Neil Young -The Painter from Prairie Wind

THE COLORS OF MY LIFE

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 THE COLORS OF MY LIFE: MY STORY will address the issues in my life that have influenced my art and my art teaching beginning from my youth till present time. My story will begin with a song which describes me very well. Neil Young, The Painter from the album, Prairie Wind and an artwork which I created to describe my story.  The Colors of My Life by Susan Harmon

2015,mixed/canvas,12' x 5'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWFpf6MdcQo

The Painter stood before her work

She looked around every where 

She saw the pictures and she painted them 

She picked the colors from the air

Green to green 

Red to red 

Yellow to yellow

In the light

Black to black 

When the evening comes

Blue to blue in the night

It's a long road

Behind me it’s a long road ahead

If you follow every dream you might get lost

If you follow every dream you might Get Lost.

She towed the line

She held her end up 

She did the work of too many

But in the end 

She fell down before she got up again

I keep my friends eternally 

We leave our tracks in the sound 

Some of them are with me now 

Some of them can't be found

It's a long road behind me 

And I miss you now

If you follow every dream 

You might get lost

If you follow every dream, 

You might get lost

Remembering my childhood self:
1. How did I act as a child?
I was sweet.I always followed orders.I was sensitive.I always finished my school work early so I had special permission to go to the back of the classroom and draw on the blackboard.
2. What were my favorite things to do?Draw,paint,color,write,ballet,play make believe.
3. What is one of the best memories you have of yourself as a child?When I won a 50.00 oil paint set at the age of 7 years old.It was quite a big deal.I was in the Chicago newspaper.
4. What were you like in elementary school?I was sweet.I was quiet.I was shy.
5. How did you see your friends or how did they see you?I was popular.I had a best girlfriend whom I still know.I had several other girlfriends whom I still connect to ,from Kindergarten.But I was the tallest person in the class and that made me feel awkward.My girlfriends were small.
6. What was your favorite/least favorite teacher like? Why do you think this was so?My favorite teacher was my third grade teacher,Mrs Katz. She was very nice and liked me.We played a game to learn multiplication tables,she threw a ball to us and asked us a multiplication question and we would have to answer by the time we caught the ball.she made me feel special. My second grade teacher was old and mean and scared me so much that I was afraid to ask to go to the bathroom.My parents had to ask special permission for me to leave the class whenever I had to go to the bathroom.
7. Is there one particular incident in elementary that still shapes who you are now as an educator, artist, advocate?When I was 7 I had a horrible accident,I went through a glass door and had to be rushed to the hospital,I still remember the towel my dad held my bloody arm in because we could not wait for the ambulance.When we arrived they kept giving him something and I kept thinking shouldn't they be helping me.I remember the men in white pushing something awful down my throat(pumping my stomach for glass)I spent 3 months in the hospital.I donated all my toys to the kids area,my mother told me and that every morning I would make my rounds to the other kids teaching them to draw.I remember I had special permission, when I went back to school I had to come into the school ahead of everyone through the main doors by myself.To this day  I am sensitive to kids who are different.I am extremely sensitive to this.

I am in the middle in the top row

These are a couple of pictures that I made when I was 11 years old.

REMEMBERING MY ADOLESCENT SELF

REMEMBERING MY ADOLESCENT SELF:

1.What were you like as a teenager?I was pretty.I was a cheerleader and hated it so I quit.I loved nature especially the mountains.I loved art and took classes at The School if The Art Institute of Chicago, after I had taken every art course offered to me at my high school.I dated a bit. I was involved in a Reformed Jewish Youth group with my best friends and we spent weekends on retreats and singing modern versions of important prayers to different synagogues through the Chicago area. I taught and wrote art courses for kindergartners at the Jewish community centers in the Chicago area.

2.What were some of your dreams as a teenager for your future?I wanted to be an artist and an art teacher for young children.I loved to travel and I loved the mountains and Colorado,so I had a dream of living in Colorado in the mountains and travelling summers and making art and teaching art to children during the year,that was my dream.

3.What did you want to be when you grew up?

An artist..always an artist since I was 7 years old.

4. Who were your biggest role models when you were a teenager?Mrs Cerf,my first art teacher at age 7. I was allowed to be in her adult classes so that was a bit intimidating at such a young age. My aunt Lilian Fishbein, who was an artist and showed at the art Institute of Chicago.Mr and Mrs Bergman, who were my grandmother's best friends and lived next door to us in Hyde park,Chicago.They collected art and had all the original Cornell boxes which I could visit anytime in their home(the boxes are now in the art institute of Chicago with a wing named Mr and Mrs Bergman collection)

This is a photo of my parents and siblings and myself at the age of 17,I am next to my dad, second from the left.

This is a photo of me at 12 years old in Spain with the gypsies

ART CREATED WHEN I WAS 17 and WENT TO AN ASSISTED CARE FACILITY AND DREW A WOMAN NAMED GEORGIA<SEE THE ART BELOW.

EXPLORING MY PRESENT STATE OF ADULTHOOD

Explore your present state of adulthood

1.What gives you strength as an adult to cope with the pressures of adult living?
My family;my husband,our 4 boys and even Sophie,our Siberian Husky who is always available for kisses and hugs when things in life become difficult in life.

2.What do you like most about who you are now?
I am Independent but loving.I am emotional yet strong.I am kind and generous yet not over the top,at least not always. I give and care and am loyal.However I keep growing and learning and do not give up esily.I have strong valuses and integrity and know when to say I am sorry and know when to pursue justice for something.I love to teach.However that being said, I am most of all proud about  my work/ research/art ;it is important and drives me with passion, when I read the stories about people's lives stolen from them and I create my art in a response for all to view,well that is my what do they say"aha moment".

3.What do you like least about adulthood?I am a horrible disciplinary person both in my personal life and with my students, albeit I am getting better about holding those responsible for their actions both in my home and in my classroom.

4.As an adult educator/artist what advice would you give to your younger self?Embrace the acceptance into New York University's graduate degree program in Art Education and complete that MA Degree and then go on for the PHD.Do not be afraid of that silly roommate in NYC and of the city.You are just as smart and capable as everyone else.Don't be so afraid of everything and everyone!Trust yourself!

5.How do you feel about your students/peers and what gives you hope about passing on knowledge?I adore my students,well not all of them...lol...but most....It is so very exciting when they grow and learn and try new things and create such exciting art projects and lesson plans.My peers,not so  much.Passing on knowledge to me is easy..I love to learn and that is contagious.

6.What makes you feel like your efforts are futile?When my students do not read the announcements or emails and ask me stupid questions...lol..When some students argue with me over assignments.When students do a poor job on an assignment and what really upsets me is when they seem not to care.

7.Explore your daily routines.I wake early and hug my husband tightly each morning and kiss my Sophie dog and think of my 4 boys all over the words from Russia to Texas; all in graduate school..that is a "wow" way to wake each morning.Then I am on the computer..checking my courses,my FB,etcetc..Then I walk to the yard and smell the flowers and take in the green grass and lo at the sky.Then I walk past all three of my studio spaces and stare and think and sometimes make a mark and other times get too lost and involved and become full of paint..that is not good..because now my youngest son is waiting to take me to teach.I teach at the same college as my husband and in the same art department  and it is small and peaceful and wonderful.well not always..lol..After teaching we workout and cook dinner and make art,talk to the kids on the phone,watch TV have wine and back on that computer................and that is it,my routine.

8.What is your role in your family?Mother/wife/I take care of the money..I organize and make sure everyone stays on task with their work/school/girlfriends/money and they are happy/Sometimes I cook..sometimes I clean ,but I do not do heavy cleaning..no..I do not take out the trash..no..I do cut the grass and make the bed and do the laundry.

9.What do you do every day that makes you happy?
Teach
Make art
Read
Love my family
Sit outside 
Ride my bike(not every day)
Have a good drink(lol)
Eat good healthy food
Sleep(I love that)

Susan Harmon, Artist Fellowship in Costa Rica,2013

Below is a new art series which I created, called Broken,digital photographs, I took and edited,which are informed by the literature I have been reading about women who suffered trauma,2015

EXPLORING WHAT GROWING OLDER WILL BE LIKE.

Explore what you might think growing older will be like for you
1. How do you see yourself aging?Nicely!
I love my life,well.usually...not always...lol
I hope my attitude remains positive no matter what health problems may come my way as I get older.
I love the outdoors and I workout  several times a week.I will travel more.I hope.

All of our 4 boys will be on their own and possibly have families of their own and live all over the world.(at least all over Texas).
2. What are your fears about getting older?
Do I look old?Money problems.Health problems.Will I remain creative and produce intellectually stimulating art to myself and of course others.Will I get Alzheimer disease?
3. How do you envision your life changing as you age?Life will slow down.Through exercise and activity you can prolong your life.I will have to accept my limitations both physically and mentally.

This is  a photograph of my great grandmother with my grandmother so someday I will look similar.

4. How does growing older affect how you view education/art making?Read Artists and Old Age,the book will help with accepting becoming older and producing some of the best art I have done.Marc Chagall said (in his 90's ),he was now learning how to paint..I hope that will be me...

My father and his mother so I will probably look somewhere in between as I age.

THE CONCLUSION OF MY STORY:Cy Twombly's Works on Paper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ-3O7V1qQY

I conclude this blog:MY STORY with presenting two of my most favorite artists in the hopes that my future as an artist/professor will bring me to creating artworks of the same emotional level as these two artists below.Thank you for listening to my story.Please feel comfortable leaving comments below.