More and more people began coming.

On January 21st, I went with Kimberly to the Women’s March here in Asheville. People gathered slowly. I had heard a lot of women say they were not going because they were afraid it might become violent. So  we were really surprised when large crowds seemed to materialize out of thin air.

ASHEVILLE WOMEN MARCH IN JANUARY 2017

The chant to “Make America Great Again” implies returning to the 1970s. Like many women, I can’t believe it either.

YOUNG WOMEN MADE THEIR PRESENCE FELT

They are our future leaders.

BUILDING BRIDGES

Things are better and racism is still a sore point.

HUMOR NEEDED

And it was provided!!!

PREPARING FOR THE EVENT

And Setting up.

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 THE MIRACLE OF TRANSFORMING HATE 

Photograph by Dan R. Talley

Transforming Hate: An Artist’s Book, was completed this year, eight years after it was started. We did not know if it was possible, but in March we pushed to get a few copies ready for an April PHOTO+CRAFT presentation. Entitled “Making and Meaning: Photobooks and the Social Fabric”, this Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center panel with Alejandro Cartagena, was one of thirteen events organized by Warren Wilson College here in Asheville.

The month before going to press, however, the Transforming Hate book design elements changed to include color and some unusual papers. This gave the book much more depth, but when the printing estimate increased by $10,000.00, my heart sank. Where was that amount of money going to come from? It had taken me a whole year to raise $7,000.00!

When I turned to my supporters and asked for additional money, 5 people donated the extra $10,000.00 needed, to put the book on the press, within 5 days. That was truly a miracle!

Me and Susan Rhew at Blue Ridge Printing

Susan explained the “whys and wherefores” as she proofed each page.

In addition to these angels, 60 people made donations to the project through NYFA’s Fiscal Sponsorship Program in 2013. It was their support and belief in the project that helped me continue working on the book. To you guys, a big “Thank You.” Your names are listed inside the book.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

“Hate is a fence built to signify time and place.

When I was growing up

schools,

churches,

hospitals,

libraries,

restaurants,

and movie theaters

were off limits to me because of my race.”

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Edition numbered signed copies of Transforming Hate: An Artist’s Book may be purchased for $50.00 from:
Vicky & Bill Stewart
Vamp & Tramp, Booksellers, LLC
E-mail : mail@vampandtramp.com 
Telephone : (205) 824-2300

Vamp & Tramp has placed the book in collections across the country.
Also available on Amazon.

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I hate to admit that I am essentially stuck in the 1980s when I saw my first artists’ books at Printed Matter below Canal Street in Manhattan. It was thought that artists’ books might become an inexpensive way to make art more accessible. Although most of my books don’t end up being inexpensive, my intention for my books is that they be produced inexpensively.

Each of my books has had its’ own process to which I have had to conform. As much as I try to control that process, the Transforming Hate book taught me, as no previous book had, that I am the book’s servant not its’ master. I ended up feeling like I had been recruited to come along for the ride.

Below begins sketches of the project’s beginning:

The post The Transforming Hate Artist Book Path Part#1 appeared first on Clarissa Sligh.

What grabbed my attention was the play of the light on the trees, the feeling of closeness to the mountains, and the movement of the clouds. At one moment they would cover the peaks, at another they’d be nestled in the valleys. It was awesome!
From time to time, I stepped outside to snap a couple of pictures as the light and tone of the mountains changed. The rains came. At one point, as I stood there with my camera aimed, a mountain cyclist, came out of the door and waited until I got the shot. With a tone of love, excitement and pride in his voice, he said, “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” He sounded like the mountain peaks that we gazed on were the love of his life.

Mountain biking in Western North Carolina is not something that I am interested in, but I have friends who love it. In that moment, however, I connected to his passion and love for these mountains.

When I first considered moving to Asheville– I had little idea of the environment that I was coming into. I had never thought that I would have a relationship with mountains. It all seemed foreign to me. Here I was!

The words of one of my east coast photographer friends come to mind, “Now I know why they are called the Great Smoky Mountains.”

The post The Great Smoky Mountains appeared first on Clarissa Sligh.

John Horn, a Master Printer, ran his own print shop for over 50 years. I wanted to know how he handled type and the presses, and how his creative process worked. His poster, “Souls Dwell in Printer’s Type,” speaks to this relationship.

Treating the workshop like a residency, I began a new project which I plan to continue.  Like most of my work, discovering the concept was not a linear process.  It involved writing everyday, looking through my journals and through my photographs I had taken. I tried to connect the writing to past projects but, in the end I began a piece about my Mother.

After finding a direction, I began setting and proofing type, drawing and transferring images to linoleum. I must have looked totally lost when I began setting up the bed of the press because John came over and got me started. Thank goodness he did because I would still be there staring at a blank press bed.

The post Letterpress Bootcamp: Penland Workshop appeared first on Clarissa Sligh.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the protest. While I have identified many of the participants pictured, there are still more images to be labeled. If you recognize anyone who has not been listed in the descriptions of the photos, please contact me.

I would like to thank Sabra Moore, Maria Martinez-Canas, Maria Elena Gonzalez, and Margo Machida for their help in identifying many of the people photographed.

The post 30th Anniversary of Women Artists Protest MoMA appeared first on Clarissa Sligh.

March 24—Planted carrots…

March 25—Snow again this morning. We put cloths over seedlings in the garden. It’s a white wonderland…

I began working on an image for the Penland annual auction…

March 31—Transplanted tomatoes to a bigger pot. Won’t go into the ground until May 1^st…

April 1—Watered peas, lettuce and, asparagus…

April 9—Got a delivery of two tons of river rock. Working on paintings for Penland auction. I’m mixing the colors in my mind, now I need to mix them on the palate…

April 10—I feel myself moving down into the painting…

April 14—We saw rabbits in the backyard this weekend…they eat everything.

April 19—Woke up thinking about the shooting at the synagogue by a white supremacist. Three people were killed. Everything something like that happens, it triggers my memories of my neighbor being shot by her jealous boyfriend. It reminds me that we are all wounded souls, that we have these places where we have been injured…

After living in New York city for 30 years, I am so grateful to be able to feel and see the beauty of the ground beneath my feet, to be surrounded by the birds chirping outside my window, to plant seeds, grow food, and to share a life with others.

April 30—I cut some small limbs off Eleanor, the fig tree. It looks like she didn’t make it through the winter…

May8—The bees are out in big numbers- I’m afraid of getting stung. Last year I got stung on my left thigh and it became swollen and black. The discoloration is still a reminder.

May 12—It’s hot, hot, hot! We tilled and conditioned the soil and watched the birds come down to grab the grubs… We lost the lavender during the winter.

May 19—It’s been cool over the last few days. The temperature drops into the 30s at night. Covered up the plants. The Amish paste tomato plants in the front are struggling in the coolness of the night. At first it was too hot, now it’s too cold.

June 4—Another shooting in California… this shooter wrote a manifesto about hating women.

I am glad I have the garden. For me, working in the garden is being involved in life in a different way…

June 11—Finally rain last night after two weeks of dry heat. Delivered the painting to Penland. Stopped by the toe river to put our feet in the water…

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It had not been my intent to make a “grand” project, but to simply create an artist’s book that explored the struggle to make an artwork that might transform the white supremacist books that had been provided to me to work from.

After the book, The Proposal,  was accepted by Radius Books  for publication, I found I needed to raise money for its production. I then began my education in fund raising.  It would have been much simpler if I had done a “Kickstarter” promotion. Working alone here in Asheville, NC and creating an adequate donor base to get a campaign off the ground that would succeed within six to eight weeks seemed impossible.

Additionally, I wanted to expand the vision beyond the publication of the book by creating an installation around the concept of transformation. Despite not having an idea of how I would do that, I chose Artspire as the conduit through which to raise money for the project (including the book publication) because it allowed me time and space for working on the project.

The question became “how to express this bigger vision to others?” I knew it was important to start with myself, to create my own narratives of transformation and to meditate on and explore feelings of anger and fear and rage within myself.

While preparing images of my work for the new website, I revisited my “Witness Project,” an earlier installation begun in Washington, D.C.  and was surprised how close to the “Transforming Hate” project it seemed to be. “The Witness Project,” was about reflecting on a time—on a period in our lives—and asking the viewer if they would share that with me, the artist. I never expected the depth of emotions, of the feelings expressed in those responses. But, with “Transforming Hate,” I would like to go beyond reflection, to create an installation that will take us to another level. It sounds impossible. It seems impossible. But that is my intention.

To make a tax-deductible donation visit the link: Artspire Fundraising Page

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To me, the process of raising money for projects was taking time away from my real work. Today I am learning to modify that concept.

Background: I grew up, in the 1940’s and 1950’s, in a poor black working class neighborhood outside Washington, D.C. Asking someone outside the family for help or for money was seen as bringing shame on the family. If the family could not provide what you wanted, then you were to “do without.” But the hardest part was what went on inside our family. Asking my father for a dollar was asking to be humiliated. You never saw a man get so pissed off and angry. And you never forgot his words or the way he screwed up his face.

Even if times were tight and bills overdue, money was whispered about. All kinds of unspoken deeds were done so that our large family’s needs were met. But body language and looks say a lot more than words; so at a young age, I figured out ways to earn money for school supplies and things like that in order not to ask for money.

Today, even asking for money that owed to me is not easy to do. When I support causes, with no expectation of anything in return, I feel good that I can help. But when I ask for a donation or contribution, even when the money is not for one of my projects, I feel like I am begging and that makes me feel bad.

So I was really surprised when an artist asked me why I had not asked her to donate to my Transforming Hate project. Knowing that she did not have that much for herself, I had not approached her.

But she said to me, “I like to support things that I care about. Your project would give me an opportunity to help with something that matters to me.”

If you would like tax-deductible donation, visit this link: Artspire Fundraising Page 

The post My Hangups about asking for money appeared first on Clarissa Sligh.

Over the past 30 years, I have used different mediums and subject matter. This means I needed a website structure to present the projects in a way that is not object oriented. For starters I decided to separate everything into themes like Mel Chin did on his site. Themes allow me to consider the ways in which my work has been categorized and gives me the opportunity to set up different visual sequences.

I really enjoy revisiting the images. Many were done more than 15 years ago. Seeing them takes me back to the time and place I spent with each person – reconnects those moments for me. I shall be forever grateful to the people that allowed me in their life.

To make a tax-deductible donation visit the link: Artspire Fundraising Page

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