautifully drawn, lovely compositions and rich textures. Her artist statement below.

Judith Coady creates monotypes and etchings. Her colorful monotypes are successive layers of transparent oil inks resulting in abstract landscape images. The etchings may portray the human form in a contemplative solitary setting or in a group relationship. Strong patterns and contrasts are fundamental to Coady’s work and contribute to the impact and dynamic of each hand pulled print.

"Creativity isn't the monopoly of artists. This is the crucial fact I've come to realize, and this broader concept of creativity is my concept of art. When I say everybody is an artist, I mean everybody can determine the content of life in his particular sphere, whether in painting, music, engineering, caring for the sick, the economy or whatever. All around us the fundamentals of life are crying out to be shaped or created. But our idea of culture is severely restricted because we've always applied it to art. The dilemma of museums and other cultural institutions stems from the fact that culture is such an isolated field, and that art is even more isolated: an ivory tower in the field of culture surrounded first by the whole complex of culture and education, and then by the media which are also part of culture. We have a restricted idea of culture which debases everything; and it is the debased concept of art that has forced museums into their present weak and isolated position. Our concept of art must be universal and have the interdisciplinary nature of a university, and there must be a university department with a new concept of art and science".- Joseph Beuys, 1979

Michael Janis

Michael just wrote to say he finished a large commission for Kimpton chain Palomar hotel http://www.hotelpalomar-dc.com/ The large (almost 7'-0" tall) piece - titled 'The Gravity Between Us' is made of steel and plate glass is based on a piece he made last year, titled Liar Paradox (first image). Congratulations!!

Happy Father's Day

Last prom picture of Raph & Keriann, I promise

beautiful party at Gay's house, I believe these are some of her sculptures. So much fun to visit with Sarah and Paula

what a toss up! the first thin man movie and a program on Jefferson's architecture

what a beautiful morning! we have just had the most amazing weather this spring. Today is Keriann's birthday. Raph and I went shopping for her yesterday and today we are planning to take her out to brunch. Then I'm off to Gay and Phil's house blessing and tomorrow we celebrate father's day, belated mother's day and grandma's birthday at Gretchen's house. Sure beats getting up at 5am and driving to NJ to row in a sprint race.

this from e&e

Therapies: Music May Offer Pain Relief Beyond Medication
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
In a small study of patients with back, neck or joint pain, researchers found that regularly listening to music provided pain relief beyond that brought on by standard pain management techniques.
The scientists randomly divided 60 patients ages 26 to 64, all of them receiving traditional pain treatment, into three groups. Over seven days, the first listened for one hour a day to one of five tapes chosen by the researchers, the second to music of their own choosing, and the third received only standard care. All patients kept diaries recording their level of pain, depression and disability.
The music groups experienced a 20 percent decrease in pain compared with a 2 percent increase in pain in the control group over the week of the study. Pain was measured using two standardized pain questionnaires.
The authors did not suggest any specific mechanism that would explain the finding.
"It is always possible that something other than the experimental treatment brought about the results we saw," said Sandra L. Siedlecki, a co-author of the study, financed by the National Institutes of Health. "However, we did use several techniques to minimize this possibility." Dr. Siedlecki is a senior nurse researcher at the Cleveland Clinic.
The study, which appears in the May issue of The Journal of Advanced Nursing, has some limitations. The sample size was small, the authors write, and it is impossible to generalize the findings to a larger population.
Marion Good, a co-author of the study and a professor of nursing at Case Western Reserve University, said the musical intervention was not a substitute for traditional pain management. "It is important," she said, "to maximize relief by adding nonpharmacological methods that relax and distract patients from their pain in addition to their analgesic medication."

www.phillipscollection.org

thanks Alan!

Empty plinth sidelines sculpture

The original sculpture and below the plinth now on display
An artist's sculpture has been rejected by the Royal Academy of Arts which has instead opted to display the wooden support it was put on.
David Hensel, 64, from East Grinstead, West Sussex, was told the laughing head would be part of the summer exhibition.
But at a preview he found that just a piece of wood intended to support the head was on display on the plinth.
The Academy said the judging panel assumed the two pieces were separate and decided the support was better.
Final decision
Mr Hensel assumed staff had accidentally left the sculpture in the basement where it was being stored.
In a statement, the Academy said Mr Hensel's work, One Day Closer To Paradise, was submitted as two separate pieces.
"Given their separate submission, the two parts were judged independently.
"It is accepted that works may not be displayed in the way that the artist might have intended."
It said the head had been safely stored ready to be collected by the artist.
The co-ordinators of the exhibition in Piccadilly, central London, have been called in to make a final decision over whether the head should be returned to its rightful place.

I have to tell you, I received the most enchanting email from one of my artists today. She said she comes to the blog and feels like she knows me, even tho we have just met a few times. It gave me a renewed sense of mission. So between mi familia (who have been complaining about my lack of posts) and this lovely email - I will work harder to step up to the plate. ly

I was asked to join the art committee at the Children's Inn. We had our first meeting yesterday. It was such a pleasure to tour the Inn and revisit artwork I haven't seen in many, many years. In 1990 I assisted Helen Orem in building their permanent collection - my favorite of which was a discovery alphabet, all original works of art donated by such wonderful artists as Margaret Kranking, Ray Ewing, Kevin MacDonald. The image above is a beautiful sculpture by Martha Tabor recently donated to the Inn. Below the Inn's mission statement...

The Children's Inn at NIH is a family-centered residence for pediatric outpatients at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and for their families. Its purposes are to keep children together with their families during serious illness, reduce their stress and facilitate their healing through mutual support. Since 1990 The Inn has been in continuous operation: 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Nearly 6,000 seriously ill children and their families have made almost 40,000 visits to The Inn. Children and families travel from around the world to NIH, because conventional treatments have failed to have sufficient impact on their illnesses. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, NIH is the premier biomedical research facility in the world. there web site here

crazy times at home; prom, finals, return from college, going to college, graduation

a better prom picture is coming...

Raph & Grandma

TC Williams sports awards

This is Raph accepting the MVP award for Varsity lacrosse, he also is the Gazette male high school player of the year for TC. how sweet! Conner was MVP for soccer, Keriann had highest gpa for a manager, Emily Mannel got coaches award for the light weight crew, Peter LaMois got coaches award for lacrosse. I thought the crew award ceremony was long but we got home an hour ago and the lacrosse is still going on at 11pm!

Susan had to work late so I had an amazing meal at L'etoile surprisingly I had the garden to myself for most of the meal, beautiful clouds, trains rolling by... For dinner I had an astonishing pear and champagne soup, warm, made with a vegetable stock. hard to describe but it reminded me of a potato leek soup with sherry. It was early and so balmy out I walked over to the campus to take some pictures of the lawn. Magnolias were out, the campus was empty. very lovely evening