Art + Heirloom Seeds

DC Friends, have you been to THEARC? It is this amazing oasis east of the river. I had the privilege of spending a month or so there this summer while working on the seventh portrait for my AS IS project during a residency with Habitat for Artists.

That painting is now featured on a seed pack as part of Michael Asbill's beautiful project with the Hudson Valley Seed Library. Now Michael is bringing the original artwork back to DC to display as part of a traveling exhibit. Below is some information on the show.

Art of the Heirloom: Cultural Seed Savers
Presented by the Hudson Valley Seed Library

Artists are cultural seed savers, selecting which kernels of beauty, color, and form to keep alive and pass on to future generations. Every year, the Hudson Valley Seed Library commissions new contemporary artists to interpret a distinctive selection of the heirloom varieties in their seed catalog. Artists range from the undiscovered to the up-and-coming to the world renowned. Mediums include oil painting, paper, collage, encaustic, botanical illustration, printmaking, and more.
Each work of art becomes a unique seed pack. The artwork celebrates the beauty, diversity, and stories of the heirloom seeds held within each pack. The original works, twenty one of which are displayed here, form a traveling art exhibit called Art of the Heirloom.

Exhibiting Art of the Heirloom in the Corcoran Community Gallery at the Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus (THEARC) holds special significance. The design for our Genovese Basil art pack was inspired by a community collaboration between HVSL, Habitat for Artists, The Corcoran ArtReach Program, The Washington DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities 5 x 5 Temporary Public Art Project, and THEARC. The pack features a painting of THEARC’s own Keith Cook, Sr. by artist Nicole Bourgea. Nicole painted the portrait as a part of AS IS (an urban portrait project) during her residency with Habitat for Artists. The show also contains works by HFA/HVSL artists Michael Asbill, Simon Draper, Jessica Poser, and Molly Rausch.

Art of the Heirloom on view June 1- 30, 2013
Corcoran Community Gallery
1901 Mississippi Ave SE DC 20020
Monday-Friday: 11 AM - 7 PM, Saturday: 10 AM - 2 PM

www.seedlibrary.org
www.habitatforartists.com
www.nicolebourgea.com

Thank you to our Art of the Heirloom Sponsors Horticulture Magazine and Great Performances.

Hudson Valley Seed Library : Heirloom Seeds and Contemporary Art

www.seedlibrary.org

The Hudson Valley Seed Library is a small, farm-based seed company celebrating heirloom and open-pollinated garden seeds and the relationship between art and agriculture.

Grow Time

It's no secret: Juggling a career and all the other demands of life can be tough. How many of us scramble around trying to pack it all in, only to fall into bed at night feeling like we could have used just a few more hours in the day?

Combine that with the demands of owning your own business, and you may find yourself running around like a chicken with its head cut off, dashing between business and personal tasks. Everyone functions differently, but my sanity solution has been to block-schedule everything. I do not combine work and home. At all. I literally have a separate location for work, a wardrobe for the studio, and a separate name that I use in connection with my art. I pull on my painting jeans every morning and drive into my studio as Nicole Bourgea. Then I come home, change into my Nicole Gleason clothes and pick up my kiddlets from school. 

I realize that this is not for everyone. I have friends who love working from home. For me though, being able to separate career and family ensures that I can dive full-heartedly into each. I can be more present, more engaged and more productive when I block schedule. That may be why I appreciated this blog post from Penelope Trunk. She is a very successful entrepreneur with Asperger's, so her advice is very literal and intense. 

So I'm curious, any advice for packing more quality into the day? How do you handle the work life balance?