Thursday, March 8, 2012

SUTRA global by design


I have a dear friend, Kimi Hammer, who is an artist and lover of travel.  She enjoys people from around the world.  She has taken her love of beauty, travel, and people to create her business called Sutra, global by design.   She travels for several weeks to several months each winter and talks with the native people of India and Indonesia seeing how they create beauty.  She is particularly interested in textiles—though sculpture is fascinating to her.   Useable items of beauty of the every day such as salad tongs, baskets, journals for writing, small bags, musical instruments, and household items catch her eye as well.  One of her acts of generosity in her business is that she makes a donation to organizations that are close to people’s hearts.  Her first sale in Winona of 2012, scheduled this Sunday, March 11th from noon to 4:00pm at 909 E. Mark Street benefits Winona's Habitat for Humanity.

To facilitate this sale that is scheduled so close to her return from India, she had some packages delivered to my home at 909 E. Mark St, Winona.  I was fascinated to see packages that are wrapped in cotton muslin and stitched.  Even the packaging is fascinating.

 
One of the places that she described to me was a business called People Tree.  The feel of this business was warm and welcoming.  It was overflowing with color. People Tree has the true ethic of made by hand—they create beauty out of beauty.  Even a mistake is cause to rework a piece to make it more beautiful creating a layering of color for depth and delight for the eye and the wearer.

 
"SUTRA means “thread” in Sanskrit, as in the thread of connection, and exists to link the Global North with those in the Global South, as well as to link the West with the East. SUTRA also helps bring traditional Asian art forms to our contemporary world, and provides travel opportunities to Americans wanting to connect with South Asian people and culture. SUTRA is the thread of life!" Quote from Kim's blog.


 


She has just returned, after 37 days of travel so filled with life and joy from her connections with the people of India.  She has much to share. Please come to hear stories, see a visual delight of color, find gifts for yourself and your friends, and support the work of Habitat for Humanity.

 
 
"SUTRA global by design acts as a force of healing in the world via spreading beauty and abundance across cultures. SUTRA purchases directly & pays a fair price to Asian artisans and sells to the American buyer in a  “home sale” format (rather than a retail store). This conscious choice to keep our overhead low allows SUTRA to pay artisans fairly for high-quality products, lead travel tours to hand-select goods directly from each artisan or fair trade organization/coop, sell these goods at a reasonable price, and donate a portion of all profits to a worthwhile cause.
SUTRA global by design links South Asian artisans directly with conscious Americans who want the choice to purchase fairly-traded, fine quality handicrafts. People want to buy proudly, so you doing a community service to host this event!" Quote from Kim's blog.


Join us in the Habitat home of Mary Lee Eischen and Bob Stuber for a Sutra show to spread beauty in Winona and benefit Habitat for Humanity Winona
Sunday, March 11, 2012, 909 E. Mark St. Winona, Minnesota Noon – 4:00pm
Follow Kim on future adventures on facebook, Kim Hammer or Sutra global by design
or Kim's blog, Sutra global by design.

Upcoming news:
Travel with SUTRA next winter!  Simply email kim at sutraglobalbydesign@gmail.com to receive information early this summer regarding our exciting itinerary!
SUTRA in the Springtime: 
Sunday, March 18 12-4pm at the home of Roxanne Price, 1409 Adams St., La Crosse   Benefit for St. Clare Health Mission ~ Trendy clothing, jewelry galore and folk art!
 
Thursday March 22 at LGBT Resource Center of La Crosse, 309 Pearl Street, downtown La Crosse, benefiting gay teens and adults.~ everything under $39!  Scarves, clothing, folk art and more
~~~~~~~~
Coming later this spring:  2 shows in Viroqua, 1 in Lansing, IA,  and 2 in La Crosse:  Find out more on Facebook or join our mailing list!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Tree Woman

In a trip to Oregon, my sister, Ruth Rosimo took me to see the Columbia River Gorge that is just east of Portland.  I was in awe of the beauty of the Pacific Northwest, and an art quilt that I call Tree Woman was created out of the inspiration of that visit.  Thank you, Ruth for your kindness.


People will tell you that all the great opportunities have been snapped up.  In reality, the world changes every second, blowing new opportunities in all directions including yours.  Ken Hakuta

 
Detail of Tree Woman

Tree Woman 18.5” x 22.5” October 2003 Hand painted with dye on cotton fabric, commercial and hand dyed fabrics in border, machine quilting



Tree Woman is sold.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Nia Moves


Nia is a fusion movement form that has so many benefits along with being great fun.  Here’s a music clip with rhythmic music that’s well filmed and will give you a flavor of some of what I love about Nia—though I have not danced in a plaza in a large city yet.


At the beginning of this dance clip is some black and white filming of Portland, Oregon people moving toward Directors Park. 

Here are some fun things to watch for during this dance break: the variety of people dancing together—women, men, and children, young, old.  Zoom in close-ups of feet dancing and panoramas of the large group dancing together.  Their faces and bodies tell you: joy of movement!  This is one of the things that I love about Nia.

This is a dance break that was filmed with Debi Rosas, co creator of the Nia technique, dressed in all black with silver jewelry;  Caroline Kohles,  to her left from New York City, dressed in black and white; and Kevin VerEecke to her right dressed in long sleeved t-shirt and black jeans.  The song is "No Quiero Nada Mas" by Sancti Spiritus, which is a featured track on the NiaSounds CD "Aya."   Visit NiaSounds for more music.


Enjoy the music and the fun of people dancing Nia together and  find a class near you!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Mary Lee Eischen: Quilting Artist


Part of a cosmic reality . . .
I’m not sure what that means, but I’ve been thinking about my being a part of something bigger.  Bigger than living in Winona, or Minnesota or the United States; bigger than being of a specific cultural descent, bigger than race, gender, ability, thoughts, words, likes, or dislikes.  When I reduce all of the components that make me who I am, is there still a greater essence that makes me part of a whole of humanity?  Are we all connected?  This bit of philosophical pondering resulted in my being invited to be part of a Chinese New Year and Multicultural Celebration at SE Technical College on the Redwing, Minnesota campus earlier this month.

 
Yanmei Jiang, professor of Chinese Culture organized the Chinese New Year Celebration.   This celebration, in its second annual year is a way to share Chinese culture with students, professors and other staff along with community members.   There was a sampling of delicious Chinese food, music, dance, entertainment, and red fortune envelopes for the children.

In addition this year, people from around the world were invited to represent their cultural roots.  They shared their talents and cultural traditions. This is where my quilts fit in:  I was the American Quilting Artist.  I displayed some of my quilts and talked with people about my cultural heritage of being Austrian, Bohemian, German, Luxembourger, and Irish through my quilts. I talked with people about quilting techniques too.



 
All of the photographs were reproduced from antique pictures scanned to my computer and transferred to treated paper and ironed on to fabric.  The photos on Stars of My Life are the people made up of my family. Stars of my Life was my first mixed media quilt.

Anna Windschitl at haying time, my mother’s great grandmother

 
Mary Rose (Windschitl) and Robert Eischen, wedding 1957, my parents

 Mary Catherine Windschitl, my Grandmother

 Mary Lee & Amaliya Eischen,  I'm holding my daughter

  Amaliya's first year, my daughter
 
As people watched the entertainment and enjoyed their Chinese food, I had the opportunity to get some pictures of this amazing celebration. 

The Carleton College Chinese Silk and Bamboo Music Ensemble preformed with interesting musical instruments such as the pipa, Chinese flute; the Erhu and gaohu, Chinese violins; guzheng, Chinese table harp; Bawu, clarinet-like instrument; and the dizi and hulus, Chinese Mahinese flutes.


Gao Hong is a masterful pipa musician who graduated with honors from China’s premier music school, the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where she studied with  great pipa master Lin Shicheng.  Hong has performed throughout Europe, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, China and the United States in solo concerts and with symphony orchestras, jazz musicians and musicians from all around the world.  She is currently teaching Chinese musical instruments at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.


Mongolian Dancer Galloping on the Prairie

The dancers from the Chinese American Association of Minnesota, CAAM, Chinese Dance Theater serve families and delighted audiences.  The Chinese Dance Theater performs before 17,000 live audience members each year.  With its dance school, annual concerts and outreach performances, the Chinese Dance Theater is the largest Chinese dance organization in the Midwest.

 Young dancers performing Cheerful Girls

 Bob Stuber, Sound Guy making all the musicians and performers sound great

I am very grateful to Yanmei Jiang, right, and all who helped make this celebration so wonderful and successful.  With a feeling of inclusion of all cultures, I took a moment to pause and think about all of our interconnectedness.

 Mary Lee Eischen: Quilting Artist


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