President’s Message May 2021
Love yourself, even a little bit each day, and your life will bloom into infinite joy.
–Amy Leigh Mercree
Spring has sprung! May has arrived! I have been watching the flowers bloom. I am feeling so good with more bright sun and warmer weather. I know that a part of keeping the good feeling going is good self care. In the past, the amount of self care that I gave myself was based on the time I had and my inner critical judge. I found that when time was short, I took myself off my own care giving list. After I wised up and added self care back into my life, I found that caring for my feelings turned out to be just as important as caring for my body. When my mood improved, my life improved, including my art work output. I now try to give myself the same gentle care and attention that I would give to children and pets. I am gentle with my own feelings. I nurture myself and I watch myself bloom. I hope that you will bloom this Spring.
We have gotten through this year together and we will see each other soon on May 20, 2021, at Belle Isle. I want you to be with us this Fall, so now is the time to renew your membership. Please renew.
DSWPS is a community of Women Artists, who listen to one another, support one another, and provide a platform in which to show our greatness.
Joya Rush-Keli
DSWPS President
President’s Message April, 2021
Keep looking up! I learn from the past, dream about the future, and look up. There is nothing like a beautiful sunset to end a healthy day. –Rachel Boston
As the days get longer and warmer, it feels good to get out and to be surrounded by nature. Just the act of walking makes me feel better. A walk should be slow enough to be able to look up, look around, and see the feast of colors, shapes, and shadows. Every day is different. The weather is different. The Spring plants are different daily, budding, flowering, and wilting, often changing form from day to day. The sky is different in the passing of a day–it can change from dull grey to brilliant blue, from fire orange, to soft violet, and then to inky black. With so much change going on, I feel life’s relentless push to express itself. I feel my own inner urging to paint something. My hope for you is that you will keep looking up, and dream of all the wonderful things you can see in your mind's eye to create. Let’s look forward, and let Spring be an inspiration to fuel the rest of the year.
DSWPS is a community of Women Artists, who listen to one another, support one another, and provide a platform in which to show our greatness.
Joya Rush-Keli
DSWPS President
April 15 at 10:00 am - online membership meeting via Zoom with a workshop presentation by Kimberly Santini, followed by a brief business meeting.
May 20 at 11:00 am – In person Annual membership meeting on Belle Isle at shed 8.
President’s Message March 2021
In March and April, Winter is beginning to hold back and Spring is beginning to pull towards us. Something holds and somethings pull inside of us too. Inspired by Jean Hersey quote.
I don’t know about you, but I feel like defrosting. I want desperately to come out of hibernation. I am following the rules, but my spirit feels like the lock down within me is unlocking. Hiding wants to seek, slow is speeding up, and my curiosity for life is beginning to increase again. I know that some caution is needed, but life must be expressed and experienced. While it is important to maintain those vital things that I can’t live with out, I want to focus my attention on trying new things, thinking different thoughts, and altering the way I do my art. Novelty is a juicy luxury to me now.
All around me the restrictions are beginning to be released. I am ready to stick my head out. I am sticking my neck out, in describing to you my feelings, at a time like this. As you may have noticed, I have done my best not to mention the words COVID-19 in any of my messages. I have wanted to keep things as light hearted as possible, while we were unable to get together. Now, I am feeling that we are coming to a time, that while we can’t see the light at the end of the dark tunnel, we know we are approaching it.
As I think about moving back into the world, I can see the issue is wanting more and having less. I am holding on to and not loosing what I have, while pulling towards a brighter future of what I can get. I know as I approach this “new normal” future, I want to keep things familiar, the way they were, but I know there will be differences. I have to acknowledge and accept that there have been changes and losses. Some things are just gone that no one can get back, and others are irreparably changed beyond my liking. While my heart reacts with sadness, the my head knows, I can’t cry over spilled milk, and must move on. The “new normal” may not be the old and comfortable, but it is life, my life, our life, now. The hard Winter is passing, falling back, while the Spring of our new future is pulling towards us. Let’s go like clear eyed adventurers into the future, with our backpack of the few vital things we can’t live without, letting go and stepping beyond, what is gone into the past.
If you have ideas about what you would like to see and experience with DSWPS this year, please email me, at jrushkeli@gmail.com. We need your help; please volunteer to help move DSWPS forward. DSWPS is a community of Women Artists, who listen to one another, support one another, and provide a platform in which to show our greatness.
Joya Rush-Keli
DSWPS President
February 2021 Presidential Message
Winter, slumbering in the open air, wears on its smiling face a dream... of spring.
- From “Groundhog Day,” the movie about February 2nd - The Middle of Winter
We are in middle ground. We are in the middle of the coldest part of the middle of winter, in the middle of a stay at home strategy, in the middle of the pandemic. We are all in the middle of a long uncomfortable journey, way past the end of the beginning, but we have not yet come to the beginning of the end. This is when the going gets tough. Do we tough it out and just keep going, or do we stop, rest, rejuvenate, so it will be easier to restart and to keep on progressing? Maybe we do a bit of both, because we can’t stop. We have to keep on going, but resting and changing our focus to restore our energy is vital. In order to rejuvenate, we need to do some of the 7 energy building strategies listed below.
This is a time for simple strategies that will boost us along and push us through.
Self care - rest and replenish your spirit - Spend time on yourself.
Positive self talk - (like) “We absolutely can get to the end, gracefully.”
Visualize a glorious finish - Imagine how good it will feel to be at the end.
Note where you are right now and congratulate yourself for getting this far.
Think up small easy achievable things to do, like drawing or painting for no purpose.
Making our time for making art a feature on your schedule, if you haven’t already done so.
Talk to someone who makes you laugh—sorry—talk to someone who you can laugh with.
Keep calm and carry on… with motivation and resilience. I hope you are taking care of yourselves, and doing what you need to do to get through this season. This is my Happy Valentines wish for you.
If you have ideas about what you would like to see and experience with DSWPS this year, please email me at jrushkeli@gmail.com. I listen to your ideas, and if I can make them work, I will incorporate them into our program. DSWPS is a community of Women Artists, who listen to one another, support one another, and provide a platform on which to show our greatness.
Joya Rush-Keli
DSWPS President
Also…please join us for these upcoming events:
March 9, 2021 at 7:00 PM EST on Zoom
Empowering Women Artists - Discussion & Networking
This is our third event of the Empowering Women Artists collaberative program. This event will be a casual event to discuss a chosen article and network with other participants. Joya Rush-Keli will lead the discussion on the article titled “ Why Old Women Have Replaced Young Men as the Art World’s Darlings” by Anna Louie Sussman, Jun 19, 2017. Here is the link to the article so you may participate in the discussion:
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-women-replaced-young-men-art-worlds-darlings
Discussion and Networking questions:
Is this a trend, and what could it be signaling, in the coming years? Should women artists do things differently, to take advantage of this?
April 15, 2021, 10 a.m. on Zoom
Our first general membership meeting of 2021, on Zoom, is coming!! At 10:00 am on April 15, 2021, we will have a group meeting lead by Kim Santini. The discussion will consider “The Artist Howling at the Moon” and what it means to be on the edge of Trust and Fear. We are putting the fun part of our meeting first, with the last 10 minutes to be used for our business meeting. More details will follow.
May 20, 2021, Belle Isle
Our long awaited in person, socially distanced, Annual Meeting will take place on Belle Isle in May. It appears that heavy coats won’t be needed, but masks will. More details will follow. Save the date for this and all the activities mentioned above.
Presidential Message
January 2021
Welcome to our New Year 2021!
My New Year wish is for all of you to make your own Happy New Year. We have promises of better times to come, but we are not out of the woods yet. Don’t wait to see what comes, but plan and activate your own achievable events and circumstances. What is achievable does not have to be big. Small goals repeated daily become big achievements. The new normal is to expect the unexpected, and be ready for anything. I prefer to lean in towards expecting hopeful circumstances while cultivating joy. This may seem to be a very positive position, but after the rough year we have just had, I don’t advise a cynical position. Being cynical to me, seems like skating on thin ice. We are creative artists. We manipulate matter with our materials, and make something from nothing. With apologies to George Washington Carver, “A good “Artist” takes what she has and makes what she needs.” May we all be empowered to make the year 2021, the best year we can make.
I need your input. If you have ideas about what you would like to see and experience with DSWPS this year, please email me, at jrushkeli@gmail.com. As many members know, I will listen to your ideas, and if I can make them work, I will incorporate them into our program. DSWPS is a community of Women Artists, who listen to one another, support one another, and provide a platform in which to show our greatness.
Empowering Women Artists - Discussion & Networking
Donna Jackson will lead the discussion on the article "What Does Art Have to Do With the Coronavirus?" by Judy Chicago. This is our second event of the Empowering Women Artists program. This event is casual, with participants discussing the article and networking with each other. Here is the link to the article so you may participate in the discussion:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/opinion/art-social-change.htm
When: 01/12/2021 7:00 PM, EST
Where: Zoom. To register for this zoom event, go to Ann Arbor Women Artists > Empowering Women Artists program.
Our Resilience Show runs through January 8, 2020, at the Ellen Kayrod Gallery, located in the Hannan Center, 4750 Woodward Ave. Detroit, Mi. 48201. For those that have unsold work in the show, the gallery pickup dates will be either Jan. 11-13 or Jan. 21-22—check your email!
Joya Rush-Keli
December 2020
Well, believe it or not, we are coming to the end of the year 2020. This has been one of the strangest, and in some ways one of the most challenging years of my life. I have had my expectations dashed against the rocks of hard reality, multiple times. The new normal is that plans can change on a dime. I have learned a mental flexibility, I did not have last year. I have lost friends and former coworkers. I have mourned the loss of what I used to do. I have had months where I was inspired to paint, and I have had months when I have just turned on the TV and watched the passing scene. This was 2020, the year of seeing clearly. I have seen what is truly important in my life, my body, mind, home, family, friends, relationships, and my work as an artist. Sometimes it was as much about what and who wasn’t there, the negative space, as it was about what was there.
I wish you all a Happy Holiday Season, filled with Peace and Joy. I want to thank everyone who has helped, in ways both small and immense, to promote the DSWPS agenda. It has been a pleasure working with all of you, as your President. Your DSWPS Board will meet over zoom in January and February. I will post on our website and in emails to you, about our next DSWPS events. Stay safe and creative. DSWPS is a community of Women Artists who listen to one another, support one another, and provide a platform in which to show our greatness.
Our Resilience Show will run from, December 1, 2020 through January 8, 2020, at the Ellen Kayrod Gallery, located in the Hannan Center, 4750 Woodward Ave. Detroit, Mi. 48201. Across the street from the (DAM), Detroit Artist Market. The opening reception on December 5, 2020, has been changed. It will be VIRTUAL!!! Heads up! Please be aware that details of this event are subject to change. Please check your email and the website for changes in gallery operations, open days, hours of operation, capacity of participants, and if reservations are needed for admittance. For those that have work in the show, the gallery pickup dates for unsold work will be Jan. 11-13.
Joya Rush-Keli
November 2020
Hi DSWPS members—
Courage is not a dead historical artifact. Our founders needed to muster their courage, and face their fears in order to build the organization that we have today. They had the same kind of courage that we need, and they also had the same fears that we have. They made art and kept on working, producing beautiful works of art, in the face of discouragement and prejudice. They embraced the new in themselves, in their work, and in their community. They did not adhere to what had been done in the past. They themselves would not have been accepted in the past as artists because they were women. Their work was often not accepted in their past or in their present. These women, our founders, took up their courage and reached out with vision for new ways of doing things, in the new styles of art of their day. Just because something had been done in the past, that alone was not good enough for them, and it should not be good enough for us.
Courage is not a dead historical artifact. We must muster our courage, and face our fears of change. We must allow new types of artists and new styles of art work to be a part of our organization. Today, I am talking about embracing emerging styles of art that were not well received or unknown in the art world of the early 1900’s, when our organization was founded. I am also talking about inviting younger artists with different styles of art into our organization. If these times have taught us anything, they have taught us we must face change. We have to have the courage to entertain and embrace new ideas and new people. We need to be more like our founders, women of both courage and vision who embraced art and the art movements of the day. While the name of our organization says painters and sculptors, this is not all of who we are, or all of what we can do, nor should it be all that we show to the world.
My position is one of openness, diversity of ideas, art expressions, and people. I hold a profound respect for the courageous women who started this organization. DSWPS is a community of Women Artists, who listen to one another, support one another, and provide a platform in which to show our greatness.
We have two great events for the Holiday Season. Our Resilience Show will run from December 1, 2020 through January 8, 2021 at the Ellen Kayrod Gallery, located in the Hannan Center, 4750 Woodward Ave. Detroit, Mi. 48201, across the street from the Detroit Artist Market (DAM). The opening reception will be December 5, from 12-4 pm. For those who have work juried into the show, the gallery intake dates are Nov. 9-11, 10am-3pm. At the show’s close, the pickup of unsold work will be Jan.11-13, 10am-5pm.
Our collaboration Empowering Women Artists is about to launch its first online event. Our collaborators are the Huron River Art Collective (formally Ann Arbor Women Artists) and the Women’s Caucus for Arts - Michigan. This event will feature author Suzanne Bileak speaking on her book “Great Female Artists of Detroit.” She provides a deep look into women artists from Detroit and discusses building an art career as a Michigan woman.
October 2020
Hi DSWPS Members,
We got our year off to a great start with our first general membership meeting. A microphone, social distancing, masks, lawn chairs, art supplies, and more than 20 friendly voices, made it a wonderful day. The meeting was held at Belle isle at Shelter 8E. The weather started out brisk and sunny, and it warmed up as the day progressed. We held our annual meeting, that was postponed from the Spring, then the general meeting got underway. For pictures see our website, and the DSWPS Facebook page. Our thanks everyone who contributed our success. Hats off to Deborah Maiale who stepped in as acting program chair.
Our next general meeting will be a zoom meeting, on Thursday, October 15, 2020, at 10:00 am. I will send out invitations to every member I have an email address for. If you think you have been overlooked, call me at 313-304-4432. Our next board meeting is on October 8, 2020. After our October general meeting, our next general meeting will be on March 18, 2021. The location of the meeting is TBD. But wait, we will have other things for you to do and see, in the meantime.
We will have an in person members only show coming up real soon. The show Resilience is DSWPS’s Winter Show, opening Dec. 1, 2020 - Jan. 8, 2021 at the beautiful Kayrod Gallery located in the Hannan Center 4750 Woodward Ave. Detroit. This is a juried show. The juror is David Gorman of Park /West Gallery. The deadline for entering the Resilience show is October 25th, 2020. The The entry fee is $30.00.
If you know of a woman who would be interested in joining our group, please invite her to become a member. As you well know, the membership dues are a reasonable $35.00 a year. While a woman can join at any time, there is a deadline for sending in membership dues to us, in order to apply to get into the Resilience show. The deadline is October 15, 2020, and given the mail situation, dues should be sent as soon as possible. We have to have the membership dues before she can apply to enter the show. The deadline for entering the Resilience show is October 25th, 2020. We are using entry thingy. Our website is www.dswps.org.
We are part of a new collaboration called Empowering Women Artists. The collaboration is with with the Ann Arbor Women Artists, and their President Elizabeth Wilson, and the Women’s Caucus for Arts Michigan and their President Donna Jackson. We will be having a joint online event in December 1, 2020. The details will be a part of the website news soon as they are available.
As your President, I will work toward having new information for you by the first of every month. and updates on the 15th of every month. Go to the website at least twice a month for new information. If you have news you want to share, have it written in a form ready to print and email it to our wonderful Webmaster, Kathleen McNamee, K.McNamee@wayne.edu.
We will be sending out Detroit Society of Women Painters and Sculptors information cards, along with the directories. The card is to be given to a women artist or art lover who you think would enjoy participating in our activities and be a part of our arts organization. Please give them the card and encourage them to go to our website and fill out the membership form and send in the membership dues to Kimberly Santini. (I have offered you two recruiting opportunities in the same message.) DSWPS is alive and well, and open for business.
DSWPS is a community of Women Artists, who listen to one another, support one another, and provide a platform in which to show our greatness.
Joya Rush-Keli, President
jrushkeli@gmail.com
September 2020
President’s Message
Welcome new and returning members of the Detroit Society of Women Painters and Sculptors.
This is a year like no other, but that has not stopped your DSWPS Board from being busy working, planning, and preparing for the Fall. Picking up where things were left in the Spring, our scholarship committee has met with the faculty and staff of College for Creative Studies. We are working towards giving out an award to a deserving student, this Fall. Our Exhibition committee is still in talks with Detroit Public Library, and is working on plans for different show for us, at the newly remodeled Ellen Kayrod Gallery, in November or December, 2020.
In an effort to keep our group cohesive, and to practice social distancing, we will have an in-person outdoor general meeting for all of our membership, on Belle Isle. This is the first general membership meeting we have had in 6 months! The meeting will be on Thursday, September 17th, 2020 at 10:00 am, at Shelter 8E. After the business portion of the meeting, we will talk about how this time has effected each of you artistically. After lunch* (BYOL*), we will take out our art supplies and make art on Belle isle. Yippee!
We are in the process of forming a collaboration with two other women focused organizations, Ann Arbor Women Artists, (AAWA) with Elizabeth Wilson, President, and Women’s Caucus for Arts Michigan (WCA-M) with Donna Jackson, President. The collaboration of our three organizations will be called Empowering Women Artists (EWA). We are planning two digital events for the Fall.
DSWPS has not yet found someone to do the Newsletter, so each one of you will have to check the DSWPS website for news and announcements, regularly. If you would like to do the newsletter, or just be involved in a part of it, please let me know, at jrushkeli@gmail.com.
( The position of Program Chair is also still open. Contact me if you are interested.)
DSWPS is a community of Women Artists, who listen to one another, support one another, and provide a platform in which to show our greatness.
Joya Rush-Keli
President DSWPS