CRAIGARDAN JOURNAL

Pathways - a familiar metaphor for the choices and circumstances that shape our lives. We try to follow or create new lines through our known world. Pathways can be mutually exclusive, but they are also intertwined within our shared existence. And in this world, our paths will cross. It doesn't matter if you have made yourself a million-dollar lifestyle with mansions, surrounded by technology, or if you live in a humble home of adobe walls and a thatched roof. The choices we make not only change the way we live our lives but also affect how others carry on as well.

There are those who want to make the world a better place. Some want to leave behind a legacy, something helpful for future generations, more beautiful than ever, a legacy that matters. I've learned that parts of this goal seem almost constantly out of our grasp. To better ourselves we might need to find a sanctuary. We need these places to escape to in order to make meaningful changes. When I paint, I create this safe place where I am free to imagine, to dream, to communicate, to think beyond myself. Without the necessary breaks from reality or the day-today, I wonder if we can achieve the state of mind necessary to make positive impacts in life. Without these sanctuaries we may feed into a cycle of wasted efforts and time.

I have been forced to make those changes. I had to adapt to make my life more meaningful. Art was the way — the path — for me, using creative outlets. But is this the case for anyone?

That's where the responsibility of finding a quiet, safe corner in our world comes in. Sometimes inspiring and thought-provoking art comes from lost, tortured souls. Are those with such gifts attempting to create beauty to somehow make the world a little better, or are they attempting to mitigate their own injuries with masterful works of art? On one level this is a terrifying concept: to think that maybe we cannot create beauty without some level of looming threat foreshadowed or remembered.

As an artist I feel that the ability to create something beautiful has saved me. I allowed myself to escape from a world at times teeming with anxiety, stress, and responsibility. Art is a pathway to expressions of thought and emotions that permit me to feel hope in times of grey. I created my own space to walk along a tree-covered path backlit by the sun, on a cold autumn morning...

So as we walk our unique paths in this intertwined world, perhaps we can all find something or some place that allows our minds to flourish. If it doesn't exist, then we create it. We inspire ourselves to become a little better and add to the world’s beauty.

Mission

Craigardan is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with a mission to encourage the human imagination to interpret the world with philosophical, ecological, and artistic perspective.

To ful fi ll our mission, Craigardan supports artists, chefs, craftspeople, farmers, scholars, and writers through residencies, social justice initiatives, our community farm, and other public programs.

Programs And Place

Located in the heart of the Adirondacks, Craigardan’s artist-in-residence program strives to cultivate a rich and collaborative place-based experience for all people working in all disciplines.

Our strong interdisciplinary foundation encourages creative thinking and collective problem solving by welcoming diversity in all of its forms.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mary Barringer, President

Allison Eddy, Vice-President

Lorene Garrett, Treasurer

Kate Moses, Secretary

CONTACT CRAIGARDAN www.craigardan.org info@craigardan.org

518.242.6535

The Gardan

The Gardan , a project of Craigardan, is an offering to our creative community near and far, delivering a small piece of our program — along with inspiration and ongoing support — to encourage you to self residency wherever you are.

The Gardan is intended to foster conversations about creativity and its processes among and across all disciplines. We welcome contributions from artists and thinkers, activists and farmers, environmentalists and chefs at any and all stages of creative development.

We hope that The Gardan will unite you with your extended family of creative thinkers and bring a breath of Adirondack air to your inbox.

Each issue can be found online at www.craigardan.org

Content Submission

We invite your contributions of words, images, video, fi eld notes, sound, and any other way you wish to connect to us, and to each other.

Issues are curated by our editors. Complete guidelines for content submission are online at www.craigardan.org/ journalsubmission

The Gardan is guided by our staff and fully supported by Craigardan’s funding and the efforts of our board and volunteers. We are actively pursuing grants and donations that would enable us to offer compensation for contributors. All contributors receive a complimentary print copy of The Gardan by mail.

Ron Banaszek

Story Bellows

Austin Frerick

Muriel Luderowski

Editors

With special thanks to editors

Mary Barringer and Kate Moses.

Loren Michael Mortimer

David Speert

Michele Drozd, Executive Director

9216 NYS Route 9N, Elizabethtown, NY 12932