Today I made the very short journey to the home of my creative, dream-interpreting, astrology-loving friend, Barbara Emery Johnson, who also lives here in Harwich. Barbara is colorful, spirited and has a Master's Degree in Expressive Arts. She facilitates psycho-drama as a form of psycho-therapy. This makes her Master Drama Queen in the best sense of the title. Barbara and I taught a Mask making class together called 'DreamMask Expresso' (newspaper photos below) and I was a student of two of her Fairytale workshops for adults. In the fairytale workshops, the adults got to be children again and act out our favorite fairy tales like 'The Three Little Pigs', 'Goldilocks', etc. to discover the dreamlike quality of the fairy tales and their hidden meanings. We were fortunate that the class was in The Harwich Junior Theater so, not only was it pulsing with creative energy, but we had access to all of the costumes and stage sets that filled the top floor of the building. It was so relaxing and fun and a great way to forget daily troubles or at least look at them in a new light.
Anyway, a few months ago, Barbara picked up the DVD, 'Vision' for us and we were very excited to finally have the opportunity to see it together. ('Vision' is a movie about the medieval nun and scholar Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard lived in the 12th century. She had visions that gave her information on healing by using plants, stones, and music. She'd be considered radical today, but as a nun in an extreme male-dominated culture, it was fascinating to see how she advanced her principles.) With the pouring rain outside, the dark, and the thunder, it was a perfect day to cozy up with a movie. Barbara and her family hadn't used a physical DVD at their house in so long that playing it actually turned out to be an unexpected challenge. So while Barbara was moving us from one TV to another; just like Goldilocks, I tried out the beds and couches in each of her rooms that had a TV. To an artist-type like me, Barbara's house is heaven. It is filled with life, colors, art and creativity. It's spectacular.
I had only about 5 minutes to take pictures at Barbara's before the movie started so here is what I grabbed to share with you:
This painting was done by Alex, Barbara's daughter. It is inspired by Thomas Kinkade. But I don't actually like his work; although I enjoy the imaginative quality of it. THIS I love.
One small area of Barbara's living room; still festive from the holidays.
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| This is another painting by Alex. It is actually painted on an old wooden box. |
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| Don't you love this one? I think this is also by Alex. Barbara also has her work in the house along with her other daughter's work (Rose). So these pieces are just a small taste of what her house has to offer |
This painting really appeals to me, but what looks like the moon is actually the light on the glass as I took the photo. I think I'm going to paint my own painting inspired by this one, with the moon in it. It will be this month's Wolf moon which rose a few days ago as a huge and a bright orange ball hanging in the sky. |
| Peek- a- boo |
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One of the things that endears me to this photo is that Barbara never changed out of her slippers. She was sure we would only be photographed from the waist up. Also, we weren't confident that a photo would even be included in the article. BUT the next morning, there we were; Barbara's slippers and all! This photo was large and it was a full page article on the front page of the 'Arts' section with a small photo and teaser on the cover page of the paper.
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| The caption on this photo says, 'Masks can be creative, expressive and, ironically, revealing.'. |
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