Tree Project Update Nov. 2023

 

Tree Project Update Nov.2023

(A bloggy post for patrons first) 

Six years later...Even in the darkness this project still reveals many things to me.

Every season brings it's changes and the ephemeral nature of All Things is increasingly evident here. The landscape has grown up around and embraced these transformations. 

[Below: Tree Project Nov. 2017]

Still doing my best to make time in the early morning hours to sit  in the company of this tree, my own evolution pauses for breath. Wings spreading as roots sink deep into the Earth, this is a time of day which connects me to all Things greater than myself. When I skip this part, the rest of my day feels off.

Regardless of the impact of the discrepancies between isolation and solitude, I am never lonely in this company. I am reminded, one day, in our own time, we will both return to the Earth. 

Today is not that day. 

TREE PROJECT HISTORY

4th Project Video Run time 21 minutes

3rd Project Video 

2nd Short film post .

Prologue to a Tree Project ~ a small tree project about big emotions

Ultimately, I believe this project happened because

“In the haunted house of life,
art is the only stair that doesn't creak.”
~Tom Robbins

Tapping into the sacred nature of art and the intrinsic androgynous nature of trees, this work was transformed from an original tree, Melvin, who protected the property until a storm twisted him down in 2017; The Tree Project is an organic installation artwork freely available to the public.

(This project is made possible by patrons like you. Thank you!)

Subscribing patrons get the most art.

Follow for free or select your subscription level.

Increase, decrease, cancel anytime.

Twelve Years and Forward

Twelve Year Anniversary~ Gratitude   

 After completing my Business Plan in the Entrepreneurial Assistance Program at ACCORD Corporation and with the assistance of a small business start-up grant from vocational rehabilitation services at VESID, I opened SheilaLynnK Art Studio in October of 2011. 

 

 In 2013, I was the artist for the Annual Wellsville Balloon Rally and opened my studio to the public to participate in the Allegany Artisan Studio Tour that happens every October. 

Despite a very alarming medical diagnosis and its associated predictions, with Reasonable Accommodations; so many Things have happened since then... 

CREATIVELY STRIVING TO PARTICIPATE IN THE COMMUNITY OF LIFE.... With over twenty years of experience in the arts community and fourteen years of experience implementing creative wellness practices into my vocational goals, I continue to create art and am passionate about expanding local equitable access to the arts for the wellness of our community. In these and other efforts I collaborated with a wide variety of creators, organizations, and volunteers to support a diverse population of individuals in achieving their creative goals and meeting program needs through online and live facilitation and management of public events, activities, and one-on-one consultations. 

As the founder and manager of the Belfast Organization for Artists (2009-present), a charitable community project from my studio, I work to promote creative unity and awareness of the arts in the Belfast, NY area as I’ve initiated other charitable creative community projects and free/affordable workshops from my studio.

Initially started as a national fully-funded survivors’ portrait series, Inspired by The Culture of Possibility: Art, Artists & the Future by Arlene Goldbard;  I became the artist, creator, and manager of the Art For Arachnoiditis Project (2014-2018) which eventually served arachnoiditis survivors in 93 countries (WordPress Report 2015). As this project grew, I coordinated printing, framing, and presentation of all visual and audio international works digitally submitted. I evaluated these assorted works for display providing other survivors with empowering creative wellness opportunities and increasing public and legislative awareness of the need for prevention. Due to financial hardship frequently experienced during chronic medical conditions; I coordinated volunteers, promoted and worked with local venues, and secured crowd funding for this program allowing participating artists to join the project at no cost to themselves or their families. The project website remains online as a free creative wellness resource for survivors.

Inspired by SWAN Day at WomenArts.org, I developed SWAN Days Allegany County NY (2014-2020). I initiated annual outreach to local creators and venues to uplift and amplify a wide variety of work by local women artists in conjunction with invitational opportunities for local businesses and venues to join and promote their own services and projects in a calendar of events which eventually lasted through March and April each year. As COVID closed the 2020 Exhibit after it was on display at David A. Howe Library, I transformed the event into an online exhibit and activities which honored and promoted the works of each individual artists.

After fully funded invitational attendance at the 2018 Statera Arts National Conference and the 2018 Culture/Shift conference of the US Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC), I believe in and adopted a Cultural Policy of Belonging for my studio and implement these concepts across all areas of my work.

In addition to creating my own art, studio website, and Youtube channel; for the duration of these fiscally sponsored charitable public projects I managed promotional content on my blog, the BOFA blog, Patreon, and social media including: twitter, facebook, and linkedIn.

To my astonishment as I reflect on the history of my business and turn the page to begin a new chapter; the evolution of my education, career & work scope (from the US Army, to Alfred University Painting & Ceramics Graduate, to NYS Certified Teacher, to Local Advocate for At-Risk Youth, to After School Program Manager, to Records Retention Coordinator at Allegany Arc and as an Artist & Business Owner working in these areas of knowledge and experience with an on-going dedication to expand cultural awareness and independent sustainable wellness) has prepared me for the duties of a diverse range of employment opportunities and to be a valuable asset participating in the world. 

I am eternally thankful for the numerous gifts, amazing people, and creative Things I have experienced so far. I look forward to what comes next as I continue to grow more fascinated by life every day. 

COMING SOON.... 

Subscribing Patrons will be able to unlock a preview of my new Creative Wellness Meditation coloring book, Sacred Harmony, being published as a hard copy later this month. Watch for posts about how to pre-order your copy HERE.

....That was then.

This is now.... 

Seeking a New Public Space for Original Art

 

Seeking a New Public Space for this Original Art

To increase awareness around mental health concerns related to arachnoiditis and other chronic pain conditions, it is time to find a new public space for these original works created to promote Arachnoiditis Awareness and Prevention at The Art For Arachnoiditis Project.

First displayed in the 2013 Show: A Round Now In A Square Time as part of the Facing Phases series, this work recognizes the healing properties of embracing fleeting moments of grace experienced within the repetitive cycles of time which establish the human condition.

Each image is intended to capture, or freeze-frame, within the square of the picture plane, some point on this circular time line.

Some of these images express the duality which exists at key transition points between these phases of the human experience.

Life is a perpetual circle of pain, relief, celebration, and grief. Chronic pain must be faced with an exponentially increased determination to focus on the discovery of grace within that circle. Without grace, life is just motion looking for a place to rest.

FIND OUT MORE OnPatreon

2023Gifts ~ Portraits & Coloring Pages

 

Accepting New Orders

(Sample portraits shown not available for purchase.)
($6 of every purchase at the studio helps support the Belfast Organization For Artists, Allegany Arts services, and other charitable community arts and wellness projects at SheilaLynnK Art Studio.)
Gift Certificates also available.
Please make note of deadlines for orders you'd like to receive by Dec. 20th.
The schedule for commissioned projects fills up fast.
Contact the studio for additional information
Browse the portrait gallery here

CUSTOM COLORING PAGES  

Offering this fun and easy gift option again this year 

Prints of Photos and Paintings shown on the website will be available again soon.

Subscribing patrons will be eligible for discounts on those. 

I'll post updates on that as soon as I have all the numbers for the print rates this year. 

Naked Wellness ~ Content 4 Patrons

"Resting Rhomboid" ~ Naked Wellness

(A public post to introduce new content intended for patrons only. Patrons saw this first July 3, 2022) 

Illness. Injury. Isolation. Impact. Intimacy. Illustrated.

Our relationship to the landscape of our own bodies is too often tempered by judgment of a harsh inner critic followed by our assumptions about the inevitable criticism of others. Add structural damage and a dose of perfectionism to that equation and you become a person who refuses to own a single full length mirror.  

Systemic nerve damage has a multifaceted impact on movement and muscle memory. Other parts begin to compensate for the ones that are impaired. Gradually, those compensatory parts begin to suffer from added wear and stress. In a very chicken-or-egg-first kind of way, it can be quite difficult to decipher the actual origin of each new consequential injury. 

To put it simply... Things get really out of whack. 

Successful physical rehabilitation has no place for Hollywood-esque comparisons, deceptive blinders, hopeful illusions, or shame. 

The need to rehabilitate the landscape forces a closer look at what is working, what isn't, and what needs to be done to improve general operations and functionality. For fourteen years I have been adjusting to multiple modes and rotating cycles of pain management and physical therapy to address this broad and diverse assortment of seemingly random developments. 

There is an intimacy that evolves in taking the time to know the body this way. Taking the time to be still and lovingly ask my One-and-Only body, "What do you need right now?" is not a skill that is cultivated in our society. 

Occasionally, in the midst of maintenance and attention to these interconnected details, Grace steps in and allows me to see the beauty which resides in my scars and perfectly imperfect parts. 

Creating a new rewards tier about this intimate journey and its impact on my creative process, I was naively going to call it IntimateArt4U. Which, I was bluntly told, glaringly implies an entirely different sort of content. 

Though I feel called to share these reflections and what I've learned in the last fourteen years about the discipline it takes to nourish the inner landscape in this modern world; the raw nature of images born on this journey may NOT be something some of my patrons will actually want to see. Rest assured, other than the images in the introductory public post, you won't have to see them if you don't select the support level associated with this content. 

In this new Naked Wellness Tier you should know:

• Patron support at this level supports the Art For Arachnoiditis Project website, organic supplies and maintenance of the Creative Wellness Garden, and expenses for other charitable projects at my studio. 
• This tier will contain adult content that can only be unlocked at this tier

Benefits

• Patrons subscribed at this level will have exclusive access to one monthly post containing my original visual art (i.e. drawing/painting/photography/collage), and/or written work, research and resources, and any other content which supports this intimate level of the healing process, conceptual journey, and awakening that may be coming through that month.
• Access to all content posted at lesser payment tiers
• As always, the option to unsubscribe at any time

Click "see all five levels" to choose this on the rewards page here 

If you would like to make a Tax-deductible contribution to support future Charitable Art Projects at SheilaLynnK Art Studio you can find out more about that HERE.

Please visit the Patrons Vote Post and the Creative Origins post to get a better idea of how this began and where this seems to be going. 

"While the motivation for stripping down to one's birthday suit can vary, the result holds true for all: the naked body is a celebration of what nature gave us (or how damn hard a woman worked to get what she has now), and nudity increasingly signifies strength more than vulnerability, choice rather than subjugation, a victory of female perspective over the male gaze."  from How Posing Nude Became the Ultimate Celebrity Power Move by  NATALIE FINN  July 2017

This painting was completed in 2012 to honor fellow survivors. 

Mortal Fear reclines on the edge of infinite opportunity.
Hope explores fragile rewards.
Grace allows the consequences.
Obstacles fall away.
Honesty embraces the pains of change.
Life begins again.
A day in the life of a spinal arachnoiditis survivor.

Find out more on my website for arachnoiditis survivors  

Allegiance ~ A Pledge for Humanity

United We Stand 

"The power to make up reality is a power that can be used for good or evil. The duality of human nature indicates that it will be used for both." ~slk

Because I respect and believe in the potential of humanity, my pledge to the Earth is in alignment with my pledge of allegiance to this Nation.

This 4th of July I remind myself that our nation is a work in progress full of people capable of following through on the original intentions of the constitution and capable of allowing those intentions to evolve to suit modern times.

"I do, solemnly swear or affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice."

P.S.

There are provisions in which one is not required to comply with unlawful orders.

P.P.S.

It's a flawed and outdated system.

Whatever the flaws, I am thankful to live in a country where we can peacefully discuss and address them.

In 2016, I wrote a very long bloggy, Still-Proud-To-Be-An-American post Thing, about this here.

Followed by:

American Choices 2017

Wanted; True Colors (Color Me A President) 2017

Intentionally American in 2020

#OwnTheChoices #StillProudToBeAnAmerican

........................................................................

“I pledge allegiance to the earth

of our beloved solar system,

and to all her creatures

for here they dwell,

one planet,

united in harmony,

with universal love

and compassion for all.”

~ Cherl Crews

(This is a public post I wrote for the BOFA facebook page yesterday in response to the Sacred Sisters Full Moon Circle Pledge of Allegiance to the Earth. This image is from that page.)

Creative Wellness Workshops

 

Next Creative Wellness Workshop
July 15th 1-3pm
RSVP via email by July 5th

Be sure to RSPV by the 5th

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS

Summer 2023

 

Photo provided by 
Susan Doran 

FREE ART FOR YOUTH
SUMMER PROGRAMS RESUME IN ALLEGANY COUNTY
As The Allegany Arts Association closes, we are happy to announce that Angelica Free Library and members of the community are stepping in to continue the AAA mission to provide free accessible arts services and activities to the local residents of Allegany County.
CLICK THROUGH TO FIND OUT MORE

After 40 years providing free arts activities and services to residents of Allegany County, in 2023 former members of the Board of Directors look forward to working with other community members and organizations to continue our mission to provide equitable access to the arts for the wellness of our community.

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The Belvidere Cornerstone and the BelfastOrganization ForArtists are building creative partnerships in Allegany County to unify local resources to bring arts access to all residents of Allegany County.
We look forward to working with our local libraries, former AAA arts instructors, the Wyoming County Council for the Arts, the Tri-County Arts Council, the Allegany County Office for the Aging, The Allegany County Senior Foundation, The Fountain Arts Center, local sponsors and other community members.
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Since 2009, BOFA has been a charitable project of SheilaLynnK Art Studio created to uplift and unify the work of Allegany County NY creators.
Find out more about this and my other free and affordable Allegany Arts services offered here.

FIND OUT MORE AT RISE ABOVE

AS STUDIO SERVICES EVOLVE THERE WILL START TO BE MORE UPDATES AS

THE OLD LOGO IS MAKING A NEW APPEARANCE IN NEW PLACES