Browsing Archive: May, 2010

Shed Identity for Being

Posted by Sarah McCann on Saturday, May 29, 2010, In : Communication 
"Set out afresh the sum to which you attach value and of which you take account."

This quote is from The Thirtieth Year a short story by Ingborg Bachmann. I read it several years ago and remember being blown away and feeling much of what was in it, but now that I am in my thirtieth year I feel even closer to the meaning within Bachmann's words. I highly recommend the story, it is about a man in his thirtieth year that suddenly finds himself changed, he searches for something, something differe...
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Honest Expression

Posted by Sarah McCann on Monday, May 24, 2010, In : Community Arts 
I am currently co-facilitating a project with two amazing groups of people, the young people I work with in my program at the Youth Dreamers and a group of artists that manage and curate a green space on 33rd street here in Baltimore City. We had our first workshop last Thursday and I wasn't sure how it would go. Most planning had happened through e-mail and I didn't know what to expect when all the people came together face-to-face. My students were a little nervous, one of them sick, and we...
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"Turn Around, Turn Around, Turn Around

Posted by Sarah McCann on Saturday, May 22, 2010, In : Personal Experience 
And you may come full circle and be new here again."

From I'm New Here by Gil Scott Heron on his first album in 15 years of the same title. This song came on my i-pod yesterday after a challenging day. A day of some disappointments, some bad surprises, and pure exhaustion. I've been doing much thinking recently about my next choices, where I am going to go and what I am going to do and I will admit, it has been stressful. I realized yesterday that I am at a place where I am new here. I have ch...
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Even Noam Chomsky Needs a Day Off and So Do I

Posted by Sarah McCann on Thursday, May 20, 2010, In : Travel 
The following article about Noam Chomsky taking a day off to rest and relax is pretty amusing and made me consider my own life and whether I was doing enough to keep healthy and sane amidst all that needs to be done: http://www.theonion.com/articles/exhausted-noam-chomsky-just-going-to-try-and-enjoy,17404/

I also read it right before I actually took the first long weekend I have had in a while. Most of my weekends currently are one day. Getting away makes a huge difference. I spent the weekend...
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It All Depends on Who is in Charge of the Money

Posted by Sarah McCann on Friday, May 14, 2010, In : Community Arts 
Last year when I completed my second year in the Community Art Corps, an Americorps program that places artists in partnerships with community organizations and non-profits that is organized and run through Maryland Institute College of Art, I was interviewed as part of an evaluation of the program. Part of that interview has stuck with me, I cannot exactly remember what the question was that led up to the discussion, but Paolo, the interviewer and I got to talking about whether money is bett...
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Hope is not the Same as Delusional Optimism

Posted by Sarah McCann on Tuesday, May 11, 2010, In : Power 
I have work up in a show titled: Hope-A-Holic at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY. The quote from the curator that keeps getting used in the press is about how artists use, "delusional optimism and senselessness [...] to sustain hope." I probably should have read the show description closer before I agreed to be in the show (I was excited to have my work in a gallery, it looks so much better there than in my closet) because there is something I find extremely depressing abou...
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On Updating My Facebook Status

Posted by Sarah McCann on Saturday, May 1, 2010, In : Communication 
It is a beautiful and sunny Saturday and I am at work, at a desk, in front of a computer. I updated my Facebook status this morning to say where I was (Baltimore Clayworks) and that there was a new show in the gallery that people should come see. Since that time I have been tempted to update my status much more than usual. I want to write, "What a beautiful day" "I wish I was outside" "I need a cup of coffee" "I need a snack". Sometimes friends and I joke about how some people update their st...
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This blog will address issues of communication, art, and life from my point of view. It is a means for me to keep writing, thinking critically, and finding meaning in my life and work.