Resumé

CHRISTINE TARANTINO

Chronology

1948 Born 3 December in New York City.
1952 Early recollections of NYC art museums, parks, churches, Bronx Zoo, and family bread bakeries.
1954 Moves to Boston, Massachusetts with Italian-American family.
1958 Wins first slogan contest, Gillette Corporation, but later disqualified for being underage.
1962 Enters Framingham South High School, soon discovers poetry, arts, 60's culture, alternatives, and aloneness.
1970 Graduates with two teaching certificates, State College Fitchburg, MA and begins lifelong passion for teaching.· First classroom teaching position in Westminster Massachusetts. Later awarded Diane Goguen Memorial Honor for extraordinary commitment and outstanding teaching excellence.
1979 Emerges from malpractice-induced coma with heightened sensibilities. Rejects previously established family and career relationships and goals in favor of a natural lifestyle guided by rapid spiritual awareness and supernatural zeal. Lives alone in woodlands of North Quabbin Region, Massachusetts for 6 years.
1981 First writings and poems published. Begins left-handed calligraphic markings poetry. Works in restaurants and art centers along the Mohawk-Johnny Appleseed Trails. Writes two weekly newspaper columns, publishes travel log of Thoreau excursion on Cape Cod., joins writing groups in Amherst, Massachusetts area.
1986 Founder of three local writing groups; TUESDAY NIGHT POETS, FREE SPIRIT POETS, and WOMAN'S WORTH.
Awarded numerous Massachusetts Cultural Council Grants to fund groups' activities including printing and publishing first poetry chapbook, Rhythms of Regiving.
1990 Spends one year alone in cabin writing children's series, Come Outdoors And Play: A Child's Guide to Nature and God. Rejects NYC publishing house offer to publish book series.
1991 Meets and moves in with avant-garde artist & NEW NEW PAINTER, William Gruters, with whom a mentor relationship develops. Moves cabin to his Mill Pond home site, where Literary Arts at Mill Pond becomes established and the bulk of writings and projects are developed.
First Literary Arts works presented, published, and collected at La Libraire Pax & Musee royal de Mariemont Belgium.
1992 Initiated into Transcendental Meditation, Northampton Massachusetts. Follows Ayurvedic lifestyle, meets Dr. Deepak Chopra.
1995 Writes, prints, and publishes over 30 titles under newly established independent book arts imprint, Words of Light International Publishing. Mission goal is to create works(visio-textual) which promote spiritual awareness and higher consciousness. First mail art exhibition, Driving the Dream: Rte. 66, USA..
1996 Come Outdoors And Play book series chosen for inclusion in UK catalogue of the best books that "nourish spiritual awareness in children".
1998 Reads Autobiography of a Yogi, The Life of Paramahansa Yogananda, subscribes to Self-Realization Lessons, and later to TRUTH Journal, by Roy Eugene Davis of Center for Spiritual Awareness in Georgia. Begins committed spiritual practice of meditation and hatha yoga.
1999 Attends lectures by spiritual personages; Deepak Chopra, Ananda Moyi, Dalai Llama, and Roy Eugene Davis, with whom a guru-disciple relationship develops.
2001 Proposes and curates first international Mail Art Exhibition/Publication, "Your Library", held at Phillips Free Public Library in Phillipston, Massachusetts.
2003 Initiated into Kriya Yoga by Roy Eugene Davis, direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda, at Center for Spiritual Awareness in Lakemont, Georgia.
2004 Regularly exhibits book arts and mail art works, internationally.
Summer artist-in-residence, Governor Dummer Academy, Plum Island.
2005 Meets and establishes cyberspace relationship with Belgian artist Guido Vermeulen, who invites participation in his artist book blog, http://boklist.blogspot.com/ and with whom a mentor relationship ensues.
Proposes and publishes first two artist book collections of mail art by international artists(including Antoni Miro) , A - Z Mail Art Postcards, and A Plea to Forsake.
2006 Invited to the DaDa Festival at MOMA, New York, to honor William S. Wilson and De Decker Geert (Sztuka Fabryka).
Accepts position to teach Art at Holy Trinity School, Greenfield Massachusetts.
Edits Mail Art Encyclopedia article by De Decker Geert for Sztuka Fabryka, Belgium.
Moves to Wendell, Massachusetts .
Invited by American poet, David Stone, to contribute art works to BLACKBIRD 9, anthology of poetry and art.
2007 Invited by Italian artist, Maurizzio Follin, to exhibit works at Realtà non Ordinaria site, www.realtano.it
Artist Profile accepted by The WomenArts Network, http://www.womenarts.org/ , (The Fund for Women Artists), Northampton MA.
Named a finalist for the Library Fellows Program, National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., for the mail/artist book documentation catalogue for ELLEN MAKES ME SMILE, A Tribute To Ellen DeGeneres.
Establishes Words of Light Mail Art Blog, www.christinetarantino.blogspot.com and subsequently joins syndicated www.mailart.org.
Scholarship recipient, Women’s Studio Workshop Summer Arts Institute 2007, New York.
REALTÀ NON ORDINARIA, Virtual Gallery Exhibit; www.realtano.it/galleria.htm, Italy , May 1 to August 30.
2008 Mail Art/Fluxus activities dominate writing projects; works with words in the style of “ARTE Povera” continue, using organic/natural, and found materials.
Participates in numerous international Mail Art Exhibits.
Begins construction of new studio,D’Wildwood Studio, Wendell MA.
Offered a summer teaching position at Amherst College, 2008 Summer Institute for the Gifted, Art Classes.
Artist Collaborations with I Santini del Prete, ITALIA and Guido Vermeulen, BELGIQUE for forthcoming publication, Dodo/Dada Notebook #3, by Claudio Romeo, ITALIA.
“Totem Fruitlands”, collage with birch bark, donated to Fruitlands Museum 2008 Auction