I am deeply saddened by the passing of Jackie Brookner. Her work speaks for itself.
Jackie Brookner TED Talk
Jackie's website
Arts & Healing Network Award

I will miss her, and will continue to be inspired by her.

WEAD and Beauty of Water

I'm happy to have shared some documentary photos recently with WEAD, Women Environmental Artists Directory, showing past work with Beauty of Water in a painting camp in Kerala, India, for Issue 6 of WEAD's online magazine.

Speaking of water, 350.org is calling for action in support of the Philippines in relation to Typhoon Haiyan. I admire their work and encourage readers to check this out and take action.

Re-emergence

Greetings! I have been on sabbatical for nearly a year while pursuing a second Master's Degree and teacher certification. Beauty of Water has been taking a break in parallel, and some changes are underfoot. For instance, we will be switching fiscal sponsors, and may restructure the working model of this small non-profit.

In any case, our mission remains to generate collaborative art experiences on the theme of appreciation for water in communities around the world. Thank you for visiting! I will re-emerge and post here soon.

Sincerely,
Liza Behrendt

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE

An Evening With People for Puget Sound

This evening I had the pleasure of joining a gathering at the home of a People for Puget Sound Board Member. The new Executive Director, Tom Bancroft, had encouraging things to say about the good works of this ambitious group, an organization I admire a great deal. They intend to help restore the Edmonds Marsh, for instance, as well as the 30 or so other areas on the Puget Sound they care for, in concert with numerous other organizations working at grass roots, municipal, and State levels. Movements like this keep me positive and passionate. Thank you, People for Puget Sound. Thank you, Puget Sound itself.

Beauty of Water Website

New Items Published

Catch a Beauty of Water story in Issue 3 of the Women Environmental Artist Directory online magazine, edited by Susan Leibovitz Steinman. This story is a newly revised version of journal-type documentation I wrote during the 2008 Beauty of Water workshop in the Kerala Backwaters.

Also available: a recent audio interview on Robin Escher's Socially Conscious Investing show. The podcast is called "Beauty of Water Brings Connectivity Through Art" and in it Robin asks me about transformative learning, among other topics.

And check out the Arts & Healing Network home page banner... the image on the far right side of this banner might seem familiar!

May we all be well, whole, and connected with world soul.

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE

Global Water Dances in Seattle

Global Water Dances, an event that was held around the world this past June 25th, is a participatory event I've long admired. At 5:00pm in each of 60 different locations a Global Water Dance performance took place, honoring local water while recognizing water worldwide, and our connection with and dependence on water.

The Seattle performance, which I was fortunate to be able to attend, was held on Kite Hill in Magnuson Park. It was lovely! See for yourself in this 11-image slideshow.

Congratulations to choreographers Mary Kay Vadino, Carol Schouboe, and Dallas Williams, as well as the many dancers who volunteered for this occasion.

It was wonderful to be invited with the whole audience to become a part of the final dance ritual. I felt included and connected -- very satisfying for the soul.

Transparent Downspout

Today Mona Fairbanks and a few of us volunteers installed a transparent tube that is functioning as a new downspout in front of Fabric of Life, an idea from Carol Schillios that we all love. I can't wait to see the water running through when it rains, which probably won't be a long wait here in Edmonds, Washington.

See also the work-in-progress Spirit of Water Edmonds website!

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE

Spirit of Water Community Gathering

Last month the Fabric of Life fair trade foundation and Beauty of Water held our second community gathering to continue cultivating creativity toward development of our project Spirit of Water.

Pictured here are the fabulous Carol Schillios, who founded Fabric of Life, and her stellar colleague and assistant, Ariel Macpherson.

This 7-image slideshow captures the spirit of the community gathering, including the centerpiece, a bowl of water from the Puget Sound. We came up with several exciting possibilities this community art piece that we hope will catch rainwater from the roof of the shop.

Soon we'll hold the next community gathering, please contact us for more info. We'd love to have your collaboration! We will also hear from several local speakers who will briefly present the water-related projects that their organizations are working on here in Edmonds.

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE

Introducing Spirit of Water

I am thrilled to introduce Spirit of Water, a community art and rainwater catchment project initiated by volunteers in a partnership between Fabric of Life and Beauty of Water. Spirit of Water has now begun and will take place over time, as our collaborative process is as important to us as our end results. We are excited about both.

We were honored to inaugurate Spirit of Water yesterday with an onsite blessing by Unangan (Aleut) Elder Alice Tu, shown seated in the photo above. Thank you, Alice, your own delightful spirit was a blessing in itself.

Today we held our first community brainstorm session, which was geared toward youth. Led by Edmonds artist and teacher Mona Fairbanks, we shared ideas and investigated one proposed working space, the outside back wall of the Fabric of Life shop.

In two hours together we came up with so many great ideas for the design! I can hardly wait for the next session, where we'll brainstorm with some of the movers and shakers of our community.

Please let us know if you'd like to join this unfolding project.

FABRIC OF LIFE WEBSITE ♥ BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE

Essays on Beauty

"...beauty may be contentious and difficult to define, but it’s also one of the great goods of human life. It is something we all crave..."

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment has published seven commissioned essays on beauty. I did not find these provocative, rather they comforted me.

As Hasan Bakhshi writes, "The appreciation of beauty is a fundamental part of what it means to be human."

Enjoy! And thanks, Chris Fremantle for this link.

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE

Local Happenings

I enjoy focusing on the global level, as I've written of here before. Yet I appreciate being grounded and local, too!

Last night I joined pals from Sustainable Edmonds at an event for Sustainable Works hosted by Green Drinks. It was a clear evening and I enjoyed a spectacular sunset over the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound on my bike ride home.

Speaking of the sound, People for Puget Sound organized a 10-10-10 work party at the Edmonds Marsh. My sister's grade school age kids eagerly joined me and an impressive gathering of volunteers for some good old mud.

In August I had the pleasure of participating in the "How To Bring About Large-Scale Behavior Change" workshop led by Joe Brewer and hosted by Sustainable Seattle. My guest blog post is here.

Meanwhile Beauty of Water projects continue to evolve and emerge in their own sense of rhythm. I have learned not to force collaborative art processes. "Spirit of Water" in partnership with Carol Schillios and the Fabric of Life is one of the collaborations I am excited about. More info on this wonderful project will come in the fullness of time...

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE

Sound with Water at Arts in Nature Fest

Last weekend at the Arts in Nature festival I got to be a kid again. The "Sound Cabin" hosted by Amber Kai Morgan and Garrett Kelly of Hollow Earth Radio was a blast! They had hung an underwater microphone in a tank of water, and provided inspiring tools like leaves and shells for making surprising sounds, using the water as part of the instrument. It was really fun!

Now I'm wondering about including realtime sounds of water in the multifaceted installation we're in the early stages of developing in Edmonds, north of Seattle. Join us if you can.

Throughout the day the elegant Cabiri aerial dancers, two pictured here, from the Anunnaki Project, delighted onlookers.

Thank you, Nature Consortium, for a lovely day!

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE

Beverly Naidus and the Beall

I recently had the pleasure of traveling by bicycle and ferry to see Beverly Naidus, shown here, eco-artist, professor, and author of several books including Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame, at her home on Vashon Island in the Puget Sound near Seattle.

Beverly has begun a new, multi-faceted work called "Eden Reframed: An Eco-art Project for the Beall Greenhouses" in partnership with local non-profit SEEDS and other community members.

After a refreshing salad of greens I picked from her garden, graced with a handful of raspberries and toasted filberts, in other words, nirvana, Beverly took me on a tour of the Beall property, which held commercial greenhouses for many generations, as this 11-image slideshow reveals. The precise site for the project is featured in several slides -- watch for a pile of rubbish in the brush.

The soil at the Beall is contaminated with heavy metals such as arsenic and lead, most of which arrived by way of a formerly functioning Asarco smelter. There is also pesticide and petroleum contamination, making remediation additionally challenging.

Artists have gravitated to the Beall for many years, yet this project is unique. Combining sculpture, ritual, video, oral history, permaculture and more, collaborators will work together to heal this land and reclaim it within the community. Utterly inspiring, thank you, Beverly!

Please visit Beverly's Eden Reframed: An Ecoart Project blog for more photos and updates.

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE

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

Delightfully Rainy Day at NISH

"I loved to feel the rain," said Subhash Viswan, a student in the first batch of the fine arts degree program at the National Institute of Speech and Hearing (NISH) in Trivandrum, after a day of making art on the theme of appreciation for water with Beauty of Water earlier this month.

His enthusiastic comments were translated by Degree Section Coordinator Shirly G., who invited Beauty of Water to co-create this learning experience. "I feel happy. We all feel happy!" Subhash continued.

"We really used our bodies, working with our bodies in a different way making art," commented another student during a reflective conversation after our activities. Also noted: "We started thinking different things. We started using our thinking processes."

We worked on campus, which is on the shores of Lake Akkulam. This news story that ran on July 10th in The Indian Express covers some of the details.

The group included students Tintu Vaghese, Abin Pious George, Shameel, Baby Vijaya, Anju Moy, K.S.Sarathchandran, Sharath B.P., Baiju B.J., Subhish Viswan, Radhika A., Indu P., Parvathy, Lekshmy, Tony Vimal, Naveena L.R., Merin Vimal, Rajimol P.R., Jaisymol, Jim J., Kishore Kumar, Anila M. Vijayan, Niyas M., Deepamol, Parvathy P.V., Priya, Retheesh, Rajalekshmi, and teachers Mohal Lal V. and Renitha R.R., who also got into the action, and may be seen working in the earth in this 27-image slideshow.

Visits from Beauty of Water co-lead Latha Kurien Rajeev and our Italian designer friend Annabella brought additional meaning to the day, as did a gift ceremony presided over by Executive Director of the school, Dr. K.N. Prvithran, who supported the program along with Founding Director G.Vijaya Ragavan.

WE DID IT! Collaborative Painting at Triprayar

A quietly breath-taking spot on the Triprayar River near Thrissur, Kerala, India, was the site for a deeply gratifying experience for me as founding director of Beauty of Water. Ten painters, a mixture of amateur and professional, with yours truly included, painted one painting together on one canvas!

This Beauty of Water Painting Camp took place from June 26-28, 2009, and was graciously hosted by Udaysankar, whose ancestors have inhabited this spot for 400 years. Our theme was appreciation for water. We made solo paintings on this theme as well, and the individual paintings are quite lovely, too, as I see it.

This twenty image slideshow, which includes some photos provided by Udaysankar, taken by professional photographer and camp participant Imababu, give a sense of the camp experience. For those who read Malayalam language, here is a story from the Mangalam newspaper written by Gopinath that ran on July 3, 2009.

The greatest thrill for me, though, and I know my colleagues were excited, too, was in working together on one large canvas. After brainstorming, encouragement from the more enthusiastic among us, and a few giggles, everyone agreed to give it a try. We discussed dividing the canvas into separate panels, but 20-year-old Sujeendran and I convinced the group that to do so would nearly be the same as making solo works. Rather than creating a patchwork painting, we went for a blended image.

Our starting concept was to make continuous waves, with no set boundaries as to who would paint where, and see what happened. Even with this concept established, the first thing to appear on the canvas was a light blue sky, a sign that collective creativity will bring surprises. Slowly people joined in, one by one or in small groups, while others watched with keen interest, and implicit license to observe each other's artistic processes.

I have been imagining a collaborative fine art project like this for years. Beauty of Water has evolved to focus less on artifacts and more on artistic processes, and has always aimed to facilitate collaborative artmaking on the theme of appreciation for water. To see it happen on a canvas was dazzling.

Special thanks go to Baiju Laxman, shown in the entry below, for actualizing this camp with gusto. Painting camp participants included our host Udaysankar, to whom we also owe great gratitude, Rajesh K, Kumaradaz (painter of one of the longest paintings in the world, located in Kovalam), Sujeendran C, Radhakrishnan with his daughter Remya and wife Remani, Baiju Laxman, Valsan PC, Imababu and Liza Behrendt.

BEAUTY OF WATER WEBSITE