Monday, December 24, 2012

Another World Is Possible: Occupy






November 10th, 2012

Cobi and I spent our morning purchasing things to donate to people who had been affected by Hurricane Sandy. While the canned food and batteries were compelling, the chill in the air drove me toward the clothing aisle. I stocked up on thick socks, gloves, hats and scarves in children and adult sizes, filling my small green shopping cart with the intention of keeping people warm.












It took us over an hour to reach Brooklyn from the shopping stop in West Orange, New Jersey. We finally made it to one of the Occupy Sandy hubs, St. Jacobi Church in Brooklyn's Sunset Park. There were vehicles  (everything from compact cars to big trucks) down the block, double parked in front of St. Jacobi, and an organized swarm of volunteers hustling in donations by the trunk-load. I was really anxious by the time we arrived at 2:30 that we'd be turned away as volunteers, but  I knew before I'd made it through the door before that we were right on time.

We had a brief orientation, learned the community guidelines, and were encouraged to talk to people.... to talk about community, about our emotional responses, about climate change, about loss, about hope.




Then we were asked to go into the basement and start helping. Latin music was playing on an old radio boom box and true to Brooklyn, true to a real humanity, there were people of every group there to give support. Some people worked quietly, and some chatted excitedly. Sometimes the radio dial would get rolled to a pop or hip hop station, and inevitably tuned back again to salsa and bachata... I wasn't the only one wiggling while I worked.


My first task was sorting ramen and other noodle soups of the "just add water" variety. I must have handled 100's of packages of noodles before I had them neatly organized. Apparently the day before we'd arrived there was floor-to-ceiling food in no particular order and people had been working very hard to get things sorted. It was clear a lot of sorting had been done already and still, there was much more to do as the donations kept on coming.





Occasionally I'd look up from my work to see if Cobi was nearby, and would delight in seeing him helping move along the box brigade or sort through piles of fresh produce. 


Ah, the veggie pile made me happiest! There was a cooking crew who made and trucked hot meals out to folks with no way of heating food, and it was reassuring to see that farms and food businesses were bringing in donations of fresh produce, meat, baked goods, and dairy. 
















One of the piles Cobi and I sorted together was a mix of nice fresh breads from a bakery and sliced grocery store bread. The smell was more comforting than usual, knowing that it might bring a sense of normalcy to people experiencing total upheaval. 

We continued to sort for several hours. We mostly stuck to food items, but the stacks piles of cleaning supplies, baby supplies, toiletries, batteries, generators, shovels, blankets, and clothing was so overwhelming no one photo of the space could have ever done it justice.



For the final hour of our four-hour stint at St. Jacobi Church, there was a buzz about a truck coming in from Maryland with over 100 boxes. Cobi and I decided to continue helping until the truck rolled in and was totally unloaded. 

Finally it came and the degree to which a community in Maryland was helping people in New York and New Jersey was awesome, incredible, and humbling. 


The photo here shows what I could see from my place in the line, not far from the basement door. Large packs of toilet paper and paper towels were being thrown when I took this photo... can you see the paper towels flying through the air?






There were so many boxes, all well labeled, being passed along the line, which was likely over 30 people long.  We passed donations between us- generation to generation, EspaƱol a English, hipster to jock, computer programer to day laborer, homemaker to high school student. Person to person. Caregiver to caregiver. In solidarity. In love. In knowing that a better world IS possible when we come together.

Peace through togetherness,
Sarah 



How to help:



Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Post election in two word snippets



Marriage equality. 


Legalize it. 


Woman senator. 


Black president. 


Moving forward. 


Justice pursued. 


America's beautiful.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Fall in love, get inspired, make art... or babies? My thoughts on Solbeam.





I like everything about this except... why make babies OR art? I know plenty of men and women who are awesome artists and parents. One woman in particular told me her painting improved after she experienced motherhood. I know some folks are weary of or even downright against breeding, but making babies isn't like failing a test or falling in hate and it certainly isn't the antithesis of art-making. Even a physically challenged parent of six could make art if it is their will.

...
After writing the above, I was curious to know who Solbeam was, imagining an older person in paint-crusted coveralls sitting alone with his coffee in a sunny corner of their living room reliving a summer filled with hedonistic joy. So I did a little Googling. It turns out Solbeam is a blogger who has been on an incredible voyage. Someone I would, without needing to meet her and only after a quick browse on her website, call a kindred spirit. Her message to the would-be and fellow wanderers of the world is:
"engage your sense of wonder and think creatively with your life path; it’s your own to create and color."

And then I noticed she blogged about her own pregnancy in March 2012 here:
"Then I thought, surely, pregnancy would [slow me down]. I could say baby would – but those would be poor odds, now, wouldn’t they?"

So what of Solbeam's famed, oft tweeted quote? It is now on magnets adhered to so many fridges, sold on greeting cards in bookshops across the country... aligning parenthood with not dancing and with lying and cheating. These must be the words of a 20-something with a ticket somewhere new and a camera, too afraid of an anchor to consider mothering. If so, I feel you, sister.

Wouldn't it be great if Solbeam could edit this quote, perhaps with a new-found outlook... I would imagine it looks something like this:

Fall in love, get inspired, ace a test, make art and music, write, speak the truth, dance everywhere. Life is divine chaos. Embrace it. Forgive yourself. Breathe. Enjoy the ride... and share it all with the next generation.

Or maybe it is just my outlook that has changed.

Art from the heart,
Sarah


Tuesday, October 30, 2012

"Telephone Relics" covered by Boston.com

The following review of my upcoming show, Telephone Relics, was taken from this website-- Boston.com's Allston Brighton news: http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/allston_brighton/2012/10/photos_documenting_payphone_de.html?camp


Photos documenting payphone decline to be exhibited at Brighton library

Posted by Matt Rocheleau  October 24, 2012 03:58 PM
September 11 2008 Boston.jpg



























(Sarah Berry) Public payphones in Boston photographed on Sept. 11, 2008.

An Allston artist’s photographs documenting the decline of public payphones will be on display next month at the Faneuil Branch of the Boston Public Library in Brighton’s Oak Square.
The “Telephone Relics” exhibition by Sarah Berry “very poignantly captures the changing history of telecom, convenience, functionally and design that has resulted in streetscape artifacts that linger as if they still had a purpose,” said a statement from the newly-founded, local nonprofit Unbound Visual Arts, Inc.
“As a result of the evolution from wired and wall-mounted phones to personal and pocket-sized, most people realize that public telephones, once prominent throughout the world, have significantly declined in usage,” the statement continued. “Sarah Berry has not only noticed this 21st century historical trend but presents us with artistic visual evidence.”
The exhibition debuts Saturday, Nov. 3 during a reception and artist discussion from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., the art organization said in an announcement. The gallery will be on display through Nov. 30.

Berry received a master’s of science in arts administration at Boston University, is program manager of The Art Connection in Boston and leads photography workshops through the city’s parks department, according to the nonprofit.
Her exhibits have appeared at BU, Boston City Hall, and in galleries in Washington D.C. and Fairfax, Va.
E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.
--
For the latest Allston-Brighton updates:
Follow @YourAllstonBri on Twitter, here.
And connect via Facebook by clicking the “Like” button on the top right hand corner of the Allston-Brighton homepage, here.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Photographing the Guy Mendilow Ensemble




Tonight I had the pleasure of shooting the CD release performance of the Guy Mendilow Ensemble at Harvard University. The excitement, raw skill, and soul on stage was evident to everyone. Guy was a fantastic story teller and everyone on stage was a masterful musician.

There is really not much I like better than being surrounded by live music and seeing it come alive in my camera. Enjoy the photographs and please listen to the new album:
http://www.guymendilow.com/home.html

Monday, October 15, 2012

Painting Over the Past



A pay phone removed
From a community college corridor.
Now chatter can be overheard 
As told through cellphones 
 And into nearly invisible bluetooth devices,
Taking up no more than an ear-width of space.
The pay phone hardware is 
Whitewashed 
But still here.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

For the Birds


Between Branches


Harvest





Photos taken from my front porch, September 2012

[Click to enlarge]






Friday, September 14, 2012

Art & Bed. Ode to Van Gogh.



A magnet I bought in 2005 at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam bears this quote from the artist under an image of The Bedroom, 1888, Oil on Canvas, 72 X 90 cm.


"The best pictures are those one dreams about while smoking a pipe in bed, but which never get done." 

Tonight I fought my desire to dream up art I wanted to make but didn't. Tonight I finally have an answer for Vincent...


The best nights of sleep are the ones I will forget I missed because I was up making art.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Branching out. Over time. Birch and acrylic.


August, 2010
I hiked slowly, slower than my Good companions, watching my feet. The ground was covered with moss, crunchy leaves, and white-peach and ashen bends of fallen birch bark. I gathered the bark not knowing why. The next day I waded waist deep into Lake Sunapee, lifting out tiny rafts of birch bark dimpling the water's surface.

...

September, 2011
I closed my eyes, trying to envision myself: an artist. To my surprise, there was a paintbrush in my hand instead of a camera... I was standing before a wall-sized canvas and applying thick, grand strokes of red over muted greens and yellows. Paint was dripping everywhere. Where this image came from seemed less important than where it would lead.

...

May, 2012
A perfect plant stand on the side of the road. I picked it up and began to walk away.
"Are you an artist?" a man hollered from across the street.
Jill and I exchanged a look, afraid we'd been caught steeling, and I shouted back "I am!"

He invited us into his building promising art supplies and we followed him into a windowless whitewashed storage room full of things he was done owning. It was a trove housing an armful of things I would take home.... a tackle box full of paint- acrylics in over a dozen shades, brushes (mostly unused), knives, thinner, palates, a low-end juicer. And a plant stand.

...
July, 2012

Untitled, birch and acrylic on canvas, painting by Sarah Berry
 Birch and acrylic on canvas

Detail


Saturday, September 1, 2012

On the last day of August



Cobi and I moved into a beautiful rental in mid-July. Here are some pictures I took in our garden yesterday. We're all unpacked and fully enjoying the literal fruits of our landlords' work. It is a joy to live here. 

Happy September to all!

Love,
Sarah








Monday, August 13, 2012

Thistle




I took this photograph tonight at Pics in the Parks, a six-week workshop I am leading for Boston Parks and Recreation.

I have been a busy bee this summer. The blog pause is not for lack of content, I have great stories and images to share from two weeks in the UK, summer in Boston, and our move from Brighton to Lower Allston.


In the meantime, see more photos I took at Pics in the Parks.


Monday, May 28, 2012

Market Season - Green on green


First trip to a farmer's market for the season... lots of leafs, herbs, scallops, and a pint of berries.



 From top at 12:00 Boston lettuce, at 3:00 spinach, at 6:00 Red leaf lettuce, 
and at 9:00 a new one for us- yu choy. 


First two meals:
1) Seared scallops over a bed of red leaf lettuce with homemade lemon basil dressing
2) White bean spinach soup with oregano and thyme

We picked up basil, thyme, oregano, and rosemary plants at the market, too. I loved picking fresh herbs from my window sill.


Friday, May 25, 2012

Being there for each other (as masters)

Promenading about in antiquated regalia isn't our style. But celebrating certainly is. All the pomp and circumstance of a graduation ceremony has its merits... the true feeling of I FUCKING DID IT! is hard to achieve sans goofy gown, hearing your name read over a microphone, or without the hugs and high fives from classmates who are also ready to ditch their cardboard cap for a cold one. Seltzer, that is.  You can order whatever you want.

Cobi and I met while we were both graduate students. Our relationship has been shaped by reading, research, writing, finals, more writing, and internships. In December 2011, I finally handed in my final final exam. Last weekend Cobi's commencement marked the real beginning of the end. The true end will come in July of this year.

I am looking forward to creating a relationship with ample time for each other and ourselves. 
Last night, for example, we cooked dinner, exchanged shoulder rubs, sang along to our new Pandora station, hung out with Kitty, and fell asleep before 11. Why? Because we could. 
Because we did it!



Top: May 21, 2011. Boston University - MS, Arts Administration
Bottom: May 19, 2012. Lesley University - MA, Music Therapy and Mental Health Counseling 



PS- May 2013: a gown of another sort...

Watch City Festival - The Original Steampunk City


Waltham, Massachusetts
May 13, 2012


http://internationalsteampunkcitywaltham.org/





I came, I saw, I gawked.
I was dressed as a modern day pseudo-bohemian photographer.

Sunshine and fascinators,
Sarah

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Tales of Awakening: Travels, Teachings and Transcendence with Namgyal Rinpoche


When I was 11 or 12 years old, before I'd seen it, I could tell by the way my father got when he talked about The Dharma Centre of Canada that it was unlike any place I'd been. We had visited Buddhist monasteries in use and in ruin in North America and also in Asia, where we'd lived and traveled extensively for three years.  I knew- I could feel- that this one would be special. The Dharma Centre is in the woods and there is a beautiful lake, I was told, and a new stupa, and even in the sticky summer days, we would be wearing long sleeves, tall boots and mosquito hats. I was given my own hat before the trip.

We drove for days to reach this place, which I  knew to be important- sacred- for my father, and so I decided it would be for me, too.  I was going to receive various teachings, including from Namgyal Rinpoche, I would take long walks, share space, and assist in the kitchen. This was big for me, I loved to cook and now I'd be cooking for a group of about 20 people.

Our first day we unpacked, I had my own room in the lower level of the Temple Building, just below our primary gathering space.  I was then introduced to the other people working in the kitchen and I was initiated in to service. A dish towel and an upside-down stainless steel mixing bowl (the largest I'd ever seen) were propped on my head, and a loving GONG tapped out around the bowl (with a wooden spoon or a carrot, I can't remember which).  The sound filled my head with sweet and silly vibrations- the understanding that this would be joyful service and learning.


My most precious memory of this time is written up in the book Tales of Awakening: Travels, Teachings and Transcendence with Namgyal Rinpoche, though there is so much more I treasure. I remember my mother leading a class on making mandalas with found items in nature- petals, leaves, twigs.  I remember my father spending considerable time repairing and replacing a rope, bright yellow against a rich wall of greenery, marking off the area of the Hermitage.

As days of my first retreat passed, I felt, among other things, useful and free. I walked in the woods by myself for hours at a time, I had never been able to do that before.  I learned how to make stuffed cabbage, humous, and I had my first cup of hot tea with milk and sugar, a very adult-seeming beverage. I can remember my first sip- how sweet and comforting- and I still feel that way when I stop to be present with (and perhaps for) my tea.

That summer I learned to identify more constellations, I learned how to meditate, and I tried to be still.  I learned that some people did not swat at mosquitos- ever.  It was a place where people unwound and got grounded, and although I felt very restless at times, people were (in retrospect) totally gracious and glad of my young company.

I would like to return to the Dharma Centre, arriving after the long drive through the woods. I want to smell it again, sit there again, confront my restlessness again.  The leader and spiritual head, "Sir", as people addressed him has gone beyond, but now has become more prominent in our lives through this recently released book.  I have been trying to rediscover my wonder with Namgyal Rinpoche, and with my father's clear love for this place as I designed the cover of the book.

The intention of the story-gatherers is that by the students retelling their experiences, a shared transcendence can happen.  

Please enjoy in joy.

Love,
Sarah



Sunday, April 15, 2012

Wedding at Folly Beach


Seeing my friends looking this happy is a gift. 


Congrats, M & T!

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Boston Blackout


Much of downtown Boston was dark for four days after a fire in Back Bay two weeks ago. I took a fancy to this here massive generator, which buzzed safely in the rain on Dartmouth Street for several days:




Next time there's a blackout in Boston, I will:
a) Post images while they're still relevant. (Forgive the old news.)
b) Get a shot of Boston from across the river in Cambridge while a "wide swath of the city is plunged into darkness". (Bravo, Boston Globe! A poetic headline, indeed.)


Let there be Light,
Sarah


Saturday, March 17, 2012

Smithsonian Magazine, Photo of the Day 1-23-12



A belated celebration!


An image I took on the last day of January, 2009 was selected as the
on January 23, 2012

(I just found it today, after having put my name in a Google Images search...)

This isn't my 1st photograph published online by the Smithsonian, I was an intern for their Photographic Services Department in Summer of 2004 and four of my Folklife Festival images were selected to be online, two from "Haiti: Freedom and Creativity from the Mountains to the Sea" are below:

(Both photographs are Copyright 2004 Smithsonian Folklife Festival Images)


Horn Blowing at Voodoo Demonstration
Haitian Dancers

  


THIS January was the 1st time my work has been highlighted by the Institution since my internship ended.

Gung hay fat choy,
(a Cantonese new year greeting meaning may you become prosperous),
Sarah





Friday, March 9, 2012

Crash Course in Art Crime

This week I finished reading The Art of the Heist, Confessions of a Master Thief.  In this book Myles Connor Jr, a real Masshole, explains his long career as art collector and art thief (from the MFA, MET, Children's Museum, and Smithsonian among others).  He also describes his life as a bank robber, drug dealer, and inmate of numerous county, state and federal prisons in New England, and eventually across the U.S.  Needless to say I developed a crushlette on the guy who is now in his late 60's, out of prison, and living in MA somewhere.

Myles spent time at Charles Street Jail, which he recalls as being "in a state of putrid decay, the first floor perpetually covered in several inches of standing water, the upper floors infested by giant rats and waterbugs the size of a man's fist... In fact the place was so squalid that the United States Supreme Court eventually ruled imprisonment there to be a violation of a person's basic civil rights."


Now the jail is the luxurious Liberty Hotel. Beth Greenfield reviewed her stay in the hotel for the NYT in 2007, and described her room as "cozy yet airy, with exposed-brick walls and floor-to-ceiling windows that offered river and city views.  The modern furnishings included an off-white divan, black lacquered desk and dresser and an earth merino throw at the foot of the plush white bed."

Greenfield's experience of the place was as cushy as mine. I shot a gorgeous 50th Birthday Party on the 3rd floor rotunda and also attended a screening of a movie in the hotel's outdoor courtyard last summer... the space holds a whole new meaning now after reading Myles Connor's memoir.



...But I digress.... 

I was so disappointed to have finished The Art of the Heist, that I quickly picked up Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures.  The author is Robert Wittman, founder of the FBI Art Crime Team.  

I am only 40 pages into this book and have lined up the third book in my Art Crime crash course already... Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiques at the World's Richest Museum.  This book captures the countless stories of illegally traded and looted antiquities brought from other countries to the beloved museums of The United States.  

So I'm going into the minds of the criminals, the agents, the curators, the investigators, the art scholars ... probably only to learn, once again, that we are all the same.


Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Budding on a Snow Day




Hustling through Boston's South End on my way to the office this morning, I noticed this gorgeous maple. I had to stop and admire its brilliant yellow buds, dangling low.  Poor thing is likely covered in snow now. What a strange winter it has been.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Hawk in the Park



I led a photography workshop at the James P. Kelleher Rose Garden in Boston's Back Bay Fens in January.  This was the only workshop of the five I led for the Boston Parks Department where there was snow on the ground.  That morning I reassured myself that unlike Virginians, Bostonians would not be deterred by less than a foot of snow.

(Alright, I admit it... I would have liked to declare a six-inches-of-snow emergency a la Fairfax County and stay home in my PJ's until I was ready to go sledding.)

I made the trip with with my SLR and my hotties and was glad to be joined by TEN hearty souls. After the lesson we spread out to begin shooting, walking along the water towards the War Memorial.  I soon spotted a hawk totally focused on a rather weak old goose.  A few of the workshop participants also took interest in the spectacle and I think our hawk gawking spared the goose some precious time.

Sometimes one hunter can deter another. I'm not sure what happened to the goose in the end, but here's what I staked out that day:










Sunday, February 5, 2012

Hello??







It called me again
Underneath the city streets
The empty phonebooth





Saturday, January 21, 2012

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

I visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum this week to celebrate the opening of the new wing. Here are some images (captured with my phone) of the new wing in the areas where photography is permitted. I especially enjoyed the living room with its rich warm tones, vibrant orchids growing, and birds chirping. It is a place for people to come and feel at home at the museum... I didn't expect such an amazing museum could get better, but it did! Can't wait to go back and put my feet up in that living room after taking in Ms. Gardner's impeccable collection again.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Happy 2012





First day of the year
Continuing tradition
Colors on the shore





Wishing everyone a year of contemplative walks, good company, and lovely things to look at.