October General Meeting and Potluck:

Hi All,

 If you missed the General Meeting at Bonnie's home, you missed a wonderful, warm evening with good food, fun and lots of new information about candidates for the upcoming board elections, as well as some new concepts for TAO! As always, we have been working hard to make this organization one that artists and supporters of artists want to be an active part of.

  Here are some notes from the meeting: 

There were 2 handouts, one with circles, which represented TAO and our vision of things we want to see and create in TAO, and a questionaire about our vision for TAO now, and in coming years. On the back, we were asked to write about our experiences and thoughts on the studio tour, including preferred dates to have it, feedback and then we discussed it, everyone having a voice.

John Staple talked about the beginning of the organization, the many great intentions for forming TAO, then talked a little bit about Jenette Normer, who has come to us to advise us on  our organization, who has lots of experience with 501C-3s and has worked with the deaf, with getting grants and who brings knowledge, joy and awareness of greater forces at work in the world and how they affect us. She will be working with us to assist in making this a great organization.

 Ty Hannigan spoke about the members being concerned about not having enough of a voice in TAO decision making, and the time constraints we've had in making decisions which had immediate deadlines.

Now that we are a 501C-3 ~ "there are many requirements we must follow, but we are also artists and will work above and beyond those".

NEXT GENERAL MEETING AT JOSIE'S ON NOV. 3rd

Most of the members present talked about the Studio Tour. We gathered the written comments and will post them soon. There were quite a few thoughts on the best dates for the studio tour, on being our own event draw, on not having it during the "High Road Tour", especially, and having north and south weekends so that the artists themselves can attend the studio tour. 

 It was brought up about artists who don't have studios close by, having a venue to show at and a place for our receptions.

 We also need a fundraiser we can advertise for, special events week...

 

We talked about having an "Art Tour", about a whole week of TAO events to draw lots of people, especially hands on art workshops or camps, jam packed with exciting things and enrichment to draw people here.

Candidates for Board of Directors: 

Sandra Richardson, (aka Zandi), is running for the board and spoke about "artists being the life blood of Taos", about making TAO a "tour de force" in the world. She is also our new Promotions Director and is seeking people who have a passion for press and promoting to be on this committee. Zandi@taosnet.com

  Zandi has written for the "Horsefly" for 3  years, has owned her own galleries in Taos and recently showed her fabulous designs at the "Arte' Descartes" recycled fashion show, which happens every year at the Stable's Gallery and is a riot!  

 

Jon Greenley, who is presently on the board  and is up for another term. He must love it, because he still wants to be on it! He says he is " high on TAO, I really enjoy it". And you will see Jon on every project, working his patootie off. He is a "Tour de Force"!

Laurie Bortner is running for the board, as well and currently heads up the Grant Writing and Education Committees. She is working with the kids, doing art projects for free and is writing for grants for more projects. Laurie also took it upon herself to list TAO events in many places we needed to be listed in, for the Studio Tour. Thank you, Laurie.

Ty recognizes Suzanne, whose seat is up for election, will be greatly missed, as she is a voice of reason and perception, has been a great part of TAO, and to David Vedoe, as well, who is one of our founders and who put in countless hours for TAO, networking, laboring for events and sharing his ideas. And Jon, who is still with us, and we hope will stay on..... who is invaluable.

Announcements: 

*Tom talked about www.gofigurative.com, a place to post your artwork for free, and if you want to post it to sell, it's only $8.00 and 20% if it sells.

*Ty is doing a site for taosartist.org on Facebook, where artists can post their work also for free. 

*Bonnie is one of the reps for Art in Town Hall and put out a call for art, for the Jan. 15th show

*Laurie says empty real estate can be a good place for shows

Sylvia asked about members who do not participate, what to do about them?

 John had a good answer: "People who do show up have a voice and are more empowered and involved in the direction we are going in. Inactive? We're not interested in reactive. If you criticize and are not active, you're not helping in direction."

We are starting the planning for next year's studio tour early, if you have ideas and want to lead an event, workshop or camp, please let us know soon. 

 We will be doing ongoing promotions, so please send info to zandi@taosnet.com, if you have received and award, your accomplishments, etc. We want to promote TAO artists. Some artists were mentioned for their winning at the Taos Open this year and were mentioned on the Facebook site for taosartist.org, and others asked why they were not mentioned. Sometimes we do not know, so let us know, please, let everyone know! We're proud of you and congratulate you for your excellent work! 

 

Artist Reception at TAP

The reception was a beautiful success last night. Thank you all for attending and supporting TAO. Thanks to all the artists who brought all the great food. And to the people who helped with set up, and clean up afterwards. We really appreciate your commitment to TAO. Thank you to Scott for the wonderful, open space to gather in. 

 

New System for TAO Members:

I'm excited to say that we have created a new system for those of you who want to "check in" for information, instead of having to look over 100s of e-mails and sift through them. If you are like me, if we don't check those e-mails often, they become the monster pile, like that one on my desk! 

 So, I hope all of you look into the new blog and will make it a habit to check for dates, because now there is really no excuse for missing meetings and events or deadlines. We are all busy people and our time is precious. Whitehawk has put countless hours into, not only research, phone calls and work,  e-mailing our members with information, only to have people say they don't read them, or they just delete them.

 

  If you want to be involved, even just for a few events, please check. There will no longer be e-mails from Whitehawk, except an ocasional one with a link for the latest, important dates, as she posts. Hope you're with us! 

Ciao, 

Mary Alvarado~ Secretary

Jon's Party

Over the bridge and through the sage, to Jon Greenley's house we go....

Come out to Jon Greenley's party and watch the full moon with us on Sept. 4th. We are having a barbecue-potluck because we all need to have some fun and eat good food. Love to see you there!  If you want to share rides, lets put some together. 

 Bring chairs, food to share and a blanket or two.

TAO Board Meetings and What TAO Means to me:

  I must love these board meetings because I show up every Friday to take the minutes, as the Secretary. We have a few good laughs while I'm taking notes and being distracted by the lively conversations of my cohorts, my partners in crime! Usually when I leave the meetings, I feel like I've just been to the fair, the roller coaster ride has left me wide open and inspired, sometimes completely wired and exhilarated. We have fun. We have chemistry.

  Ty gets to be the school marm and keep us under control, as we tend to rant on, some of us more long winded than others, ahem! We have to raise our hands to speak or we all speak at once in a passion to say what's on our minds, with some wild creative ideas, or out on a tangent or just to comment about an issue, etc. Ocasionally we get a table dance, or an impersonation of some hick in Paris from one of our more colorful members, you know who you are! Roaring laughter ensues. And then we move on to more serious matters as one of us mutters and rants more comments on the side. More laughter, if you can hear it.... Sometimes we are outspoken or opinionated, but fair we are. The ultimate vision is to keep to the high road, rise to the higher thought.

 It's just hard to explain, but we cover a lot of territory and do our best to keep up with what gems we might create or what train of thoughts we discover. We move on ideas, we lose some for later. We are definitely not a slacker bunch. Sometimes important things go by the wayside, but we pick them up again. We are an energetic bunch for old farts. We love TAO. And I guess that is why we do most of the work, because other's don't often see how excited we do get together. When the synchronicity of creating some new idea, or discovering new information has the potential to manifest, it's very exciting. It's work, too. We want to make it as fun as it can be. 

 We would like all of our members to participate in the events because we want to feel the connectivity of our artists working together. We feel it would also alleviate too much work for a few people and can be a lot of fun. Many people working together synergizes the events and is good for networking and supporting each other's work. It gets us to know each other a bit better. 

 I have met so many wonderful artists and made some new friends through TAO and I have to say I'm proud of the efforts, the passion, love and the intelligence of this group. If you have some good energy to contribute, come and join us. We are looking for a few more board members to fill the places of the one year terms that are up, soon.