Authors’ Sala Reading
Leigh Hyams, Iris Graville 
& Summer Moon Scriver
Fri, Apr 3, 5–7pm
St. Paul’s Church
Cardo 6
50 pesos

Leigh Hyams

Iris Graville

Ways of seeing and working
By Kimberly Kinser

The San Miguel Authors Sala Special Series presents an evening of contemplation about work, art, their intersection and the galaxies in between.

Leigh Hyams will read from her book, How Painting Holds Me on the Earth—Writings from a Maverick Painter and Artist/Teacher. She will share a little of her vast experience as a teacher and creator of paintings. Hyams has been writing all her life as she traveled the world painting and teaching. Her book brings much of her thought and philosophy together in one volume.

Hyams has taught painting in European universities and in Rio de Janeiro. She teaches regularly at Esalen Institute in California and in her small studios in San Miguel and San Francisco. “I teach technique, of course, but mostly I teach an artist to perceive the world more deeply,” Hyams said.

The book is divided into three sections. The first describes Hyams’s own process of bringing her art into the world, including, as she writes in the book’s overview, “journal descriptions of animated conversations going on between the canvas and myself during the act of painting.”

The second section describes the unconventional exercises and ideas she uses to help painters “sharpen their perception…see how color moves…see the vitality of line…and to understand why one painting is more successful.”

The third section is a group of vignettes and essays describing how the artist interacts with the world. 

Hyams stresses how much music and dance are a part of her process as an artist and as a teacher. The idea that each student or each project has a unique rhythm is part of what causes former students to write, “Leigh can make a stone paint.”

Her long list of credentials can be found at www.artsreal.com/bio.html, if you care to get to know her before the reading. She opens her solo exhibition at El Museo de la Ciudad Santiago Querétaro in the first week of April. 

Iris Graville and Summer Moon Scriver come from Lopez Island, one of Washington State’s San Juan Islands. Their book, Hands at Work—Portraits and Profiles of People Who Work with Their Hands, tells a story of work, through essay and photograph. It depicts not just the tasks accomplished daily by the midwife, auto technician, typesetter or potter, but the story of the thriving community their work creates. 

Graville was struck by the idea of creating this book when she saw a one-woman show by Scriver of black and white photographs of people’s hands at work. Graville, a storyteller, knew that the stories behind those photos would be compelling outside the small community of Lopez Island. In fact, she believed in the project so strongly that the obstacles that needed to be overcome during the four-year process of creating Hands at Work did not discourage this two-woman team, but kept them focused on the outcome.

The book is lovely to look at and read. The duotone photographs are warm and intricate. The color in the book comes through in Graville’s vivid description of the surroundings and life of each individual. “I wrote all my notes by hand,” Graville comments. “I found that in not using a recorder or computer, I slowed the process down, giving each individual time to think deeply about the work they do.”

Graville and Scriver together met with the farmer, the fisherman, the baker and the sign language interpreter in the subject’s workspace. Their teamwork was also part of the process. The photographer’s focus would inform the writer and vice versa. 

Both women have strong ties to Mexico. Graville began writing parts of this project during an Amherst Writers and Artists workshop in San Miguel and then wrote most of the drafts the following winter in a sunny apartment on Umarán. Scriver has family and professional connections in Mexico City and Cancún. This will be her first visit to San Miguel.

All three women will show slides during the reading. 



Kimberly Kinser leads creative writing workshops at LifePath Center using the Amherst Writers and Artists method.