Still lovin’ after all these years

Still the sweetest soul on Earth, Jack and his little sister Goldie give us hours of love. In his eleventh year he teaches me how to be sensitive and express at a whole ‘nother level.  Jack is the very definition of “whole hearted”.  Somehow his kind heart slipped into this portrait through the oil pastel.

AFEF Artivism

I am humbled by the beautiful sweet souls who attended our Arts For Earth Foundation workshop today at Ventura's BuenaVentura Art Association at Bell Arts.



We got to know each other and discussed our various art forms.  I'm impressed with the very high level this group produces.  Notably many started as shy people, unsure of whether viewers would need to hear what they have to say or not.  Please don't edit the baby, it hasn't been born and has no hair to change color.  Allow your ideas to grow, come from your heart and be kind to yourself.

        Does that make sense?  In this workshop we are coming from the heart, coming up with concepts that express the feelings and emotions we have about things and people who are very dear to us.  Personal experiences that are in the process of being formed, identified. 

        Then the room got quiet.  A Saddness or tension was felt in the silence.  I asked that we look at the things that could come between us and our hearts desire.  I really didn't even want to ask the question since the whole workshop had been a positive loving experience up to that moment.  I wanted to change the format but we had a safe place to explore and we went on.

       In the silence people worked and contemplated our own various issues.  Like the issue of loving the ocean.  What keeps us from cultivating internal peace... like the clock on the wall or thoughts of what comes next after the time I set aside for myself.  Or the calendar that steals days from us and our sons or daughters.  We can hear the tears in the silence.  I feel like this is too tough to ask of people... until we start to share.

       In some ways the community we create and our speaking with each other is the ultimate art form.  Performance art, improvisation of who we are coming out at every moment un-planned, un-pretentious, authentic by necessity says John Bardi the philosopher musician of the group.  Our community is being born as we begin to speak, to share.

       The first "thumbnail sketches" were illustrating 5 of our 15 most favorite things in life.  Things and people who give our lives meaning and quality.  The second "thumbnail sketch" (with no editing or judgement on the drawing quality or the concept because it's a feeling being born)is of the things that impair this quality like plastic and pollution killing my beautiful view of the ocean with a sea turtle and sail boat.  And more: A person with cancer, an aborted fetus with mother behind bars and her rapist free to go, people in too much of a hurry to smell the roses next to the microwave as they tap their fingers in impatience.

       But the third thumbnail is the important one.  creating the awareness that we are all in this together.  All indigenous with all immigrants belong together in one big pot of medicinal chicken noodle soup. It's being called the Cosmic Perspective and its "US", not "them and us" who are going to make it together. 

       The third thumbnail shows the love of a mother and father who already miss their young child and the time they've missed together, it shows the love.  And the artist whose focus gives peace in a simple viewing of their artwork...gives the viewer time to look and feel their peace if only for a moment.  It's the clothing and beads imported that come with the story of women working to bring up their community with the sharing of their arts knitting our cultures together.

       And, this brings up one of the last enduring impactful point made this morning in our Art as Artivism workshop... Each perspective is so important.  Your work of art MUST be created.  It is so important.  To me.  To each other.  To the one person who needs to hear it so they don't feel so alone.  Perhaps it will resonate with only one person... and if it does, WHEN it does, it is likely to resonate with many and hearten them to go on. 

       Like the tree that falls in the forest when no one hears...does it fall?  Our voices are individually lonely voices sometimes afraid to speak.  Pushing ourselves to make a sound and wondering if it matters.  Often many of us argue with the voice within to not make an impact, afraid to be manipulative or bombastic.  Yet when we create, our voices harmonize so much better.  Especially when we are all willing to sing our truth.  This becomes who we are, what we look like as the culture we create together.  The greatest art form is the creation of our community.

How will you use your art to create the change you wish to see in the world? (from Ghandi)

       Namaste.

p.s. 

please work on these artworks.  I will send out several local non-profit groups who will be happy to receive them as well as Arts For Earth Foundation and our next Earth Spirit exhibit.  Schedule to be announced for late fall and early spring to give you time to get to the part of yourself who has something valuable to say.

Procreate makes drawing easy

I loaded "Procreate" into my iPad and now I can draw all the time.  Watching my process on the video replay of the program is so fun and easier to learn from if you're one of my students.

Drawing with red oil paint becomes a brilliant undercoat

Drawing with red oil paint becomes a brilliant undercoat

CALL OF THE WILD: To motivate visual, performance, literary artists to use their creative power to tell the story of sustainability. To Inspire, encourage and empower artists to get involved for the betterment of our community and the Earth. To bring the lone wolves out of their caves to use their arts for the good of the Earth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eji0qMLqiko&feature=youtu.be

Teaching and Arts For Earth

I love the potential consistency of family. Lol my cousins are thinking of rallying together in a family FaceTime session.  This is a sort of virtual reunion.  We all used to lean on grandma for news of each other.  So spread out across the country. Hardly able to have a cup of tea together.. yet here we go.  About to share tea on FaceTime.  Not today, but almost.
      Karen and I have spent a bit of time together and are wondering , is this scary for the others?  Does the specter of our youth cloud our image of who we are today?  I think there was a bit of that while setting up a call between Karen StG and I a few months ago, but that quickly passed.
      I loved visiting Maine as a kid to see the cousins, aunts and uncles. And Minnesota to see cousin Karen, Doug and Becky.  Uncle Don and aunt Daphen. They were the closest to Michigan so we did a few more things together.
       My cousins are amazing. We are all getting on but the kids are coming up too in their own unique ways.
More to come.  We started compiling a current day family tree just to see who we are missing.  Sad to think Doug has been gone for years and families have split up, mom is the last girl standing in her generation.  The grand dame at 97.  Next is finding and looking up the renegades through ancestry . Com  now that will be interesting.