Mey Hasbrook - Artist

My last day for Facebook is Dec 21st! Find me on bluesky: junbalm . My web site too is being built at junbalm.com💓

I've begun posting art updates on Bluesky! See a recent link in the comments. (~Leaving FB before year's end.~)

News: I'm relocating to Blue Sky! Please join me to continue the creative journey. Find me at junbalm

Good morning! More than 2 weeks back Stateside from Italy. Feeling nurtured by the environs of Wabanaki lands in Maine where I live. This weekend I'm visiting further inland for an arts-museum journey.

Yesterday I drove through a promising sunset into dusk, then prepped my work station upon arrival. Here's a peek at the ongoing work: mixed-media triptych "Breakthrough".

https://www.mainewriters.org/write-me

"Simply put, this project will pair together people in different parts of Maine to exchange letter poems. This project is open to anyone who lives in Maine (or is connected to the state) and is ages 18 and up, with additional youth workshops happening through The Telling Room, the Monson Arts High School Program, and assorted Maine high school teachers ."

Write ME: An Epistolary Poetry Project — Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance With support from the MWPA, the Maine Arts Commission, The Telling Room, and many public libraries and organizations around Maine, and funding from the Academy of American Poets and the Mellon Foundation, Julia Bouwsma has created a Maine-wide epistolary poetry project that 1) introduces the form th

The Turtle
by Mary Oliver

breaks from the blue-black

skin of the water...

to dig with her ungainly feet

a nest...

and you think

of her patience, her fortitude,

her determination to complete

what she was born to do-

and then you realize a greater thing-

she doesn't consider

what she was born to do.

She's only filled

with an old blind wish.

It isn't even hers but came to her

in the rain or the soft wind,

which is a gate through which her life keeps walking.

she can't see

herself apart from the rest of the world

or the world from what she must do

every spring.

Crawling up the high hill,

luminous under the sand that has packed against her skin.

she doesn't dream

she knows

she is a part of the pond she lives in,

the tall trees are her children,

the birds that swim above her

are tied to her by an unbreakable string.

Again on the art table! The mixed-media triptych "Breakthrough". I began to resume it during a recent trip in Italy.

This panel is the central one. Its focal point is a person's outstretched arm with the hand laid over a larger hand of statuary. The human limb is dark skinned, and the statue hand is very light in contrast with a tint of pale green.

Newly added here are found letters from print material combined with other paper. Their placement is along the up-stretched human arm and also the upper right corner.

In between this lettered "path" is a "swirling" burst of fiber materials with yellow, orange, & copper. The placement of strands as rotating (in motion) is underway...

Available today for the Lewiston-Auburn area +

I have rewritten my Wednesday post a few times today. People have been asking when I will be hosting another safe space open studio. I think we could all use one today.

Grab a latte at or then pop in 10-3

Bring your notepad or use some of our supplies. Knit on our couch. Eat cookies or just get a free mom hug.

Open today 10-3, then screen printing workshop 5:30-7:30. We still have spaces available. $25, message for info.

Lewiston peeps, coming soon

Send a message to learn more

Creative art materials are being offered on the year anniversary of October 25th, in Lewiston at Trinity Church, Lewiston, as well as other support options..

Today, due to an unavoidable situation, the open labyrinth hours will not take place. Our deep apologies!! We will be back on schedule next week. On 10/25 at 11:00, the anniversary of the shootings last year, at the opening of the labyrinth, we will offer a special time of remembrance, lament, hope and re-dedication. All are welcome to come to share in those reflective moments and stay to walk in the labyrinth. Meditative art materials will be available as well as opportunity for one-on-one spiritual conversations.

Slow steps with the gouache on banana-tree paper. The rivery path is filling. Golden lines for inner edges of the Fire/ Light/ yellow section; see the detail photo (triangular forms). Plus ongoing color layering of Water/ blue section.

Maine peeps, the artist La Muchacha (Colombia) sounds phenomenal! Performing this Sunday, Oct. 6th, in Bath.

La Muchacha Since the beginning, Isabel Ramírez has allowed rage to guide her songwriting. Five years ago, when her solo project La Muchacha began to take form, Ramírez looked inward for clues to the sound she sought to create. She realized she was angry. “I would ask myself, ‘Why do so many things bother...

An experiment/ experience of Beauty.
May we pause today when Beauty finds us.

https://www.facebook.com/100064520090001/posts/927353582758636/

“ In Washington DC, at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, a man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
After about four minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.
About four minutes later, the violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.
At six minutes, a young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
At ten minutes, a three-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.
At forty-five minutes: The musician played continuously. Only six people stopped and listened for a short while. About twenty gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.
After one hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.
This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.
This experiment raised several questions:
In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
If so, do we stop to appreciate it?
Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made…
How many other things are we missing as we rush through life?”
The Love Rabbi-Yisroel Bernat

Michigan peeps, passing on this week's special occasions!
Lynn(e) Schmidt is from my Maine community in Lewiston.
Highly recommend Lynne's in-person & published poetry.

Michigan peeps:

GGN’s founder, LaUra Schmidt, is teaming up with her sister, poet Lynne Schmidt (Lynn(e) Schmidt) for a mini book tour discussing their relatively recent book publications. One - non-fiction and the other a book of poetry. Join them for an exploration on the writing process, trauma healing, and the grit of being alive in the polycrisis.

Oct 1 | https://www.facebook.com/events/1188438609073411/?rdid=ftJZoLQXsl3XVVmz&share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2FrTDeYbJKMKxhwuf2%2F

Oct 4 | https://checkout.square.site/merchant/MEGKW0MBYTJNQ/checkout/JYCLFYKYTTAKHCCEMKXQVR77?fbclid=IwY2xjawFhEM5leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHUe2YZEDtfRJF__jlG1NxVURdl-BV906OYQC2pEXbAg3J5K4D8R2whlZNg_aem_CoI9Qi9W8gjlhDv7TwzTUw

Oct 5 | https://www.baycountylibrary.org/event/schmidt-sisters-reading-and-conversation-resiliency-and-writing-65151

Layering atop & across the Earth section -- brown & rust, peach & purple. Plus adding copper "inner" edges. All gouache.