Finale:
November 19, 2004
Welcome:Bienvenidos
This
exhibit is an "art spark" generated by a community of artists
living around the world. Every week,
we meet at this virtual studio/gallery
to share work and
the most important thing on our minds.
Check back for future projects...
Some material may not be suitable for children
©2004 by artists named
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Rosa Naparstek
Washington Heights, New York City
Red White Palindrome
Truth is a function of our ability to be present, and being present is a function of our ability to tell the truth. Living in a time of monumental lies, art makes us real.
Wendy Newton
Washington Heights, New York City
untitled
I spent some time recently with an old friend who I don't often see. We were talking about the term Themenos... an enclosure that creates a sacred space. I have been thinking about that. I like knowing the edges, the borders. I'm not sure exactly what makes the space inside sacred, but I would like to say that it has everything do with the fact that we relate to it as our own, as safe, as a center. An unbounded place can be so expansive as to be incomprehensible. A rigid structure can be claustrophobic, even lifeless. In between is a living, breathing place... the metaphor that gives meaning.
Anthony Gonzalez
Washington Heights, New York City
untitled
What am I to use as an excuse to avoid my other work now that this project has come to an end?
Jayme McLellan
Washington, D.C.
untitled (three shots of fall)
i'm thinking about long term planning and compromising it with my need to produce now. it's always a push and pull. i'll let you know if i figure it out.
PP
New York City
Thirteen Seconds or So
Thanks Peter for weaving this web community. Mondays really have been fun seeing what people submit. What will I now do on Fridays from 10 p.m. - midnight without working on this? I hope everyone enjoys the apple pies in their near future. Happy holidays.
[note: press small arrow on bottom left of image to replay movie]
Tatiana Ivanovna
New York City
me and p joined buddy d handing the beautiful people nicely designed flyers. most of them smiled so nicely. one especially, a brad pitt lookalike, i was swooning. i am sooo shallow am i not? and well, when che guevera stood next to me i could barely contain myself. i am not supposed to mention the fascist nazi that made my heart skip a beat because i will get in big trouble! oh and the fashions! it was like oscar night! what fun i had..and all for a good cause, 'cause that's the kinda gal i am.
happy thanksgiving, happy holidays, happy new year...
farewell, so long, till we meet again....
Mike Guerin
Verona, New Jersey
American Hex
I have been thinking about all of the symbols that surround us, in particular flags and barber poles.
Aside from the usual explanations of the red and white stripes representing the first thirteen colonies and the 50 stars representing the present 50 states, I wonder if there was another reason for the configuration of our flag.
Could it be that they are placed around us so that we might stare at them and if someone who was evolving beyond the norm looked at one then someone else, at a different location, sensitive to this could see what the evolving person saw and then the evolving person's location would be noted. Then the evolving person could be approached by certain representatives of the collective consciousness to see what direction they would like to help the group go in.
Some evolving people may choose to help no one and instead hinder others from evolving. Not being evil, they are merely testers. Others decide to help the group and further man's understanding of consciousness and how we actually create our reality in a very literal way.
There is no real evil. Someone who knows that the body is a vessel can be a mass murderer and think no more of killing than blowing his nose into a tissue.
It all depends on how you want to teach people. By creating or destroying.
I choose to create.
All that from looking at flags and barber poles.
Peggy Braun
Lennox, Massachussetts
Hello to Mrs. Puddy Cat and Goodbye to Peter
This is hello to Mrs. Puddy Cat who left us for five days. We thought
she had been eaten by local coyotes or run over and I was missing her
terribly. She had never been gone this long; in fact, has never been gone
longer than one night. So, five days later there was a meow at the back
door and there she was, as if nothing had happened. No explanations; no
apologies. We grounded her but now she's out again;
fortunately, only overnight. And goodbye to Peter for now and all the
pleasure of these weekly excursions. I hope to have the pleasure of looking
and creating again in the future.
Renee Watabe
Verona, New Jersey
Happy State of Mind
Eight years ago, twenty days after my baby’s brain surgery to remove a tumor, I wrote this in my diary beside his hospital bed. It comes to mind since I have begun working in the Emergency Room, and have come face to face again with people’s immediate suffering and feelings of intense loss.
"Joshua sleeps. I was starting to cry , thinking of what he may have to go through and where all of this will take us. I held his tiny foot in my hand and felt him dig his toes into my palm, circling his ankle, soothing himself. A familiar, comforting gesture for both of us. How long will his foot be there for me to hold?
Then I heard a baby crying in the next room. A poor sick baby with no Mother nearby, with no nurse attending to him. Crying and crying with no one to respond. I thought, God cries, and so do we. I thought, here I am crying for my baby, and there’s a baby next door, crying; so I cried for that baby too. Because we are all human beings, we all have a piece of divinity within, like that poor lonely baby."
I remember being in that moment and feeling completely overcome with
sorrow. Yet days later I was able to write “My latest revelation
about life is that human beings were designed for happiness.”
We may sink down in despair, but then, in the flow of time, we rise to
the surface again to find a happy state of mind.
Peter Ferko
Washington Heights, New York City
At First Glance: Skyscraper
The most important thing on my mind right now is bringing Virtual:Comunidad to a close. While I thought the project would create a community, instead it created a virtual family, smaller than a community, but with some of the anonymity of a larger group.
I always looked forward to contributors' creativity, insights, and enthusiasm for the project; and was continually amazed at how themes emerge of themselves. Finally, I enjoyed the interactions with those artists who kept wanting to contribute but never got around to it. (Perhaps they were the most "virtual" of all.)
I look forward to our next "family" reunion.
end of exhibit