Chicago, IL - August 13, 2012 In celebration of Woman Made Gallery’s (WMG) 20th Anniversary we proudly announce the 20 Neighborhoods exhibition opening with a reception on October 5th from 6 to 9 p.m. and on display through October 31 at 685 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago.

Celebrations include a poetry reading presented by The Guild Complex on Sunday, October 14th; a poetry reading featuring 20 Neighborhoods Artists and community members on October 18th, A film screening on Saturday, October 20th; an artist talk on Thursday, October 25th; and a panel discussion on Saturday October 27th.

All events at Woman Made Gallery are open and free to the public.

On our second session we focused on “self”, I had copies made of the words they came up with at the 1st session describing what “Self, Home, Community and City/World” meant to them. I gave Teresa and Crystal (our new participants) a little back-ground of what the projects concept is. I then had the ladies start cutting out pictures from magazines that reflected “Self” either likes, hopes, or interest. We then took turns to describe what each cut out meant to us and why we chose it. Crystal was a little apprehensive at 1st to speak but once we started the conversation circle, she felt comfortable enough to share. It was interesting to see both mother and daughter describe their likes and aspirations for a garden. They had both picked out pictures with grass and flowers on them. I then had the ladies pick out postcards from our art resources that most sparked their interests or reminded them of a child hood experience. My helper Laura picked out a cactus postcard and described her road trips to Mexico when she was younger. Teresa said she too could relate to that. We then took our magazine cut outs and I showed them how to do the packing tape transfer technique. They thought it was very cool. #20neighborhoods

The first class got off to a great start, we had three ladies that were enthusiastic and willing to share their stories and experiences as they related to Woman’s made theme. We talked about the concept of the workshops, the objective of having them and the impact we hoped to obtain by digging in to ourselves and creating art based on our experiences and hopes. We broke down each word and talked about what it meant to us personally as well as what came to mind when we pondered on it. I encouraged the ladies to also think about abstract images as they reflected on each word.

We then used the “where I’m from” exercise to get to know each other. One of the ladies said “this will help us get to know things about ourselves we didn’t even know!” I really liked that she said that because I personally feel like older Hispanic women are not encouraged enough to take time and contemplate what it is that really inspires us as well as what weighs us down. The three ladies all had a lot in common but most of all they all talked about growing up on a ranch in Mexico and the beauty as well as the difficulties of being a woman when you grow up on a ranch. At this point we did start to hit some emotional turf as one of the ladies described the unfairness, bias and macho mentality her grandfather (who owned the ranch) portrayed as she grew up there. The 2 other ladies came in and out of conversation sharing their similarities in the story. Although all this was personal to them, nothing was taken to a sour place. Everything was talked about in a conversation tone and we ended up losing track of time… P.S the complete class was done in Spanish! (check back later - pics to follow)

The “20 Neighborhoods” project aims to empower all involved to deepen our understanding of “Self”, “Home”, “Community/ Neighborhood”, and “City/ World”. through both art-making and social experiences. With a project goal of “Empower to Discover, Define, & Evolve”,

I feel very fortunate I was picked as a teaching artist this summer/fall to be part of such an amazing project. #20neighborhoods

It’s been well over a year since I’ve last written a Mella piece. Its time, I am filled with awareness to share, today is the day I write the 1st story of the second chapter… I love these little moments of illuminating vision.