Tell Your Story

The first time I remember telling a story I was in the 7th grade. Our assignment - write a story about your family.
I wrote about my Daddy - a crazy, funny story about some of his eccentric antics. I read it to the class and when my classmates laughed uproariously I was hooked.

I have explored telling my story in many forms.

Collage is one - but before that - I worked on albums.

In the 1970s one of the new modes of expression for women artists was autobiograpy in an effort to validate the lifes of ordinary women. Artist Miriam Schapiro used handmade articles made by anonymous women in her art work and many other women artists included photographs, bits of biography and momentos. Once when Miriam was visiting DC, she and I made a field trip to Thieves Market, a huge flea market under a tin roof which was a bit south of Alexandria on Hwy 1. That afternoon Mimi introduced me to the beauty and charm of old scrap books as examples of anonymous women's art work and I have been collecting them ever since. As well as making many of my own.

My first auto-biographical album was exhibited at the Washington Women's Art Center in 1975. I used old and new family photographs to tell a story which connected similar images of the past and the present. Something I still do in my storytelling - and in writing this blog. Connecting the threads of the story, past and present, as a way of weaving my life together.


In 1994 when my father died, I made a biographical album for his life and housed it in an old leather salesman's catalog notebook that he had used for years and given to me. My thought was - his life story within a bit of his life. The Album was exhibited at Gallery 10, Washington, DC in 1996 in Life After Life, an exhibition organized by artist Claudia Vess.

In 2003 Lucy Blankstein and I created videos from family photographs to tell a story from each of our families for Embedded Memories:Digital Recall, our two-person exhibition at Gallery 10, Washington, DC and at the DC Art-o-Matic. Family Album, below, is one of my videos from that exhibition. In it, for the first time I combine words and music with the photographs to remember my grandmother and my great-mother using my mother's words to tell a bit of their stories. I insert genealogy data to document them and leave clues for the family.

Family Album - Ellouise Schoettler from Ellouise Schoettler on Vimeo.


Today Powerpoint would give you a much smoother presentation true, but somehow I still like the primitive quality of the film which matches the simplicity of the story. Some of the quirks are because of the upload - and I will fix them as soon as I figure out how. All part of the process.

I hope you will leave a comment and share ways you are using to capture and preserve your family stories and --- most importantly TELL them.
When I saw this card twenty years ago I latched onto it and I have saved it ever since. It sums up what I have been doing with my art work and storytelling since the 1970s.

Before that actually.

The first time I remember telling a story I was in the 7th grade. Our assignment - write a story about your family.
I wrote about my Daddy - a crazy, funny story about some of his eccentric antics. I read it to the class and when my classmates laughed uproariously I was hooked.

I have explored telling my story in many forms.

Collage is one - but before that - I worked on albums.

In the 1970s one of the new modes of expression for women artists was autobiograpy in an effort to validate the lifes of ordinary women. Artist Miriam Schapiro used handmade articles made by anonymous women in her art work and many other women artists included photographs, bits of biography and momentos. Once when Miriam was visiting DC, she and I made a field trip to Thieves Market, a huge flea market under a tin roof which was a bit south of Alexandria on Hwy 1. That afternoon Mimi introduced me to the beauty and charm of old scrap books as examples of anonymous women's art work and I have been collecting them ever since. As well as making many of my own.

My first auto-biographical album was exhibited at the Washington Women's Art Center in 1975. I used old and new family photographs to tell a story which connected similar images of the past and the present. Something I still do in my storytelling - and in writing this blog. Connecting the threads of the story, past and present, as a way of weaving my life together.


In 1994 when my father died, I made a biographical album for his life and housed it in an old leather salesman's catalog notebook that he had used for years and given to me. My thought was - his life story within a bit of his life. The Album was exhibited at Gallery 10, Washington, DC in 1996 in Life After Life, an exhibition organized by artist Claudia Vess.

In 2003 Lucy Blankstein and I created videos from family photographs to tell a story from each of our families for Embedded Memories:Digital Recall, our two-person exhibition at Gallery 10, Washington, DC and at the DC Art-o-Matic. Family Album, below, is one of my videos from that exhibition. In it, for the first time I combine words and music with the photographs to remember my grandmother and my great-mother using my mother's words to tell a bit of their stories. I insert genealogy data to document them and leave clues for the family.

Family Album - Ellouise Schoettler from Ellouise Schoettler on Vimeo.


Today Powerpoint would give you a much smoother presentation true, but somehow I still like the primitive quality of the film which matches the simplicity of the story. Some of the quirks are because of the upload - and I will fix them as soon as I figure out how. All part of the process.

I hope you will leave a comment and share ways you are using to capture and preserve your family stories and --- most importantly TELL them.

Love Storytelling

Vigilante 1 from Ellouise Schoettler on Vimeo.

This is one of my favorite stories and I thought I would tell this week-end at Stone Soup Storytelling Festival in
Woodruff, SC. Sharing it here because I had to drop out when Jim spiked a high fever and was hospitalized Monday.

When someone is on Chemo you take fevers seriously and treat wit IV antibiotics. That's what is happening and he is getting better every day.

Hope you enjoy the story.

Love storytelling.

Flesh on Old Bones

Good morning all!
Sun is shining making the world look bright!


I have opened a new Facebook page to talk about FLESH ON OLD BONES - family history, genealogy, writing and telling stories and my new one-woman show for the July 2011 Capital Fringe.
Can you tell I am focusing?

Space Souvenir

The Moon Rock Window
National Cathedral
Washington, DC

Tales in the Village

Tales in the Village is a new component of the Programs at Friendship Heights Village Community Center in Chevy Chase, MD. Program Director Anne O'Neill loves and supports storytelling and I really appreciate the opportunity to "produce" Tales and sometimes take the stage myself.

Last night Slash Coleman was the featured performer at Tales in the Village. There was a very attentive and appreciative audience who left giving me a "thumbs up" or a "it was great" as they departed.

Not that I was in the least surprised. Slash is one of my favorite performers with his inventive stories which he tells in such a welcoming style that his audience can easily enter his "world".

Maybe Slash is going to be performing in your home area. His calendar is on his website and he will be in
at the International Storytelling Center, Jonesborough, May 24-28. A nice time of year to visit TN.

Yesterday afternoon Slash and I taped a Focus on Stories interview for Channel 16 which I will post here as soon as I have the CD.

Slash and I will see each other again soon in Woodruff, SC. Really looking forward to telling with him April 29 and 30 at
Stone Soup Storytelling Festival.

This week Elizabeth Wallace posted a nice write-up in The Examiner
on Tales in the Village which high-lighted it as a new storytelling venue in the Washington DC area.  Really glad that she has started covering storytelling for them. Not only is Elizabeth a good writer but she knows the ins and outs of storytelling as an art-form which promises coverage with informed insight.

TED: 8 Secrets of Success

Thanks TED. Love this film! Good advice served up in few words. I want to keep these ideas close!

NEW VIDEO - Conversation with Megan Hicks

3 Megan Hicks from Ellouise Schoettler on Vimeo.

Interview with Megan Hicks as broadcast on Channel 16, Montgomery County, MD.
February/March 2011.
Watch for Megan as a New Voice at the National Storytelling Festival, Jonesborough, TN in October 2011.

PINK

Pink

Digital Photo - altered

e. schoettler

Catch up

• Waiting!

• Recommend GET LOW - movie starring Robert Duvall, Sisey Spacek and Bill Murray. Rich storytelling and good acting. Story lingers.  Mixed reviews but we enjoyed it. 
• Mailing contract to Toe River Storytelling Festival - Spruce Pine, NC. July 16 - so I will be telling stories in NC for my birthday.
• Look forward to seeing Slash Coleman this week when he is in town - we will tape a TV show and he is the feature for Tales in Tales in the Village

Office on the Road

Whirling

Textile

e. schoettler

Whirling  - that's what I am doing.

Two weeks from today Jim and I will be in Woodruff, SC where I will be a featured teller at the
Stone Soup Storytelling Festival  - telling with Slash Coleman, The Story Crafters, Chetter Galloway and others. Hearing new stories, renewing friendships and meeting lots of new people. The Director, Karyn Page Davies has put together an exciting week-end. FUN! FUN! FUN!

But before I can get to the FUN I have to get myself together. You can't leave home without having the home front taken care of as well as loose ends on other projects in order.

Other projects - now there is the rub. Turns out the graphics and other paperwork for the July Capital Fringe are due while I am on the road - meaning I will prep now and finish from the road. Thank heavens for the computer.

It used to be that when you traveled "working" everything had to have been done before you stepped out the office door. I can recall working myself into a swivet when I was going on a road trip for the League and NARAL, grateful I had an assistant in the office who could follow-up for me but I had to have my part planned and competed before I left.

Certainly - as a "solo" business I don't have an at-home assistant to follow up - its all me - no matter where I am. However - these days I pack a road-office to keep things going.

My road office:
I use a rolling back-pack because its easy to manage - handy - and I can use it as my carry-on bag if I am flying. In the car I stash it behind my seat. (By the way - I carry a version of the road-office around town, especially if I know I will be waiting for appointments. )

 My basic road-office supplies:

 computer, ipod and recorder, iPhone along with all the STUFF

• the electric computer power cord and a three-prong so I can charge them in the car

• extra USB cords for the iPod and iPhone
• a three prong adapter to plug into a car charger when I am not charging from the USB port.

• flash drives with files, photos and for back-up

• a broad-band card to make sure I can access the internet where ever I am - when I have opportunities to work or have to follow-up quickly.
• a camera cord to down-load photos
• camera batteries/battery charger
• cameras and flip video 

For a long trip and/or when I think I might REALLY NEED it I take a small printer and paper.

Since, on this trip I am presenting a genealogy/storytelling workshop and may stop at some libraries along the way - I am including the portable scanner.

You see why a rolling backpack or suitcase is a boon.

Additional helpful supplies:
scotch tape
glue stick
small stapler
paperclips
clips
push pins
three-hole punch
index cards
scissors
Sharpies of several sizes
pens
address labels
blank labels
stamps
note cards - for thank you notes
envelopes - for receipts and other stuff
journal to carry - record trip info, emails etc.
extra journal 

AND  - - - a TRIP PLAN. More on that later.

Are you saying - "this is over-the-top" ? 

Have you forgotten the Girl Scout motto?
Be Prepared.

Works for me.

Lunch Break

Lunch Break

Alameda, CA

Blooming

Irish Potted Geranium



Not having much to say these days
Keeping quiet so I can think.

Odd Bits

Fine evening of stories in Kensington last night with tellers
Liz Nichols and Miriam Nadel. They told a satisfying mix of personal stories and tradional tales. Hard to believe I have been producing these evenings for five years.

Jim and I "paid" for the movie "The Tourist" on FIOS ON DEMAND a couple of nights ago. It stars Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. The best thing about this ridiculous film is that it is shot in Venice - and we loved the location shots.

Grateful there was something that made it worth $4.99 to us.

Jim bought a bag of large, very thick-skinned oranges. Peeling them is an exercise and they do taste good.

Leia is very glad that we are home and things seemed settled.

I feel guilty planning our trip South at the end of the month  -

she will not appreciate our being gone that long.

Sorry, girl.

Springing

Taken on the grounds of the National Cathedral, Washington, DC
April 2011

I am so ready for Spring, aren't you?

Catching Up: Two Friends

It seems like ages since I wrote on this blog - - and in fact, it is. I have had too many balls in the air and just could not keep up. A part of me feels quilty to break my rhythm and not write everyday. However, like most things - I was requiring that of myself. Isn't that always the way - we are our toughest taskmasters. So - - I am giving myself a break!

Over these busy few weeks there has been a lot of fun.

My friend storyteller Bernadette Nason was in town from Texas. We had a House Concert in the living room - oops that's the Brierly Road Theater - and heard stories of the years she lived in Libya - funny and timely. A lovely Sunday afternoon gathering of storytellers and story-lovers.

Bernadette and I told together at the Puro Cafe in Georgetown for one of the Washington, DC SWAN events. (That's celebrate woman artists NOW!)

Around the edges of her schedule we visited. And, when Jim unexpectedly was admitted to the hospital Bernadette stepped up and held down the home front and charmed Leia, our strong willed Shih Tzu so that she is moping a bit since Bernadette headed back to Austin.

Last but not least Bernadette gave us this lovely teapot and taught me how to make a proper British cup of
tea - something I have long wanted to know how to do. Now, if you stop by and - like Maisie Dobbs of Jacqueline Winspear's novels - are gasping for a cup of tea ----- I am ready.



On another note:
Nancy Cusick Fox
My friend, colleague, and former art professor Nancy Cusick Fox died April 1, 2010. Friday night I hosted a gathering of friends to remember Nancy and share stories. Nancy was a dynamic, interesting,
energetic and funny woman - as well as a compassionate and caring friend. She was a talented artist, teacher and a memorable figure in the women's artist movement and on the Washington Art Scene.

Wonderful to have Cynthia Navaretta (NYC) join the group. She and I told stories of our trip to the 1985 UN Conference on Women with Nancy. Very funny stories - especially how Nancy saved the day when we were tossed out of our hotel because of a room shortage. She found us a space in a funky place outside town where we occupied rooms for ten days that usually rented by the hour - and were grateful for a roof over our heads.

Sara Stout, Carol Lukitsch and Marilyn Horrom.
Marilyn was active in the Washington Women's Arts Center - along with Sara. Then Sara and Carol were members of long-time respected artists co-op gallery, Gallery 10. The three of us were part of Gallery 10's five city exhibition tour in Italy in 2001. Carol and Nancy roomed together and she told us stories of their mis-adventures.

 Laura Huff, Claudia Vess and Lynda (Cynthia Navaretta's niece)

Laura was part of the Masks for Unmasking Group with Nancy and 7 other artists. We worked on a collaborative project which drew on women's personal experience. 

Claudia was a long time friend - from Washington Women's Arts Center, Women's Caucus for Art and Gallery 10.

 As the stories flowed we were tied together by all the history we share  - - and nodded affectionately to Nancy who also was a part of it all.