Site Seeing

​Ray and I are hitting the road again—heading back to the Southwest for a few weeks. I wish I could bring you all along, but once we stash all our gear in the truck, we just don't have room. Don't feel left out, though. I'm sending you on your own site-seeing tour—a virtual visit to a few websites that I think you'll enjoy. This week's tour has four stops. We'll visit more another day.

Paper Pioneer
www.jennifercollier.co.uk

First, a hop across the pond to visit English artist Jennifer Collier, who combines vintage books and papers with heritage stitchery to create whimsical sculptures. "The papers serve as both the inspiration and the media for the work," Collier notes in an artist's statement, "with the narrative suggesting the forms."

​For example, she has constructed a replica of a sewing machine from old dressmaking patterns, birdhouses from birding books, and stilettos from the pages of Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women.

​Her work has been featured in more than 15 books and 60 magazines (including Poets & Writers, where I encountered it). Here's a sample:

Singer Sewing Machine by Jennifer Collier

Bird Box by Jennifer Collier

Little Women Stilettos by Jennifer Collier

Microscope by Jennifer Collier

Alice Kid Gloves by Jennifer Collier

The Cloud Appreciation Society
https://cloudappreciationsociety.org/

​If you've ever been accused of having your head in the clouds (and who hasn't, at one time or another?), this is the group for you. With a website devoted to the contemplation and glorification of clouds, the society's manifesto pledges "to fight 'blue-sky thinking' wherever we find it. Life would be dull if we had to look up at cloudless monotony day after day." 

​It goes on to exhort all who'll listen to "Look up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and always remember to live life with your head in the clouds!"

​The site features a cloud forum, a gallery to which cloud-appreciators can submit photos, and a shop of cloud-related merchandise, from bumper stickers to jewelry and cuddly cloud and raindrop dolls. You can also purchase a membership, which entitles you to a personalized certificate, an enameled badge, a cloud-identification wheel, and Cloud-a-Day emails that contain tidbits such as cloud photos, art, quotations or scientific factoids.

The Cloud Appreciation Society celebrates cumulus, cirrus, stratus, and every other sort of cloud

Go ahead, keep your head in the clouds

Even storm clouds deserve appreciation

As do colorful cloudscapes

Is that a silver lining I see?

Off the Grid, Into the Inspiration Zone
http://www.marseegallery.com/blog/

​For Todd Marsee, a senior graphic artist with Michigan Sea Grant, work days are a busy blur of projects—everything from designing brochures and educational posters to producing technical illustrations to taking photographs, all centered around Michigan Sea Grant's mission of protecting and promoting sustainable use of the Great Lakes and coastal areas. 

​Away from work, Todd creates abstract paintings, many incorporating images from nature. Finding time for painting isn't always easy, though. So when he was chosen to spend three weeks alone in a secluded cabin, as the 2017 Artist in Residence at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Todd welcomed the chance to zero in on painting in a natural setting.

"Looking back, it was a blessing not to have any sort of connection to the world," he reflected in an article in The University Record.

​Todd's blog describes some of his experiences—hiking along the beach, collecting colorful stones to inspire paintings (and then putting them back where he found them, in keeping with the National Lakeshore's policy), and creating a few culinary masterpieces (check out his recipe for broiled lake whitefish with pesto, topped with oyster mushrooms).

​The paintings shown here are just a few of the ones Todd created during the residency.  You can see more here. His work is available for purchase at his online shop. 

Poetry for the People
http://travelingstanzas.com/

​The Traveling Stanzas project seeks to bring poetry to people's everyday lives. 

​Launched in 2009 as a collaboration between Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center and Professor Valora Renicker’s Visual Communication Design students, Traveling Stanzas first paired poems generated in community writing workshops with graphic designs and displayed the results on public transportation throughout Northeast Ohio. 

​Now the project has grown to include an online gallery, an interactive digital map showing locations of Traveling Stanzas designs on utility boxes and kiosk displays in participating cities, and a new, traveling exhibit, Writing Across Borders. The exhibit features poems, illustrations, and videos that showcase the refugee experience and celebrate our country's diverse cultural identity.

A statement on the website sums up what the project is all about:
 
The mission of Traveling Stanzas is to bring poetry to everyday lives by fostering meaningful conversations and encouraging new voices. The program offers people moments of pause to slow down and reflect on their lives, their communities, and to participate in a shared creative experience.

Traveling Stanzas digital map (Photo: Traveling Stanzas)

Interactive poetry kiosk (Photo: Traveling Stanzas)

Poetry display (Photo: Traveling Stanzas)

Another poetry display (Photo: Traveling Stanzas)

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In your own online wanderings, have you found sites and projects that celebrate creativity, connection and contentment? Share them!