Greetings friends!
We're here in the snow in the mountains of New Mexico and it's cold!! I sure hope you are staying warm where ever you may be planted.
I know we've heard it time and time again... almost to the point of being sick of it....but...
It's been almost a whole year since we've been on a stage. Our last on stage show was March 14th 2020. Wow... what a change!
As someone who has lived out a suitcase and motel room or tour bus for their whole adult life it has been something to get used to.
One of the most interesting things I have noticed is that with a consistent schedule and flow to your day, week, month - patterns and thoughts become more obvious. It has really been eyeopening! I knew that I had certain cycles and thought patterns but could never efficiently track them because my days were so all over the place - staying up late one day, driving one day, doing back to back shows - on the road I lost a sense of time and structure. (Not that the days in a global pandemic are any less wobbly in their sense of time!) Being in one place has allowed me the solidity to look at patterns and habits in a more consistent frame. I am, in a way, grateful for this bubble to be able to go in deeper to observe myself and things I want to change or look at without the constant pressure and stress (although all of it useful) of change and travel.
I think when I do hit the road again it will be with fresh energy and a different mindset of how to make that lifestyle fit me better.
I'd love to hear any positive things that you have gained out of this year/cycle/quarantine time!
Onward in friendship,
Lauri
Our recent snowfall in the New Mexico mountains. We got about 9 inches!
FROM THE CAMPUS
Our winter months have been filled with producing new educational entertainment videos for students and educators. We are very excited about our new episodes! We have filmed an MLK episode and a Ruby Bridges episode and are working on our Frederick Douglass episode. Each Series will be hosted on our Artrageous Artreach website (it's not quite done yet so stay tuned for that exciting update) including a Study guide and activities to go along with it. Of course, each episode is done the Artrageous way, with music, song, dance, paint and audience involvement!
It has been a ton of fun learning about these incredible people and the voices that changed history.
Part of the learning process has been to discover how to produce a video, how to story board, how to write a shot list, how to create a shot... directing a film is so different to directing a live performance!
We'll be interested to see what you think of our Master's Series and our Black History Month Series!
Building the set for the MLK episode.
ARTIST OF THE MONTH
Claude Monet
By Nadar - Claude Monet 1899 Nadar.jpg Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8046903
Claude Monet was a French artist born in Paris in the 1840's. He is famous for his paintings of waterlily's and Japanese bridges. Monet went to the Academie, a french school for the arts.
There he studied architectural drawing and disliked it so much that he became so frustrated with the work and having to copy other people's paintings that he jumped off a bridge into the Seine. Pretty dramatic, eh?
Well, he survived that careless act and went on to hang out with other artists like himself who were also frustrated with the style and learning at the Academie. Some of those artists were - Edgar Degas, Renoir and Cezanne!
Monet actually help coin the term Impressionism for the style of art that he created. A group of artists (the above among them!) got together to show their artwork and one of Monet's paintings caught the eye of a critic. He was attracted to the bright colours and the spontaneous looking brushstrokes which hadn't really been seen before. This painting was called Impression, Sunrise. And Impressionism was coined!
Monet ended up going blind in his later life but still continued to painting by feel and memorizing where the colours were on his palette. That's pretty courageous if you ask me!
He loved painting flowers and lilies so much that he created a huge garden in his yard where he flew in flowers from all over the world to create the utter magnificence that was this garden. The garden and the flowers were the subject of many of his paintings. Oh and get this... his garden was so big and lush that he even hired someone to dust his lilies every morning before he would paint them!
Claude Monet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Things To Do At Home
Mandala making! Learn math and art in one class!
Watch the video below to get a quick and fun tutorial on how to make a mandala.
TOUR DATES
Jones'ing for an Artrageous show?
Check out our upcoming Tour Dates here:
Until next time.
Artfully yours,
Lauri xoxo