MINE: images of descent, again

Yesterday I made many attempts at publishing the information about my upcoming show, but had major technical difficulties. So this is basically a contiuation of the previous entry.

The title of my show is:
MINE: images of descent
new works by Shari Jamieson and Mary Weimer Green
September 9 - October 1, 2006
True Art Gallery
410 East 156th
Cleveland, Ohio 44110
Opening reception is Sept. 9th 6:00-10:00

All are welcome, it should be a really good time. The owners, Joanie and Jim, are great and I know we will have a wonderful opening.

I am really happy with the way this series of work has been coming out. For this show Mary Green and I decided to focus on a word that has many meanings and connotations and then create work from our interpretations. The word that we chose was MINE. Mary's work reflects her spirituality. She took the word as a challenge to what is it that she truly owns? what can she really call "mine"? She realized that it is only her beliefs, her faith, that she can control, she can call her own.



The above print is one of Mary's from 2003. I am really looking forward to seeing her new work. We are good friends and have shown our work together before at the Boot Gallery in Little Italy. We had a great show then, and an incredible opening. Its going to be great to do it again.

For my work I chose to focus on the literal meaning of the word MINE. My mother grew up in a Port Carbon, a small coal mining town in Pennsylvania. As a child my family visited there at least once a year, and I visited regularly once I was on my own. I always enjoyed the visits, seeing my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. I have a lot of family in that area. Two years ago my grandmother passed away and on a summer visit the family had to clean out my grandparents house to sell it. We spent one last night in the living room, going through boxes of pictures and wearing my Mam's hats. It was hard to let go, it was the house that we gathered in for so many years. It seemed to be the anchor for my family. It was from this experience that I drew my inspiration for my work. I asked myself, how did mining effect the towns that grew up around them, like Port Carbon? How did mining effect the people that lived in these towns, like my grandparents, and their descendants, me? These coal mines that seem so distant from my everyday life have had an impact on who I am. This is where my inspiration began.