When is the Right Time to Make a Mark?

Is making your mark a requirement of aging?  
Or is aging permission to make your mark?

In this chicken and egg discussion, I'd like to weigh in that it is both.  Or neither.  

We sometimes spend our early years "experimenting" with our direction, trying to find our way.  Making a mark sounds so mature, so concrete that some may think they are too young to have worthy marks.   Must we be of  "a certain age" to be mark ready; mark worthy?

I offer there is no age parameters for making marks.  

Instead, that we are an evolving series of marks, to be made from our first day on the planet until our last.  The time to make your mark is now, and the medium is whatever moves you:  clay, prose, paint, dance, culinary, horticulture, architecture.  Wherever you can express yourself.   

My friend Marsi Burns and her collaborator Alice Teirstein are not letting age stand in the way of making their marks.  With "Comin' and Goin'," they pay tribute to the irony of age and the movement they are exploring.  At 85, Alice truly is both "Comin' and Goin' " as she and Marsi express themselves through modern dance.  Bridging the age gap, they delight in making their marks from their different life perspectives.

Comin' and Goin,' in more ways than one.

Their energy alone makes a mark on viewers!

Virginia Woolf also looks askance at aging. 

"I don't believe in aging," she says.  "I believe in forever altering one's aspect to the sun."  You can make your mark no matter what  your age or where you are in your journey.

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ABOUT MY PROJECT

Can you guess how I am using:

• 12 workman's gloves
• rope
• a tree branch

in my project to make my mark?

Join the fun and send me your answers or post them below. 
I look forward to sharing the answer with you next month!

Why Make Marks?

Many of you have asked why I am so interested in marks.

I have asked myself:  who makes marks and why; whose marks are significant and what impact will they have on others?  With my project, "Marks, Here and Now," I am allowing myself to make my own mark.

So what is a mark?

The public making marks with Pawel Althamer at the New Museum in New York City. 

Can you imagine a huge museum rotunda with everyone making their own mark?
I was there, and it was amazing to experience!

Martha Graham answered that question for me in her musings to Agnes DeMille:

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time; this expression is unique.  And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost.  The world will not have it.

"It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor valuable, nor how it compares with other expressions.  It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open....  You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you.  Keep the channel open."

Is she reminding you to silence your inner critic?  Yes!  To celebrate the process, not the product, and not question the validity of your work.  By honoring the things that delight or anger you, awe or bore you, you are allowing the process to occur naturally, thereby staying true to your own mark.

Thanks for sharing your marks with me.  What mark will you make this month?  Keep in touch.

Where Will You Dance Today?

Spring is here and it is a time for a celebration of life. 

And what better way to express this celebration
 than through dance? 

Today's international "dance anywhere" event, 

a simultaneous public performance, 

will encourage people from all walks of life 

to join in an impromptu connection and make a mark.

To get an idea of how others 

have made their "dance anywhere" marks, 

watch this and get your toes tappin'. 

 We can all mark our place by dancing today at 3pm.  

Wherever we are, just a step or 2, uniting us all;

marking peace and harmony. 

Let's dance separately, together. 

Mark your place today, wherever you, whomever you are with, and be sure to share your experience with me.  I can't wait to find out how we all made our marks through dance.

Have You Been Marked by Love?

The context in which we view a mark changes how we feel about it.  Sometimes how we perceive a mark alters how it continues to develop; to exist.

Identical twins, given the same outward marks biologically, cultivate their own personalities and carve their own way... leaving their own mark.

I decided this month to honor Dorothy Judith Finkelstein Alexander, my mother.  Today marks the day she was born.

Never alone, she came into this world the other half of an embryo

with her twin sister Anne.  

Making her mark, her parents thought, as half of a unique pair: Anne the beauty, Dottie the intellect.

Dottie, the smart identical twin, 

was beautiful in other ways; remarkably so.

Her mark was the happiness she shared with all.

As she passed by, she left everyone with love in their heart.

She brought joy and her mark was her gentle caring way.  

She gave me life.

My life has been marked by her love.  She left a deep and indelible mark of love on all who knew her.  There is no greater mark than to give joy and happiness wherever you go.

What marks have you made on others in your life? Teaching a skill? Nurturing? Artistic? Loyalty?  You are more remarkable than you think.

Next month, we will start to explaing my journey creating "Marks, here and now."  Keep in touch.

Will You Make a Valentine’s Day Mark?

There are so many ways to look at marks.

Even marking occasions such as Valentine's Day. 

In the end, I think a person's mark exists as long 

as someone remembers them or takes notice of their mark.

Here's my February mark.

Inspired by Japanese Nihonga

 (F. Suerig, 2014)

A fellow artist, Jim Bachor, shares my intrigue with marks.

Working in mosaics, this piece captures his life philosophy.

"Make Your Mark"

 (Jim Bachor, mosaic, 2010)

To quote Jim,

"It means do a good job in whatever you pursue, 

but don't be boastful about it."

❧

I love that fact that this piece, while encouraging you to make a mark, 

is subtle in its execution.

Next month, we'll expand my marks exploration by launching a blog to share more "Marks, Here and Now."  Keep YOUR marks coming.  They're so much fun to see! 

The Seasonal Marks of Nature

January brings renewal and awakening.

It may be months until spring, but a new year always inspires me.

Suerig Garden in the Snow

Thoughts on Marks

Some people make a lasting mark, 

mine will likely be fleeting. As I go, so will my mark, my voice, my name.

It is amazing to realize that my being here matters not to all but  to me, 

my voice, my name, my mark.

The only mark we truly have is with the people we leave who care that we were here,

 our mark, our voice, our name

When none still live who knew my name, 

then my mark and me, one and the same, 

will vanish with my voice and name

It is amazing to realize that my being here matters not to all but  to me, 

my voice, my name, my mark.

The only mark we truly have is with the people we leave who care that we were here, 

our mark, our voice and name.  

Nature's marks always changing but seen with many eyes.

FS 

❧

Bonnie's Nantucket Cottage Walk

 My friend Bonnie sent this mark above, made by her mother many years ago.

What beauty to have had a mom who appreciated nature and had an eye for beauty.

   We are always where we came from, even when we try otherwise.

Marks continue to present themselves in many forms. 

World Aids Day

December's mark. 

This month's mark is in honor of 

World Aids Day 

and my son, Michael.

Florence Suerig, 2013

Our marks are as unique as we are.  I am excited and inspired 

by the ones I've already received.

    Please continue to share your own marks via the email below.

Hope this season finds you making the mark you aspire to make!