Artists-in-Arms

 

 

Here I am with my friend, the artist, Anna Broell Bresnick.

We met thirty years when we were teaching artists at the Educational Center for the Arts, a fabulous arts high school in New Haven, Connecticut. Anna and I reconnected a few years ago at the funeral for our good friend and colleague, the talented writer and teacher, Caroline Rosenstone.

And now, it just so happens that Anna and I are in residence at the Vermont Studio Center, a community for artists and writers. I feel this is more than a coincidence. It's a miracle.

Anna's sculptures, installations, drawings and paintings--have always been compelling and mysterious with a quiet power that stays with you for a very long time. I wondered about her origin story and so one night after dinner here, we got to talking and she told me about her childhood during World War II in Germany--her family's struggle to escape the Nazis, along with the necessary negotiations, the tremendous fear found in every day life, the tumult and violence and then finally her family’s escape to America. Anna was only eleven years old when she arrived. She didn't speak any English. She was confused, severely malnourished and seemingly lost.

Ah, but she was not lost. In fact, she was found. One day, while sitting in the back of her older sister's classroom in a small town in Pennsylvania--not knowing a word of English--the teacher gave her a piece of paper and a pencil to keep her busy.

She began drawing. And this became her life.

Creative Friends—this is the power of art. It can take us through time and space. It’s travels. And, it connects all of us.

We are living through treacherous times and we will need to be patient, courageous and smart—knowing when it is the time to strategize and when it is the time to strike so that your aim is true.

Know this—miracles happen every day. Your art, your writing, your dance, your music, and your creativity is your passport to a new land, a better world, a safer place. Change is coming, Friends.

In the meantime, have faith and make art.

Love,

Jamie