A Conference of Birds

A Conference of Birds collects, in book form, over a dozen connected exercises in thinking and drawing which were developed during the Covid lockdown by Axiom Maxiom Drawing Center. When the sudden distancing by quarantine threatened the curtailment of in-person communication the Center engaged in a process for correspondence by mail or postal carrier.

This presented options for the continuance of civilized dialogic writing, drawing, painting, socialization and music. Referencing historic use of Ambassadorial pigeons and a Conference of Birds, participants responded to bi-monthly newsletters and delivered their work to the Center via US mail or hand delivery to a specified mailbox. Projects include creation of masks as bird forms and geometric constructs of a City in the Air. Each session is thoroughly inspired by philosophical and instructional guidance of the AxiomMaxiom newsletter - As This, So That.

Works included in this Volume were created by the participants from our Asheville, North Carolina community guided by architect/artist/educator Regi Weile.

... in pursuit of regi weile who was born in 1943, with an innate desire to grow a soul that one day could be shared with those we called 'us'. The year 1943, was filled with extraordinary hope-fullness in the anticipation of a previously unimagined America; one hidden in implication by the Emersonian discernment of a promised Utopian Era. For my own young self this was expanded to include the reading of a discernment of a promised life made possible for confident young women to become their own whole person.My education in 'insight' and 'contemplation' was afforded by the then exceptional NYC Public School system leading to my acceptance at the esteemed High School of Music and Art followed by free access to Pratt Institute's Architectural program. At Pratt I was mentored, while serving as a student assistant, by the renowned Professor Sibyl Moholy-Nagy. My professional apprenticeship and licensing as an Architect followed. My goals expanded in scale with my formation of the Alliance of Women in Architecture and the establishment of one of the earliest woman owned Architectural Practices.My evolving inclinations were not solely related to the creation of Art, Architecture and Word-smithery...but extended to what lay beyond in the expression of ones inner self. In 1976 I was invited by Dean John Hejduk to serve in the position of Professor at the Cooper Union School of Architecture and to retain the position in the Thesis program for 35 years. I served my students as a mentor benefitting their passion for 'the creative' in Art, Architecture and Literature, summoning-in-perpetuation the generous unselfish support of my many mentors.Departing from Cooper Union I was influenced by the passions of both Johannes Itten and Paul Klee who opened their own studio-schools in Switzerland when forced to depart from the Bauhaus. I henceforth imagined into existence my own independent studio-school in order to continue to teach, to inspire, and be inspired by, the creative individuals in our challenged time.... the axiom-maxiom drawing center was thenceforth established in Asheville, North Carolina in 2018.