Friday, May 31, 2013

More Amazing Mothers Who Are Artists


Ma and Pa Films

More Mothers and Artists You Must Meet

Throughout the making of Lost In Living and as the film screens in various places I have the great pleasure of receiving letters and emails from some of the most talented, determined, resilient artists who are also mothers.  I feel quite honored to be the recipient of their very kind words about the film and their stories of balancing creative lives while raising children.  All of them have unique narratives and situations and all of them persevere in work and parenting.  I am greatly inspired by them and I will be sharing their work in this newsletter and many more to come.  

CLARE KIRKCONNELL/Painter, Mother

                        

Born in Brownsville, Texas, Clare Kirkconnell spent a number of years in Mexico City before returning to Houston to finish high school. Developing an interest in the arts, she continued her education at Palomar College in San Marcos, California, a school well known for its art program.

After college, Clare spent several years as a fashion model traveling the world from bases in New York and Paris. Concurrently, she studied acting and landed several film and television roles, including a three year run as the female lead in the highly acclaimed drama, "The Paper Chase." Never abandoning her interest in painting, Clare continued her studies at Santa Monica College and Otis Parsons School of Design. Her work has been consistently well received and can be found in many private collections, including the American Embassy in Kuwait.

When not in the studio, Clare’s time is divided between her husband and son, the family wine business, “Hollywood and Vine Cellars” and a deep, abiding urge to see every corner of the globe.

MORGAN NICHOLS/Writer, Poet, Novelist, Mother

Morgan is a freelance writer, poet, novelist and children’s story writer. She loves to write about what makes us tick as creative and soulful beings. She is lit up by characters who give us insight into our deepest longings and our own journeys. At the moment she is working on ‘Stirring the Cauldron’ (working title), a non-fiction book about being a mother and keeping the creative fire and the spiritual journey alive, which weaves together content from interviews with mothers with her own experience. She is also working on two novels, one magical realist style and one that she terms ‘new age chic lit’, and collaborating with an illustrator to bring her children’s book, ‘The Lonely Oak’, to publication. She offers regular creative writing workshops in East Sussex (Lewes & Brighton) including workshops for mothers of young children to explore their experiences.

Her writer/poet inspirations are Lionel Shriver, Louise Tondeur, Kate Atkinson, Jeanette Winterson, Cate Kennedy, Alice Hoffman, Bernadette Cremin, Mary Oliver, Sharon Olds, Charles Bukowski, Leonard Cohen, Mark Hudson and Audrey Niffenegger. For creative mentorship/inspiration she loves L
eonie Dawson, SARK, Natalie Goldberg and Julia Cameron.

ELSIE KAGAN/Painter, Mother

                

http://www.elsiekagan.net

Elsie Kagan, who hails from Berkeley, CA, moved to New York in 2005. She studied painting at Tyler School of Art (MFA) and Wesleyan (BFA), and has pretty much painted ambitious works on large surfaces from the time she was a self-taught muralist at the age of 15. Highly influenced by the Baroque ceiling paintings she observed while spending her grad school year abroad in Rome, Kagan reaches, in her own work, for a similar sense of drama and sensuous physicality -- albeit updated to a contemporary painting language that embraces surface drip and gesture. Part Ab-Ex bravura, part old-school atelier, Kagan's paintings 'foreshorten' formalistic concerns from art history's past and contemporary painting's present.
Kagan's most recent works are square-format landscapes in which she manages to subsume both her love for the light of Northern European painting (Jacob van Ruisdael, Rubens) and the passing of the seasons outside her studio window. Kagan works in Gowanus, Brooklyn.

NEWS ABOUT Lost In Living:

DVD's are now available for sale on the website here.  Thank you for your support and for sharing this film with friends and family.

Please like the facebook page here to get the most recent information and specific details about future screenings.  And if you are not a subscriber of the newsletter please join by clicking here.

We have two upcoming screenings in Fargo, North Dakota and at The National Gallery in the Cayman Islands.  I will be at the Fargo screening on Thursday, June 13th.  That screening takes place at the beautiful and Historic Fargo Theatre at 7pm and the event is free.  All four women from the film will be attending as well and a discussion panel will take place following the screening and moderated  by Colleen Sheehy, Director and CEO of The Plains Arts Museum in Fargo.  Hope to see you there!

Lost In Living will screen at The National Gallery in the Cayman Islands on June 19th.  Unfortunately it is cost prohibitive for me to attend but if anyone out there would like to contribute to the air fare and join me, that would be most welcome.  I'm not exactly sure of the time of the screening yet.

House Parties have been popping up all over where small groups are screening the film in living rooms and having lively discussions about the film.  I offer a House Party Kit that includes the DVD of the film, an Extras DVD with an hour and a half of extra footage, a 23 page discussion guide, postcard invitations and a totebag.  I can also be available to skype after the screening and answer questions.  So please check out the House Party Kit here.

As always I thank you for your incredible support and please feel free to email me anytime if you have questions or comments, you'd like to share something in the newsletter or share your work.  I love hearing from you.  


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