AMY MEISSNER
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Boogie-woogie.

4/18/2015

9 Comments

 
One night I was layin' down, 
I heard Papa talkin' to Mama, 
I heard Papa say to let that boy boogie-woogie. 

'Cause it's in him and it's got to come out. 

          ~ John Lee Hooker 

In 1978, I came home from Mrs. Patterson's 2nd grade class and informed my mother that I was going to audition for the Newcastle Elementary School's talent show. 

Tap. 
Solo performance.

I would need my 45 record of "The Boogie Woogie," new black gros grain ribbons for my tap shoes, and oh, yes, a dance skirt for my blue leotard.

And then I went and practiced for 2 weeks on an MDF board in front of the full length mirror on my parents' closet door.

Amy Meissner, Reliquary series. From the post Boogie-woogie. www.amymeissner.com/blog/boogie-woogie

I had no history of performance or bravery or even talent for that matter, but I did have a history of vomiting every morning before school because I was such a strung out bundle of nerves. It was my mother's familiarity with this latter history that raised eyebrows at the idea of me up on a stage. Alone. Tap dancing. But she didn't say a word.

Sometimes something's just in you and it's got to come out.

Amy Meissner, Reliquary series. From the post Boogie-woogie. www.amymeissner.com/blog/boogie-woogie
Amy Meissner, Reliquary series. From the post Boogie-woogie. www.amymeissner.com/blog/boogie-woogie

I still don't know where that bravery came from. And I don't know where it came from in the 3rd grade (Tap. Solo performance ... can't remember the music) or in the 4th grade (Disco. Solo performance ...  to Rick Dees' Disco Duck). 

And then I never danced on a stage ever again. I can't even tell you why (although my choice of music may have had something to do with it), but I can tell you that I felt bad for many years thinking I should have pursued tap dancing even though I didn't want to anymore (Disco? Hell, yes).

But the way I see it now is that I had something in me and I got it out. And then I was done.

And that's enough. That is a success. Let me repeat this idea because it's kind of a foreign one: 

          It. Is. Enough.

Amy Meissner, Reliquary series. From the post Boogie-woogie. www.amymeissner.com/blog/boogie-woogie
Amy Meissner, Reliquary series. From the post Boogie-woogie. www.amymeissner.com/blog/boogie-woogie

For those of us raised or semi-raised with the idea that you do something for years until you get really good at it and then you just hit cruise control while you continue to do it -- sometimes with much misery, it's really hard to let go of that thing and move on. But listen, there's a whole lot of boogie-woogie out in the world, and there is even more trying to come out of us. So, here's my question to you -- what's your boogie-woogie? Do you know? Are you letting it out? 

Or, alternatively, are you so terrified of moving on, of becoming a one-hit wonder that you're milking that one boogie-woogie to the point of it becoming a mushy-gushy-boogie ... loogie? 

Think about it for a second, then do this: 

Show me your boogie-woogie. 
I'll post it here. 
Seriously. 
Show me your best boogie-woogie -- what you absolutely had to get out of you, even if it was only once -- with a description of what this meant at the time or how it formed your artistic journey. (Send the image to amy@amymeissner.com, subject "boogie-woogie," with links, your name, all that good stuff).

Keep in mind that I have small children and a husband so do not send images of body parts, orifices or smut. I may be banned from blogging and emailing (like, forever) and that's not playing nice for anyone. We can all be totally edgy and still classy at the same time.

Besides, we're all about putting our best foot forward around here. Even if we only do it once.

Amy Meissner, Reliquary series. From the post Boogie-woogie. www.amymeissner.com/blog/boogie-woogie
1978. Newcastle Elementary School Talent Show, California USA.

The bigger point is that you do it.

Hey. If you like this kind of post, you'll probably also like the posts "Amateur" and "Finer," too.
9 Comments
Lindy Smith link
4/18/2015 05:29:40 pm

Hi Amy, I love what you are saying. I also love John Lee Hooker and the line about 'letting it out'. Very inspirational!

Reply
Amy Meissner link
4/19/2015 12:01:00 am

Lindy -- thanks for leaving a note here! I'm always surprised when I really acknowledge the things that inspire me because they are so varied. Glad I slipped into this category for you today --

XO Amy

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Liz link
4/21/2015 12:11:06 am

Each cloth is a wonder ... stitch and color and design, all to die for. But it is the picture at the end that has brought me back several times, especially remembering the knotted nerves of my own childhood. What a brash, brave soul is shining out from those eyes!

Reply
Amy Meissner link
4/21/2015 02:19:19 am

Liz -- I still wonder who that little girl is. And if you'd told me at the time that I was "brash and brave" I think I would have swelled with pride but not really known what it meant to be these things, even if just for a moment.

Luckily, I know now. Many thanks for your kind words about my work and my brash, brave boogie-woogie.

XO Amy

Reply
Olga Norris link
4/23/2015 12:38:46 am

Rather sadly, I don't think that I have a Boogie-Woogie moment, except perhaps when I immediately said yes to working in Zimbabwe. I had given up a senior position in publishing to accompany my husband when he went to the US to work for a couple of years. I was not permitted to earn money during those two years, although I did do lots of art stuff for pleasure. When a former colleague discovered that we were returning to the UK and I would be looking for a job he offered me a job working with the Zimbabwe Publishing House setting up and running a training course for them, funded by the Ford Foundation. I had never been to Africa before, but I said yes immediately.
It was fun, rewarding, and I was asked to stay on for five months rather than just two. I continued doing freelance training work in Zimbabwe the next year, and also in St Lucia the West Indies, the Philippines, and in Indonesia. It was challenging, and I think I did it reasonably well, but it just was not me.
I have always been an outsider, and in those positions I was a kind of Professional Outsider which made me feel as if I was looking through a double skin of separation. I kinda knew this would be the case when I was offered the first job in Zim, but I was impelled to take it anyway.
Does that fit your Boogie-Woogie criterion?

Reply
Amy Meissner link
4/23/2015 03:06:37 am

Dear Olga,
Something about that "double skin of separation" really resonates with me. I, too, have always felt like an Outsider, an imposter, a poser in every profession I attempted. My husband called me a "pattern faker" when I was a professional pattern maker. I was the worst-read graduate student entering an MFA program. I knew I would never be a "great" children's book illustrator (whatever that means to the world, but it meant enough for me to take a little break). And now, I'm a ... textile artist? I read the articles and blogs about other artists showing work here and there and I still feel like an Outsider. The double scrim feels more opaque some days than others.
But a scrim is vital.
It is the mirror. It is the membraned looking glass. It is the separation that keeps you, you, and allows you to do YOUR work, despite the hideous learning curves and obvious courses that others seem to be on without you.
So yes, Olga, going to Zimbabwe was a fabulous boogie-woogie. It may never happen again and it doesn't have to. But it was in you at the time and you let it out, and I'm sure you kicked some ass at your job. It would have been such a travesty had you not taken the amazing opportunity.
Thank you so much for sharing. I'm so stealing your "double skin of separation" quote. I love it.
XO
Amy

Reply
JenFW link
4/30/2015 12:33:24 am

If I could "like" this reply, I would. I agree with Amy: This is a Boogie-Woogie.

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roz hawker link
4/30/2015 06:23:37 am

Amy, what a professional you look in that last image. nothing shy and retiring or incompetent and unpracticed or inexperienced there. wow. standing [ or final posing perhaps ] in your own light. love it.

Reply
Brenda Wood link
4/30/2015 07:23:44 am

oh! I have a boogie woodie moment! Oh dear! It was for an exhibition! I just had to do it! But really, perhaps it was better left not done! And no, it never went in the exhibition!

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    Amy Meissner, textile artist. Photo credit Brian Adams, 2013. www.amymeissner.com

    Amy Meissner

    Artist in Anchorage, Alaska, sometimes blogging about the collision of history, family & art, with the understanding that none exists without the other.

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