Teacher Feature: Carmen Mims, LEAD Academy

Carmen Mims was born in 1986 in Louisville, Kentucky.  She currently teaches high school visual art at LEAD Academy Public Charter School in Nashville, through the Teach for America program.  During her time at LEAD Academy, Carmen has started and developed the visual arts program.  Highlights of the school’s visual art program include participation in regional art competitions and a field trip to the High Museum of Art, as a culmination of the 9^th grade’s study of Surrealism.

Carmen received her BA in Studio Art from Vanderbilt University in May of 2009.  While at Vanderbilt, she balanced working at the Sarratt Art Studios, curating the student gallery, and being a member of the university’s cross country and track teams.  In April of 2007, she gave a talk on Jackson Pollock at the Centre College Art and Aesthetics Symposium in Danville, Kentucky.

Carmen was the recipient of the 2009 Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet for her video Where We Go When We Tire.  This video was also featured in the 2^nd Kentucky Short Film & Video Showcase on September 15, 2009 at the 21C Museum Hotel.

In terms of collaboration in the classroom, one way she has her students collaborate on a weekly basis is through critique.  Students participate in full group critiques as well as informal partner critiques throughout the art making experience.  Carmen mentioned that collaborating is not always so easy with students, "'They want full control of their projects."  This week Carmen's art class is hosting their own version of a task party.  It will be interesting to see students interact and collaborate more during this activity. Carmen mentioned that she is both excited and hesitant to begin using collaboration in her classroom.  "I think my students are definitely open to collaboration, it will just be new to them in an art setting." 

In Carmen's personal art making, she wholeheartedly enjoys collaboration.  In fact, most of her work is based on collaborations with her husband.  Their art making relationship began in college, when he would critique her paintings.  Then it evolved into working together on several video art pieces, 2009-2011.  "The strengths he has with technology make it so we can accomplish more than I could on my own.  He is also a great editor, and I'm not always the best at this!"

The Deliciously Happy workshops at LEAD Academy begin in January.  The students will be working with paper puppets, choreography, and animation.  Stay tuned for more exciting news from LEAD Academy in 2012!

Finished Book Pages = STELLAR.

Help us REACH out GOAL!

While this project is expensive it is also expansive, and even though we still need more dollars to make the original goal I think it is really important that PEOPLE support the project.  So, consider pledging $1. This will keep you updated and connected to the project for the next year!  If you can give more, super.  Find out more here.  Your support is greatly appreciated.

studiOmnivorous is Deliciously Happy, and so are you!

Hi! I'm Megan! I'm a maker, do-er, and thinker here in Nashville, and today I'm guest-blogging about my part in Deliciously Happy.

A little bit of history: as a kid, one of my favorite memories was drawing sessions with my father. A casual cartoonist documenting his life in the military, at home, and with us, over pads of paper he encouraged in me a love of line and a deep appreciation for the individual story.

I think my willingness (or as my mom might say, "nosy-ness") to discover other people's stories is a big part of how I met Lindsey and how we began collaborating together on different projects. I love how well our work ties together: our mutual drive for a strong community emphasis within the arts is at the heart of what we do and what we get excited about...so when she told me about Play: Deliciously Happy, I couldn't wait to see how I could help out with the world she was building and how I could create a interactive component that would encourage on-site visitors and audiences to do more than just see art, but experience art.

Experiencing art is more than just looking and thinking: it's engaging with a piece in a way that creates memory and carries the chapter of that work into your own personal story. Maybe that's being hands-on, expressive, and making part of a piece yourself. Maybe that's finding a connection with the process behind a piece that helps you understand the artist and the art more. And maybe that's giving input to determine the direction of a piece that gives you ownership and a hand in the work.

When I make, I look for ways for art to incorporate those possibilities. My work continues to revolve around the ideas of shared/sharing narrative, the effects of personal history, and how both create, change, and harmonize our social place. To put it simply: Who are you? Who am I? And Who are WE together? As a result, I'm constantly intrigued by the stories other people have hidden inside of them, and about the community these stories create.

Where does my work come from? I write, I draw, I make and do, and I ask questions. I have the most fun when the work incorporates all of that. For example, earlier this year I facilitated Into The Ears Of Our Child, an interactive performance piece bringing the community into the making of a sculptural installation. That sounds fancy, but it was really simple and fun: participants who visited the gallery were encouraged to write their stories, advice, and empowerments to young women and men on banners of fabric.

What started out as a simple clothesline became an enormous, winding installation over the course of three months. From the clothesline rope itself to all of the fabric (and of course the words!), every item in the project had been donated from someone in the community! It was an exhibit that came together because of all of us, and so it belonged to all of us.

I met with other women artists, activists, and volunteers every few weeks to have a Work Session: we hung donated fabrics, moved banners around to keep the piece balanced, and had a dialogue about the words we were reading. This was just a courtesy, though: every time I came to the gallery (and I was there a lot!) someone had added something new or taken care of the piece. So many people contributed something special and meaningful: a vintage sash from a Vietnamese ao dai; a piece of a woman's military BDU she'd worn in Iraq; the ripped-up sheets from a woman who had just left an abusive marriage; cloud-covered fabric from a newborn's nursery window. So many stories!

The community really took ownership of the project, and I was grateful to be a part of their passion. When the exhibit closed, so many of the hands that had contributed to the piece came back to deinstall the exhibit as a community and help tie the banners into a long thread. Some of the fabric went home with people who had been especially touched by a message. Other pieces were sent to start new installations in homes and other cities. And the majority are becoming a huge quilt that I'm hand-stitching in order to best preserve the words everyone shared.

As I design the community section for Deliciously Happy, that experience is close in my mind. As Into The Ears of Our Child showed, taking art out of the box and into someone's hands creates meaning as well as art. Deliciously Happy is already so meaningful: the students, teachers, and artists involved in this project have already shared so much of themselves, expressing their own thoughts and creations in order to drive the work you'll see at Belmont in March. As I develop the community aspect for the gallery portion, I want to recreate that sense of sharing and bring it to you, our audience and friends. I hope you'll stay tuned as the project develops...and if you haven't already, consider donating to the project to help it move forward and bring all of the kids to see their hard work.

And of course, come visit us at the opening: I'll have something for you to do. =)

10 Questions with Filmmaker Allie Sultan.

Who is behind the Deliciously Happy video that's up on Kickstarter?  Honestly?  A small team of sound and camera people, 6 days of shooting, 3 advisors, and 1 editor.  And we'll get a chance to learn about all of them, beginning today by featuring filmmaker Allie Sultan.


Allie and I met in March when she and I were asked to be a part of a gallery show about boxing, organized by Andee Rudloff.  Since then, we have seen each other off-and-on throughout the months, but we hadn't had the chance to work together.  Deliciously Happy provided that opportunity.  Allie was instrumental in bringing the video piece together.  She shot footage of me talking about the project and helped me feel comfortable in front of the camera.  She edited the final piece, shuffling through hours of footage, finding the right bits to tell a story.  She is an absolute joy to work with:  I don't think I have ever been around someone who is so genuinely happy, smiling all the time!!  For this entry, I asked Allie 10 questions involving inspiration, collaboration, and storytelling.  See what she has to say!

1.  When someone says they are a filmmaker, what does that mean?  Explain to us what you do.

A filmmaker is a storyteller who works with video and audio as a medium, as opposed to the more "plastic arts" like photography, painting, or sculpture.  Filmmaking is simultaneously a technical art as well as an aesthetic one.  For me, filmmaking is an exciting, creative, and technical endeavor that is constantly evolving and challenging me in terms of the ways in which I can get a story or certain message across to my audience.  As far as my process goes:  I come up with an idea, script it, shoot, edit, and add color correction and sound design to put it all together into a finished piece.

2.  What kind of training did you have?  

As an undergrad, I studied Audio Engineering at MTSU, which gave me a great foundation in sound design and recording.  I graduated in 2004 with my MFA in Cinema from San Francisco State University, where I focused on experimental narrative filmmaking and post-production technologies.  As a child, I did a lot of children's theater (acting), which was a crash course on how directors work with actors...and how acting is crucial to the success of any storytelling venture.  

3.  What inspires you?  

My students, actually.  They are constantly challenging me on why films need to be made in a certain way...because they don't know the "rules" of traditional filmmaking, they are just doing things according to what they think is the right way.  That helps me grow every day --  I certainly learn from their mistakes, but working with young filmmakers forces me to think creatively about problem solving.  They're always surprising me.

4.  When does a story idea usually hit you?

I get my story ideas from dreams sometimes...other times I'll be driving and listening to a song and an image will pop into my head.  I woke up one day a few years back with an image of two girls sitting in a principal's office, bloodied/scraped up and looking totally hopeless...the worst day of their 14 year old lives.  That image became the ending of my thesis film -- it was so vivid that it made me want to know why these girls ended up in the principal's office.  So all I had to do to write that film was to write out what had happened to them up until that point.  But writing is actually usually the most awful, difficult part of filmmaking for me...where I go through countless bad ideas to get to that one good one.

5.  What role do you think collaboration plays in your industry?

 For most filmmakers, especially narrative ones, collaboration is essential to making a GOOD film...anyone can make a film by themselves, but it won't be good.  Usually film crews are composed of "experts"...one person is great at camera work, another is great at sound, another at directing actors...and the talents all come together to make a single great film.  For me, I have always struggled with the "I know how to do it myself, so why not do it all by myself" mentality.  I love the idea that small crews work quickly and are less intrusive to the acting/performing process.  Digital technologies make it extremely easy to shoot on extremely small crews nowadays.  In fact, I shot my last film "Camp Safe Haven" in 6 hours with with my friend Andee Rudloff and her nephew - with no crew other than myself and a camera.  I cut it the very next day, and the entire effort cost us about $20 (for hot dogs at lunchtime and gas for the car).  People who see the film have no idea how many people worked on it, or what equipment I used...but they all tell me they wanted to slug the kid...which is great because the film is about a boy who is out of control and his frazzled aunt who has to get him off to summer camp.  So the story always wins, and the process of getting to that story can be difficult and large in scale, or it can be simple and to the point.

6.  If you could work with anyone, who would it be and why?

I wish I was born 20 years earlier so I could have worked with American Zoetrope (Francis Ford Coppola's production company) in the 70's.  Coppola had some really amazing ideas back then about creating a film studio outside of the Hollywood system, and surrounded himself with some of the country's most talented and inspiring filmmakers...I wish I could have been a part of that.  At this point, I would like to see Nashville's filmmaking community come together in a similar spirit of collaboration and collective inspiration.  There's no reason Nashville can't be a hub of independent filmmaking...so I hope to be a part of that community growth.

7.  How did you know you wanted to be a filmmaker?

I wanted a video camera so badly when I was a kid, but my parents didn't have one.  I took a job at Six Flags running sound for a bluegrass band when I was 16 years old, and when I had earned enough money, I bought myself a Sony 8mm video camera.  I shot the crap out of that thing!!!  It really taught me how to decide what to shoot and how, when to hit record and when not to...and when to keep rolling.

8.  What is your favorite part of the filmmaking process?

I love editing...it's really where the story comes together.  Before editing, all you have is a bunch of disconnected shots...when you shoot a film, you're exhausted and stressed, you're not eating or sleeping properly, and you are just praying that you're capturing things well enough to give you creative options in the editing room.  I really enjoy the process of sitting down and discovering the story long after it's been shot.

9.  Tell us about your next project, what are you currently working on?

I have been tossing around a million ideas (again, tons of bad ones to get to the good one).  I'm currently freelancing as a video producer and editor, doing short web videos for various clients.  That's been a lot of fun, because I get to try out new equipment and techniques on short projects.  I would love to continue working on my own films, perhaps delving into the experimental art cinema I was exposed to in graduate  school...film can be so artful and beautiful, but many people have difficulties connecting to experimental film.  Perhaps they see it as too intellectual, or they are only looking to "turn off" their brains for a while and enjoy something simple and fun.  I hope to make films that not only entertain people, but make them see the world around them a little differently.

10.  If someone came up to you and said,  "I want to be a filmmaker."  What would you say to them?

You can be anything you want to be if you are determined enough...the world needs more diverse storytellers in all mediums!  I happen to love filmmaking, and I can see right away if someone has that passion as well.  I didn't grow up in a "film" family...my parents are both working in the health care field.  But I knew I wanted to make films and I went out and did it.  I run into a lot of students who think they want to make films, but once they find out how difficult it actually is, they lose interest.  That's when you know that something is not right for you...I guess it's like falling in love.  When it's the right thing, you fall deeper and deeper in love every day.  I can't imagine doing anything else!

Allie Sultan has over ten years of experience working as a picture and sound editor for films, documentaries, reality tv, and visual effects.  She completed an MFA in cinema from San Francisco State University in 2004, and has worked with some of Bay Area's finest film companies and organizations, including ZAP (Zoetrope-Aubry Productions), Berkeley Sound Artists, the Bay Area Video Coalition, and Tippett Studio.  Her new video production entity, Green Scoot Films, produces short videos for the web.  Allie teaches film production and editing at the Art Institute of Tennessee-Nashville and Vanderbilt University, and serves as a board member for FilmNashville and Women in Film and Television-Nashville.  She can be reached at allie@greenscootfilms.com.

It's all coming together at the University School of Nashville!

About The Project: Deliciously Happy . . .

Nice to meet you: Bordeaux Elementary . . .

Bordeaux is an elementary school located in Northwest Nashville.  I first came to learn about this school when I was asked to make a presentation about being an artist for career day at the end of the 2010/2011 school year.  The students were very inquisitive about my work and so I knew--right away--that I wanted to figure out a project that we could work on together . . . I contacted the art instructor, Cheryl Westberry, towards the beginning of the fall semester and we decided that the best fit for Deliciously Happy would be the incoming 4th graders, 17 students.  It has been such a great experience to learn about the students!  I look forward to our visits and I'm excited for them to come to the gallery and see their work in March!  Learn more about Bordeaux here.  And, find out about Northwest Nashville here.  

Welcome to the Deliciously Happy BLOG!

The Deliciously Happy project is well underway and we've just started our Kickstarter fundraising effort!  Find out more about Deliciously Happy here . . . And, stay tuned!