The gods have had their time... it is high time for the goddesses to take center stage! Celebrate the Divine Feminine at the Los Angeles Makery at 260 S. Los Angeles St, LA, CA 90012. Curated by A. Laura Brody, founder of of Opulent Mobility.
Give me that real old time religion! Goddess worship, that is. Goddesses come in a wide variety of forms and guises and we celebrate them all. Opening events: Sunday, September 3 from 1-4 PM Invocation to the Goddesses by A. Laura Brody Poetry reading by Lisa Broadway Chow Interactive art by Adele Satori Music by The Morrigan Music by The Morrigan and interactive art by Adele Satori at the First Thursday event, Thursday, September 7th from 6-9 PM. Sunday, September 10, 4-6 PM: DIY goddess jewelry and short Tarot reading with Troy Cantu and an Orisha inspired poetry reading by Tricia Alkmia Cochee. Sunday, September 17, 4:30-6 PM: Autumnal sound bath and guided meditation with Adele Satori Sunday, September 24, 4-6 PM: Goddess talk with the artists of Enter the Goddess(es) Artists: Regina Argentin, A. Laura Brody, Oscar "Vomit" Cano, Troy Cantu, Mary Cheung, Rebecca Contreras, Edith and Jolly de Guzman aka dearantler, Elizabeth Estrada, Patricia Fortlage, Malcolm Hoffman, Shireen Jamehdor, Lois Keller, Austin Lubetkin, Cathi Milligan, Lola Mitchell, Mahtab Mohammadi, Penny Richards, Adele Satori, Catherine Singer, Kellie Thomas-Walker, Lisa Tomczeszyn, and Cheyann Washington. Thank you all!
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We're making and mending at my downtown studio this fall! Learn fun, simple, and fabulous ways to mend your much loved clothes, create fancy fabric portraits, and make your own rag rugs from scrap.
You are most welcome. Visible Mending at the Makery is Sunday, September 10 from 1-3 PM PST. $95. Let’s mend the world instead of trashing it. Visible mending makes repair fun, meditative, and beautiful. We’ll use techniques inspired by classic Japanese Boro and Sashiko hand sewing and turn your worn out clothing into wearable art. This is a great way to keep old clothes out of the landfill, save their memories, and to sew in good company. Bring items you love that need mending! Supply your own materials or purchase on site: embroidery floss and needle, patching material, and pins. Instructor provides pins, scissors, and thread conditioner. Textile Portraits at the Makery is Sunday, September 17 from 1-3 PM PST. $95.Our inspiration for this workshop is the artist Faith Ringgold! She is a painter, sculptor, teacher, performance artist, and writer best known for her painted story quilts. Her work covers personal, political, and social issues and is often a combination of images and text using both fabric and paint. Bring in a picture of loved ones (or a favorite scene) that you want to create in fabric, and we'll break it down into parts and create your own work of art. Supply your own materials or purchase on site: packets of fabric, embroidery thread and needles, and marking wax. Instructor provides scissors, pins, tracing paper and pencils, and fabric glue. Image by artist Kim Kyne. Rag Rug Making at the Makery is Sunday, September 24 from 1-3 PM PST. $95. Turn your old clothes and fabric scraps into beautiful rag rugs! Rag rug making is fun, meditative, and a great way to keep worn out clothing and materials from going to the landfill. We'll cover basic twisted and braided rag twine and use it to start building a rug of your own. Supply your own materials or purchase on site: scraps of material or old clothes in colors you like and a hand sewing needle and thread. Instructor provides safety pins, scissors, and thread conditioner. The Plague Wear Gala premieres tonight! 7/29/23 at 9 PM PST on YouTube, link coming soon. Thanks so much for your patience- I think it is well worth the wait.
This one of a kind ASL interpreted online exhibit asks artists to share their art and designs to ward off plagues of all kinds. I think you'll be as fascinated and delighted by the results as we are. The artists of the Plague Wear Gala are: Amy Bauer, Kat Chudy, Bronte Grimm, Rachel Gibson, Samuel Goldstein, Ash Hagerstrand, David Isakson, Gwen Kennedy, Austin Lubetkin, Noel Molloy, Penny Richards, Christine Yelich Roberts, Johanna Siegmann, and Misty Stokes. Curated by A. Laura Brody, founder of Opulent Mobility. Many thanks to Bronte Grimm and Iris Jade Grimm for their editing and design expertise, to Diana Elizabeth Jordan for directing, and to Pro Bono ASL for interpretation. And of course, thank you to all the artists! You are awesome. Many thanks to Kristine Schomaker of Art and Cake for inviting me to participate in Reflections on Success! I am in such great company. Camilla Taylor and Amanda Maciel Antunes are amazing.
My portion of the article: "Success is such a loaded word. For a long time I felt that it was unachievable, meant for others and not me. I didn’t believe it was possible to get there no matter how hard I worked or how much I tried. That came from a conventional idea of success, that notion of being rich and famous and perfectly satisfied with life. That didn’t seem real, and it still doesn’t. Who is ever perfectly satisfied with their life? I also thought I would know what success looked like if I got there. Later on I realized that in some ways I had already achieved success and didn’t recognize it. That didn’t matter when the success took forms that fit other people’s standards. Success is a shape shifter and is inherently personal, and human nature means that if we have desires we are rarely satisfied for long, no matter what level we reach. In some ways I am dramatically unsuccessful and vastly under-prepared for adult life, at least in terms of retirement savings and financial security. In other ways I am successful beyond my wildest imaginings. My 20, 30, or even 40 year old self could not have fathomed the directions I would take or how far I’ve come. The past dozen years have taken such a dramatic turn away from the career trajectory I expected, and those shifts have come with achievements that I had no idea I wanted. And there is still more that I want to build and create and develop with others. I stumble my way through new technologies and pathways and creative growth and somehow find wondrously kind, supportive, and generous people who teach me to grow further. If that’s not success, I don’t know what is." Thanks for joining me on this road, wherever that leads. XO Laura Here's what's coming up on Genius Teatime!
After July 8 we'll take a break until September 2, and then offer talks every other Saturday. This is such a wonderful community series, and it's worth taking a little time so that each talk can shine- AND so I can keep doing this effectively. Click the picture to find out more and sign up to become a speaker! We'd love to share your genius. June 3 Olivia Pepper To Become Living Poetry- An Oral History of Occultist Ritual Theater from 1870s-current Your donation will benefit the original custodians of the land on which Olivia resides: https://www.chihenendenationofnewmexico.org/make-a-donation. It will also benefit our speaker and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. Sign up here June 10 Noel Molloy Art From Trash- How repurposing helps us, our relationships, and our environment Your donation will benefit Greenpeace, our speaker and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. Sign up here June 17 Joan Stevens Plants save the world: Action strategies for a resilient future Your donation will benefit Amigos de los Rios, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. Sign up here June 24 Miry Whitehill Welcome, Neighbor Refugee resettlement in the United States: How it works, how it feels, and how we can support our resettling neighbors. Your donation this week will fund Miry's List, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. Sign up here July 1 Jenny Jeski On Polyamory (a personal story) Your donation this week will fund Black Trans Lives Thrive, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. Sign up here July 8 Johanna Siegmann 50 Is Just the Beginning: Starting a career when your peers are retiring. Your donation this week will fund the Apex Protection Project, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. Sign up here Thanks so much for being part of this. Y'all are awesome. XO Laura Please give today! Your donation to the Opulent Mobility 2023 fundraiser will help us thrive. You'll also receive fine art cards and prints of founder A. Laura Brody's mobility artworks.
Opulent Mobility asks artists and audience members to re-imagine disability as opulent and powerful. Our vision is a world where disability is celebrated instead of denied, ignored, and feared. Opulent Mobility brings disability art into the fine arts realm, gives opportunities to disabled artists, and starts conversations between disabled and able bodied people about creating a more equitable world for us all. The idea for these exhibits began when founder A. Laura Brody’s former partner had a stroke. During his physical therapy, she met an 85 year old man and a four year old girl doing stroke rehabilitation. It was crystal clear that disability could happen to anyone at any age for any reason. While she was fascinated at the adaptive devices that helped people get around, she was put off by their cold and clinical designs. Eventually, she invited others to re-imagine disability through the lens of art. Each year Opulent Mobility puts out a new a call for art that brings in artists from across the country and around the world. Since 2020, online artist talks and video tours of the exhibits became part of the annual offerings. This year Opulent Mobility is expanding into weekly online programming covering a wide range of topics with a community lecture series (Genius Teatime), individual artist interviews, and an online Plague Wear Gala that asks disabled and able bodied artists to develop their own high style plague repellant designs. This new programming is rapidly expanding Opulent Mobility’s audience and outreach and will benefit even more artists. In addition, we are starting to offer Opulent Mobility as a touring exhibit along with online workshops on the importance of the disability perspective, getting into the art world as a disabled artist, and developing exhibits for beginners. This year our goal is to rapidly expand our audience and make the exhibits and new programming accessible and welcoming to folks who are blind, low vision, hard of hearing, or Deaf. This means ADA compliant spaces, audio and ASL descriptions of the artworks, more online offerings, live captioning, and ASL interpreters for live and online events. We are partnering with Pro Bono ASL, an interpreting service which provides free ASL for Deaf people and a sliding scale fee for the hearing, and will hire Deaf interpreters to add ASL videos to the website. Cheryl Green, a survivor of and longtime advocate for people with traumatic brain injury, will provide corrected captioning. Your funding will also help artists who cannot afford art transportation; digital files can be printed and framed on site, relieving artists of the cost of shipping and insurance. Thank you for your generous support! Let's re-imagine disability together. Take part in the art and enjoy teatime with an array of fascinating speakers!
Upcoming calls for art: The Plague Wear Gala seeks your designs and creations that help ward of pandemics and plagues of all kinds! Deadline to submit is now extended to June 1st. In Enter the Goddess(es), the divine feminine takes center stage. Share your work that centers the goddess(es) by July 8. And Opulent Mobility 2023 is open for submissions! We want your art that re-imagines disability as opulent and powerful. Submission deadline is July 31. Genius Teatime talks April-May: April 29 Abbe Dotson Understanding Real Estate: A Casual Conversation about How to Buy, What To Buy and When To Buy Sign up here May 6 TBD May 13 Mindi Trimble Getting Majorly Determined: Supporting College-Bound Students to Embrace Uncertainty, Stand Out, Get In to their Dream School Sign up here May 20 Austin Lubetkin Multi Sensory Approaches to Accessibility, Technology, and Art: Ways to make art and tech more accessible to us all. Sign up here May 27 Socks Whitmore Trans Inclusivity in Artistic Spaces Sign up here Submissions for OM 2023 are now open!
Opulent Mobility challenges you to imagine a world where disability, mobility, and access are not merely functional, but opulent. In a time where COVID protections are being lifted but the dangers are still very real, what does opulent mobility mean? Share your art that re-imagines disability and true freedom of movement! We accept 2-D and sculptural work, music files, and performances on digital media. Early deadline to submit work is July 31, final deadline August 31. A flat $20 fee covers administrative costs, and artists may share up to 10 works each. Please contact the founder A. Laura Brody if the fee causes hardship. Get in touch with any questions. And good fortune! Tonight, we weave at the Los Angeles Makery in conjunction with the DTLA Art Walk. In these times of turmoil and injustice, I need joy to refuel. Maybe you do too?
Join me for these joys: Folks everywhere can tune in to Genius Teatime for great talks and community, sign up to become a speaker (to benefit you AND your charity of choice), and become part of the Plague Wear Gala. LA locals, check out A Common Thread at ArtShare LA and weave with me at the Los Angeles Makery. Let's get joyous together. 1. Now accepting entries to the online Plague Wear Gala through May 1st. Share your designs to help ward off plagues off all kinds and make folks aware that nope, the pandemic ain't over yet. We'll convene end of May for a Zoom gala and air the show beginning of June. 2.The Opulent Mobility 2023 call for art opens April 8! Share your work that re-imagines disability as opulent and powerful- deadline to submit is July 31 (or August 31 for latecomers). Check out the website for past shows. The show will go up online end of December 2023 and opens in person January 7, 2024 at the Los Angeles Makery. 3. It's high time for the goddesses to take center stage. The call for art for Enter the Goddess(es) opens April 15, deadline July 8 and will run August 13-September 16 at the Los Angeles Makery. 4. And have you joined us yet for Genius Teatime? This weekly lecture series is a delight. Check out the last blog post for the next few talks and sign up as a speaker online! Spots Saturdays from 3:30-4:30 PST and there are available spots June 24- July. We'll start booking the fall slots once the summer talks are full. Genius Teatime has taken so much more effort than I imagined. Isn't that always the way?
Overall, though, it is a delight and well worth the effort. The next few talks are fascinating and I'm so looking forward to them! Please join us for: March 25: David Resnick They did WHAT with their MOUTHS?–and how technology radically accelerated the evolution of beatboxing Your donation this week will benefit the National Stuttering Association, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. Sign up here April 1: Laura Young Debunking the Myth of the Starving Artist- Flipping the script on the idea that artists are crummy with money, how current labor and income data does a terrible job at collecting accurate financial narratives of creative folks, and a call to action for culturally competent and intergenerational financial literacy in order to increase diverse voices in the arts. Your donation this week will benefit the Art Prof, a free visual arts resource that is super inclusive: their artmaking ideas are all low- or no-cost using found materials. Local to Los Angeles is the Lineage Performing Arts Center. They teach free classes for disabled people to promote mind-body connectivity and joy through performing arts. You will also help the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund offer ASL interpretation. Sign up here April 8: Kate Anthony The Roots of Codependence Your donation this week will benefit The M3ND Project, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. Sign up here April 15: Gia Mora 10 Easy Ways to Green Your Life (and Look Fabulous Doing It) Your donation this week will benefit the Sierra Club and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. Sign up here April 22: Susan Ruth Following the Unseen Road: How to keep going even when you're not sure where you're going, because you don't know how to not keep going. Susan Ruth is the human behind the podcast Hey Human and is directing her first indie horror film. She’s also a painter, singer/songwriter, and tarot card reader. Your donation this week will benefit the Trevor Project, our speaker, and the Opulent Mobility accessibility fund. Sign up here |
A. Laura Brody
I re*make mobility devices and materials and give them new lives. Sometimes I staple drape. Archives
August 2023
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