Thursday, September 13, 2007

A Meme!


How fun! Diann over at Eat'n Veg'n tagged me for a meme... I'm supposed to use the letters of my first name or middle name to mention some things about me that you might not know. It's fun!

A is for Art
I was a Fine Arts major in college, specializing in painting and printmaking. I was very lucky to spend about 6 months in Italy studying art in my junior year, where I met my painting teachers Rose & Claire. They are still a very important part of my life, and have had a very profound impact on me over the years. I'm still really interested in art, although I haven't been making much art lately... due in part to a bit of a crisis of confidence. Not so much about my skills, which are basically good, but more about the place of art in society. Fine arts seem increasingly isolated from society (in museums and galleries), and fewer and fewer people consider arts to be important. Many people (most people?) aren't even sure what to do with art or how to interpret it ... and that often includes me even with my history in art. So, currently I am in a long state of artistic hibernation, waiting for an inspiration that will draw my artistic impulses back out into the open. My working idea is a workshop connecting the principles of yoga with the practice of drawing... In the meantime, you can see my last set of works here.

M is for Meandering.
I really love to travel! It is pretty much impossible for me to hear the name of another country and not instantly be overcome with a desire to go there. I have been very fortunate to already have travelled to lots of places... but there are still so many trips I want to take. When I was growing up, I had many opportunities to go to Western Europe, which was really great. I feel very at home in Europe - especially in Italy where I have spent the most time (5 0r 6 visits) & because I speak Italian. However, it was when Musty & I went to India in 2004 that my travel bug became a full-blown infection! India was marvelous & weird & generally uncomfortable in a way that I somehow couldn't get enough of. I found it exhilarating and stimulating, and all of a sudden I became quite a fiend for uncomfortable travel to unfamiliar places. Ha! Musty prefers lounging on the beaches... so I just might take a few trips on my own in the next few years. :)

Some of the places on the top of my wish list these days are: Russia & various smaller formerly Soviet states, Iceland, Scandinavian tour - in winter & also in summer, Spain & Portugal, Jordan-Turkey-Morocco, Dubai, Ghana, South Africa, and most especially Iran!

Trips I have coming up (so far!) in 2008 - India & China. Yeah!

E is for the fake "e" in my name
Well, the cat's out of the bag now! My birth certificate says "Amy," not "Amey." Back in high school, a relative who didn't know me that well spelled it with the "e" - and I thought that was pretty cool. Please keep in mind that in my high school art class there were 4 girls named Amy, two of them were even named "Amy Smith." So I was desperate for a little unique flair. When I went to college, I started spelling it with the "e". A few years after graduating, I attempted to get rid of the "e"... but the masses revolted. Everyone said to me "But... but... you're Amey-with-an-"e"!!" So... I'm stuck with the ramifications of my youthful decision. It is actually useful as a yoga teacher, precisely because it helps people recognize my name on schedules and posters and such... but I still secretly feel more intimately related to my name without the "e."

Y is for Yoga!
I'm sure you all saw that coming. I actually sat around thinking... "What starts with a 'y'??" Ha! DUH. I first took a yoga class when I was in college, and I don't think it was love at first sight... it was a pretty weird class. But a friend of mine who was a graduate student in the art department started teaching free yoga classes on campus 2 times a week. I am so grateful to her. Her classes WERE love at first site, and yoga quickly became a very important part of my life. I was pretty unhappy in college, and had never been even remotely active or athletic. Yoga gave me a way to be active in my body and calmer in my heart. It has been about 12 or 13 years since my first class, and over the years I feel that yoga has been the single most valuable presence in my life. Studying and practicing yoga has helped me in my various relationships, in dealing with life's difficulties, and in my efforts to be a more loving & effective person on this planet. Of course... there is still so much further to go... and I'm even grateful for that. Somehow, yoga has simultaneously built both confidence and humility - both of which I need/ed more of. I love talking about, thinking about, reading about, teaching, and doing yoga! You can read about my yoga life here.

Thanks for the tag Diann!

I'll tag:
Urban Housewife
Conscious Kitchen
Tippitappi

18 comments:

  1. This was so fun to read, AmEy! Just confirms my suspicions that you are a very cool person, indeed. When I did this meme, travel also held a big place for me. "marvelous & weird & generally uncomfortable" your quote is so right on, this is exactly what draws me to travel, and what I hope to get out of it. We should go to Iran together! I'm serious. Most of my family has gone back a number of times, but I've never had the desire... until your enthusiasm rubbed off on me! Oh, and we should definitely talk about art. My dissertation is all about the place of art in culture, and the possibilities that represents, ... ok, I'm rambling on now! Thanks for sharing all this with us!

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  2. I think that is really clear to put in an extra letter in your name, and it looks great too!

    I have started doing yoga, but i am no where near the stretching capabilities like you are. Thats a great move!

    Candice

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  3. I was so intrigued with your drawing of current world leaders. Sometimes we forget that they were all innocent little kids at one point too. That is what art is to me, something thought provoking. :-)

    And that yoga picture is amazing. I love doing yoga but it always reminds me how unflexible and ungraceful I am, maybe I just need to keep practicing. The most relaxing part to me is the breathing, that's when I truly feel connected with my body.

    What a fun meme, great to learn more about you Amey!

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  4. so nice to learn more about you, Amy!! it's always fun to discover other hobbies/traits/tidbits of fellow bloggers, besides cooking and baking :0)

    the yoga picture is spectacular!

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  5. I really enjoyed getting to know you better, AMEY! You are such an amazingly talented artist! I love lyour portraits from childhood phototgraphs, and especially the one of Condoleeza! I can't wait to see photos from China. Thanks for sharing this! Your "E" is what makes "ME" possible in the middle of your name! :)

    XO

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  6. I'm glad you found my blog... I love yours! All your food looks delicious, and, as a novice Yogi, I'm very impressed by the picture!

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  7. Anonymous1:49 PM

    love the yoga photo and was fun to learn more of you!

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  8. so nice to learn more about you, Amey. i think the added E in your name is pretty cool. just about everyone spells my name with 2 l's, when i only have one. not too much i can do about that though! :)
    i'm jealous of all the amazing places you've traveled to, i want to travel like that in the future.
    that yoga picture is ..wow. is all i can say. so flexible! i've been going to free yoga classes at the gym i'm a member at for about a month, and i can see why you love it!

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  9. Very fun to read more about you! I come by the spelling of my name a little less than honestly too, but I feel much more connected to it than to the alternate spelling and haven't used that in any way for about 15 years!

    Looking forward to hearing more about your travels this year. Sounds like you have some exciting trips planned.

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  10. I was just looking at your paintings and they really are so touching. The one that really got to me was Saddam Hussein- whenever I think of him, there is such a mixture of hate and sadness, and this portrait really brought it all together. A kid who grew up to have such a life of violence, to the very end...
    My question for you is, did you base your paintings on actual pictures of the people, or imagine them as kids?

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  11. Hi Bazu,
    I used real photos as the sources for the paintings... and that was actually the hardest part of the whole project. It's very difficult to find all those old pictures, and some leaders (like Nelson Mandela or Yassar Arafat) didn't even have pictures of them taken when they were children.

    The painting of Saddam is very touching, because already at such a young age you can see a tremendous amount of emotional scarring and "toughness." Very sad, for him, and it turns out, for millions of others as well.

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  12. I LOVED the meme!

    Funny, my daughter did the same "name" thing... Her Great Auntie misspelled her name JessiKa ("with a "K") when she was in second grade with 3 other Jessica's...and she's spelled it that way ever since. People LOVE the spelling!

    She is actually planning on trying to legally change the spelling when she's older. (I think you have to be 21).

    Love your blog. :)

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  13. thanks for sharing! i think its awesome to be learning so much about the people who's blog I go to just about everyday.

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  14. Fun to learn more about you, girlfriend. [Omniman is a printmaker, too.0

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  15. oh my! you've tagged me!!! :o

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  16. That was a great post, Amey. Thanks for playing along. I really envy your creative abilities and if anyone can inspire me back to yoga, it's you. You always have such wise and kind words.

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  17. Loved learning more about you. I'm impressed with your artwork, and I know what you mean about being in a rut artistically. As a writer, I feel like the writing I like to do is not embraced or valued by many people in our world today, so I connected with your statements about art in society.

    I am so impressed with your yoga practice too. I have not done yoga but I am looking into taking a class... I wish I could take yours!

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  18. Anonymous7:48 PM

    Love the pic of you practicing yoga and I'm delighted to get to know you better.

    If you and Bazu plan a trip to Iran, you can count me in as well! I would love to go but that is one place Marty would never go with me (among others - quite like Musty actually). My youngest sister is half Iranian and I think I am more intrigued and curious about her nationality than she is. I remember her Iranian grandmother used to talk to us mostly in Farsi with a little broken English. I loved it!

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