Calypso Moon Studio

11/09/2024

What has happened to my friends? All that’s showing up on Facebook is boosted posts of groups I don’t want.

05/17/2024

What a joy it was to get our Calypso Moon display together for “What’s Blooming on Harrison?” this Sat, May 18th. Oak Park Arts District Business Association Sometimes, it’s a mystery what happens in a working artist studio. Go check out our display and you’ll see some of our creative seeds come to fruition!

Spring and Summer are great seasons for nature-inspired books. Gift a loved one with: Sallie’s THE ROBIN MAKES A LAUGHING SOUND. And Mary Grace has a poem in DEAR HUMAN AT THE EDGE OF TIME. Both, award-winning books.

Bonus mystery: Can you find the nature surprise attached to our display? Have fun!

01/18/2024

A sunny 12F degrees for our partner’s meeting today. Gearing up to enjoy finishing some meaningful projects and “excavate”’some personal art. More to come. Happy New Year from Calypso Moon Studio! May healing, love, and beauty abound in 2024. Thanks Simeon Carson for snapping the photo & your perfect timing!

03/04/2023

Come join composer Elizabeth Doyle Music and myself (Mary Grace/M.G.) for the premiere of our song “Will They Remember Life Was Beautiful?” at Bellissima Opera’s International Women’s Day Concert tomorrow. Sunday, March 5th, 2023. 2:30 pm.

Happy International Women’s Day 2023!

I invite all of you to join us for this truly special event to Embrace Equity this Sunday for our 2023 International Women's Day Concert March 5. 2:30-4:30 in Oak Park. Tickets: Bellissimaopera.com/iwd23/ With Susan Nelson, Sarah Kropski, Christine Steyer and Anna Tonna, Jennifer McCabe, Shannon McGinnis & C21. Jeanne Franks, emcee & artist Cheri Wolf. Premiering “Will They Remember Life Was Beautiful?”holding space for young lives lost to gun violence by Mary Grace Bertulfo & Elizabeth Doyle. Doors open at 2PM. Tickets: $22.50 in advance of the day; $27.50 at the door, $45 for VIP seating, and $10 for students. Concert at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 611 Randolph Street in Oak Park, IL. The building is accessible and free street parking is available.

12/11/2022

Facebook has hyjacked my feed. The lists are dated or unrelated to me. Hate Facebook. I’m only on here to see pictures of my sisters dog anyway.

12/04/2022

12/04/2022

Through the Glass —

I’m so happy to return to Sallie Wolf and my tradition of putting together our winter display window. It has been a long road to this season. We’re arriving just as the geese started migrating south. Here’s to joyous moments of creation during winter’s hush. Life in a working artist studio.

09/17/2022

Michael Kiwanuka vibes playing on the speakers. It’s been 2 years since I moved these research books to my house for lockdown. Feels good to bring them back to the studio. Some were originally hand carried from Manila or Cebu City or from California. Welcome home, books. 💖

12/05/2020

It’s been a pandemic minute since I’ve worked in-studio. I’m looking forward to getting back to my creative home, to Calypso Moon. The last two weeks have been been a rough ride. Several elders and people I love from my childhood were hospitalized with COVID and complications. My own non-COVID challenges were a struggle for my body this week. I’m finding my way slowly. How to deal? Prayer and meditation, of course. Calling and pm-ing friends.

I’m also thankful to have art as an outlet. From my visual artist friends, I’ve learned to let go and follow the materials. This week’s rollercoaster is beyond words and I just wanted to blend water colors with no plans or expectations—just to be on the page and being in the moment when the iris and ultra marine watercolors swirled, the short frenzied strokes that filled the page with jagged swaths of color. First the blues and purples, the color of lolas and crones and wisewomen. Then came my craving for autumn colors, for the blaze and crackle of fireplaces. And from the fire arose the shapes of a moonlit night, the full moon and a trail of pale, watery light. None of this was planned. Then I realized I loved the white spaces, the space lets the shapes and colors abstract—a tilting sea, the sea I knew in Cebu.

I’m exhausted from the lies, from the misuse of words, from the toxicity of reality TV that has become our norm. F**k that. Time to set it down—the pollution of our national soul. Maybe vibrant colors, this existence beyond words, can be a balm. Art eases the spirit.

Nature, too. But I’ll save that for another post. For now, the swirl.💜