Week 6: Sharpening My Focus : Musings, Thoughts, and Creativity Matters

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Week 6: Sharpening My Focus

by Jill Austen on 02/12/15

Week 6: Completed. While the crazy collection of pieces I have made during the past 6 weeks may seem random, each has been an exercise in practice and discovery. 

Starting week 7, I will sharpen my focus to explore one particular subject or technique for the week in more of a series. This week, look for some Caribbean inspired color studies. 

Like the classic iceberg comparison, much of the creative process that underlies the work is not necessarily visible. Also, starting this week, I will be using my Jill Austen Facebook page to explore some of the process (anecdotes on underpainting, grounds, progress photos, dry time, why I chose the square, etc). If you haven’t already liked Jill Austen, please do and feel free to share it with friends and family who may be interested coming along on the journey. I appreciate all of the comments and support!  

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Jill Austen Bio

residencies, performances and exhibits throughout the US, Mexico and the Caribbean. Teaching opportunities have taken her to Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the College of the Bahamas in Nassau.Her poetry was first published in Leaf Garden Press in 2009, and her first collection, In Search of Orion, is nearing completion. Jill has been a featured poet at OPEN Expressions in Harlem, the Ipswich Roadpoets Café, in Ipswich, MA and a guest of the Poets Network & Exchange, NY. She is interested in the connection between the mundane and the metaphysical, in the small moments that illuminate life’s larger truths. Her inner gypsy is happy to call New York City home. 



NY TIMES REVIEW 
‘Cerchio Tagliato dei Suoni’ at the Guggenheim Museum - BY STEVE SMITH
Salvatore Sciarrino’s soundscape “Cerchio Tagliato dei Suoni” (“Cutting the Circle of Sounds”), a piece for 104 flutists, had its United States premiere at the Guggenheim on November 19, 2012
POETRY in the MOM EGG REVIEW, Dec. 2105 http://www.themomegg.com/themomegg/
VOX_MOM/Entries/2015/12/30_VOX_MOM__
Guest_Curator_Lorraine_Currelley.html
Click on the link to read Jill's recently published poem, "Giverny, France"

POETRY in Blue Door Quarterly, Fall 2015 
"One Hundred Midsummers Between Us", published in the poetry and art journal of Blue Door Gallery in Yonkers, NY
http://bluedoorartcenter.org 

FESTIVAL OF AFRO-CARIBBEAN COMPOSERS held in Nassau, Bahamas, Feb 20-25 featured "Waltz of the Flamingoes", for flute and piano which Jill recorded with acclaimed Bahamian composer Audrey Dean-Wright in December 2012.
Jill Austen lives a multidisciplinary life, embracing creativity through music, art and poetry. To this end she has created Austen Academy, offering a series of integrated arts workshops which explore individuality and the creative process. Jill holds degrees in music from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and the University of Minnesota, where she also studied visual arts and art history. She is a juried associate member of the Pastel Society of America. As both flutist and visual artist she has enjoyed