Leisa A. Hammett

The Art of Spring Break: Exhibits, Travel, Presentation

Here, in Nashville, there's a muted silence in the air these chilly, crisp pre-spring days. I'm calling it in between time. The few intermittent days of warm, glorious sunshine brought the buzz of activity. Now, there's a hush in the air again. A slight heart-tugging anticipation.

It's spring break here. Kinda. Officially so for the next county over. Yet, Metro schools forced "intercession" and then took away three days of the break for snow make-up. I sent Grace on to her camp anyway. Next week she joins her father while I journey to the sweet respite of Hot Springs, NC, before treking back over the hills a way and presenting at my alma mater. More about that in a few. 

Spring here in Nashville is presenting some going-quick opportunities for marvelous art: 

Charles Brindley's third and largest exhibition yet at Cheekwood is a do not miss. Charles Brindley: Trees of  Myth and Legend, through April 19. I always pen his shows as must go's on the calendar and the graphite drawings and oil paintings of this master gentleman artist never, ever disappoint. I count this up there alongside a couple of my other favorite shows in the stately former mansion of the Maxwell House coffee founders, which would be the exhibitions of Andrew Wyeth. Brindley is genius and a true Tennessee treasure. And, an incredibly nice man. Bravo. I think my feature on him was my second ever story for NashvilleArts Magazine in my two years on staff of the original publication. Here's a blog post blurb I published on the artist more recently in 2011: Artist Brindley Distills Soul of Trees. 

Hurry downtown to that grand main branch of Nashville's Public Library for the brilliant public-curated exhibition of printmaker Bryce McCloud. For a year the artist set up small self-portrait-rubber-stamp printmaking stands around town. Old, young, homeless, refined, individuals with developmental disAbilities, and one Jack White, all got their visual art groove on. The result hanging in the large, open second-floor atrium is a spectrum of Nashville humanity, some shown holding their portraits, and also captured on moving and still film, and a 3-D mimicry of the stations where passerbys created their likes. The exhibition ends on April 12, and while there, step into the library's first floor gallery for a clever and somewhat disturbing commentary on our disposable culture in the exhibition “Paper, Thread and Trash: A Collection of Art Books Made From Reuse.” The show features some local heavy-hitters in paper arts, such as Lesley Patterson-Marx, plus three delightful large photographs and more of intriguing artist Kit Kite's commentaries on domestic life. Show ends March 29.

While I haven't yet made it to the Partnenon's unassuming gallery tucked beneath Alan LeQuire's grand Athena, I will before Dane Carder's War Wounds ends May 31. Carder is another gentleman artist. Quiet, soulful and expressing his artistry in an uncommon way as he paints, large-scale, slightly disturbing yet alluring interpretations of very old photographs. Included in this exhibition, are 13 paintings depicting the loss endured by Civil War soldiers and their families. 

I'll visit and patronize the wares of local artisans in Hot Springs and over in the wacky neighboring town of Marshall while I'll be embedded in the natural artistry of Western North Carolina's mountains next week. And, I'll conclude my own spring break with a presention at Carson Newman University's William Blevins Institute for Spirituality & Mental Health. Blevins, a former professor of mine three-plus decades back, invited me to speak Saturday morning, March 28, 10-11:30 on "The Grief Journey with Grace: Autism, Divorce, Death of Loved Ones, and Other Life Challenges."

In my presentation description, I write:  Life happens, and none of us are immune to some variation of challenge that requires us to move through grief to heal and live fully. Art and nature are two ways in which my spirit replenishes and heals. To travel and partake of good art in many of its forms~that's my definition of living fully. May you enjoy these exhibits if you are in Nashville, or embrace beauty wherever you are out and about on spring break or travel or daily living. Namaste.

 

 

 

Tween Time & The New Year

Sssshhh! Can you hear it? Can you feel it? Or, is it just me? This year more than ever, I'm in touch with a stillness this post-Christmas/pre-New Years week. I've named it the "Tween Time." There's a hush in the air that feels sacred, calming, and also hints of the newness to come. For me, it's a time to reflect on the year that's ending, and to ponder remodeling some behaviors to create new outcomes in 2015. 

I've published this picture* several times on "The Journey with Grace." Mostly for past New Year's posts. This year, more than ever, it symbolizes how I'm feeling. Lighter. Brighter. Anew. Beginning. I'll be sharing in upcoming posts—with an intended increased frequency**—some major decisions I've made about my life and some projects I'd taken on. 

Do you feel the hush of this Tween week? An anticipation? How are you feeling about 2015? Are there changes on your horizon? 

*Photo: ©LeisaHammett.com, Western Lake, 30A, south Walton County, Fla., between Grayton Beach and Watercolors/Seaside

 

Lessons in Culture, Community and Love: Our International Visitors

Growing up, our family was the go-to hosts for our faith community's visiting speakers. Often the guests were international. Many years have passed—three decades—since I hosted international visitors, the last time being in my 20s while I lived in Atlanta. I had forgotten how enriching the experience. 

My Nashville-based Persian friend, Massood Taj, has represented painter Suha Khalil, a young Northern Sudanese woman with Down syndrome, since about 2009. For two years now, Massood and I have hung Suha's works in several locations about Nashville alongside and independent of my daughter, Grace Goad, a young painter who has autism. 

Last week, eight months of work culminated in the public debut of our nonprofit social enterprise's first commercial collaboration. Each of the 13 artists with disAbilities featured in the local luxury apartment building's 51-piece collection were invited to the reception. To our surprise, Suha and her brother and mother journeyed to Nashville. 

It was a week of introductions, tours, conversations, laughter and sharing that included visiting Suha's exhibit on The Yellow Wall, which I manage at the Tennessee Art League*, seeing Grace's exhibition** at Vanderbilt Kennedy Center and meeting esteemed research scientists and doctors there. Gracious friends with the Down Syndrome Association of Middle Tennesee and members of Pujols Family Foundation also served as hosts. Friends and family met for Indian, Thai and smorgasboard. 

It seems banal to report this in past tense. I'm groping for the words to express the personal impact of this dear family's visit. Perhaps it's that I'm still processing. 

Suha's mother, Zeeneth, was about two decades my senior, an Asian Indian living in Africa, and yet we were one in the bond of special needs motherhood. In saying goodbye, we each, in our own words, said to one another, that we understood each others joys and hardships. We knew the journey that each other traveled. It was a tender moment I will treasure always. 

I loved observing the position of this fiercely intelligent woman, a chemist by training--a profession she had to leave to take care of her fifth child, Suha. Mrs. Khalil is a matriarch. When deciding where we would go to dinner Saturday night, her son, Issam, wavered. I could not determine exactly what he wanted to eat. They are muslims and could not eat meat here because their meat must be blessed by clergy of their faith. The mother spoke up: she wanted Indian. Done. We dined vegetarian and everyone's belly was satisfied. 

Son/brother Issam was so loyal to his mother and to his sister. It is because of his championing representation that his sister's works grace the walls of exhibition spaces here in Nashville. 

Suha was an adorable soul. I snuck Grace's iPad just for her Sunday afternoon while the family gathered with my friends and Grace visited her paternal grandmother. Suha does not speak English. But we spoke in the languge of smiles and winks, iPad games, and magic markers. Her mother and brother said she woke up each day asking if she'd get to see me, Massood, and Grace that day. 

They come from a culture of community and because of them, we celebrated community for six days straight. I am still catching up on my rest because of this amount of community. We don't commune in our culture like this. But for six days we did. 

They are gentle people. Light agents. Six days and forever in my heart, I am enriched. Two days of travel and continents away. Culture, customs and beliefs, so different. None of it mattered. 

None of it mattered because of what really does matter. The truth that we are all one. Six days were a reminder. Six days of fond community. Six days of love. Six days of oneness. A oneness that endures time, distance and culture. Beneath culture. Beneath differences. Beneath disAblity. Beneath belief systems. Beneath it all: oneness. 

*Suha Khalil's exhibition at the Tennessee Art League will hang through Saturday, August 30. One of the exhibition spaces I manage, Food Network featured Crumb de la Crumb Cafe, will host her work September 2 through the fall. More about Suha's work can also be found on Facebook at Suha Goes Painting. 

**Grace Walker Goad: Two Decades in Color will hang at Vanderbilt Kennedy Center through Wednesday, August 27. She will join artists Preston Vienneau and Donald Werther at Shimai Pottery and Gifts at The Loveless for a month-long September exhibition. 

Photo: Dina Capitani

Travelogue: First-Time Mother-Daughter Trip

Blush. My daughter, Grace, turns 20 in one month. And Easter weekend was the first time the two of us ever took off on our own together. Not for a winding interstate trip through the mountains to our South Carolina family. Just us two on an adventure, the destination, my favorite nature offering: the Western North Carolina mountains.

Grace self-determined in a *PATH years ago that she wanted yearly trips to the beach and frequent visits to the land of Mickey Mouse. And she does with her father, usually while I take off to the mountains, or sometimes elsewhere. Vacations for Grace have been time with her Dad and time for myself. This weekend changed that. This time it was just us two in my newly, in the last two years, discovered spot: Hot Springs, NC.

This time I was traveling with another adult. And this time it was my daughter. The trip was a microcosm of Grace--my adult-bodied child--in the world.

Grace embodies that paradox that most every parent of a son or daughter with autism experiences. Their child looks typically developing, but doesn't usually behave in such as way that the outside world characterizes as "normal." Fortunately, we were in the welcoming confines of a state that fully integrates, embraces and supports individuals with disAbilities. After a three second window, people attempting to interact with her got it. She's different. She has some sort of developmental disAbility. Hence the kind young man with the pregnant wife who sat behind us at the restaurant the first night. Uninhibited and ever full of pure joy, Grace beamed her beautiful face, lit by a yards-long smile at him and held it far longer than you and I would normally interact without words with a stranger, prompting him to cheerfully say to her: "Hey! How are you?" "Hine." (sic) Grace answered quietly, slightly ducking her head but never shrinking that toothy smile of sheer heart delight.

When the waitress came to take our order asked what Grace wanted and I answered, having consulting my daughter beforehand; when the group of women by the fire in the lodge asked in what medium Grace painted, after I had reconnected to one of the employees there, who asked about Grace's art, and I answered with the list of media--three seconds passed and they got it.

It doesn't always happen this way that Grace and I receive the gracious gift of understanding. A typical autism characteristic, unaware of her boundaries, Grace barreled through a narrow passage at the restaurant and slammed into the side of the waitress who was carrying two hot drinks, fortunately sealed with lids. But her first reaction at being body slammed, understandably, was anger. Then she got it. I, horrified, apologized profusely. Boundary-violating encounters with strangers, of this kind or of the over-friendly type, are not always met with kindness and understanding.

The trip home was a long one with frequent stops, including a trip to my East Tennessee alma mater. I had planned to take her there when she was eight. That's how old I was when I went to my first Carson-Newman College homecoming, when my sister was a freshman there. Only, it didn't work out that way and I had a moment of grief accompanied with a quick burst of tears when I recalled this realization to my spiritual mentor the next day. Instead, many years past age eight, I took back a young adult woman with autism--in her case, incapable of the college experience. 

Late this morning on Mother's Day, three weeks later, sitting at the kitchen table, sipping homemade lemonade, I found myself savoring memories of our first mother-daughter trip. It was a passage for both of us. Mother-Daughter traveling as two adults. And yet, that awareness, I always have at some level, that she's not fully adult in many ways. The weekend and the memories after were/are a celebration of togetherness, of a pilgrimage to the mountains, and a journey together, now, of nearly two decades. 

*PATH: "Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope," is a highly recommended planning tool for organizations  and individuals.

DATED: Kickstarter Opp ~ An Important Story Waiting on You to be Told

I am friends with the playwrights and others associated with the theater. This is not a personal Kickstarter  campaign but one that I support. Dontate here, only 4 days left to help make this a reality: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/twtp/voices-of-nashville-immigration-and-community

 

Happy Summer Saturday to Ya!

Hello and happy end of June to you! Hope you're having a good one. I'm at a private writer's retreat in the mountains for the weekend (not pictured here). Rock on! Image: Mountain Magnolia Inn properties, Hot Springs, NC.

This. Is Happening: More GraceArt Notecards II, Hot-Off-The-Press

Grace has six more days of traditional public school left. That's minus two for a long weekend trip to Disney World with her Dad. Graduation is May 18. Today, I'll be working with a young adult woman with autism to prepare 450 plus packets of GraceArt Notecards (Series II...not yet shown on her website, but coming soon). The 50-packet stash (10 cards and envelopes, five designs, two each,) above, (Untitled. Pink Pastel, not shown,)  was fresh from the printer and taken to her solo show at The Artery Gallery Greensboro, NC, which comes down tomorrow after an extended stay. I'll be making the approximate 1,200-mile trip to pick up GraceArt this weekend. Some of it will be hung at perl Cafe & Market in the Nashville suburb of Bellevue. I decided to give the extra wall space we were offered to Suha Khalil, a young adult woman with Down syndrome who lives in Sudan and whose work is represented here by my friend Massood Taj. Suha's beautiful paintings already hang with GraceArt in Nashville at the offices of psychologist Charles Ihrig, Ph.D. More about them on GraceArt's Facebook page, Grace Goad | Autism Art.Wednesday of next week, I'll be hanging all new works of GraceArt, (produced during her senior year at the superior art program of Hillsboro High School,) in the lobby of the Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Polk Theater. Sponsored by VSA Tennessee, they will remain there for three months.

Back to the cards, these will be sold at Tennessee Art League's gift shop now on Nashville's 5th Avenue of the Arts (Gallery Row) downtown, next to The Arts Company. We're delivering them this afternoon. More will be delivered soon to Shimai Pottery & Gifts at the Shops at the Loveless. I also carry a stash around in the back of the car. (Wink.)

Am I nuts? ..."Keep Calm & Carry On." The timing just happened this way. Keeping up with recent demand and even asking venues to wait a couple of weeks as new inventory is framed, picked up and delivered. It's a nice "problem" to have.

GraceArt Coast to Coast & Home, Here in Nashville (The Art of Autism, VKC)

Right now GraceArt is showing coast to coast: From Seattle (HeART of the Spectrum) to the Massachusetts' Berkshires to solo in North Carolina (The Artery Gallery, Greensboro, extended through May 9,) to down home here in Nashville. Both the shows at the Good Purpose Gallery in Massachusetts and here at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center are the products of Debra Hosseini's The Art of Autism.

California based, Hosseini is a mother, like me, of a young adult with autism who is also an artist. She is the author of two books in a series also entitled The Art of Autism. Grace is featured in the 2012 edition. In both the aforementioned shows and other shows nationwide, The Art of Autism brings together artists on the spectrum across the world to showcase their work.

Here, above, The Art of Autism has teamed with the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, in Nashville, to feature several Southeast regional artists with ASD. Grace's painting (is it another horse?) is the purple tones on top. (The purple frame is a graphic design effect created by Vanderbilt for the flyer.)

Hosseini knows, as many of us parents of older youth do, that entrepreneurship is a key path for many of our adults on the spectrum. Stay tuned to "The Journey with Grace" as I and others envision ways to collectively and locally integrate artists with disAbilities and those without, in ways to create, show and sell their works. I'm currently fleshing out the vision and looking for ways to grow its arms and legs. The encouraging factor? No one has to reinvent the wheel. All over the country, parents are getting smart to the fact that we must use our own elbow grease and elevate the gifts of our differently abled offspring.

So here's to the visionary mothers, such as Hosseini who carry torches for their own offspring and light the way for others as well. Kudos, thanks & hats off girlfriends (and Dads, too).

GraceArt ongoing and in the works: GraceArt notecard series II is available in halfsets at Shimai Pottery & Gifts at the Loveless Cafe and target date, next week, at the Tennessee Art League on Nashville's 5th Avenue of the Arts (gallery row). Beginning May 15, for three months, she will have a solo show (new work and award winning), in the Polk Theater lobby of the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, sponsored by VSA Tennessee. Also targeted for a couple of weeks will be art, also all for sale, at the new, acclaimed Perl Cafe & Market in Nashville's Bellevue region. Talks are underway for more shows as well. You'll find it all here and on Facebook at Grace Goad | Autism Art and (intended) GraceGoad.com. 

Speaking Today at Chattanooga Autism Center Conference

Today I'm joining my Nashville friend, Courtney Taylor Evans, of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, in coaching parents and adults with disAbilites on how to write their story via Tennessee's Kindred Stories project. (I've one on their website somewhere. I think it's this one: "[...]I'm giving this summer the finger!") We are presenting at the Chattanooga Autism Center's Fourth Annual Community Conference, this year themed: "Autism: Life's Transitions."  Our afternoon talk--right after lunch ;) --is called "Sharing Your Stories: Advocacy Through Personal Storytelling." We presented this last year at the Tennessee Disability Mega Conference in Nashville and will do likewise at this year's Mega conference in late May. Here's a blog post summarizing part of my portion in the presentation for those of you who cannot attend: Kindred Stories & Writing Yours.

I'm happy to return to the fun town of the Choo-Choo and spend the weekend afterwards walking, viewing their plethora of public art, visiting their Hunter Museum of Art, maybe take in an IMAX and soak up some of  their hip downtown vibe. Pictures are sure to pop up here at some point on "The Journey with Grace" and most definitely on Instagram and possibly Facebook, Pinterest....I'm also looking forward to catching a couple of the other conference seminars and meet another author whose work I admire: Susan Senator. Last weekend's Honestly Autism Day in Baltimore proved to be a boon in many ways, not in the least was my fast friendship with successful author Ellen Notbohm.

Life is Good. Enjoy your last weekend in April, folks!

Above: outdoor wall art, downtonwn Chattanooga.

Baltimore Bound!: Honestly Autism Day

Today, I am Baltimore bound where I'll be speaking tomorrow, Saturday, April 20, at the Honestly Autism Day conference. wOOT! These folks share my ideas on autism, apparently, and I'm very happy the internet led their very friendly and competent conference coordinator, Debbie Page, to my blogsite, here, which led her to invite me to present twice during the day's events. Author/columnist Ellen Notbohm of the popular "Ten Things About Autism" book series will keynote. I look forward to meeting her. I'll be delivering my expanded personal version of the Autism Society of Middle Tennessee's popular autism parent orientation, which I've been presenting for about 10 years every other Third Thursday at Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. (Next one's May 16.) I premiered my individualized on-the-road version at last year's Tennessee Megadisability Conference. The name is "The DisAbility Journey: Loss, Grief and the Path to Acceptance."

According to Page, "the whole day is about honesty, gratitude and collaboration.  It is a combined effort of the Autism Society of Baltimore-Chesapeake, Baltimore County Public School’s Office of Special Education and the Towson University’s Department of Special Education. We call ourselves the Partnership Project!  For this year’s event we have 444 registrants plus another 156 speakers, guests, panelists and vendors!"

About the conference logo art, above: Chris Kendall, a young man with autism, created it four years ago for the premiere conference in this annual series. Then he was a high school junior at that time. Good work Chris!