magic medicine

Back to blogging

2012-01-21T11:44:00.001-05:00

I have been thinking a lot about blogging lately. But there's a big difference between thinking and doing.

This morning I am taking photographs of work to submit to the Dorsky Museum open call for Hudson Valley artists. Taking photos of my work really engages me in a process that is very connected to the creation of the work itself. In fact, until I start taking photographs and trying to conceptualize how to present my work, it remains unfinished in a sense. Taking photographs allows me to see with different eyes. A third eye if you will. And the work changes. Morphs. Transcends its original state.

After downloading the photos and taking a quick critical look, before heading back to my studio to troubleshoot some issues and explore other options, I decided to do a quick search for art using prescription bottles. I'm always concerned that I may be doing something that's already been done. I like to be original. And I imagine jurors and curators are not looking for work that has been done before. They are looking for fresh visions.

Here's what I came across. As always, delighted and inspired.

Juen Woest

Jean Shin

How do you like the new me?

2011-11-21T19:59:00.001-05:00

I'm on a roll with redesign. Blogger is too. I love the new templates. The one I've chosen for the time being is bit like Tumblr, very visual. And that works for me right now.
I'm in the throes of the final week of my first semester as a grad student, and if I'm honest, I have to say: the semester isn't ending a moment too soon. Being a student is exhausting. Not perhaps in the ways you might think, though.
It's not the work, but the navel gazing that gets to me. Bring on the books. And the art works in progress. But all the considering, and reconsidering, and wondering why, etc. etc. All the writing about it. That's what tires me out. It's a bit like being on a merry go round for me. Too many words.
I'm a "first thought, best thought" kind of girl. And I like shorter vs. longer sentences. I like fragments. And big words don't really wow me. As I tweeted recently "pedagogy" and "pithy" are two of my least favorite words. Add to that list "praxis".
Don't get me wrong. I like thinking. And I like thinking on a certain level. But what really excites me is communicating. And understanding. And that means easy to understand. Maybe it's my ingrained advertising ethos. Keep it simple.
I'm not big on hidden messages. It's elitist. It's tricky. Sometimes I suppose, it's sacred. And that's something I do like - or that resonates, if I'm using more academic language.
So, for all of you who have been hoping for grad school blow by blows, I'm sorry. I just don't have the words. But pictures! I've got pictures.
This is what my semester at Goddard looks like:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21863196@N07/collections/72157628030828275/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21863196@N07/collections/72157627861054569/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21863196@N07/collections/72157627736579723/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21863196@N07/collections/72157627583956651/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21863196@N07/collections/72157627376096833/

Testing Testing

2011-11-02T20:54:00.001-04:00

I'm working on updating all my websites and it's a big ball of wax. So will be using this blog to test a few things out.

If you can't see the slide show because you are on a Mac or iPad, go here

Driving Dutchess ArtEast

2011-10-24T09:20:00.000-04:00

I spent most of the weekend driving around Dutchess County visiting artists on the Dutchess ArtEast Tour who had visited me the the weekend before. It was a whirlwind.

I was on a schedule, packing too many people into too short a time. But. I was driving with top down, heat on, hat, gloves and a scarf. The sun was in and out. Leaves were golden, falling. I drove by rushing streams and crumbling farms. Tiny box houses and mansions. Mini malls and country stores.

I am always happiest in a car, happier still when driving. (When I was a baby, my father took me on drives around Manhattan when I cried. The movement soothes me still.) I often get my best ideas while driving. Insights into the work I’m doing or where I am going with it wash over me.

Getting to see other artists’ work, their studios, their homes, too, is an augury in itself. It’s different from going to galleries and museums. The difference perhaps between seeing a diorama at the Met, and walking the woods. One sees not just the work but the subtext of it. The potter’s wheel, the view out the window, the close quarters or expansive spaces. We take in their worlds, somewhat unconsciously, perhaps, in a glimpse. We even perhaps retrace the steps of their lives, walking with them through the universe, as we turn up their driveways, and walk in the doors of their private spaces.

We connect not just in conversation, but in similarities seen at the edges: found bird nests and childrens’ toys, dragonflies, petals and pods, placed just so on a windowsill or in a sacred corner. We see it, too in the work. Not always literally, but in the shadows and gestures.

I gave myself these days off from photosnapping and took it all in without document. For a virtual glimpse, you can still visit dutchessarteast.com and click around the websites. Then, put the weekends on your calendar for next year. And keep your eyes out for any opportunities to visit artist studios wherever you live.

May your days be filled with the Magic Medicine of long country drives into the at once unknown and familiar.

Packet

2011-10-10T11:03:00.001-04:00

In the throes of packet production again. Those 3 weeks keep sneaking up on me. Yet, it’s a good span of time. Long enough to follow a thread. Not too long if you drop one. It seems to keep one honest. And engaged.

Interesting how each one is a different experience too. This time it’s been 3 or 4 days in the making, little bits at a time. What with getting ready for the Open Studio Tour this weekend, it’s a lot to juggle.

But I managed to get to a project that’s been on my mind since returning from the residency in July. That is, to tie the gold threads around something larger than one of the small fetishes that I’ve been collecting for years.

On my way to pick up signs for the upcoming Open Studio Tour, I drove one of my favorite roads in the county, Strever Farm Road in Pine Plains. It’s just always stunning, ever season of the year, every time I drive it.

The roots of these giant shade trees are fascinating and beautiful to me. More sacred knottings to come.

And by the way, if you’re interested in a visual look at what I send off in my packets each 3 weeks, just visit my Flickr site. Haven’t figured out yet, how to share the written contents of the packets. But I’m on it.

Baby steps, as always.

May your days be filled with the Magic Medicine of time to reflect, and time to do, and time to just be.

You're invited!

2011-10-06T21:19:00.000-04:00

On October 15 and 16, my studio and home are open to all, in the 2011 ArtEast Open Studio Tour.

If the weather's good and I can wrangle a few fire tenders, I will have a bonfire going. And makings for s'mores of course, along with wine, cheese, apples and cider.

It's the perfect time of year to visit my Sacred Art Burial Ground. My Lint Paintings are in the laundry room. ORBS are of course in attendance!

Just a short drive away, you can enjoy the best croissants outside of France (I'm not kidding!), at the Mountain Cow Cafe in Pine Plains, where photographs by my husband Larry Illges, and more work of mine are on view.

Other artists on the tour are close by. There's a nature sanctuary right down the street for lovely walks and hiking. Wild Hive Bakery is not too far away. And there are quite a few great restaurants a stones throw away.

And the Sheep and Wool festival is going on at Rhinebeck Fair Grounds.

You could really make a beautiful day of it.

For more info

http://www.dutchessarteast.com/2011/03/hello-world/

I am #9 on the Northeast Artists drop down menu, where you'll also find my phone number, address and all the particulars

http://www.dutchessarteast.com/artists-north/riva-weinstein/

I hope to see you!

Grad School Report Card and True Tales of the Unemployed.

2011-10-04T15:54:00.000-04:00

I originally wrote this post a couple of weeks ago, but never managed to post it. So as usual, I am playing catch up. But still worth sharing. More soon. In the meantime...

The due date for my 2^nd packet suddenly snuck up and took me by surprise. Wasn’t it just yesterday that I spent a 40 hour week pulling together what is essentially a progress report on my reading, art making, film viewing, gallery and museum going?

Apparently not. Three weeks slip by in a millisecond. While you are just back from a beach vacation that started with driving rain and ended with food poisoning, but was sunny, warm and relaxing in the middle. And by some kind of miracle, you take a curious peak at your due dates before dashing out the door for another week long journey away from home and studio, into the city and every night booked for business and/or pleasure.

So while the last packet was a full time, 40+ hour job, this packet is both more intense and more relaxed. I’m compiling the last 3 weeks of art work, reading, reflections and more – in a single day. But because this isn’t my maiden voyage into packet work, I’m less stressed about it. And actually finding myself more at ease with looking back over the last 3 weeks from the vantage point of this particular moment in time.

The thing is, I really love this. I love the reading. I love the ideas that percolate because of the reading. I love having the opportunity to focus on my art in a more concentrated way. It’s still hard getting into my studio to do the real work. Still, I am making leaps and bounds.

In every arena apparently, too. I revamped my online advertising portfolio and moved it over to cargocollective.com/rivaweinstein. Within a week I have an interview. Please let it not be with a gaggle of 20-something product development girls who don’t know what they are looking at when I hand them my portfolio. Or a 30-something marketing diva who dramatically throws my resume across the room because she doesn’t really need to look at it. Or a creative recruiter who is looking for a unicorn. True tales.

Which brings me round full circle back to grad school. I’m waiting for someone to ask in an interview how I expect to work and go to school at the same time. And I can’t wait for the question. I can’t wait to say that I don’t know anyone who hasn’t worked full time while completing their graduate degree. It’s usually a matter of necessity. Education is expensive.

And expansive.

Woodlanders

2011-08-22T20:16:00.000-04:00

Another watershed experience.

Not just the cleansing rains, but the time out of time, the making, the meaning.

From dream circles to gyro tonics, lure making to pine needle weaving, image making with rust, and rustic making with power tools - Woodlanders, like a dream, seems to disappear into the mists all too quickly. One isn't quite sure of the sequence. And every Woodlander will have different interpretations, different memories, different longings.

There is instant community of newcomers and old timers alike. Food is shared along with stories. There are no assignments. No one needs to be told. Things fall into place as if carefully orchestrated.

Behind the scenes, Dan Mack our gentle giant of a magician is gently casting his spells of wonder. Then stepping back while we each in turn take a lead.

But, we Woodlanders follow like children falling in step behind the Pied Piper, in search of a 400 year old tree, which remains unfound until fall when the bare trees will reveal its location for next year's pilgrimage.An ephemeral, metaphysical and literal bridge was created from the forest floor and helping hands in search of another tree. This one found! A story told so well I felt I'd been there myself, though I was off driving in search of Black Dirt.

For me, the most magical moments are often around a campfire. And this one was particularly noteworthy for its flame was a counterpoint to the slide show projected on a tent enclosure hung on its sides. We weren't telling ghost stories but art stories.

For more about Woodlanders a virtual visit to rustic making and other artists and makers, visit Dan Mack online. And watch for ORBS with his Anima in another post soon!

May all your days be filled with the Magic Medicine of wonder and surprise, dreams that imitate life, and life that imitates dreams.

On the other hand...

2011-08-08T10:48:00.000-04:00

I’ve always said that the art I hate the most changes me the most. And that can be said for life experiences too. In fact, the Dalai Lama tweeted something to that effect earlier this week.

I wrote last week about how uncomfortable I was with the grad school residency. So when the Survey Monkey evaluation link came, I dug right in, held nothing back. I tried to be constructive. Worried I be labeled difficult.

So, it’s interesting to note, that despite this being a break week before the first semester officially starts, I’ve been positively possessed. I’m keeping notes on everything! Every movie I see, every show, and every thought connected to art. Now I see why student work always seems so self-conscious and self absorbed. It is. And I am.

I’m hoping this will wear off a bit and I will find a groove that works for me. Right now it’s a little too much wear and tear on the soul. I’m introspective enough as it is. I don’t need further prodding. So discovering and experimenting with how to be gentle with myself is going to be key.

It’s going to be a busy couple of months. I am in two shows this month; one at the 14th Colony in Millerton, the other at the Emporium in Red Hook. I have ArtEast coming up with an opening in September at the Wassaic Project's Luther Barn and the open studio tour in October.

All the while I will be doing my grad school work, sending off packets to my advisor every 3 weeks for feedback. It’s about a 25 hour a week commitment and since I’m not working right now, that seems easily doable. But also in the mix at the moment is a full time opportunity that’s popped up and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for it. While it will make time all the more precious, I’ve been out of work for a year. Federal loans for graduate school are 7.5 percent these days. No bargain really. So work would be more than welcome. And it seems to me that working while going to grad school is more norm than not. So I say bring it on. And think quietly to myself: be careful what you wish for.

I am apparently in a jaded stage. Not so much prone to inspiration as to judgment and even disappointment.

I went to the Wassaic Project yesterday, expecting (oh how I need to stop being so expectant) to be somewhat blown away. So much press. And chatter. I was hot, tired and hungry. So either very open to impression or too far gone to recognize it. Most of what I saw was a big yawn. For me.

So what?, I kept saying to myself.

Cheerios? Really? Or are they Fruit Loops? Well, maybe. Hmmm. Now, after a day of pondering it, I kind of love it. Looks like crochet.

Earlier in the day I’d had a conversation while hanging work in Millerton, about Henry Klimowicz’s work being in the portopotty. The artist I was speaking with thought it was disrespectful. I thought it was fantastic. It wasn’t like they put Henry’s work there. He installed it. If only all portopottys had Klimowicz growing from the walls.

The other work I really loved was also seemingly growing from the walls.

Because I operate from a place of feeling (and am so tired of thinking and talking in general) I’m not going to go all critical on the work. I’m just going to post here, what I saw and thought enough of to take a photo or a video clip.

Enjoy the virtual visit.

May the Magic Medicine of feeling, doing, thinking and being find their perfect expression and balance in your everyday experiences.

A Progressive Education

2011-07-30T11:23:00.001-04:00

My dear friend and sister artist Ann Haaland over at Paint Box Girl has encouraged me to write about my newest adventure.

I’ve just returned from my first intensive residency at Goddard College where I am pursuing an MFA-IA. The IA stands for Interdisciplinary Arts. Because I like to keep things short and sweet, I’ll leave it to you to look that up or see where it comes up again for you through the magic of synchronicity.

Not to be overly dramatic, but to be honest, the residency was a nightmare for me. A shamanic dismemberment in which at times I felt possessed by a disembodied chaotic spirit taking over my very soul.

Not fun. And yet. Of course. Completely. Changed me.

And so, I have started again a practice that’s fallen by the wayside for the last few years. Head stands. What else is one to do when one’s world is turned upside down?

I have never been so happy to be home. This is something I say every time I drive up to the house, from even a short jaunt to the city. (And by city I mean the only one there is. New York City. A conversation for another time if you think that statement overblown.)

I expected to be stimulated, but not so over stimulated. I hoped to be inspired. But instead, I encountered minutia, navel gazing and a particular strain of verbal diarrhea, the likes of which I have never experienced before. If that seems unkind, I won’t apologize for it. People don’t recognize themselves in novels; they are not likely to recognize themselves here.

I have spent half a life time listening to blow-hards in meetings. One can’t get up and walk out. But after the oceans of nausea, and the hours it took me to rebalance after a particulary gruelling session, I finally learned a powerful lesson in self preservation. I can walk out. At any time. On anything I like. On any part of life.

That may sound simple to you. That may sound ridiculous. That may sound impossible even. But believe me when I tell you, it was and is, one of the most powerful bits of medicine I have ever swallowed.

I have always believed that one of the most important things in life is to show up. And that is still a cornerstone. But walking out? It’s a new touchstone.

There are so many details of this journey, I might share with you. (There were some wonderful, exalted moments. And I did connect with some amazing souls with whom I feel blessed to be on this adventure.)

But let me leave you with this thought. When you fill in all the blanks, and the details, and all the nooks and crannies, you leave room for nothing, for no one. There is nothing to be interested in if you tell too much. I can’t site you any experts on this, except my own direct experience.

May the Magic Medicine of the upside down and backwards shake your world up now and then. And leave you plenty of room to fill in your own blanks.

Residency opportunity

2011-07-14T08:40:00.000-04:00

Was quickly checking NYFA this moring, and came across this lovely opportunity.

http://www.willowsofwallkill.org/Home_Page.php

2011-07-13T03:13:00.000-04:00

The Artist's Life

2011-06-30T12:43:00.001-04:00

The Artist's Life: Thomas Nozkowski from NYFA on Vimeo.

I am finding myself with fewer and fewer words these days. Oh, I can still chat up a good conversation, and in my coaching calls, probably talk more, and listen less than I might. But here, in the blogosphere, I'm finding my thoughts too numerous to express, and so am defaulting to links.
Here, one from NYFA's Artist Life series
http://www.nyfa.org/nyfa_current_detail.asp?id=17&fid=1&curid=912

less talk more art

2011-06-24T18:39:00.000-04:00

the re:institute.

can't talk. dreaming.

2011-06-23T16:45:00.000-04:00

so no words today.
just links.
here.http://remodelista.com/posts/slow-design-katrin-arens
here.http://www.katrinarens-shop.com/index.php/welt-der-kleinen/vater-mutter-kind-34.html.

KIRTANARAMA Recap

2011-06-15T09:25:00.002-04:00

It rained. We sang.

The sun came out. We sang.

Though we didn’t have many others chanting with us, KIRTANARAMA was an integral part of the Governor’s Island and FIGMENT experience for those walking by. People stopped, transfixed by our voices, our hearts and the harmonium.

One lovely young girl, maybe 10 years old, stopped and bowed to us with her hands at her heart before walking on. At one point we were the focus of an ersatz photo shoot, with shutters flying all around. A few brave souls climbed the hill by our side, to listen.

My heart goes out in gratitude to everyone who came to sing and drum, play guitar and violin. Robin Renee, Rick Jarow, Joelle Danant, Terrence Pompey, Sergei, George Jacobs, Devi Rose, Damodar Das, Satya Franche & Ma Kirtan, and Four Corners Chant. Many travelled far longer than expected. It was a leap of faith for all of us.

As always, FIGMENT can be a somewhat disorienting affair. There is a lot going on, spread far and wide on the island. So, it’s not always easy to find one’s destination. And while some of us made a bee line, guided mysteriously and invisibly to our spot, others wandered, misdirected by well intentioned volunteers who did their best to help, but only confused.

Although I requested a location under one of those magnificent English Plane trees, so plentiful on Governor’s Island, originally, we were sited out in the open expansive Parade grounds behind the Fort. Thankfully, relocating was easy enough - right along the path that runs around the whole island - and insured we'd be seen and heard by all who passed by.

My intention for KIRTANARAMA was a community global chant experience. It was a small community to be sure. But perhaps next year, with more help on all fronts, we can create an experience that will continue to grow and evolve.

For me, there really is nothing like being outdoors. Chanting under the trees, even in the soaking rain, was exhilarating. In the background everything from helicopters, techno sound installations and drive by disco bubble machines, to the twittering of birds and delighted children. If that sounds like a little bit of chaos, it was. But the moment the singing begins, that’s all there is.

I plan to turn the KIRTANARAMA banners into prayer beads. Will make a video montage of the chants. And thought I might do some paintings or drawings from the pics. Like all my projects, process is everything. More pics to come.

May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of singing outdoors in the rain, and the sun, from your heart and soul.

Today we sing!

2011-06-10T08:22:00.000-04:00

Kirtanarama starts at FIGMENT on Governor’s Island with Robin Renee @ 1pm, Joelle Danant @2pm and Rick Jarow @ 3pm.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a day of sunshine and no rain. Weather, like everything, changes. The weekend forecast is thunderstorms. I am trying to hold neither too tightly nor too loosely to my desires for clear skies, with minimal downpours.

From the get go, KIRTANARAMA has been a “neither too loosely nor too tightly” project for me. I’m not a concert organizer, and never thought of it as such. My intention was to create a sudden community under the trees instead of starry skies, around the fire in our hearts and souls instead of a campfire.

I had a conversation with founder David Koren, early on at one of the FIGMENT meet and greets, about how one creates community and collaboration around art – around anything. One needs to create enough form, structure and definition to hold the idea, to create a sure container, and enough freedom and lack of confinement to leave people room to participate in their own way, to be a part of something larger.

I like the sound of that. And I’m an idealist. The reality isn’t so easy. People take convincing. And schedules aren’t as forgiving as one might wish. Everybody is busy. And our priorities are our own. So it’s even more of a surprise and delight when things eventually come together.

Project management isn’t really my forte. But I’m learning. Stretching out of comfort zones is good. Knowing what it takes to pull something like this together, gives me an even greater appreciation for those who organize and manage people and projects of all shapes and sizes.

And today, like every day, I am human. I have to keep reminding myself. It’s all about the process.

Not So Quick Catch Up

2011-06-06T21:37:00.001-04:00

I’m not sure it’s possible to catch up these days. Sure we get caught up in all sorts of things. But the idea of being all caught up - everything in place, all sorted out, under control – seems impossible.
Is it just me? Or have you given up on the idea of ever clearing out your email inbox, too?

There is always too much to do. Everything happens at once. I sometimes stay at home rather than try to sort out which invitation to accept or event to attend. A friend and colleague calls it choice management vs. time management. But having too many choices is worse than not having enough, for me.

And that is what life has been like the last month or more. My last blog entry was about how I get so much done. I was feeling quite pleased with myself. The whirlwind can be quite compelling, seductive, self satisfying.

Then suddenly, it isn’t.

One longs for definitive beginnings, middles and ends. Before and after pictures of the bramble of blackberry and wild rose that is still a wild garden but a touch less unruly. The foresight to have protected the emerging romaine from midnight snacking deer. The endless question turning over and over in my head as I wheel another load : why did it take 20 years to figure out that the perfect place for all these leaves was the languishing perennial bed now flourishing with poison ivy and broom?

And so it goes. Results take time. And longer often, for someone like me, who has a hard time hiring others to do the work, partly for lack of resources, and partly from having grown up in a do-it-yourself home. Having to do things oneself, one’s own way, is both a blessing and curse, of course.

In some ways, it is the way of a child. The way we learn to walk, to talk. But it is also a mindful Buddist way, I realize as I write. The way of direct experience.

This is why it took 20 years to begin solving the problem of the perennial bed’s demise. This is the first time I’ve had enough time to actually be out in the yard for extended periods of time, and allow the answers to emerge like the small maple saplings that sprout up each spring. Suddenly, surprisingly it seems. But in truth, they’ve been taking root for a number of seasons, safe beneath the periwinkle, ivy and ferns.

And so, all these years of haphazard garden experiments, irregular attention and nature’s own spontaneous ways have been rooting. And may possibly leaf and bloom. The yard may yet be less an eyesore. I see small improvements. Progress becomes apparent in what’s missing. Like an ache that no longer exists, relieved at last, but difficult now to remember.

Which is not unlike the experience I had talking with D.W. Gibson for NOT WORKING, his oral history project. Here’s a quick overview of the project from DW’s interview request:

My end goal is to provide a book length oral history for this period of sustained and widespread unemployment. In 1972, Studs Terkel published WORKING, a book that captures the oral history of what people do all day and how they feel about what they do. NOT WORKING will provide the names an faces, the pulse of the Great American Recession.
I was definitely digging around in yet another old garden bed, full of poison ivy and rose thorns, when talking about how I lost my job last year. Recounting the actual events of the day, brought up unexpected anxiety and even some tears. But it also seemed like it happened so long ago, to a completely different person.

I have redefined myself in the last year. And continue to do so. I am experimenting and exploring new ways of being in the world. Stretching is good for body and being.

So is finding out we’ve inspired someone. I got a lovely note from Jim Caufield who attended my workshop Creativity: The Magic, Mystery and Mayhem, sponsored by the Orange County Arts Council at the Kurt Seligmann property in Sugar Loaf, NY back in March. He connected with the toilet paper tube rattles in my book Magic Medicine: Rx for Creativity. Here's how he made them into magical rattle wands.

Jim and his wife Mary are a part of the ever growing Woodlanders community. We’re meeting in Warwick, NY August 19 to 21st, 2011, as always, giftedly guided by Woodlander extraordinaire and founder Daniel Mack.

What else is new/s? KIRTANARAMA! My project for FIGMENT on Governor’s Island this year is a 3 day global chant experience. Come sing with us. Sara Neufeld wrote and YOGA CITY NYC published a lovely article here.

May the Magic Medicine of roses and thorns, poison ivy and peonies delight and surprise you in the gardens of your life.

Running in Circles

2011-05-11T14:07:00.001-04:00

A lot of people might be surprised to hear that my mantras include: do less, be a be student, what can you let go of? I do a lot. I'm juggling more projects, in more capacities than sometimes seems humanly possible.

Here's just a partial list. Project Managing a volunteer effort for Taproot Foundation. Submitting art and installation proposals for 3 upcoming shows. Planning Kirtanarama, 3 days of global chant at FIGMENT, on Governor's Island. Painting 3 rooms. Reclaiming old gardens. Planting a vegetable garden. Planning a workshop with Karuna project founder, Claudia Coenen. Preparing to start an MFA program. Working on redesign of two websites.

Each of these could qualify as a full time job. And while it often looks (and) feels like I'm spinning around in circles, a circle is a sacred space, a container, a basket.

So, how do I do it?

I give myself permission to do what I feel like first. And for only as much time as I feel like. The things I may need to do, but don't feel like doing, go to the bottom of my list. And when I do get to them, I give myself just 5 minutes to start. Then, I have a choice as to whether I want to continue or not. (Creativity Coach Marianne Mullen calls it choice management.)

Most often, the distastefulness of the task at hand is so diminished by the 5 minute marker, that I'm happy to continue and complete. This works especially well for me with health insurance claims and other form filing minutae that make me slightly crazy. But it works for projects I'm passionate about too, that seem difficult to start for lack of time. Making art is great, creating proposals to make art, not so much.

If this all sounds counter productive to you, just give it a try when you are feeling less than inspired. See what works for you.

May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of running, hopping, skipping and jumping in the sacred circles of your choosing.

Down Time

2011-05-03T10:09:00.001-04:00

Today I am sharing a post from creativity coach Paula Chaffee Scardamalia's newsletter.

I met Paula at the Creativity Coaching Association Conference in Lake George this past October. I love the daily tarot readings she posts on Facebook. And her Divine Muse-ings Newsletter is a rich source of inspiration. And reflection...

Reclaiming Sacred Time for Rest and Renewal

This past weekend, I sat at lunch with some tarot friends and colleagues, listening to a discussion about the evergreen issue of overwhelm and time management.

One woman mentioned that she's developed a practice of taking one day a week to do nothing, not even get dressed or engage with other people if it doesn't suit her. She started it as a monthly renew and refresh day but became so enamored of it that she now does it weekly. Another woman at the table thought that was a great idea and perhaps she could try it once a month.

I found the conversation amusing and bemusing at the same time. Amusing because, of course, this isn't a new idea, it is the traditional religious idea of a Sabbath. Many different religious sects have a Sabbath, some in order to rest as the god or goddess did, and others in order to have time to pray or honor the appropriate deity.

I was bemused by our discussion because the real issue is not one of discovering or creating a time of rest, but how we lost it in the first place.

Very few of us practice a "Sabbat" of any kind nowadays, especially those of us who are creatives or creative entrepreneurs. Like moms, our work is never done. The fact that many of us work from home means that our work is never more than a few steps away, hanging over us like dire black birds, cawing to us of the work that MUST get done.

And just in case we don't hear them, then our cell phones and laptops are sure to relay the message, even when we manage to schedule time away for a vacation.

Of course, we also feel responsible about meeting everyone's needs, especially those of our clients, fans or supporters. So naturally we work through the weekend to meet a last-minute demand for a project or give up our quiet meditation time to take an early phone appointment.

And there goes our Sabbath, our sabbat, our time away for rest and renewal.

In Ciro Marchetti's deck, the Four of Swords speaks clearly to us about this issue. In a chapel-like space lit by a stained glass window with the Greek symbol, Chi Rho, the symbol for Christ, a man rests on four swords. A raven (death, the soul) flies over him with two poppies in its beak, one red (love, life) and one white (purity, rebirth). Notice that the Swords, the suit of the mind, thoughts and communication, point down.

This card implies a rest or retreat from the stresses of the mind. The worries and concerns, the swords, aren't gone, just at rest, like the man.

I think it's important to notice that this rest occurs in a sacred space. Sleep and rest aren't just biological needs but also sacred acts. When we sleep, we dream and within our dreams, we receive guidance and inspiration, insight and foresight. When we take time to meditate, to slow down and daydream or to let our minds wander, we restore and rebalance our emotional, mental, and spiritual energies as well as our physical ones.

Just as importantly, our creativity is restored.

Rest, retreat and renewal are not special treats that we can put off until we "have time." They are something that is intrinsically necessary to our well-being.

So how can you make time for rest and renewal, for your personal sabbat?

You can start in small ways. You can take an occasional nap. Or you can start your day off with 15 minutes of meditation, or journaling, or with just sipping a cup of tea and staring out the window.

Learn to take time away from your technology buddies, your cell phone and laptop. Turn off the TV and even your music.

Then increase that 15 minutes to a half hour or more. Or make your weekend a time away from your weekly work. Like developing a muscle, carving out time for rest and renewal may become easier the more you do it. Then those flowers of love, life, and rebirth can be received.

Tired? Overwhelmed? Creatively depleted? Take some time for rest and renewal. After all, the sacred day of rest never left us. We left it. So what can you do today to return to a sacred time of rest and renewal?

© Copyright 2009, 2010, Paula Chaffee Scardamalia

Intuitive and creativity coach Paula Chaffee Scardamalia publishes Divine Muse-ings, a weekly ezine. If you want to connect with your Muse for an inspired, gutsy and productive life, sign up at: www.diviningthemuse.com

About Paula: As a creativity coach and intuitive, Paula Chaffee Scardamalia uses dreams, tarot, rituals, and journals to connect writers with the Muse, an unending source of inspiration and guidance and then helps them create a plan to move from Muse to manifestation, from dream to reality.

Great Creative Inspiration

2011-04-28T16:22:00.001-04:00

Shaun McNiff on his painting and process

2011-04-13T15:43:00.000-04:00

Art & Knowing

2011-04-12T13:06:00.001-04:00

I just finished reading Pat B. Allen's guide to self knowledge and spiritual fulfillment through creativity aka Art is a Way of Knowing. Allen is an artist/art therapist who uses her personal journey as illumination and guide. It's not a new book, but stands the test of time, delving into archetypes and Jungian territory. If she'd written it now, instead of 15 years ago, it might have been a blog. Like this. Kind of.

Inspired to try one of the automatic drawing techniques she describes in the book, I dug out my oil pastels and scribbled away for a few hours last Sunday. The scribble technique is similar to some processes I described a few years ago here, from the Surrealist bag of tricks. In soufflage, one blows on paint to make it dribble, inspiring or revealing an image. Eclaboussure employs water or turpentine to create splatters and space. Automatic drawing and frottage attempt to get pencil to paper, away from our conscious mind's control.

I was anxious when I first sat down to draw. And as you know if you read this blog, drawing isn't my go to art. So it's bundled up with a bit of anxiety all it's own. The nice thing about oil pastels is they glide on the paper in a particularly yummy way. So it feels good, physically. Smooth. Delightful. And the colors are nice. Pretty. I like pretty.

After scribbling away for a while I held the paper up, and wasn't sure what I saw or didn't see. I started rubbing my fingers into the pastels. A little fiercely I have to say. The energy of the scribbles was chaotic, like my mind. And the energy of my rubbing was aggressive. But calming too. In the way a burst relieves pressure.

Suddenly I started to see things. It's like looking for faces in clouds. I began to outline in black. Struggled a bit with a half bird/half cat creature I couldn't quite make out. Set it aside, physically. But left it smouldering on my mind's back burner.

Meanwhile the next day, a friend posted on her blog about an online nixed media owl course she was diving into. And suddenly I knew that the creature trying to take form on the page was Owl. A little research into Owl medicine revealed that they are often thought to look like feathered felines. Owl symbolizes mystery, magic, the unknown and unseen.

Of course, Owl is popping up all over for me now. Surfing this morning, every other image seems to be my feathered friend with wide eyes and even wider wing span.

This bird energy is familiar to me, as I've been exploring the Axis Mundi archetype for a number of years. But the Owl energy is new. Intriguing.

I'm looking forward to more explorations in scribbling, and looking for images in clouds of color and line. It's my intention to create a workshop that explores this fascinating territory too. It so captures the process of creativity and really gets us out of the way of ourselves.

Try it. And see for yourself. You remember how to look for faces in clouds don't you?

May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of seeing.

Kirtanarama @ FIGMENT NYC 2011

2011-04-05T09:51:00.000-04:00

I think of FIGMENT as NYC's tamed down, family version of Burning Man. The spirit of community and non-commodity is at its heart. And art is the headliner.
Last year I created ORBS for FIGMENT. This year I've put in two proposals. One for PICNIC!, a series of picnic blankets made from reclaimed plastic packaging. Another for KIRTANARAMA, a community kirtan event which I hope will become an annual FIGMENT event, like the Ecstatic Chant weekends at the Omega Institute.
To that end, I am putting out an open call to kirtan wallas - and chanters - everywhere who would like to participate and help bring this vision to life in the heart of Governor's Island, June 10 - 12, 2011
I will be creating an online sign up sheet shortly and a Facebook page for more info, but for now, reach out to me at kirtanarama@yahoo.com or leave a comment here.

String Wire Glue

2011-03-28T16:34:00.000-04:00

A little visual overview of my workshop at Wing & Clover this weekend.

The time flew. The conversation was easy.

We talked a good deal about how important it is to nurture ourselves creatively.

Finding time for that can, of course, be a challenge. Life is busy.

And not only busy, but full of sadness, suffering and unimaginable violence and horror.

Japan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya. And that's just from the news we actually see and hear in the media today. Meanwhile, uncountable people are starving, victims of rape, have no running water.

The list of course, goes on. But so too must we.

Often the most important act we can take, is to take care of ourselves, so that we may engage with the world from our hearts, mindfully, peacefully, fully.

May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of sharing your own unique gifts with the world.

Virtual Paint

2011-03-10T10:55:00.001-05:00

Adventures in Creativity: Mystery Magic & Mayhem

2011-03-07T17:16:00.003-05:00

A wonderful day at the Kurt Seligmann property in Sugar Loaf New York, sponsored by the Orange County Arts Council. And special gratitudes to Dan Mack for putting the plan into action. The pics say it all. Not an unhappy face in the crowd.

Real Happiness on Four Square

2011-02-04T09:36:00.001-05:00

Still trying to create a Four Square Moving Target that is easy to find where ever you are. For the time being it's located at The Tibet House in NYC on 15th Street, as that's where Sharon and the NY Real Happiness group met just before February 1st.

You can use the widget button below to add to your Four Square and oust me as Mayor!

Peaceful Rebellion

2011-02-02T11:53:00.000-05:00

I'm going to be reposting here, my blog offerings from Sharon Salzberg's Real Happiness site. Just read. And breathe.

And visit the Real Happiness site for others' experiences.

This morning I challenged myself to a 40 minute sit. I know if we are following Sharon’s book, we need only sit for 20 minutes, 3 times this week, but I have never followed directions particularly well. And years of therapy, meditation, karate and more have finally put me at ease with my slightly renegade response to structure. (I try to hold my rebellious nature not too tightly, not too loosely.)
But the 40 minute mark is magic for me. And not just in meditation. I have noticed it in a karate class, while hiking, working on a project, and in just about any situation where breath is key. Although, breath is key for every minute of our life, isn’t it? What I’ve noticed particularly is that after 40 minutes of real breathing, I find myself engaged, at ease, with a heightened sense of awareness. Anxiety, anticipation, boredom? They all fall away.
Some call it the state of flow, popularized by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his seminal work, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. In it, he explores the idea that people are most happy when completely absorbed in the activity at hand.
Is our meditation practice an activity, or a non-activity? I wonder. But not too hard.
This morning, I gratefully stay with my breath past the tornado of thoughts, and into the stillness of being aware of the noises surrounding me, the twinges in my body, and the possibility of thoughts arising from some unknown underground spring. But none of this distracts me. Thoughts seem only to begin to bubble without actually taking form. Then, I have a moment of insight that just about knocks me out of my groove, an association that seems to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once. But surprisingly I don’t cling or over think it, but smile and gently release.
I close my practice again today with lovingkindness. The people of Egypt are in my thoughts and my heart. Rebellion, on this scale is scary, unsettling, but it can be right action, too, making way for a greater good.

May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of sitting with your breath.

Opening Reception at the Rhinecliff Friday February 11

2011-02-01T15:33:00.000-05:00

A Group Show of Painting, Photography, and Mixed Media by four Artists from The 14th Colony, a collective of artists from New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Opening Reception Friday February 11, 2011
5pm to 6:30pm
The Rhinecliff 4 Grinnell Street PO Box 292 Rhinecliff, NY 12574 . t: 845.876.0590 the rhinecliff.com

Blogging Real Happiness

2011-01-31T21:36:00.000-05:00

For the next month I'll be taking Sharon Salzberg's Real Happiness 28 Day Meditation Challenge. And I'll be blogging about it here.

what i learned this week

2011-01-17T14:42:00.000-05:00

If all I feel like doing for week is staying in bed and sleeping, I am probably getting sick.
Powdered packets of Hawaiian Punch are delicious.
Most of the things I worry about don't matter.

May all yur days be filled with the Magic Medicine of simple little insights.

happy new year

2011-01-01T12:39:00.003-05:00

However you celebrate the New Year, and every day of the year, may you be filled with the Magic Medicine of joy.

where did december go?

2010-12-29T10:41:00.002-05:00

And come to think of it November and October, too!
Now, just a few days from New Year's I haven't quite found the time for quiet reflection I'd hoped for. Nor for the pile of projects that seems to multiply by the moment. Fur coat repairs, sewing, ORBS, fetishes, Sacred Art Burial Site and shelves that need planing, and hanging await.
My Year of Letting Go isn't fixed like the calendar. So the psychic and material cleansing continues, too. Often in micromovements. Two different friends from Omega lost everything in fires, and while I collect basic necessities and little luxuries for them, I find myself clinging still. Gathering, still. But with small victories like a trip to the local resale shop where I fell in love with a vintage pink beaded glass case and coin purse. And left it behind.
I have always dreamed of having a studio/gallery/store/coffee shop where I might have time and space to make and sell my jewelry, art, vintage clothing and collectibles. Where people come from all over to visit.
I've been reading Eric Maisel's Creativity Book, and one of the "assignments" is to spend everyday, 2x a day, staring out the window and dreaming of things like these...
That's just one of the rational reasons I am drawn to lovely things and stash them away in boxes and drawers for another day.
Years ago I visited a woman named Venus somewhere in the Catskills whose attic was a vintage clothing wonderland. Our upstairs is starting to look a little like that these days. But as I move things around, organizing and reconfiguring, I've found a perch where I can sit and write, stare out the window and dream.
It's just started snowing again. My snow shoes and the quiet of Buttercup Sanctuary call.
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of contemplative quiet, the call of the wild and the wind.

celebrations

2010-12-18T13:21:00.001-05:00

My mother and father's 80th birthday celebration was the perfect occassion for an family portrait. An almost complete family portrait. My nephew was stuck in the Midwest selling Dead Sea products at a mall. And somehow without even trying, we were all color coordinated!

May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of milestones and celebrations.

revolution

2010-11-24T09:52:00.000-05:00

A TED talk. Magic Medicine for the day.

what we repair/what we throw away

2010-11-06T11:40:00.000-04:00

Dashing this off before dashing off.
I dropped the deer bone horse head I'd posted about a while ago. After finally spending an hour or so tying horse hair around it. It really has become a treasured fetish for me. So my heart sank when it broke in two and I set out to find the unfinable crazy glue.
All of which got me thinking about what we repair and what we throw in the trash. In the context of the Year of Letting Go, it's a loaded question for me.
Still pondering. But in the meantime, here is a little something to inspire you in the art of repair.

Mottainai is a traditional Japanese custom of never wasting anything that can be repaired instead.

Kintsugi originated 400 years ago as a method for mending broken pottery with a lacquer resin glue,

repeatedly polishing many layers of lacquer for a seamless join. Artisans decorated their repairs by

adding gold dust to the lacquer, and kintsugi gradually developed into an art formin which the repair

actually added beauty and value. Old ceramics mended in this way can be extremely valuable, and

the art itself is becoming popular again.

May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of peaceful mornings spent writing in pencil before running out the door.

Repetition as Meditation

2010-11-05T20:12:00.003-04:00

Uploading some pics of this lovely and intimate show Dan Mack curated. He'd like to continue developing the project, with new work, new venues, etc. I'm so proud to be a part of it. Now on view at Vastu in Warwick, NY. The light was low in the sky making for a beautiful drive, but not great photography. So showing just the best of what I was able to capture. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good shot of my own work, but you can see one of my pieces here on etsy. There is one other artist in the show whose work and statement I wasn't able to get. Marilyn Dale at Warwick Pottery. More info here on Dan's website, too.

sacred burial site photos

2010-11-04T10:53:00.000-04:00

return to the sacred art burial site

2010-11-03T17:28:00.001-04:00

I've posted on Facebook and put out a call to the 14th Colony, a group of artists working in NY, Connecticut and Massachusetts. I've even tweeted it.
No takers. But no worries. I trust the universe about these things.
I've got no further pics to share with you right now because my computer died (a long slow horrible death, not untimely at all) and I can't figure out how to upload from the camera to my husband's computer.
Sometimes that's just the way things are.
All of which didn't make the light any less golden while I sat at the site for the first time in 2 weeks and listened to the creak of the trees, the chatter of the birds and the sound of solitary leaves still falling.
The decomposition has started. Things are breaking down. And other things, like chalky white mildewy things, are growing.
Did I post a link to the YouTube vids? Be sure to look at more than just the first one. It's a story told in short clips. More to come. Stay tuned.
And pass it on. The invitation is open. If you've got art you'd like to put to rest, the Sacred Art Burial Site is going on now. Bonfire next Saturday night. No art burning. Just s'mores.

May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of peaceful returns to sacred personal places.

the long and winding road

2010-10-27T14:58:00.002-04:00

I’ve driven over a thousand miles in the last week and a half. And even further in my heart and soul.

At the Creativity Coaching Association conference in Lake George, NY I was overwhelmed with business inspiration. At Squam by the Sea in Nags Head, North Carolina, creativity, sea and sky filled me up and over.

Both trips were stunning. Here in the north, fall color was just past peak, further south more muted.
I have to say the high point was driving across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel with the top down, a sensation I can only describe as blue and flying.

ORBS took their first road trip with me. I need more road trips in my life. And more beach retreats.

I never seem to be able to catch up with myself after experience like these, but here’s my topline for you. Take what you like and toss the rest.

Beverly Down, president of the CCA was a brilliant speaker. Fun, inspiring, honest and true. She shared a lot of wisdom, but the thing that stuck with me most, the thing I most needed to hear was this. It’s only a business if you make money from it. If you’re not, it’s a hobby. Simple but true, that.

Mary Beale Alder, social media maven, CEO of Georgetown Bagels, had great advice: just have fun.

Paula Chaffee Scardamalia took us into ritual territory with tarot.

Celia McBride, Brecia Kralovic-Logan, Tina Games, Denise Laurin and more wonderful coaches shared best practices, tools, tips and inspiration for all of us who are on a creative path.

ORBS soaked up a little inspiration of their own before our sunset cruise on the shores of Lake George.

Fast forward to the Outer Banks of North Carolina where Sarah Ahearn shared her Mix It Up techniques for great little gessoed boards! What fun for me, since I’m usually 3d girl and have been pining to paint lately. Here’s what I made!

McCabe Russell got us all spray painting, stenciling and layering on repurposed children’s books. Amazing! It was kind of like doing graffiti on a tiny wall.

Jen Lee nurtured us with the Care and Feeding of the Creative Soul. It was one revelation after another. Top takeaway: pay attention to what makes you feel really good. So you can build those things into your life mindfully. Whether that is relishing a lovely cup of tea, a walk in the morning sun, or a bath. Find your soulful treats and make sure you treat yourself.

Oh! And there was full moon fire dancing, and a bon fire on the beach! Elizabeth McCrellish, Squam founder and her Squam by the Sea co-creator, Michelle Smith made magical things happen at every moment for all of us from food to new friends and the fire of inspiration.

For some reason the drive home was much more difficult than the drive down. I made it back to NYC in about 12 hours straight, just in time to see my dear friends from LA for their last night in town. Then got back in the car the next morning for the final few hours home.

I am always so glad to be here after any kind of travelling, even if it's just a trip to the grocery store. I pull up and just sit in the car soaking up the trees, the peeling paint on the house, the birds. I unlock the door and step into this sacred space, an oversized altar, filled with the bits and pieces of the world that have touched me in my travels, down the road and around the world.

May your day be filled with Magic Medicine of journeys that bring you back to yourself.

tons to tell you about but...

2010-10-25T18:53:00.000-04:00

Until I have a moment to catch up with all that's happened the last week, here's a little treat I just stumbled upon a few moments ago.
More delights to come. In the mean time, have you had your Magic Medicine today?
If not, make a little something. Even if it's just a scribble.
Please, don't wait til you're retired to get creative. Check out this article at WSJ. Everyone else is sharing it. Why not you and me?

success!

2010-10-06T10:03:00.001-04:00

I often struggle with how to display my work as it isn't traditional 2d media. And although sculptural, it's not like a bronze or ceramic piece you can just plop on a pedestal and be done with.
At home in my studio, I simply lay pieces like treasures around the house. But when it comes time to put something in a gallery show, I have challenges.
Especially when I can't be there to help install. Which is exactly the case for the upcoming Millerton Fall for Art, October 24th, 5 to 8pm in Millerton, NY.

Thanks to a little woodshop instruction from my dad, and some hardware store detective work, I have finally made a perfect display stand for my small relic-like pieces. It's something I've been wanting to do for ages. And while I could have ordered these my work really requires wood vs. plastic display.

Scrap from my father's workshop, wooden dowls, a little wire and voila! I've got some fine tuning to do, but am on my way to a whole new way of displaying small works.

Of course, we found the key to the display case I originally intended to use but couldn't open, shortly after my display-making aha! moment. So now I've got options. I love options, don't you?

May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of exploration and discovery.

Ann and Riva Have a Great Idea

2010-10-05T10:33:00.000-04:00

We both crave community and get giddy at how a little soulful conversation between artists can clear the clouds that sometimes descend on our artistic process and practice.

So let’s lunch together Thursday, October 28th for community conversation around our creative challenges.

Riva will guide us on our creative journey with small steps for uncommon results. She is a certified Kaizen Muse Creativity Coach whose series on Part Time Art/Full Time Life is featured on CreativityPortal.com. She leads an ongoing, online coaching conversation with the Artist Marketing Resources community on linkedin.com. She is an assemblage artist and author of Magic Medicine: Rx for Creativity.

Ann is a Hudson Valley Painter who shares conversations, musings, realities and generalities about the artist's life on her website and blog, The Paint Box.

Time and place to come. Please drop me an email or comment for more information.

May the Magic Medicine of community nurture you in all of your creative dreams.

magic_studio.mov

2010-09-30T10:17:00.000-04:00

Baskets are ORBS too

2010-09-27T16:57:00.001-04:00

My lastest ORBS adventure involves orbs of a different sort. By weaving the strips instead of rolling them a container is born.
This isn't the first time I've been obsessed with containers. Or weaving. Potholders anyone? Some basket forms are made in essentially the same way.
I didn't want to use duct tape in making these and tried at first to use only strips of the aseptic containers. But I didn't love how it worked so ended up using sterling silver wire at the top on this one, and hanging a few metal washers from the closures. (Nothing like diving into my found object collection!) More embellishments to come.
On another note, since I have been spending so much less time in the concrete jungle (aka New York City), I thought I might start showing ORBS at more local venues. I miss their celebrity appearances. There are plenty of museums, galleries and other places of note in the Hudson Valley and Berkshires. And I've been trying to get up to Mass MOCA all summer.
On it.

May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of time honored echniques and fabulously fun and functional forms.

Go where the energy is

2010-09-21T09:41:00.000-04:00

A number of weeks ago I wrote a blog post for a website and got so many notes back on the content, my head was swirling. Fast forward to this week. I wrote and submitted 2 blog posts to Creativity Portal and got back a note of gratitude and accolades. So I ask you? Which blog should I write for? The one that loves my work just as it is? Or the one that wants a laundry list of revises?
While I hate the idea of being an instant gratification junkie, I do believe I've spent enough of my life unlocking doors with tricky key holes. Why not walk through doors that swing open?
My Svaroopa yoga teacher at Half Moon Yoga Barn in Millbrook says, "You've already done all the work." And I love how that idea applies to much more than a restorative pose. It's good to let all the work we've already done take us to new levels, without exerting so much effort.
May your day be infused with the Magic Medicine of ease.

bone

2010-09-14T10:04:00.000-04:00

This was my first bone carving project. It started as a shard that broke off a larger piece. I spent 2 days grinding it against a rock to create the needle like shape. The bone is about 2 inches long. I added the found feathers and semi-precious stone beads. This is one in a series of embellished found objects I've been working on for the last several months, all of which incorporate 18 gold threads.

At left is another bone shard that I am working on making into a needle form using jewelry files. It is thin, flat and getting pretty sharp. At right is a complete piece of bone (not a shard) that I am grinding using only a stone. It has more dimension is very rounded particularly at the point and gets flatter nearer the thicker end.

This last image (at top) is a piece of bone that broke off in a shape that suggested a running horse head to me. I have been using jewelry files and saws to tease out the form. The piece below it was a similar shape so I am working to do the same in a mirror image.

What's amazing to me about this process is how I am circling back around to skills I haven't really used in years. When I was living in Los Angeles I took fine jewelry making classes, and learned basic filing and sawing and solderning skills. The tools and skills are coming in handy now. And bone is softer than metal.

my newest obession

2010-09-12T10:41:00.002-04:00

Bone needles. Made by hand. From the deer bone I've been collecting for years. Still working on my first one. Gives you a real appreciation of primitive peoples and the time it took to make things. The unique and special quality of each object made. And the gift of taking one's time.
http://www.gourdsofthesouthwest.com/bones.htm
http://www.abbemuseum.org/pages/collections/curator-features/bone-needles.html
http://housebarra.com/EP/ep02/18bone.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK6U5CXJROU

Sacred Art Burial Ground

2010-08-27T11:45:00.000-04:00

I’ve been feeling the onset of autumn for weeks now, with cool mornings and nights, dropping apples and touches of color in the leaves.

Most of what I imagined I’d accomplish this summer remains of course undone. I now plan projects that will be more easily done when things in the garden, yard and woods die down. Tying up the wild blackberry and rose to make arches will be a thorny affair, and there is always the threat of that poison ivy. But longer sleeves and heavier clothes will make it less dangerous.

In concert with the Year of Letting Go, I have been dreaming and scheming a project called Sacred Art Burial Site for old art of mine that I’d like to clear out, in hopes of making room for new ideas as well as opening up space in the house.

Across the road, we own a piece of property that is unused, but for the woods it keeps, the deer trails, wildflowers and dappled shade. I go there a few times a year just to sit. It’s not far enough away from the road to be quiet, but it is a kind of secret place perfect for a tree house or a club house if you were a kid. And a cemetery for art if you are me.

I have been collecting things from around the yard all summer. A kind of clean up of the rusted things I have over the years scattered about to create interesting though decrepit focal points. They’ve never quite amounted to what I’d intended anyway. But will be perfect in setting the stage for art burial.

I sometimes chastise myself for all the things I collect. It’s a compulsion really. But whenever I am around other artists who work with natural materials as I do, I realize we are a band, a community. Not so much hoarders as sensitive souls who connect with the processes of decay and the wabi sabi of cast off, found and decomposing things.

When these odd findings I’ve been saving for seemingly no reason suddenly become useful and not only that but essential to the creation of a work of art, I am secretly triumphant.

I am planning to videotape the creation of the Sacred Art Burial Ground and perhaps even a sacred ritual event on Halloween or Dia de los Muertes. Certainly I’ll take photos as well.

If it seems a kind of gruesome project to some, to me it’s more about natural processes again, a constant theme in my work. Transition, transformation, transmutation. Seasons in nature, life and art.

Creating with Nature

2010-08-24T10:54:00.001-04:00

On Saturday I spent the day outdoors making things. A simple sentence, a simple notion, a watershed experience.

How often do we spend an entire day at the computer? And how do we feel afterwards? Inspired? Dreamy? Full of new ideas? Hardly. But spend a day outdoors and something catches fire in your heart, your mind, your spirit.

There was nothing fancy about the Woodlanders Gathering in Warwick New York this weekend. But everything imaginal and wonderous. Rustic makers of furniture and art, curious creative souls who shared ideas and materials under two tents at a camp site on the grounds of the Warwick Conference Center. It was the middle of the woods, and the heart of the world. A campfire, a tarp filled with goodies for swapping: books, branches, bones. For natural material enthusiasts, it was a candy store for heart and mind. And so much more.

Dan Mack is the founder and fire behind the Woodlanders Gathering, now in its 18th and 19th years in the Midwest and here on the East Coast. His imaginal wood carvings from found Hudson River driftwood, furniture building expertise and generous spirit of sharing, have created an event that is as much, if not more, about community as it is about being introduced to new skills and ideas. It’s radical in gentler way than Burning Man. Complete with its own Wicker Man.

I’d been lurking on the virtual site for years and finally found myself there in body. I reconnected with Lynn Hoins a poet I’d met some years ago at a workshop I gave on making time for art. Lynn opened up worlds about journal writing for writers and non-writers alike, in the space of a short hour.

Others showed us how to make Maori healing tools and systrums (an ancient egyptian rattle form). Dan’s driftwood was on hand with small carving knives, as were boxes of blank cards and Stanley tool boxes full of small nature finds from which one could begin to make personal Tarot.

There was a flute making workshop and mead-making botanical walk.

But mostly there was an atmosphere of love. Of earth and art, of people and process.

Lynn Hoins put it beautifully when she said: “It’s like finding your tribe.”

The Woodlander’s Gathering is on my calendar for next year, but for the whole weekend next year, camping gear and all.

the long slow languid reveal

2010-08-20T10:14:00.000-04:00

it's another beautiful day in paradise.

i think this may be my most favorite time of year with hot days, cool mornings and nights.

and now that i've found a rhythm to my days, all is well.

it takes time to find a routine that works for us. especially when we are used to a day job, complete with commute, our days and our schedules are pretty much decided for us.

but when the day is our own, with no expectations other than those we set for ourselves it can be a challenge. given the blank space of time others load up on doctor's appointments, but that's the last place i want to be when the time is my own. so i struggled through a week or so of unsettled, what do i do with myself today, not even realizing that the rhythm would create itself out of nothingness, if i just gave it a little time.

did i mention i'm not good at making plans, appointments, and the like? i prefer an organic revealing. i like to see what happens. it's not that i'm not self directed or motivated. i am. but not in the obsessive compulsive way of our western society. i've been there. done that. to do lists, checked off methodically. it's just not my way. i don't find any joy in it, because it feels like a grammar school assignment given by a bad tempered teacher to keep kids in line and on their toes.

i want joy. it's that simple really. i don't see any reason not to enjoy life. so i find that even the tedious can become pleasant if approached in a gentle embracing way. which by the way, is not my way naturally. i have to work a little at it. i was raised to be anxious on dictims like: not to decide is to decide.

i am trying more and more to trust in the cycles of the seasons, the days and the self.

i'm just not always patient with them. the yard is a mess, the house is peeling inside and out. my husband, jokes that the porch often looks like appalacia. but there is creative energy to it all. a wabi sabi of natural process, and the beauty of decay.

i love old things. the patina. the cracks and the chips. the use. the love. the wonder.

when larry and i were recently married by ram dass in maui, larry asked him if he had to meditate, and what if anything he had to do. he was asking student to teacher for guidance and ram dass said he didn't have to do anything, he just had to live his life.

this is how we develop our patina i imagine, our cracks and chips. but more importantly, love and wonder. tears well up in my eyes in a moment of grace, a glimpse of how everything is exactly as it is meant to be and the overwhelming beauty of this and every moment. the ladies sitting chatting at the table next to me. the loud mouthed man with the huge pot belly speaking too loudly on his cell phone, storming out the door to find the phone number of the local pharmacy, and now more quietly walking back in, just as his order arrives at the table.

in this small cafe in this small town just miles from home i have found my pace. a morning cup of coffee, a delicious croissant, and my little fashion accessory, this bright red vivienne tam hp net book that i type away on happily, reconnecting to words, to myself, to the universe.

and so another pattern begins, a day falls into its thrum, and life unfolds in its own time.

i am reminded of a note i wrote to myself in the first days of a job i loved terribly and hoped would last forever: this is not a race, this is not a test.

may your day be filled with the magic medicine of your own true rhythms, rhymes and revealings.

the year of letting go

2010-08-19T08:38:00.001-04:00

back in january when i deemed this the year of letting go, i had no idea how true that would come to be. literally, let go of my day job at the end of february, the letting go is an organic process, filled with sudden insights, and lingering questions.

last week in preparation for a yard sale, i had to clean out the garage of years of collected debris. we use the garage as a dumping ground for all sorts of unwanted objects and debris. yesteday, taking 2 construction bags full to the town dump and tossing them into the bulk waste was a revelation. i actually felt myself lighten and lift.

for the last several days i've been rolling around the thought of taking the next year to clear out, and clean out the 1840's eye brow colonial we call home. to lighten our load of the possessions we bump into at every turn, or can't find when we come to need them. and of course to blog about the process.

my husband spends most weeks commuting on an airplane. and until my release from full time work, home was a place we rested our heads only 2 nights and 1 full day a week, leaving little time to edit and downsize our ever changing collections.

mostly with that kind of schedule one has to shut down to the ever growing list of things needing to be done and just accept things as they are. accepting things as they are is a great spiritual practice, but shutting down isn't. and when reality finally comes to rest it can be overwhelming.

the plaster ceiling in the living room is like the hachet in the basement stairwell of a hans christan anderson story that prevents a girl from descending the stairs in fear it will fall and kill her. my reading chair is just out of range of the inevitable crash. the plaster is cracking on the walls, mold is growing, paint peeling, wood rotting.

and still i shop.

two days ago i needed a little thrift therapy and as the bill tallied up a clutching feeling gripped my stomach. not over the money. i'd gone in with a mission: to find interesting ways to organize jewerly and art supplies, but of course i got side tracked. i am not exactly sure what it is that grips me so about old, used objects. of course if i ponder it long enough i can trace back the want to a memory or even another object i have just like it (another compulsion!), but the overwhelming desire to own confuses me. my head clouds like a cramped closet, an overstuffed attic.

a few days ago a friend who cleans houses recommended to start at the top and work your way down. when cleaning. which brings up interesting thoughts in relation to mind, intention and how we make our way in this physical world, our bodies and our lives. meditation comes to mind.

as we don't have a basement in the house, my studio and most of my clothing are relegated to the upstairs 3rd floor. a kind of attic, it often becomes another kind of dumping ground, the polar opposite to the garage, for things i treasure and can't find a place for. this includes everything from the deer bone and feathers i use in my art work, to jewerly making tools and supplies, a lifetime's collection of postcards and vintage clothing, and way back in the closets, larry's and my collections of pooh and simpson's memoribilia from years of yard saling when we lived in los angeles.

in boxes since we moved back to new york almost 10 years ago, i have been wanting to move them down to the kitchen and out the door for years now. and having just last night tackled my studio to make room for this summer's yard sale finds, i think there is a clear path from their place in the closet, down the stair, and out. and it occurs to me that often the biggest obstacle to clearing out the boxes - in our homes and our minds - is having a path of access that is clear and easy. the fact that these things have made their way to the back with so much protection packed around them, is a side fact of interest. are we saving them or stuffing them away? and how can we lightly lighten our loads, without torturing ourselves? how can we be gentle with a process that is cumbersome?

i'm always astonished at my mother's ability to simply get rid of things. her seeming lack of sentimentality over objects that seem so dear to me. but dearness changes. and as i sink into the year of letting go, i wonder how i can keep myself from acquiring more new possessions as the old find their way on.

just this weekend at the yard sale i had, a man reached into a container of detritus metals i hadn't bothered to look through and before i knew it an old vintate hose nozzel that may have been my grandfather's was gone for a quarter. that night, beset with regret i bought 3 from a seller on etsy for $10.

letting go means letting go of self judgment too.

so stick, or bear with me as i continue to process and blog about possessions, obsessions and the year of letting go.

interesting side note? i just finished reading the romanian: story of an obsession by bruce benderson. winner of france's prestigious literary prize, the Prix de Flor. It is an autobiographie erotique.

post script. 4 boxes of pooh memorabilia, and a box of video and 1" tapes of ad commercials made it down the stairs to the living room. i separated the boxes into thrift store donations, donations to a children's hospital and a box for friends with children. i kept a handful of the books. now to get them out the door and into the car!

Quintessential Summer Moment

2010-08-15T08:57:00.001-04:00

It is a cloudy sleepy Sunday morning. I woke with the thought that if I were vacationing in Maine, I might get up and go to town, buy a cup of coffee, some muffins and bring them back to eat outside. So I got up, drove into town and pretended I was on vacation.

Now I’m sitting on my front porch, lemon poppy seed muffin in hand, thinking about the elusive quality of summer and vacations.

It always seems the quintessential moments don’t happen until just before time is up. This week, autumn hangs in the air. It has been feeling imminent to me for weeks. The newly cool nights, the too early apples dropping to the ground with a thud, an idea looming in my head that September is not months away, but less than weeks.

Still. This past Friday night, the bon fire I’ve been dreaming about for years lit up the yard and my heart. The fire pit has lain in wait all that time, slowly filling with sticks from spring clean up. Now a circle of ash, a clean slate.

And this weekend the yard sale I’ve been thinking about for just about as long finally popped up in the driveway as if the seeds had just taken all those summers to sprout. This happens in the garden too. Mostly with newly distributed weeds, but sometimes from old seed packets thrown willy nilly to the wind with a wish.

Both are quintessentially summer. And as I write those words, rain drops start to fall in what I hope won’t mean a mad dash to get everything in the garage before a quintessential summer storm.

Still. This moment, even with the threat of rain, feels like summer in a way that is hard to to put into thoughts, harder still, words. It is a long ago feeling that lives in my marrow. No where to go. And despite mounting piles of dishes and laundry, to do lists that never end and dreams that need tending, there is nothing to do. The moment feels full just as it is. Riper than ripe. And yet not ready to pull from the vine.

My muffin too is dwindling and the closer it gets to crumbs, the more heightened my desire. I think of the Arthurian tale of a weaving that unravels even as it is woven, and wonder how my muffin might spontaneously regenerate, and my coffee become a bottomless cup. How life itself is always unraveling and reweaving itself at the same moment. There’s no use trying to catch the fast fraying edges. There is only the moment at hand. Its quintessential nature changing even as we note it.

I check the weather online, for an hour by hour accounting, the chance of precipitation in percentage. But when I look at the sky I know the truth. I feel it in my bones. For the moment at least, the yard sale is over.

Post Script. 10:42 am.
Since it looked like rain was going to foil the yard sale anyway, I cleaned out the garage and set it up for a Year Round Yard Sale. So now, throughout the remaining moments of summer, the imminent Autumn and into next summer it's a change of venue at the same address, Yard Sale in residence in the garage. And, I think ORBS are planning a visit today.

ORBS on hiatus

2010-08-08T10:30:00.000-04:00

ORBS are on summer break, relaxing at home in the hammock. We were not able to take them with us to Maui for our wedding and all-too-short honeymoon. (Too many clothes, too little time.)
Earlier this summer, in late June at my Omega residency I was able to collect bags full of cartons from the Omega Cafe and dining room. All are now on the front porch awaiting their meditative turn at rinsing, cutting, and rolling into their next incarnation as ORBS.
As Larry spends so much time travelling and we have a weekly commute to the NYC airports, ORBS will be popping up at LaGuardia and JFK sometime soon. And they will be with me at Menla Mountain for a Labor Day retreat with Sharon Salzberg and Robert Thurman.
In the meantime they have meditated on the meaning of their life, and have determined that small is better. So rather than focusing on becoming the World's Largest, they are multiplying in various sizes, colors and shapes in hopes of going forth into the farthest reaches of the world.
And coming home to rest in your corner of the world to inspire and delight you. Stay tuned for more info on how to purchase ORBS and make your own!

ORBS

2010-05-18T13:11:00.002-04:00

Working on proposals for funding and materials donations for ORBS. The project keeps morphing... and beautifully. While its first public installation will be at FIGMENT NYC on Governor's Island, June 10 thru 13th, and I have a proposal in to ART IN ODD PLACES for October along 14th Street in New York City, it seems the beautiful spheres would like to be making public appearances all over the city for the next several months. It's becoming a kind of celebrity guerilla art project. So I'll be tweeting its whereabouts and uploading videos in the coming months. As always, if you are using TETRA PAKS, please rinse and save for me. You can also donate via PayPal to support ORBS. Shoot me an email, or leave a comment for details.

art/craft/life

2010-05-17T18:13:00.001-04:00

The most amazing bird is chirping outside my window. In contrast to the cars that are also zipping by. I just recorded it on my phone. Thankfully the chirping took, the cars didn't.
Yesterday was a high art day at the Park Armory. Today, I got wowed by this.
I spent the morning in bed with the windows open, working on my laptop and taking care of some long overdue financial stuff on the phone. And then, before the sun took a dive this afternoon, got out in the yard, planted some chamomile seeds, moved some furniture around so I can take better advantage of the screened in porch off the kitchen. Okay, so the screen is full of holes, but it's a sweet spot. And now it has a table and chairs.
I love a little constrast in life. It makes things stand out.
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of joyful juxtapositions.

sew happy

2010-05-12T11:00:00.001-04:00

The last several Saturdays I took a beginner's sewing class with Cal Patch at Wing & Clover in Rhinebeck, NY. I have this amazing old Singer Sewing Machine that was my mom's. And have struggled with it over the years. But love the thrum of it.

Over the course of 3, 2 hour sessions we made the most amazing reversible tote bags. And I learned how to use the zig zag attachments I bought on e-bay a while back!
Now, the challenge is to find space in my always over-crowded studio to keep the machine set up and accessible. Or maybe just make sure I sign up for another sewing class soon.
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of peaceful thrums.

linkety link

2010-05-12T09:38:00.000-04:00

Sacred bottlecap art

wild gardening

2010-05-09T10:52:00.003-04:00

My garden is a wild one. Not exciting or thrilling. Just overgrown.
I mostly let nature have her way with things. I toss seeds into the wind and hope they'll take. I pull weeds only to watch them return with abandon.
This year I seem to be getting ahead of the Butcher's Broom, a strawlike weed was used in mattresses long ago. Its tiny burr like seeds are impossible to get off clothes and scatter everywhere, not so much choking out other blooms, but hiding them. Pulling it becomes an instant visual reward, revealing miniscule miracles of nature.
Yesterday I was treated to a pitter patter scatter of tiny seeds from a beautiful little wildflower/weed I seem only to have noticed for the first time this year (but will certainly see more of next year.). The sound was delightful: delicate and whimsical, like the tiny blooms that produced them.
My garden will never be a neat cultivated one. But as my partner says when I get anxious filling out forms, "You're not a formal, Riva. You're a casual."
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of delightful surprises hiding under the weeds of life.

time warps and wonders

2010-04-30T13:43:00.001-04:00

One of the challenges of making the transition from a day job to a life's work is creating the texture of the days. For me, every morning has begun to feel like a weekend. I don't feel the urgency to get out of bed and get going. And yet, there are things to be done. The question is.... where to start? There are so many more options now that I don't have to head to an office.
Do I jump headfirst still sleepy into morning meditation, a walk, or my ORBS project? Check my Bberry or ignore it? Send that invoice? Call Fidelity? Take a bath? Tackle that proposal?
It takes a little while to settle into the day. Establishing a routine can be helpful, but I enjoy the slow start. I like waiting for what bubbles to the surface of importance. It's that touch of discomfort until the right thing reveals itself that is difficult. But with practice and patience that process itself will become an essential part of my ever changing daily routine.
I keep loose TO DO lists. I don't so much procrastinate as lay in wait for something to arrive at its natural moment of must be done. And then it is. With surprising ease.
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of natural rhythms and the life sonnets that may be composed of them.

artist derick melander

2010-04-30T09:48:00.000-04:00

Recycled clothing becomes sculpture.

not working. living.

2010-04-26T09:48:00.001-04:00

When I first got downsized, I had visions of running off to India, getting lost in the swirl of a country I've been wanting to visit for years. The reality wasn't quite so dreamy. But is turning out to be a different kind of adventure.
My first day back from a trip to Yuma, AZ, where I'd been headed before I got the ax, I landed a fast and furious freelance gig that set my head spinning. Mindful of the $$ that my bank account would appreciate, I managed the meltdowns and did some great work under pressure.
Then the doldrums set in. I set up lunches. Made a few new connections. Updated my resume and website. I entered the "Catching up on Doctor's Appointments" phase.
It's almost 2 months now. The Visa applications for India seem to be in a perpetual state of almost done. But I'm just about finished with a knitting project that I had to completely unravel and start over. I'm somewhere in the middle of an art project for FIGMENT on Governor's Island June 11, 12, and 13. And I just started my application for an MFA program I've been looking at for 10 years.
This is the amazing blessing of losing your job. You get to live.
At first, the quiet is a little deafening. Or more accurately, anxiety producing. But then, as the mind starts swirling, forgotten things bubble up. And life becomes your work. Which begins to feel more like play.
It felt a little funny at first. Like I should be doing something more productive. But what's more productive than living?
I still have those moments where I go into a silent panic about money and am gripped by desperation about the house and yard that will never be House Beautiful. But on rainy Monday mornings like these, I have no where to be but where I am. And no one to be but myself.
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of reimaging and reinventing your life.

linkety link

2010-04-13T16:31:00.000-04:00

http://cargocollective.com/

Overwhelm is just upside down abundance

2010-04-04T17:36:00.000-04:00

Spring can be overwhelming. Welcome, of course. But overwhelming just the same.
Everywhere I look there's something else to be done in the yard. Raking the leaves I didn't get to last fall. Redefining outdoor spaces so I can enjoy coffee in the morning sun, lunch in gentle shade and star gazing at night. Pruning and weeding out the overgrown. Planting seeds in hope of fresh grown vegetables.
I've owned this property for over 20 years now, and I'm afraid I haven't done much to improve it. Deer have all but decimated the beautifully shaped juniper at the front door. As well as the old roses and lilies. The fence that protected the bee balm and blackberry last year finally came down in a tangle.
But, there is progress. I freed two old wire fences from the tangle of thorns in the now abundant wild roses, and plan to reuse them for the protection of lettuce. And I see signs of the lilies' return in a fenced off patch. Old cement blocks I've moved every year from one pile to another, are finally neatly stacked to create two seats under the magnolia where I can rest in dream between leaf raking relays.
The lilacs are a promise away from blooming. So too is the bridal wreath and magnolia. And I know that somewhere under the matted leaves, poison ivy is waiting, hoping to catch me off guard.
But right now, there is nothing to do, precisely because there is too much to do. And the gift of being overwhelmed with it all, is taking a step back, taking a day off, watching the breeze in the pine needles and listening to the not so distant trickle of water running down the hill into the swamp that could be dredged into a pond. If only there wasn't so much else to do. And not do.
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of doing nothing.

having way too much fun surfing

2010-02-02T11:54:00.000-05:00

one of my favorite go to sites Art for Housewives is keeping me busy, happy and inspired this morning.
I've been collecting credit cards for years, and ran across this via AFH this morning.
But what I'm most excited about is saving a pair of favorite boots with this inspired tutorial. The boots have been sitting in the mud room looking extremely forlorn. I can't bear to part with them but they are too nasty to wear anywhere but to the compost bin, and even at that, with all the holes in the leather, they are less boot than on their way to being sandals. But now I have a plan. And that makes me happy.
Though I'd deemed this the year of buying nothing, I have found myself in a few thrift stores for retail therapy. And still moving things out of the house a wee bit at a time. Experimenting with the experience of throwing things out. But the boots? Just can't do it. Love em way too much.
And why part with what brings you joy. Especially if there is an art/craft project involved.
Other things I am saving these days. Date pits. Beautiful. Trader Joe's has some of the most delicious dates I've ever tasted. Larry and I are hooked. And the pits are just beautiful. Earrings? A necklace? Maybe just a bowl full of pits. Stay tuned. And let me know what you are up to.
May the Magic Medicine be with you.

maybe every 2 weeks is a more do able goal?

2010-01-27T14:23:00.000-05:00

It's not that I haven't been thinking of you dear Blog, but somehow, I never quite get here. And it's not that I have not come across a zillion inspiring things to share with you. I have. But somehow clicking the link and signing in to actually post keeps escaping my daily to do list.
But finally, here I am. Thoughts escaping me.
I have been working on pulling together a talk for a breakfast club meeting of a design organization. It's called Beyond Design: Voice Lessons in Branding. And it's interesting to me to go through this process of pulling together a professional presentation. All sorts of fears come up. Do I really know what I'm talking about? Does my talk actually answer the expectation set by the title and its accompanying blurb?
And then I have to take a deep breath, and remember myself. Remember my way of being in the world. My deep belief to trust intuition. Not to work so hard for perfection. To enjoy the process and trust it like nobody's business.
I know I will be nervous. And to help deal with that I plan to read my typed out talk at least once a day out loud all the way through. With my talk 2 weeks away, I have plenty of time to get it thrumming in my mind, so I won't have to read from my notes verbatim.
I know it's always a great idea to open a presentation with some kind of joke. Just to put everyone, including oneself at ease.
Last night I went with a friend to Comix to see stand up comedians bear their souls on stage. That's essentially what they do up there. You can see and feel how personal so much of their work is. And you could see the varying degrees of nervousness. Some were so polished, and seamless. Others a bit shaky in the voice. But you know what? They were all wonderful. Every one of them had something unique, interesting and hysterical to share. One right after another, they reached out with their humor and touched us.
There's nothing like laughter to make everything right with the world.
I hope I can come up with something that at least gets a giggle.

celestial music

2010-01-11T11:00:00.002-05:00

Okay. You're either going to think I'm nuts. Or, not.
Today I'm hearing celestial music. Really. It's kind of like the honking of a multitude of horns from very far away, ebbing and flowing. It's not so much a monotone as a chord held for a very very very long time.
It's a sound I haven't heard in a very very very long time. And I think it's because I've started meditating again.
The universe of course if full of sounds. Most of them are annoying, at least in the city. But when they all converge together, they do create a kind of music. And that's what I'm hearing today. A bed of music against which is also playing the sound of my computer keys, conversations in the office, phones ringing, airplanes flying by, and the white noise of the hvac unit.
Years ago, when I lived in Los Angeles, in a house in the Los Feliz hills, just below Griffith Park, I used to hear celestial music all the time. But it was more haunted. The house we lived in was below the main house. It had actually been a swimming pool in the hey day of historic Hollywood mansions. I imagined pool parties with women dressed in sparkling evening gowns, smoking cigarettes with long diamond studded holders, drinking glistening martinis.
The place was definitely haunted, though not in a malevolent way. Just souls who hadn't passed over and on.
Today's celestial symphony is almost train like. I wonder where it will be taking me...
At this moment, on the 18th floor of a New York City high rise office building, it has taken me to summer as a child. The celestial music has become the whir of a distant lawn mower or low flying plane. I am surrounded by grasses and trees. There is nothing to do but stare at clouds in the sky, watch green leaves shimmer in the afternoon sun.
And speaking of trees...I am doing some drawing research for a project I am working on - continuation of my Axis Mundi/Spirit Guide work - and came across this amazing work by Tim Knowles.

collage installation

2010-01-08T14:43:00.003-05:00

http://www.hdrescher.com/

short on words today. just look. click. see.

happy art year

2010-01-05T12:02:00.001-05:00

2009 was not jammed packed with art making for me. It was more about making a living. But along with my intention for 2010 to be a year of letting go, clearing out and creating space, I hereby degree 2010 The Year of Art.
Part of that will be focusing more consistently on this blog. And to make that possible, I will be letting go of my own preconceived notions of what's blogworthy. I'm opening up the boundaries. Anything goes. Is it art? Is it Magic Medicine? Well, isn't everything?
Here, some links to what the universe has delivered to me this week:

1. A while ago, I picked up a copy of Sacred Contracts by Caroline Myss at (where else?) my local thrift store. I just opened it up last night, and though only a few pages in, am happily reconnecting to my love of archetypes.
http://www.myss.com/

2. An artist friend sent me a link to The Arts Map, a Beta project that seeks to put artists on the map. I think it's a great idea.
http://www.theartsmap.com/

3. Another friend, this one from karate, sent this fascinating therapuetic yoga link.
http://www.tulayoga.com/big_index.html

May all your days be filled with Magic Medicine.

Retouching life

2009-12-21T14:58:00.001-05:00

This week I noticed my face had fallen. I've been watching things crinkle and sag for a few years now. But suddenly it seems so much the worse for wear. People usually think I'm a good 20 years younger than I actually am. And thanks to genetics, perhaps I'll keep fooling them. But I remember the precise moment I realized my skin had lost its youthful blush. And now, it seems to have lost everything.
In the interest of getting some portrait commissions, Larry has been showing people a nude he took of me a few years ago. My long hair covers most of my body, pulled over my head, and down my front, exposing just one breast. It is a beautiful photograph. And it seems to capture the last moment of youth in my body, just as a portait taken by my best friend when we lived in Los Angeles does of my face.
In my art, I am obsessed with things broken, aged, worn and wounded. I find an incomparable, powerful beauty in their degradation. Can I find that same love and passion for the face I look at each morning in the mirror, as I smooth my skin with the lightest touch of foundation, line my eyes with khol, brush on mascara, and restore color to my lips and cheeks.
Can I find that same awe for this body, its thin skinned hands, and ever fleshier hips, thighs and knees?
Ann Haaland over at The Paint Box was blogging about diminishing eye sight and its effect on painting and life.
In advertising everything is retouched to perfection.
How can we create a retouching lens of our own? In our hearts, our eyes and our minds?

unusual forms with fabric and yarn

2009-12-16T14:35:00.001-05:00

Pantone Inspired Christmas Posters & Cards. Christmas By Colour.

2009-12-15T11:23:00.000-05:00

Pantone Inspired Christmas Posters & Cards. Christmas By Colour.

this was what i meant to share.

If It's Hip, It's Here

2009-12-15T11:18:00.001-05:00

If It's Hip, It's Here

Posted using ShareThis

The Mom-and-Pop Water Shop § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM

2009-12-08T16:28:00.001-05:00

The Mom-and-Pop Water Shop § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM

Posted using ShareThis

How to Patch a Hole with Crochet - CraftStylish

2009-11-30T17:34:00.001-05:00

How to Patch a Hole with Crochet - CraftStylish

Posted using ShareThis

new way to stay in touch

2009-11-23T13:49:00.000-05:00

I've been posting more at tumblr these days. Just because there's a tumblr contest where I work at Saatchi. Winner wins $1000, which I'm donating to charity if I win. So head on over to tumblr, follow me, reblog me and help me win.
Not sure which charity yet, but maybe Kiva, which is all about microloans and keeps the $$$ working for people who need it.
Any ideas. Let me know here in your comments or on twitter, where you'll find me as rivarama.

Boxes

2009-09-22T15:56:00.001-04:00

When we work in corporate environments, or any structured work place, it can be difficult to get started on projects that have no definition. No rules, no strategies. And no deadlines.
I was talking with a colleague at my day job, who said that her biggest obstacle in sitting down to do art work was that she liked to think out of the box. And needed a box to begin with. She longed for rules to break.
I told her how a friend of mine keeps a notebook with a list of creative project ideas. She refers to it every time she’s ready for a new endeavor and methodically checks them off. The list is always longer than her time allows, but gives her structure and a sense of accomplishment. It’s a creative to do list that’s never done, and always evolving.
Interestingly enough, I learned a quick technique in a water color class, that instantly gave the work a more professional look and feel. And that was, simply taping off a border, or box with masking tape to be removed after the painting was done.
Boxes do serve us well.
The question is: how can we create them for ourselves, without boxing ourselves in? Because unless the box makes it easier to get to our creative work, it’s of no use.
Borders and boxes can hem us in as much as they can inspire us to break out. We must know ourselves well enough to know what works for us.
So what works for you? Quick, write something down even if it makes no sense.

what do you do when you're bored?

2009-09-14T16:38:00.003-04:00

It's not as if I don't have a list a mile long - of creative and personal projects like submitting health insurance claims - but sometimes the get up and go just isn't there. Hey. I'm a coach, I know how to turn doldrums into productivity. But... what do you do when you're bored out of your brain?

vancouver's living roof

2009-09-03T09:56:00.002-04:00

Vancouver's 6 Acre Living Roof - Growing Cities Series from Dave Budge on Vimeo.

what's your life like?

2009-08-20T10:21:00.002-04:00

Next time you are feeling sorry for yourself, for whatever reason. Goodness knows sometimes it's downright therapeutic to wallow in a little self pity. When you're ready for a little perspective. And a whopping dose of Magic Medicine, just read this:

http://briananelson.blogspot.com/

make darfur a topic

2009-07-28T15:21:00.001-04:00

read this and tweet

on a rant

2009-07-14T14:09:00.002-04:00

does meditation make me even more sensitive?
people are driving me crazier than usual this week.
jonathan fields is wondering why blogging is making him fat, when he lists a series of injuries that seem to be preventing him from working out like he did in his 20's. but i didn't see the words "physical therapy" anywhere.
why does this raise the hairs on my neck? because i want a yoga guy to know better. then again, maybe that isn't fair of me.
for some reason i give a pass to my karate grandmaster and most of the teachers who instruct us to do things that I KNOW are bad for our bodies. And I do them anyway, or DO IT MY WAY when i can.
Still, this is the thing that makes me nuts. If you're in the business of physical exercise of any kind, you should be up to the moment on what works, what doesn't and the latest in technique, even if your art is thousands of years old.
And another thing...
another day.
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of paying attention to your muscles and tendons, and ligaments and joints and bones. And getting the help you need for every injury.

hard core dharma

2009-07-10T10:03:00.002-04:00

The voice in my head: Where to start?
Answer: Start where you are.
I'm taking the audio version of Hardcore Dharma at The Interdependence Project. Which works for me because I just don't have a free evening. Each week I download an MP3, keep up with the readings, and try to soak up as much as I can. Not being in the room makes a big difference.
It's difficult not to multi-task while listening to the audio. But that's one of the points of this. To make a commitment not to multi-task. And it's astonishing to realize how much I am multi-tasking all the time. Although to be honest, what I've noticed more than my multi-tasking, is how much I rush through things in order to get to the next.
This morning was the first morning I had all to myself, without any need to rush to the office, so I was able to sit for longer than the 10 minure minimum. And what a difference that makes. Walking across 28th Street to the subway, my mind wasn't so filled with chatter, and my eyes and ears were resting more comfortably in the sights and sounds along the way.
The last several weeks have felt like the city's been screaming at me. Not a moment of quiet or peace. Even the 4th of July, 3 day weekend at home felt unrestful.
But now, the hum of the air conditioner in the office sounds like a white noise lullaby.
My breathing is steady and deep.
I fell back to 10 minute sessions in an attempt to stick to the 7 day meditation vow each week. 10 minutes is easy to do no matter how little time you have. But having the opportunity to sit for my more normal half hour is so much more fruitful.
Yet, one of the interesting things I've picked up in this course is something I know so well in karate, and seem to forget too easily in everything else. Consistency is key. And every sit is different. No need to judge. The most important part is showing up.
The fact that my 10 minute sits were not restful isn't a reflection so much of the medititation time, but of what life has been feeling like.
This morning's half hour, leisurely meditation reflected on the actual time and space I was in. An empty apartment, no pressing appointments, no pressure.
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of time to sit and to breathe.

would you rather shop or make something?

2009-06-22T09:52:00.003-04:00

Maybe it's the rain, but I had a hankering to go to Ocean State Job Lot to pick up more plastic containers to organize my studio. Or, head over to New Paltz to buy a pair of tie die yoga pants that I've been yearing for. Instead, I stopped at a yard sale on my way home, picked up a vintage wicker settee for just $30 bucks to replace the 20 year old shredded sofa on the porch. And they even drove it to the house for me.
In a somewhat constant state of transition, I was having trouble settling into just being home. Larry had already left for the airport, and it had been a busy week with my nephew visting on his way from Isreal to sell Dead Sea Products in a DC mall.
And, it was raining. As good a reason as any to go shopping... but the itch was stronger to hole up in my studio, despite the chaos, and work on a project I've been thinking about for months.
I drink almond milk, and tossing the cartons out always gives me pause. I put them in the recycle bin, but not really sure if these cartons with waxed paper outside, and foil inside actually can be recycled. In theory of course they can. But are they?
Reuse is actually better than recycling. And I've had a pile of these hanging around for a while with the intent to make a large tote from them. I hit a snag when I realized that the sewing machine couldn't manuever some of the necessary seams. And after a bit of agonizing, realized that duct tape was the perfect tool!
So for my next attempt I am going to skip the sewing altogether, and go straight for the duct tape. There were some great online tutorials for making change purses from juice cartons. All very kid friendly.
I of course opted to intuit the construction realizing that I don't actually follow directions well at all. And I have to say, I was sooooo satisfied with the result. And so glad I'd opted for studio time instead of shopping.
At the end of the day, shopping always leaves me rather fuzzy headed and psychically exhausted. Making things leaves me feeling pleasantly spent, like a good work out.
So I'm thinking I can use this as a way to save a bit more money these days. If I give myself the option of making something, anything, instead of shopping each time I get the urge. We'll see what happens.
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of making something out of your garbage instead of shopping for things that create more waste...
Get the book: Magic Medicine: Rx for Creativity now, at Lulu.com, order directly from me, or keep an eye out on Amazon.

another amazing omega adventure

2009-06-15T14:42:00.002-04:00

Back from a week at Omega where I do an artist's residency each year. As always, a whirlwind. And this time, way too short. I had the amazing blessing of taking 2 workshops with visionary artist Randal Roberts.
I'm 3-d girl, so painting and drawing are a real challenge for me. But Randal got me diving into both with surrealistic divining techniques that blew my heart, mind and hands way open. There's nothing like the feeling of "hey, I can do this!". I can't wait to keep the pencil and brush going.
Meanwhile... in my own 3 d explorations I created a series from the paper that tea bags come in. Been collecting them for years. Using them to create prayer beads. And now:
Tea-Betan Prayer Flags, Tea-Betan Prayer Wheel and Tea-Betan Book of the Dead.
With gracious thanks to Nico for coming up with the name, which definitely pulls the concept together.
I love a collaboration that just pops into being like that. Nico walked into the art hut one day and just tossed it out. Fit like a glove.
Pics to come soon. Of all this and more.
So stir up a little Magic Medicine of your own with a pencil, a brush, some watercolors. Or just a bunch of garbage you haven't thrown out yet.
May your day be filled with love.

i want to go to this school

2009-05-28T12:34:00.002-04:00

School of Life

inspiration from tim ferriss

2009-05-14T11:55:00.002-04:00

I've got tears in my eyes while reading this. We all get trapped up by thinking big. We like to dream. And then tell ourselves quietly that our dreams are impossible. I do it myself. Read this and start where you are. Who knows?
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of seeing what is right in front of you.

mostly vegan

2009-05-13T12:31:00.002-04:00

My new way of eating had me feeling very virtuous. Shame on me and my ego.
I looked this morning at my Vitamin B12 and it has LACTOSE in it. Oh my.
But in the interest of the middle way, I've been eating anything I want 1 day a week: sugar, meat, cheese whatever.
So I guess I can live with the lactose until I find another sublingual supplement that doesn't have a milk substance in it.
Meanwhile I am relishing the multi-vegetable soup I have been eating almost daily with tofu sometimes for lunch. It's delish. And I just bought a great little Zen like bowl with chopsticks for the office, so I can eat my meal beautifully as well as mindfully.
Such a simple thing lunch.
May your day be filled with the magic medicine of joyful food and mindful meals.

vegan for a week!

2009-05-07T09:39:00.003-04:00

If you've read this blog before, you know I have been wanting to go vegan for some time. Tumbling the idea around in my mind, a meal or two at a time. But this last week, while immersed in a spring yoga cleanse with Sara Trelease at Om Yoga in NYC, I was actually able to do it! YAY for me.
Only a week, because I consciously gave myself a day off, and then back to it. Not so much a reward, but a way of making things easy, and accessible.
Just a few weeks ago I'd been talking to a woman at a evening kirtan and she said she was mostly vegan. I really like the thought of mostly. It has elasticity in it.
So now I'm mostly vegan a week at a time. Which is definitely a jump up from a meal at a time. See how small steps work? No beating oneself over the head. Just tiny little movements that add up over time.
Want to learn more about how small steps can fuel your life, your goals, your creativity? Drop me a line.
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of less meat in your body and more sustenance in your life.

jonathan mann @ rockcookiebottom

2009-04-20T11:32:00.002-04:00

Jonathan was on Rachel Maddow this past Friday night and he was terrific. I just visited his site again today and love his Palestine/Israel song. He's been writing a song and day, every day, and he's proving that being creative takes discipline, practice, patience, joy, humility and humanity.
In my book Magic Medicine: Rx for Creativity, I write about how we need to get out of our own way, and just trust the process. Jonathan is an amazing example of why it's so important to our creative spirits to what we love and not worry about where it's taking us.
He's pure inspiration.

my new heroine

2009-03-04T11:48:00.002-05:00

She's a teenager. She blogs about fashion. She's Tavi.
Gotta admit, I kinda wish I was her. She's got more style, more moxie (sorry I can't think of a better word, wierd a word as it is), and less self consciousness than I'll ever have.
Sure digital cameras, internet applications and all sorts of technologies make things easier for kids today. But how many kids are using it this well?
I'm not sure that many adults are using it this well.
Myself included.
She's definitely got the Magic Medicine.
May your day be filled with the MM of style.
And for more Magic Medicine, buy my book, Magic Medicine: Rx for Creativity, directly from me or download a copy at lulu.com

another great TED

2009-02-13T12:00:00.005-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA
Especially the description of Ruth Stone's creative process. And a Tom Waits moment. Listen and love the creative process.

containing life

2009-02-10T13:42:00.002-05:00

I am in the final stages of getting my studio organized so I can actually work in it, instead of just throwing stuff up there to become one with the chaos.
I was in an almost trance-like state as things seemed to move themselves into unexpected new arrangements. A painting I did last summer did not want to go where I initially intended and insisted on a wall I was sure it wouldn't fit on. But I listened and it proved me beautifully wrong.
The space feels so clear. Crystal. And I can't wait to actually begin working up there again.
It occurred to me that the room is a container for me. Filled with containers. And in fact, all the work I've been doing over the years is somehow related to concepts of containers. Our whole existence in this body, on this planet, in this time and place is a container. We search for containment, balance our worlds between breaking through one container into another. Our containers are of varied size and dimension. Some too small, others too large. Our worlds are built of containers within containers like the stacking Russian dolls.
Now that everything is organized in clear plastic containers, I can see all my materials, get my hands on what I'm looking for more easily. Actually get to what I need so I can work out the ideas that bubble up endlessly.
I threw out a lot to get to this place. I had to. I've been collecting all sorts of things for so many years. I think I still have post cards from when I lived in London 30 years ago. But I'm hoping now that I know where they are, I'll figure out what to do with them.

New Ways to Celebrate Your Creativity

2009-01-06T16:12:00.003-05:00

Take your name. Make an acronym of it. Win Harper's is What's Important Now, and his website will inspire you. Take a look. And while you're at it, visit Elizabeth Harper's website, too. Win and Elizabeth are a dynamic duo of Magic Medicine personified. They are creative healers who walk their paths, inviting us not so much to follow, but to forge our own. Their guidance is a true gift.
May 2009 be filled with the Magic Medicine of life.

gratitudes

2008-12-24T10:51:00.004-05:00

The office is empty. I don't think I'm the only one here but it feels like it. And I love that. The few people who were here yesterday thought I was nuts for coming in today. But it feels so good to be somewhere quiet, without anyone asking anything of me. Not even a conversation. Just time to myself. It's like studio time when I've had it. Total freedom. It feels like when I was a kid and everyone left the house and I was home alone. Beautiful solitude. I am always grateful for it. And for so much more.
This year has been one of shifts, sea changes and small steps.
I am so grateful for my closest girlfriends Mimi, Sanae and Gay. They are always there. And always in my heart.
I feel like the luckiest girl alive to have a job I love at a time of financial chaos. I am trying my best to share my good fortune more than usual this year. It's just makes me feel good.
A few times recently, I've noticed that someone didn't charge me for something (milk at the grocery store, a dress at the thrift store, a single pocket buddha among 7 others) but rather than go back and return it - which is just a huge pain in the butt in terms of schedule and location - I just donate more than its value to a charity. It feels like the right thing to do.
I am so grateful for Larry this year. He still yells at drivers, and people who take up too much of the sidewalk. But by taking the time to notice what he's grateful for each day, he is so much more fun to be around. And that makes me more fun to be around. It's that simple.
I'm also grateful for my mother's lightness of spirit. When the power went out at their house a few weeks ago, my parents spent the night at ours, and I have to admit I was just a bit disappointed when their power came back on.
I've got a zillion more gratitudes. This just my start.
May your day be filled with the Magic Medicine of memorable moments and deep gratitude.

creativity and play

2008-12-08T10:00:00.000-05:00

My sister Pam sent me this link this morning. Find a half hour and watch it. In 5 minute increments if you have to. TED has lots of inspiring talks, this is just one: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/tim_brown_on_creativity_and_play.html

May your day be filled with the magic medicine of play.

beyond inspiration

2008-11-20T11:30:00.001-05:00

I'm in complete awe of Karen Dolmanisth's work. It inspires me. It touches me. It's the kind of work I wish I were doing. If only I had the vision, the clarity, the devotion to practice that she does.
I met Karen a few years ago at the Exit Art performance exhibition praying project we were both participating in. I immediately connected with her collection of natural and found objects, the ritualistic prayerful way in which she interacted with them and her reverence for process.
So how do we, as artists, respectfully riff on the work of others, allowing ourselves to be inspired to greater depths in our own work without plagarizing the work that ignites our imagination?
It's an interesting issue. I've talked with writers about this too.
It's easy to feel we own certain phrases. But Google them and you find you're not the only one.
Concepts themselves, exclusive of execution aren't covered under copyright laws.
So what do you think? Have you had the experience of feeling that some has ripped you off? Or would you feel honored? Do you knock off others in your work. What is the line you can't cross? What lines does your conscience create that hold you back?
It's a rich area for exploration.
May your days be filled with the Magic Medicine of teachers, mentors, gurus and guides.
Get your daily dose of Magic Medicine in book form, here.

a link to sharon salzberg

2008-11-20T10:14:00.000-05:00

a beautiful post by one of america's leading buddhist teachers.

baby steps giant leaps

2008-10-26T08:45:00.000-04:00

I've been going to a life drawing class in Kingston on Saturdays. And I've got to say it's a revelation. With a few quick tips from my friend David McKee I achieved a whole new perspective - and I mean that literally. My first 20 minute drawing was elongated and out of perspective. My 2nd was amazingly proportioned and balanced.
I'm still like a kid when it comes to creative pursuits. I honestly love everything I do. I get so excited by the process and the results. I'm without filter. There is no bad. No judgement. And that's what I really hope to share in my workshops, and now as a creativity coach.
Our culture is way too filled with criticism and comment. We don't leave anyone alone long enough to simply express themselves. One of the greatest gifts for me was something Krishna Das said during a workshop or maybe it was a kirtan: "God doesn't care if you can carry a tune." And I would say doesn't care if you color within the lines either. Or even if your line is straight, or in perspective.
The thing is, if we don't draw the line and take the risk to draw it, we can't get better at drawing. And that's true with everything we do.
But you know that. I know that. But still we get afraid or busy with laundry and full of excuses for not creating. Or singing. Or playing.
It's funny. I wasn't looking for a drawing class. I went because I wanted to support a friend. And I can't tell you how many excuses I made even while driving to give myself an easy out. I had car trouble, and even turned around once and went home before turning back around and making my way across the bridge, stopping every 5 miles or so when the engine light came on.
But the simple magic of sitting still for an hour and drawing the human figure is extraordinary. Quiet, intense, magnificent.
How can we find small ways to support our creative selves for just an hour or 2 a week? Or 5 minutes a day?
That's all it takes.
May the Magic Medicine of a new perspective open your eyes and your heart.

Intrigued? Bored? Indifferent? Drop me a line and let me know how you feel about Magic Medicine. Want more? You can buy Magic Medicine: Rx for Creativity, here. Or drop me a line at modernsacred@yahoo.com