MotherSon Productions evolved out of a love of exploring and expressing creativity. Bodhi grew up participating in his mother’s performance pieces and began videoing at the age of thirteen.
While archiving Clare’s art work Bodhi got an objective view of his mother’s enormous and varied content which inspired him to do a documentary, “Life of Art.”
When it was time to move from their home in California Bodhi and Clare seized the opportunity to go on a artistically inspiring adventure. They bought an RV and named it “The Reasoned Manor” so they could choose their new home, in a reasoned manner. They traveled the country for a year through 40 states covering 22,000 miles documenting the journey as they went.
When Bodhi looked back at the content of the trip he said, “I think we are a great team and should work together and be, MotherSon Productions.”
Since then they have created a wide variety of videos, 14 examples are on the home page.
Currently they are working on a series of original projects, one is, “use little LIVE BIG” a series of inspirational/instructional videos about living an economical and ecological life. Another projects is a fictional story Bodhi wrote, directed, edited and starred in, about human trafficking “No Hero”. They have also completed a commissioned feature length legacy project which is about the life story of a 95 year old woman from Newfoundland.
Clare Cooley:
Though best known for her crane paintings, Clare Cooley is a visionary artist who paints everything from insects to outer space, classic to modern. She also skate dances, plays the flute, writes, and performs–all as a contemplative practice. Clare Cooley has dedicated her life work–her art–to inspiring in others a life of harmony and balance. The unifying purpose of all that she does is to open hearts, celebrate community, and foster creative reverie. She does this by sharing her artistic essence through collaborative performance art. Clare Cooley has over 400 paintings, drawings and etchings in her portfolio, which have been exhibited in galleries and world-class restaurants such as Domain Chandon and Auberge du Soleil. Her art has appeared in “Accent On Design,”the juried section of the International Gift Show, San Francisco. Clare’s art has been featured on the cover of Red Rose Catalog as well as in Nordstrom department stores. Her work has been exhibited in the corporate headquarters of Hewlett Packard and Chevron, and is in the permanent collection of the Natural World Museum of Art. Clare Cooley has also led art demonstrations as part of the crane exhibit at the Academy of Sciences, Steinhart Museum in San Francisco. She designed and built her sanctuary/studio, and created most of its furnishings, which were showcased on the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Artist Studio Tours. Clare Cooley wrote and taught an eclectic arts curriculum titled, “Dancing into the Arts.” in the public schools (elementary, junior high, high schools) as an Artist in Residence for the Board of Education. She has also taught her curricula at universities, mental hospitals, drug rehabilitation centers, juvenile delinquent homes, crisis shelters, retreats, and in trainings for nurses, therapists, and teachers. Clare Cooley’s first dance performance was at a gallery opening interpreting the paintings. She also danced children’s stories and poetry. The published work of Clare Cooley includes the Book of Cranes, which she wrote, illustrated, and designed. She has done readings of her life prose stories and poetry on public radio and at Sonoma State University, California. Ms. Cooley appeared on public television’s, “Woman of Vision,” as well as the University of California Berkeley’s radio program on spirituality. Clare Cooley conceived, directed, and performed in a Napa Valley Arts Council Performance festival called “Freedom Flight,” which included over 90 artists. The event was dedicated to world peace and featured a cluster of one thousand origami cranes at the center of the Yountville Community Hall. Children from the Napa Valley School District, after a lesson and demonstration by Clare, made the origami cranes. The cranes were then strung and assembled by the senior citizens. The audience was invited to paint their own colorful wings on white silk, which were then lifted high above the audience in the hall, like rows of laundry in heaven. The hall was fully decorated with paintings, drawings, and sculpture—all relating to freedom and flight. The “Freedom Flight” performance began with a reading of the dedication to world peace by a child. Accompanied by live music, the first dance piece was Clare and the children crawling out in white silk tubes as caterpillars to the music of the blues, then wiggling around as cocoons to jazz, and finally bursting out of the white silk cocoon to fly around the hall as butterflies to rock and roll. The audience was then invited to put on the wings they had painted—people of all ages, and all walks of life, from Robert Mondavi and the elders to the children of Napa Valley—all danced joyously together for world peace! Clare Cooley performed at Theatre Artaud, in San Francisco, dancing on skates to Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. She also skate danced at Fort Mason at “Give Peace a Dance.”
Check out a videos featuring Clare.
Bodhi Werner
As far back as I can remember I have been inspired by storytelling. Some of my earliest memories are trying to figure out the techniques behind the illusions in movies. I have long been excited by and committed to learning every aspect of movie making including acting. As a video producer I have been most fortunate to have had great mentors along the way.
I believe movie making is a process of distilling a story, which inspires me because it can be a fusion of all the arts.
My first video experiences were videoing my mother skate dancing at 13 years old which I included in the documentary I made about her “Life of Art.” From a young age I enjoyed participating in my mother’s performance pieces. In high school I did a video project called “Direct The Other Way,” when my mother shared it with her EMMY award winning videographer friend, I was honored that he asked me to edit for his website. I am grateful he became my mentor, he has exposing me to many opportunities such as working on the History Channel, at Nasa, at Stanford and for a variety of advertisement companies.
To this day I remain amazed by the magic and mystery of visual storytelling.
I try to take every opportunity I can to document the world around me. It comes naturally to me to video, photograph, audio record, write and sketch to capture life. I am excited to share the content of our road trip around the country, “In Search Of True Beauty,” soon.
Since starting MotherSon Productions we have done some wonderful projects including making music videos, an album cover photoshoot, historical sights and events and a legacy documentary project one of our recent short films “Tall Ships” was selected by the Duluth Superior Film Festival.
My mother and I were asked to give a presentation at UMD for the University for Seniors. This led to us being asked to teach a class we called “Creative Delight.” The four classes focused on strengthening our imaginations through free association exercises using words, sounds, movements and visuals.
Then the UFS at UMD asked me to do a lecture on video production which was very rewarding.
Presently I am thrilled to be working on a fictional script I wrote and will be acting in about the real life tragedy of human trafficking.
We are also working on a series of inspirational/instructional videos, “use little LIVE BIG,” about how to enrich our lives while living more economically and ecologically. The series will be in the categories of home, health, work and fun.
We will also be working on a multimedia live art performance piece, “Essence Of Everything.” Clare will paint the set and costume, recite extemporaneous prose and play bamboo flute inspired by the four seasons. I will video and live edit, which will be projected onto a screen. The final act will be her skate dancing along with the video.
We are trying to share meaningful content and do our part to brighten the world. Let us know how we can assist you with your video projects. We truly appreciate hearing what you think of our efforts.
Thank You
Clare Cooley Artistic Director
Bodhi Werner Videographer Editor
MotherSonProductions@Gmail.com
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