Peggy and Laura Schadler are up to Slide Show Shenanigans

Jules Coon has collected several old slide projectors. She is going to have four going simultaneously in one of the barn stalls. I wanted to add some slides to the mix. Laura and I have been taking photos all over San Francisco to make a slide show story entitled, "In a Dream"

Louise Riley Embroidery Artist

Biography

born: Detroit, may 1981
bred: London

I got into embroidery when my teacher, on my birthday took me to see an Alice Kettle talk at the V&A. I was utterly in awe, I had just turned 17.
It was a complete turning point for me.
Embroidery, to me, is my medium, I am a literal artist, I don't play with irony, I fell in love with it because of it's texture, I pursued it because of it's meditation and it's creation of time and now it has been a decade and it's simply how I think.
Moving back into sculpture has been a great turning point as my other love was way working with clay. Now I feel I am getting the full fix. It is beginning to add new materials into my work, this is technically and conceptually a very exciting time, I feel like I am in the middle of an explosion of ideas, opportunity and possibility.
I never made it in art school, I tried a few times but, although I had an incredible thirst to create, I felt quite imprisoned by collage. I am happy to keep evolving in my own way. I am always moving forward, even if it is by making mistakes. Having a daughter has defiantly made me challenge myself more.

Artist Statement
I am interested in life's quest. The force that draws us through our thorny path's. I find it fascinating how predictable and startling humans are at the same time. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by how amazing people are, how beautifully designed, something I thought a lot about while breast feeding my daughter, who so neatly fit into the curve of my body- inside and out. These thoughts give me virtigo and I have to convince myself it is all ordinary to get my balance again.
At the moment my work is exploring relationships. It started from a piece I made called "Joined at the Hip and Bent Over Backwards". It was inspired through my conversations (my main inspiration) with some friends, a couple. Through this regular communication fine details and structures are revealed, their dynamic. I imagined them being connected by strings, some connections causing joy and others causing pain and struggle as they seemed to be so balanced. From this I have moved on to an interest not only in couples, but families and from families to communities and from communities to society. Exploring unity, disconnection and their effects.
I have been using the mattress as a part of my work for the obvious reason of its textile, therefore tactileness. The tradition of embroidery on household furnishings cannot be ignored, neither the 3 dimensional presence, they give my figures body, substance, they have a skin as well as insides, it has added an exciting sculptural element to my ideas. The main reason is its universal presence in our lives. Filtered thorough its padding is a history of ourselves much like a tree on mattresses, we spend more than a third of our lives on them and they support us in our death. They have our DNA, they have our blood, sweat and tears. They are a literal infinite memory. A raw portrait.

Lovely Lisa Leftwich

Artist Statement

I began to paint when I found myself in a city after 10 years in the Alaska bush. I just could'nt cope with cement and with all the energy of the people, so I found and old piece of wood and began to "paint". I am not a trained painter and don't care about being one. I am a storyteller with a paintbrush. My music is about storytelling also. On my daddy's side there are many storytellers and musicians so I guess it's part inherited and part me. My stories are true. I don't judge art, I feel it. My paintings have saved me. Don't wait for the storm to pass, dance in the rain.

Lisa

Craftsman Bruce Westfall

Locust wood works custom built by Bruce Westfall
Nethers, Virgina

Linda Ramer, Everyday Myth and Magic

Biography

Linda Ramer is a graduate of VCU in Richmond, Virginia, with a degree in painting. She has spent years studying cultural dance and works as a gardener and designer. After exhibiting sited and environmental sculptural works for many years, she returned to painting in the late 1990's. "Everyday Myth and Magic" is Linda's current ongoing series of works. Many new pieces will be displayed at the upcoming Bohemian Banquet.



Bees and Flowers
Hawks and Owls
we continue to create
through love (and hate)
not knowing the full implications
we are gifted this
Beautiful Blue Jewel
flowing rivers, ebbing oceans
the water is sacred
the water is pure
with gratitude I offer
the hard won amrita
of my heart
body and spirit is our
true Art.

Monica Newell is MonSteR ArT... Painting / mixed media ster Art

Artist Statement

I am an eleven year resident of Rappahannock County and proud mother of two amazing boys. I have lived in many places in the US and am happy to have settled here in such a beautiful and quiet place. I paint in a private studio at Oldway Art Center in Sperryville and show my work locally. Last year I gave up my shop on Main Street where I sold oddball whatnots and fine art but have now been able to enjoy the peaceful life of painting without distraction. Although I miss the art of resale and scavenger hunting, as I am a world class finder of hidden gems, I am happy to have uninterrupted time being zen, listening to the art and talking to the sky.
I am thrilled to be a part of the Bohemian Banquet and am so thankful for the ladies who have been working so hard to pull it together for us all.

*Blessings to you*

Teresa Boardwine an artist with herbs

Biography

As an educator, medicine maker and clinical herbalist Teresa enjoys spending time with people and plants. She teaches and lectures at many venues in and around Virginia. Her consultation business, Green Comfort is operated from her home Apothecary. As the former co-founder and administrator of Dreamtime Center for Herbal Studies, Teresa taught Nutrition and Laboratory Practicum in that business for 7 years. Her education includes completion of several certificate programs with Dominion Herbal School, The California School of Herbal Studies, Emerson School of Herbology, the Natural Gourmet Cookery Institute, and the American Polarity Therapy Institute. With degrees in Home Economics Education and Science, Teresa taught in two international high schools in Germany where she began her exploration of whole food, spiritual growth and natural healing. Her journey led her to live in Europe for 10 years, a life changing experience from which she continues to draw. Her healing work incorporates the five elements, constitutional diagnosis and plant energy from her studies of Plant Spirit Medicine, Sacred Plant Medicine and Traditional Diagnosis. She has studied with David Hoffmann, Matthew Wood, Amanda McQuade Crawford, Eliot Cowan, Stephen Buhner and Chancal Cabrera. Her incredible teachers have helped to shape the kind of holistic herbalism she practices today.Teresa treats the whole person and honors the mind, body, spirit connection. Her exuberance for life really comes across in her teaching. She expounds upon the chemistry of a plant as if it were telling its story. Indeed they speak to her and she listens to their longing to be utilized and honored as healers. Teaching is her gift, plants her passion and hands- on medicine making her talent. “The plants called me when I was very young and I found my way to make my life’s work honoring them and in turn they continue to teach me.

A herbal apothecary and a cash infusion bar will be featured at the Bohemian Banquet, where you will be able to enjoy the delights of Teresa's cordials and elixirs; tasty beverages which deliver a dose of herbal medicine, served in a cordial glass. Teresa has published her recipes in this full color book. She created numerous concoctions over the years and taught her students to mix and brew as she has done. Her goal through writing this book is to encourage and empower others to do the same. Take the recipe and create your own version by putting in your own twist. Each recipe has a story to accompany it. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy the casual style of Teresa’s folk tales and be inspired by the teachings. Have a look at the book which can be downloaded from Lulu.com

Davette Leonard

Biography

Painting directly from life supplies me with a method for expressing the ephemeral and sensual aspects of nature within the context of still life images. The subjects are life size cut fruits and flowers painted in an almost trompe l’oeil manner. To remove the work from any association with our technological age I strive to include in the still lifes all subjects that are not blatantly contemporary, and by using the language of realism and use of traditional methods in the execution of the work.
The objects in the paintings and in everyday context are humble, yet it is with closer observation and contemplation that within these natural objects all of the majesty of life exists. It can be felt that here, as when one gazes up into the clear night sky, the vastness and mystery of the universe can be found.

Davette Leonard is a calligrapher and artist who recently relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia to gain licensure in Art Education. In 2004 and 2005, while teaching Art and Art History at the Hearthstone School in Sperryville, VA., Ms. Leonard was awarded The Virginia Commission for the Arts Teacher Incentive Grant. As a member of the Washington Calligraphers Guild she was presented with the Herman Zapf Scholarship in order to study with Sheila Waters.

a welcome to all robots

AdrinAdrina...Take Art out of the Gallery and Stick It on Your Luck Bed

Biography

AdrinAdrina is dedicated to revelry, epic storytelling, her collaborators, and art. Adrina is an artist curator facilitator orchestrator conductor advisor instigator. AdrinAdrina plays hostess to choice art shows, robust events, balls, clambakes, movable feasts, shindigs, galas, soirees, luncheons, functions, banquets, parties, and uncommon retreats in places such as New Orleans, NYC, Marfa, LA, Joshua Tree, Virginia, London, Copenhagen, and Tulum.

AdrinAdrina is also a maker of fine objects, mainly of cloth; specifically quilts. In addition to fabric and cloth, adrina also uses ice, salt, metal, resin, wax, and food as instruments of display. She believes fabric has a memory and decorative interiors are able to speak of an interior environment within the human.

AdrinAdrina's quilts, cloth and objects of art tell stories about personal coups, heart-wrenching tragedies, legendary tales, re-invention of self, sex and survival, comic twists, pioneering enterprises, redemption by way of production, primordial needs, fantastical happenings, and purification as a punctuation. The objects are memoirs of a sort, sometimes a mirror. Most recently, Adrina froze a quilt in bed of ice.

Adrina's life began on a coffee table in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. She now lives somewhere between Marfa, Tulum, London, New Orleans, NYC, and Uruguay. Adrina studied dance and costume design at Evergreen State College where she spent three years of her studies abroad in Europe, India, and South America. She went on to study at Central Saint Martin's School of Art and Design in London where she used the Woman's Wear program as a Fine-Art course.

Throughout her career she has formed a vast network of interesting, creative, and innovative collaborators. Adrina has worked with a diverse array of artists, designers, and luminaries- some of her favorites include Rocky Barnette, Katherine Bray, Elliot Coon, Dawn Dedeaux, Christopher and Tammy Kane, Alton Du Laney and Andre Da Costa, Gareth Pugh, Jack Chase, Edwige, Che Miller, Russell Onan Sage, Louise Riley, Jeff Stein, Billy Idol, Lukas Haas, Vincent Gallo, Usher, Lorna Leedy, David Cooper, Marina Chavez, MC Tracheotomy, Paul Reubens, Julie Joe Furley, David Slankard, Mary Ricci, Caroline Rankin, David Arquette, DNA, Abby Arauz, Tiana Hux, Mariaflora P, and Kysa Johnson.

Fred Kahler

Biography

Fred Kahler was born in Washington, DC on July 26, 1942, outside the confines of marriage. He was adopted immediately after birth into the Kahler family and raised in Arlington, Virginia. In school young Fred enjoyed painting and playing music. His gifted ear would later lead him to the acoustic upright bass and playing in progressive jazz bands in DC night clubs. After high school, Fred volunteered to serve in the US Army. His natural artistic abilities found favor with the chaplains and kept him working stateside and away from Viet Nam. In 1969 Fred met and married his life partner, Mary. After receiving an honorable discharge from the Army, he worked as a draftsman/illustrator and musician. Fred began to read books about man's quest for wholeness, oneness, as well as books on mythology, from the ancient through the contemporary. While reading the Ram Dass book 'Be Here Now', Fred began meditation with the use of mantras. The father of a friend, an astrologer and psychic, told Fred that in six years he would be drawing with pen & ink. Fred forgot about that prediction, he didn't like pen and ink because, "you can't make any mistakes". Six years later he picked up a quill pen and started drawing. Fred began to incorporate his use of mantras and his fascination with mythology and storytelling. This technique lead to the creation of a unique and intricate style, with intertwining detail. Fred was held captive by his new found passion for the next 30 years. Firmly believing his work contained a healing message for mankind, Fred hit the road with the craft show circuit. Even with huge crowds visiting his tent, Fred could not get enough financial support to continue touring. In the late 80's he exhibited in DC area galleries. Today, having rejected the gallery system, Fred's work is displayed only in museums, private collections, and select shows.

The Process
Fred creates with a quill pen and ink on drawing board without the use of magnification. In his years of meditation practice, Fred has developed a personal mantra technique, which clears any preconceptions, and invokes the vision and the nature of the work itself. Within this process, each work is revealed over a period months, sometimes years. It is the spirit of the art itself that determines the work.

Critical Appraisals

“Fred Kahler is a brilliant, original, and altogether compelling new voice in the art world, with my highest recommendation.”

Ken Wilber, 'A Brief History of Everything'

“Through the visionary frame of Fred Kahler’s work, we bear witness to the universal forms that are our collective-soul. It is here we re-discover the micro and macro cosmic-realms side by side. It is here we find ancient systems of consciousness-patterns, mandalas of the mystic landscape, shadows of motion and energy, fragments of the timeless. Layers of ancestral symbolism reveal the forms and process of the tension of history. The sacred-geometry of archetypes reveal the harmony and rhythm of spirit. This is the language of the elements, the architecture of myth.”

Samana Mitch-Ites, artist/writer/musician

"It (Fred's work) seems to reproduce, authentically, the interior state of his soul... the thousand and one images and voices that flow through the mind at any given moment... a true reflection of the kaleidoscopic inner universe."

"I'd love to sink and swim in this imagery..."

"His work is definitely 'outsider', 'raw' or 'l'art brut' - even if the man himself may be fairly lucid rather than insane. It has all the markings of this type of art (Lesage, Wolfli) while being unique and authentic onto itself."

Laurence Caruana, artist/writer/lecturer