New Beauty of Water Website

I am delighted to announce the newly redesigned Beauty of Water website, integrating more photos, sharing more information about our projects, and making it easier to connect with our work.

We loved the old site, but simply outgrew it.

Please drop a line to send your thoughts on what you like and what could make this new website even better. Thanks!

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE

Scriber Lake High School Mini-Course

tranquility / splashy / opaque / beauty / refractive / wet / glowing / soaking / marveling / drenched / promiscuous / strange / pure / pristine / abrasive / bottomless / transparent / wonderful / polluted / creative / loud / majestic / devious / developing / abused / living / powerful / taken for granted / luminous / beautiful / interesting / priceless / refreshing / spiritual / quiet / persistent / sensational / temperamental / graceful / noisy / indifferent / immortal / wild / an influence / moral / lamella / water / art / reflection / vigorous / shiny / ever-lasting / repetitive / relaxing / calming / smooth / awesome / clear / flowing / chaos / fluxuating / questioning / peaceful

These words graced the Beauty of Water Mini-Course at Scriber Lake (Alternative) High School, as they were provided by twenty participating 9th through 11th graders when asked to describe water from an artist's perspective. The workshop, which ran from April 19-23, drew inspiration from the learning series we offered through the Raja Ravi Varma College of Fine Arts in Kerala in 2008, curriculum available.

Teacher Mike Carey and I facilitated classroom time combined with visits to the lovely Marina Beach Park on the Puget Sound in downtown Edmonds, Washington. On Friday we were joined by the wonderful Leon, volunteer shown in the top image above. This 17-image slideshow provides a glimpse of our experiences.

Students produced slideshows using their own photos, sculptures, poetry, hand-held collections, and spontaneous practices including skipping stones, which became the launching point for digital videos.

We asked students, "If the water at the beach we visited this week could talk, what would it say to you?" Here are some of the responses:

• It would tell me 'jump in!'
• I appreciate your art sculpture you made for me, it was delicious.
• I'm glad that people appreciate me, I wish more people could see the beauty in me and treat me respectfully.
• Whaddup?
• Thank you for visiting me today and studying my nature.

My favorite feedback? "Great!" "Fabulous!" and "Perfect!" It was!

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE

Resurfacing

Beauty of Water is alive and well. Waves of activity swirl and dissipate, while under the surface churning continues.

I am reminded of the first phase of our work in India, during which new connections formed like a neural network, and every day was exciting in the project's new location.

I notice the same tentative yet grounded exploration here in Edmonds, Washington, a quiet hum of happenings and connections that can help take the project forward. While I'm not new to the USA, Beauty of Water is taking its first tangible steps on this continent.

I recently gave a presentation to the good people at the Edmonds Daybreakers Rotary. I'm also working with a colleague at Scriber Lake High School to apply for a grant... more when there's more to tell.

One finds abundant inspiration for celebrating water. In this photo I am privileged to be drinking directly from the source. Gratitude to all who rallied to rescue Mt. Shasta Headwaters, one of so many bodies of water we can appreciate with all of our hearts... and creativity.

Shshshsh, I'll tell you a secret. A new Beauty of Water website is coming soon!

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE

At Home in the Puget Sound Region

There have been many changes in my life in the past few months. I now live in the Seattle area, USA, with my father and husband, within bike or bus distance of my sisters, their lovely families, and our visiting Swiss friends. Wow! I lived in ths area after college, and in 2007 while launching Beauty of Water, so this is one of my homes.

It's been a joy to be here, but I deeply miss India and the people and places that were home to me there. I take heart in my plan to return for Waterwalk with Latha Kurien Rajeev and others in 2010.

Shortly after arriving to Washington, I had an experience that helped me feel I'm in the right place. I went to the Edmonds Art Walk and had the honor of meeting Carol Schillios. Since July 31st, Carol has been living in a tarp TENT on the ROOF of her all-volunteer run store, Fabric of Life, and it gets COLD here! Do check out her remarkable story! Within minutes of meeting and talking together, Carol suggested that we exhibit at her store the collaborative painting done at the Beauty of Water painting camp in Thrissur. Yes! I'll report back on this in time.

Meanwhile, the first annual Blue Festival, "celebrating wild and healthy oceans," was worth a trip downtown. On a sunny, crisp, Seattle day, this volunteer, Joy Lynch, of the WSU Beach Watchers, spent her time leading water-inspired art projects. There were many good people at the ambitious and successful event, ready to inform, inspire, and induct volunteers who share the intention of keeping the Puget Sound safe and healthy for all. Well done.

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE

The Rainbow Rainstick: A Collaborative Piece

This summer these children collaboratively produced this stunning rainstick, which carries a lot of love and intention, and donated it to Beauty of Water!

Teachers Emily Frost and Gena Rabinowitz founded a unique environmentally focused art camp held in Oakland, California, which explored a different aspect of the environment each day. The young artists of the Rainbow Rainstick made the instrument at camp, and also collaboratively created a myth, downloadable here. Here are some words of reflection they offered:

Appreciation,
Beauty,

Magical, Nature-filled,

Brilliant.

Colorful, Collaboration – Fabulous!
Peaceful, Delicate

Rain.

I met Emily, shown here in butterfly wings, at Andrée Singer Thompson's Ecoart Matters class last May, and within minutes we both felt the charge around the idea of making rainsticks, which have a special magic.

That charge was felt halfway around the world as well. Beauty of Water Co-Lead Latha Kurien Rajeev and I had been gestating ideas for our yet-to-be-born Lucid installation, and we wanted to offer a multi-sensory experience of water. "Rainsticks!" Latha cried, and went on to explain how participants in the installation could create a symphony of the sound of rain. We both saw in our collective mind's eye a tree holding these musical instruments, and began imagining working with rainsticks from around the world. Soon long-time Beauty of Water supporter Diana Verhalen, with husband Brian, donated a rainstick, and then Lajwanti Waghray donated another, and we heard from people in several other places who are interested in a rainstick making journey...

Gena, shown here in the waters around Koh Tao, Thailand, is a photographer and former art teacher at Park Day School. She will be joining Latha later this year for a series of art activities in Kerala, India, including more rainstick making with youth.

Thank you, Gena, for providing this 22-image slideshow that gives glimpses into the process as well as stunning detail of the rainstick and other rainsticks the artists made!

If you would like to make rainsticks to donate to Beauty of Water, please drop us a line!

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE