Humans of Cheer

 Brandon Stanton’s Art Initiative Humans of New York is a collection of his findings as he goes around New York City and takes peoples pictures that he meets on the streets in the city.  After the photograph he talks to them for a minute.  The humanization of his work is so powerful, to see the collection of images really captivates me.  So this week we were asked to do our own response to Brandon's work.  I thought about it all week, becoming slightly obsessed with the idea.  Who would I find it had to be perfect I was searching as I was walking places.  Nothing had come to me until I was out of town this weekend judging a cheer and dance competition in Orlando.  First of all the world of cheer and dance is like a different universe a very unique collection of people.  When I was on a break I was heading to the concession stand when I noticed this gentleman.  Full blown wig, boa, skirt, leg warmers just casually walking around.  Now normally passing this guy you would be taken back.  But in the world of cheer and dance competition you are used to seeing a large display of team spirit.  Usually in the form of signs and sometimes moms of the cheerleaders, but commonly not the dads.  I smiled at him and he goes "you like my outfit" I said I actually do can I take your picture?  He said of course and flashed me his big smile.  I snapped a quick picture with my phone and told him thank you.  He ended up sharing with me the story behind the outfit.  He said that it wasn't a bet which is what most people think.  He then proceeded to tell me one of the most touching stories I have ever heard.
His wife passed away tragically from cancer, she was diagnosed and gone in 3 months.  They had one daughter who was 8 at the time.  He said it was the hardest time in his life.  He had no idea what to do, his wife had been the caretaker for their daughter and he was a working man.  When she died he didn't know what to do. His daughter had been cheerleading and loved it and his wife instructed him to be sure to let her keep cheering.  Before his wife passed he had never been to anything involved with his daughters cheerleading, they would travel on the weekends he would stay and golf.  After the death he encouraged his daughter to keep cheerleading, and she did.  It became something they bonded over.  Rather than staying late in the office or going for drinks with the guys after work he was rushing out of the office to make it to the 4:30 practice and bringing snacks for her at 6:30 then picking her up at 8:30.  He had no idea the work she put into the sport, nor had he ever appreciated all the work his wife had done as well.  As the competition season approached one of the moms from the cheerleading gym asked if he was going to the competition.  He said he remembers looking her dead in the face and having no clue what to say.  He did go to the competition.  He had no idea what was going on but when his daughters team got on stage he said he went crazy.  He felt like he was watching the Super Bowl.  His daughter is now 15 and cheerleading has become their lives together.  She hopes to pursue it in college and he will be right by her side.
After this interaction I really started to think about all the people we pass every day.  We have no idea about what is going on in their lives, what they have gone through. We maybe have a brush of a shoulder with them.  Today we barely even make eye contact because we are looking at our phones. I do this all the time, walk and look at my phone never taking time to look at my surroundings or fellow pedestrians around me.  As we walk through life I think the skills of eye contact and listening may be the most compassionate skills we can acquire.  

Nature of Relationships & Ethos

Ethos to me means the character of someone.  Something that I find as a personal character trait of mine that I have struggled with finding the balance with both my relationships in personal life and in work life is boundaries.  This week I created a piece of art that I felt showcased the boundaries of life.   In each part of our lives we have boundaries. Within my life it falls in the hospital, dance studio, personal time and school work.  I struggle to find the right balance of alone time for self care, time for preparation and energy to each activity.  This art work captures this the white lines in a abstract pattern represent the boundaries and how mine overlap between each part of my life.   The different shades of blue represent the different parts of my life.  My different jobs, school, family and other personal lives.  You can see in the artwork that the white lines aren't perfectly straight and paint has created an uneven edge, this is very true with my boundaries within my life.  Sometimes I cross my own boundaries.  The natures of our relationship and ethos fall very much on boundaries.  In order to bring myself 100% to my work I have to be sure to give myself personally 100% of recovery time to accommodate all the other parts of my life.  Finding the balance in a constant struggle and its a constant recalibration throughout ones life.  

Compassion

This week the paintings we viewed showed young children and their mothers.  One depicted a mother washing the feet of a young child another of the mother looking at her sleeping baby.  I think that this image of a mother looking at her baby resonates compassion.  Almost everyone can connect and feel a sense of compassion when witnessing the innocence of a baby and the love of the parent.  As I traveled through my days this week I started to take notice to other moments of compassion I saw, I find myself smiling back a babies and noticing others do the same.  But can we find compassion in other areas besides just children.  The two images I'm sharing capture compassion in my eyes.  The first photo is one of the dancers from Dance for Life sharing a story of his past with a volunteer.  The bottom picture is of a younger gentleman holding an umbrella for an older women in the rain.  Both of these images show compassion.  Listening is such an art, the dancer has such beautiful stories to share.  The image capture really shows her listening and him speaking.  The umbrella scene I caught from my rainy car window, its so common now that we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of our personal lives that we stop to look around and see if we can help anyone else.  This young man assisting this women captures a moment of genuine human connection.  As we go through life we should be taking more time to notice this human connection much like with a mother and baby and noticing the compassion around us.  If we notice more I think we reciprocate more compassion.

Overheard

This week we were asked to gather overheard dialog at a restaurant and write a poem based on what you hear.  One of my favorite things to do is to go eat alone, especially lunch.  I frequently do this as a personal retreat, enjoy a nice meal and it gives me time to think or read a book.  This week I went to Chilli's for a quick lunch.  As I was sitting there I really allowed myself to listen to the environment, I wrote down phrases I was hearing on a envelope I had in my purse from a card I had received and created this poem:


I Told Her:

Just sit down
I told her not to go
Can you believe it
I thought I lost it but I found it
No No I'm not ready
I shouldn't have anymore
Together yes together
Do we have to go back
Can you believe it
I'll keep checking
It's so not fair
I told her not to go
I told her
Let's do it again soon


That day at lunch I was seated alone around 3 tables that had a mixed population, I assumed two ladies behind me were on a quick lunch break, three gentleman across from me were doing a business lunch and a mother and daunter appeared to be enjoying a mid-afternoon shopping break.  Again that was just my speculation as I didn't know any of them.  I didn't read the entire poem until after I got home.  I wrote the phrases on the envelope and thought I would rework it at home, but once I got home I realized that this was the poem!! No reworking but a mixture of phrases over heard to create one poem.  In reflection most phrases were meant in a context to do with food "no i'm not ready" to the waitress about ordering.  "I shouldn't have anymore" overheard about enjoying a  last bite of dessert, "together yes together" about paying a bill.  But when put on a blank envelope it has strung together into a poem.  A poem that has a sense of humanity to me, a sense of concern.  This really showed me the importance and art of listening.  I know myself personally have a tendency of speaking and putting my two cents in.  I'm challenging myself to listen more, open my ears and really embrace what is around me.

Ripping off the Band-Aid

This week we looked at Ethics & Human Nature.  A very debatable issue especially in the realm of the healthcare world.  Dan Ariely's TED Talk really struck home with me and was my inspiration for my creative practice this week.  He discusses being burned and having his bandages changed and the nurses approach of the just rip it off quick.  He reflects that he thought it would be better to approach this differently.  He then sought out to understand this and went on to many test and studies to understand the "just rip it off" approach.  What he learned was that indeed he was correct taking two hours and going more slowly would have been better than just ripping it off and having the task done in one hour.  This week I  decided to explore the idea of "ripping the band-aid off" in movement.  Allowing myself to examine the feeling of pulling and tugging.  As humans we are tactile so really allowing myself to touch and hit, in the phrase I really hit my body, you can hear the contact.  It was a very whole body experience for me.  As we look into ethics I think remembering our sense of self is so important.  I enjoyed this exploration.

https://vimeo.com/121729426

https://vimeo.com/121729426

Color of Compassion

"Color is a matter of taste and sensitivity" Edouard Manet.  As artist we know that color effects us, its what shapes our artwork.  As a dancer I use color with my costumes and props.  Color is a powerful tool, it can direct your audience.  I once choreographed a solo to silence and did a experiment.  I did the exact solo one week wearing all grey, feedback I received included comments such as: searching, seemed sad, looking for something.  Next week I did the exact solo in  a hot pink dress comments I received for this performance included: fun, exploring life, energetic.  The same solo the only difference was the color of my clothes.  Color is around us all day, so what color is compassion?  When I originally asked myself this question my mind started racing bright colors, cool colors, white, black ect.  I challenged myself paint compassion.  Not being a visual artist by trait this is always a challenge to me.  I would prefer to dance my color of compassion, but found that if I focus on the idea of dance with the paint brush it has a similar effect.  Embracing the dance of the paint brush.  I started with a blank slate and a plate full of paint colors.  I allowed myself to explore the colors to find my color for compassion.  What I created was a series of color patterns, in the green and blue family.  I find these colors rich and warm with a sense of safety, which I relate to compassion.  My artwork connects to my compassion, multiple layers and overlap throughout the art work.  There is dimension from the paint not all even of clean and tidy, which relates to compassion, compassion comes in all different forms.  The finished piece answered my question what color is compassion to me, not one color but a mixture of many.