...spiders and ArtTrails

This is my first tarantula sighting of the fall.....they always seem to come out right before Halloween....I'm told it's the males who are out and about looking for a girlfriend.

The girlfriend is waiting for him in a hole in the earth...waiting or hiding

...I don't know which. The first time I saw a tarantula up close and personal it was under my kitchen table...freaked me out...but he didn't seem to be bothered by me at all...just sat there until I go brave enough to see if he would go into a dust pan and I could take him outside...I was shaking...what if it jumped on me!! But he cooperated and came back the next night come in between the sliding glass door and the screen...I even named it Tillie...I didn't know about the mating ritual then...and now I'm happy when I see the first one in the fall. Happy it survived another year...happy I did too.

These hairy spiders seem to be peaceful and non-violent, not at all aggressive.

We have a tarantula festival here in October. I've never been to it....it troubles me that all those boy spiders are in little containers waiting to be in a race instead of out finding a girl.

You Can Always Dance!

I went dancing again last weekend....this time in Plumas County.

What draws me back to these gatherings is the music and the community of people seeking bliss through dance... and sometimes finding it...but always releasing stress, and then going back out into the world feeling better, being better citizens.

It's really quite amazing.

In her book, Maps to Ecstasy, Gabrielle Roth says ..."Ecstasy is an ego-less, timeless state of being. It's a state of total alignment and unity. Unity of body, mind, heart, soul, and spirit. It is what we need to heal our psychic dismemberment. We can't access it if we are divided, body against mind, mind against heart, or any other way. We can only reach ecsasy through wholeness. One way to experience being whole is through meditation. The purpose of meditation is to still the mind and surrender to the moment. The fastest way I'm found to still the mind and be aware of the moment is to move the body." and this.."The dancing path leads us from the inertia of sleepwalking to the ecstasy of living the spirit of the moment."

So, I was out dancing and releasing stress instead of working to get ready for Sierra Art Trails... I'm feeling behind and it's coming anyway.

...it will be here Saturday....yikes...day after tomorrow...I'm feeling stressed...time to dance....a circle.

Unity in Love

It's an open studio tour...this will be my third year in my own studio...and every year I say I'm doing it somewhere else next year...and I've said that a few times today...only to myself, because I probably don't mean it. I'll have a really good time and see friends and make new ones. I'll get to talk to people about my figures...I don't get to do that often enough...I get to tell them heart to heart why I do what I do...and then I'll be excited about doing it next year here...and that most likely means I'll be sitting here next year at this same time saying that it's too much work and I'm not going to do it at my studio again...

www.sierraarttrails.org Come see me if you can...

Divine Spirit...use me. Take me to my dreams..

.....mindmapping

A couple of months ago my friend, and fabulous artist, Valerie Runningwolf and I decided to see if we could jury into

the KPFA Crafts Fair..

.a really big fine craft show in San Francisco....on the Concourse....we put our best photographed pieces on a CD, filled out our applications along with the jury fee and sent them off, holding the vision of acceptance.

...and on Wednesday the 15th of this month when I opened my email I saw this in the header of an email in the box....

Congratulations, your application was accepted to the...

http://www.kpfa.org/craftsfair

I am so excited ....

I did a happy dance.....Called Valerie to see if she had checked her email...

I was flooded with energy that night and my Muse showed up with a zillion figures we could create....

....my mind was going into overload with all the things that will need to be done to get ready besides the creating.....

a new adventure!

New opportunity..and loads of discipline and work required.

What is extra cool about this is it is a benefit for Pacifica Radio an independent radio station in Berkeley that I listen to all the time....

there are Pacifica radio stations all over the country..

About 4 years ago I attend to a Mindmapping gathering at a friends house. Mindmapping is picking an area of your life you have a vision for and making a collage about it from photos and words. Being a specific as you can...details, details....It was an amazing afternoon...sitting on the floor...cutting and pasting our dreams...talking about our hopes...in depth.....sharing why what we were mapping about was important...how our visions would change our lives and those of others we care about.

We laughed and cried....

Some of the women did mapping for healing, relationships, material things, vacations, dream homes...

Of course I did one around my Spirit Figures...things I hope to experience in my art life...

my pursuit of sending my figures out into the world...

workshops I'd like to do and places I want to show...

My map is in my studio....hanging on the bathroom door, not exactly and elevated place...lol...

but wall space is limited!

Wednesday evening I was looking at it and I realized that I have had several of my wish/visions come into form....

I've been blessed...

And somewhere on my map I stuck the words KPFA Show...

and now I'm going to be part of it!!

ecck...it's exciting and intimidating....but I'm going...2nd weekend in December...OMG so soon!!

apologizes for the color or lack of it here...my little color selector doesn't work today..gremlins.