Friday, December 2, 2011 at 11:07AM If you feel like taking a break from the malls and the superstores, peek into these two lovely shops that feature splendid work by local artists. (Psst, you can find my work there too.)
Ann Arbor Art Center
Gallery Shop
117 W. Liberty Street
Ann Arbor, MI. 48104
(734)994-8004
The Artisan's Bench
307 W. Main St.
Brighton MI
(810) 227-4751
Friday, December 2, 2011 at 10:35AM If you're interested in assemblage and altered books, check out my workshop at the Ann Arbor Art Center.
STUDIO 44 WINTER ADULT WORKSHOP SERIES
"Location: The Art Center | Ages: 18 & up | Term: Fall 2011
Mon-Thurs: 12/12-12/15/2011 11:00am-2:00pm Michele Bagnasco
Studio 44 is a new series of intensive adult workshops. Professional teaching artists will guide students through concentrated workshops in a variety of mediums and techniques.
Assemblage Art
A book may be our window to the world or into our collective soul, but what happens when an artist transforms that book to express their own vision? Find out for yourself. Learn to create an alter book with an assemblage niche. Bring a destructible book and a selection of personal materials that inspire you or browse the class selection of old books and materials."
Monday, June 6, 2011 at 01:31PM Last week-end I displayed my work at the Kalamazoo Art Institute's Annual Art Fair. Everyone seemed to appreciated the lovely summer weather and I was happy to get a chance to chat with some previous patrons and some new ones too. I made some new friends and even got a recommendation on an author that I hadn't heard of before, Jasper Fford. I'm excited to give his books a try.
I sold the first two pieces in a series of Candy Tin tiny assemblages that I am working on. Please check back soon for photos or, if you are interested in seeing the pieces in person (a photograph is never as good as the real thing), take a peek at my schedule.
Now I have to go unpack my van [groan!].
Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 02:22PM 
Yesterday a phrase came up in a discussion I was having with a group of people online. The group's interest is in science and medicine, the discussion was regarding the idea of a soul that exists as a separate entity from the physical aspects of the body and brain. Are science and the concept of a soul completely at odds? During a discussion where names like "dualist" were thrown like knifes and my lame jokes regarding Doc Holliday fell on deaf ears, a phrase was thrown out by one of the commentors, "Actions of the Soul". This phrase set my mind turning.
I am completely incapable of passing up such a lovely phrase. Although I do not prescribe to a particular religion, I do think of myself as spiritual. In my mind, spirit being that capacity for a person or people to transcend their circumstances. The question that comes to my mind is: what are the factors that cause a person to be built or broken by hardship, for a people to submit or rise up when confronted with tyranny, for an individual to ignore or help someone in need. I guess (simplistically) these are the things that I would consider to be actions of the soul.
Our biology, evolution, history, culture and religion combined all inform these actions. But to understand them completely from the perspective of science is like understanding a Goya painting based on it’s molecular structure. That is not to say science shouldn’t try… But at this point, in those spiritual decisions, science is not the best guide (for me). Or perhaps, more accurately science is only one of the stars to navigate by.
I guess the more obvious parallel is ethics. While science can inform ethics on possible consequences, to explore ethics is not the pursuit of science.
There, that is about as clear as mud. But at least it won’t be knocking around in my brain any longer.
