AM radio

AM Radio 2 | acrylic, graphite, glitter,  12 x 12″

The entirety of my direct experience with AM radio has occurred at night, in a car, on a highway.  During one of these drives I was told, while listening to a man explain how he copes with his ability to read minds, that AM radio signals behave differently during daytime and nighttime.

AM Radio 3 | acrylic, graphite, glitter,  12 x 12″

The science of AM radio functioning struck me as somehow poignant.  AM radio crouches low and weak during the glare of day, but at night unfolds humble wings and reaches across great distances.  From Wiki:

During the day, AM signals travel by groundwave, diffracting around the curve of the earth over a distance up to a few hundred miles (or kilometers) from the signal transmitter. However, after sunset, changes in the ionosphere cause AM signals to travel by skywave, enabling AM radio stations to be heard much farther from their point of origin than is normal during the day.

AM Radio 4 | acrylic, graphite, glitter,  12 x 12″

I am also moved by this:

AM radio signals can be severely disrupted in large urban centres by metal structures, tall buildings and sources of radio frequency interference (RFI) and electrical noise, such as electrical motors, fluorescent lights, or lightning.  Wiki.

AM Radio 4 | DETAIL

AM radio is driving through the middle of nowhere in the dark listening to the fringes of human endeavor being put forth with a no gloss earnestness and meandering passion.  We use AM waves to project into the clear, dark everywhere/anywhere our most basic, contentious, awkward human endeavors–extreme partisan politics, religion, the supernatural, ufos, as well as, a few songs that you will never hear again anywhere else.

The oddly hollow tone of AM radio further adds a layer of remoteness that relates to the cold, dark hum of deep space, with its vast distances between stars, planets, galaxies.

AM Radio 1 | acrylic, graphite, glitter
This piece was made in collaboration with Troy Gua as part of his project Meet Greet Rinse Repeat
Photo credit: Shaun Kardinal

Oh, I also discovered that I happen to share a birthday with AM radio:

AM radio began with the first, experimental broadcast on [December 24th] of 1906 by Canadian experimenter Reginald Fessenden, and was used for small-scale voice and music broadcasts up until World War I.

AM Radio 5 | acrylic, graphite, glitter, 12 x 12″

this day

I’m just going to talk about this.  Even though I try to avoid it.  I don’t like talking about being an artist and mother of young children because every statement I make about it I immediately want to contradict.

Frequently people comment that it must be hard.  This does not ring true to me.  Although it is true.  [See?  Contradiction.]   Alright, being an artist and a parent of young kids is no joke, but I’ll take hard work anytime if it is worth my while.  And, then there is this, and this almost makes it easy:  It is freedom of choice. It is the day-to-day reality of conscious decisions I had the space and time to make.  I am not so naive to pretend that the consequences of our own choices are never hard to bear, however I feel that it is a privilege to be in a circumstance that allows for such choices.  The responsibilities that follow are a reminder of that freedom.  I bear them willingly and am thankful for the richness they bring.

Here is some of what it is:

It is missing the party.

It is having brilliant, creative people populating the day-to-day world of your kids’ lives.

It is leaving early to catch a ferry.

It is a mess in the studio.

It is having the insight of kid brains to keep you on your toes.

It is never stopping at a good point.

It is having time to consider the next move carefully.  [Some of my clearest thoughts have come while cooking a meal.]

It is never being bored.

It is working around the edges of everyone’s needs.

It is what I want.

Now I leave you with this Mr. T video that I ran across while reading Best of.  I thought it was really sweet that Joey Veltkamp gave this nod to moms (and found such an awesome way of doing so).   And, I love it when the important aspects of my life (in this case unexpectedly reflecting on being a mother while keeping up on regional arts) happen together in the same place at the same time.

That is what I am doing:  Living my whole life all at once.

blow, splash, move

Today marked the closing of a truly great twelve week series of art classes.  I’m proud of my part, but it was the students, age range 5 to 8 years-old, that made it great.   I am so proud of them.   With this final class we celebrated freedom, the sun, and all they have learned and created with an explosion of color.  Taking cues from the beauty of natural processes the kids mimicked wind, splashes and movement (centrifugal force to be precise).  We worked inside and out, had a party, and shared our work with one another.  It was lovely.