Artist of the Week!
March 2008 Week 1
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Read the complete story in the February issue of The Community Arts Cafe magazine!
Story & Photos by Jack Stone
"Tears and raindrops look alike. Both cleanse the Soul to prepare for new growth. Wisdom comes with the tears and new beginnings with the raindrops."
Dori Jalazo
Timely Messages from the Heart's Interior
"It reminds me of something Helen Keller, a woman who could not see or hear but who lived an extraordinary life, said, that '…life is between the trapeze bars.' It can be a wonderfully rich time, of waiting and trusting, learning to be quiet and unafraid, of learning to let go."
Recalling a phase of life now passed Dori's eyes light up, "My children were miracles. I was told I couldn't have children; a lesson in fate." After son Matthew and daughter Nicole went off to fulfill their own destinies, Dori was deeply affected by an "empty nest" phase from which she now feels she is emerging. "Children can teach you much about how to be vulnerable. How to live in a way you never knew was possible." She and her husband of 35 years, Paul - an attorney and best friend since they were in 4th grade together - now are developing new activities and interests. "It's even better now, with all that history. And Paul's so brilliant - who else could live with my eccentricities? Everything is a canvas to me - walls, sofas, quilts." Indeed, Dori's home and studio of the last four years exude her warm signature touch.
Asked how she would describe her current creative phase, Dori Jalazo muses: "As the Buddhists say, one has to become completely empty in order to make space for the new to flow in. I feel I have been in one of these transitional sacred spaces for some time now, probably since the departure of my two children into their own rich lives. It can be a difficult time. One's former sense of identity gradually dissolves. One might wonder, 'who am I now? Where will my work travel?' My work is about who I am becoming; giving re-birth to myself.
Living and working in Greensboro the last 14 years, Dori Jalazo's work is beginning to attract national interest. But she has been through more than a few dark changes in her life. Multiple childhood traumas turned her inward toward a lonely bewilderment of guilt, grief, and blame. Over the years of her development as woman, wife, mother, and artist, she engaged in a continual introspective struggle with these old feelings, until understanding, forgiveness, acceptance, gratitude, and love spread and overflowed her cup......
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