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Scheduled:

Now at Corinth: Leslie Norman Hubble

Friday, September 21 to Friday, December 21, 2018
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Leslie Norman Hubble’s work is inspired by content that disturbs her. She then constructs or manipulates those ideas into aesthetic images and objects.  She works to express a truth and raise questions about “mind and body, as well as concepts of time, culture, and technology.”

Hubble’s exhibition is part of the No Divide KC documentary series premiering at Johnson County Library September through December. 

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Introduce yourself and describe your work and the media/genre you work in.

My name is Leslie Norman Hubble, and I do art in a variety of media, including, acrylic painting, drawing, collage, assemblage, photography, photo manipulation, work with found objects, and combinations thereof. Virtually nothing is off limits to use as or be used in participation with a medium.

 

Talk about the work that will be on view. What would you like people to know about it?

For some time now, I have been inspired by unnerving  content . I feel compelled to construct and/or manipulate more aesthetic images or objects based on disturbing content. This works to express a truth in me and elicit  less conventional ways of seeing  the body/ mind/ spirit as well as concepts of time, culture, and technology.

For example, my husband died of COPD, a long extremely unpleasant illness. We were married for over 25 years.  Of course,  what happened to him, and what was happening to us, in our home, was extremely difficult. I took care of him, along, so was very intimate with so many aspects of the disease. Since his death I find myself doing a lot of related  art..  Cor Pulmonade ,  Sister Cor Pulmonade,  and Nebulizer Babies I and II appear in this show.   I used his xrays, MRIs, and parts of his medical records and researched images of end-stage lung disease and related conditions that  he developed. I also used  detritus used for his care (for example, one of his hospital bracelets is used in the assemblage Sister Cor Pulmonade and an oxygen tubing connector in another piece). The finished pieces are a more “palatable” version of the physical and emotional events of this time

Sonogram Doll, Metronome, and The Ladder of Our Love are  based on my own body and brain. In these pieces I used sonograms, xrays, MRIs, etc, of my body, along with drawing, painting, digital manipulation, collage, and various mixtures of these mediums.

Time and Chance  and Seizure Disorder are among pieces in this show that use similar techniques regarding fixed ideas and/or disturbing aspects of time and technology.

What’s the most challenging thing about your creative process?

Probably the biggest obstacle is chronic physical pain.  I have several  spinal disorders and am limited physically. I’m not able to work on a large scale.I work everyday in spite of any but the most severe pain; the pain of not doing art is more intolerable..

What I call the frozen depression, which often holds hands with anxiety and  agitation, is also challenging to deal with.  I’ve learned to do art anyway during these times – force myself, if necessary,  and am learning to not be concerned  about the outcome of whatever I scribble down or slap around.  Just pour some art on it – no matter what “it” is.  “Nothing is so precious that it can’t be collaged on or painted over or thrown away,” a favorite art professor used to say. That phrase sticks with me and the philosophy has given me a lot of freedom.

Who are the other artists you look to for inspiration? And what about their work do you like?

 Bosch is a major influence, as are Frida Kahlo, Erich Fischel, William Blake, Joseph Cornell, Lucien Freud, Van Gogh, de Kooning, Tuculescu, Klimt, Thomas Chimes. The list goes on.

 

Please list your book, music and/or book recommendations.

Cruddy by Lynda Barry

The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers

The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You by Frank Stanford

What About This, Collected Poems of Frank Stanford

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 

The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

The Complete Illuminated Books by William Blake

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Mythology by Edith Hamilton 

 

Music Recommendations:

Bethlehem Steel

The Amps

Steve Earle 

Was, Not Was

John Hiatt, particularly his earlier work

James McMurtry

Coltrane

Miles Davis

B.B. King

Van Morrison

The Band

The Classical dudes

 

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Help Us Make Our Storytimes Even Better!

We'd love to hear your thoughts about our Storytimes! Please share your comments and suggestions here.

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Let's Talk Turkey

Ben Franklin suggested that turkeys should be our national bird. You can celebrate Thanksgiving with stories about wild turkeys. You’ll meet Jake O’Turkey, our animal friend. You can touch a real turkey egg and feel turkey feathers. We’ll go on a turkey food scavenger hunt and practice our turkey calls. A taxidermy specimen is included. Best for ages 3 and up, children under 7 with a caregiver.

Today at Antioch beginning at 3pm and 3:30pm. Register online or call (913) 826-4600. Presented by Ernie Miller Nature Center.

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When the Navy Made WAVES

Last week the Johnson County Library celebrated Women in the Military. We discovered there is a lot of local history with military training and women right here in Johnson County. The United States’ decision to enter into World War II created an immediate demand for training facilities, factories, soldiers and other military personnel to aid in the war effort. The armed forces needed to expand their employment from a men-only operation, and quickly. Many branches of the military answered this call by creating special units specifically for women. The Olathe Naval Air Station located between Olathe and Gardner served as a primary training facility for one of these groups. Read more on JoCoHistory »

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What do you want to make?

So many things to make and do in the MakerSpace! We keep makers (and bookworms) busy! Record your song, film that epic, laser cut a doll cradle, upcycle your bottle with laser etching, prep your RasberryPi for anything, turn an old game into art, create some cookie cutters, carve a state-shaped cutting board, die cut some wall stencils, or whatever your maker-mind can conceive!

Meet our Fall Maker-In-Resident Steve Jahnke! You can find Steve in the MakerSpace most Monday evenings and Saturdays.

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Convenience Delivered by Couriers

You’re busy! We get it. You don’t have time to drive to De Soto for a book if you live in Leawood. You can’t easily get up to Corinth for that DVD if you live in Gardner. No worries! Our Library Couriers are on it Johnson County Library’s Courier drivers provide timely and reliable service. So much so that we may sometimes take for granted the measures needed to ensure that your holds are handled and bundles of bookmarks are delivered on time.

They are behind the wheel before the crack of dawn each day picking up magazines and newspapers from the post office. They’re transporting whatever you just put a hold on to your favorite location. They’re ensuring that the Youth Services librarian gets her storytime kit. The Library Couriers have at some point carried, transported and delivered – with a smile – items related to every single area of our functioning. JCL simply could not provide the very popular services we do without their timely and strenuous efforts.

During the past year, the Courier team has designed and conducted strategic experiments to analyze fleet efficiency and refine their services where necessary and appropriate. They have each rotated driving all of the daily routes, which total hundreds of miles to each of our 14 locations. The insights gleaned from their efforts will help keep our Library running smoothly.

Meanwhile the Couriers are on their appointed rounds, lifting tubs, carting books, hoisting mail bins and delivering the mail. Look for them in our colorful courier trucks, and give them a wave. They deserve your thanks!

 

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Kelly Hunt

Kelly Hunt makes the kind of music that will strike you as instantly familiar yet strangely new and vital. Her voice and banjo are perfectly suited for her stunning brand of Americana/roots music.

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Natalie Bates Quartet

Arising out of UMKC's Conservatory Jazz Studies Program, all four members of the Natalie Bates Quartet (Aryana Nemati, Alyssa Murray, Carly Atwood and Natalie Bates) are masters of their craft. Led by drummer, artist and entrepreneur Bates, the group continues to hone their skills at regular gigs at Kansas City's Green Lady Lounge and Tom's Town Distillery, where you can hear them perform original compositions. We're fortunate to share with you an interview with Natalie Bates about the Quartet's origins, how they write and how playing to different audiences challenges them. Enjoy!

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Did you hear about the Women in the Military event?

Did you hear about our Women in the Military event? Librarian Amanda talks about the stories a panel of women who have served will share.