......????

Wow!  The last few months have been so busy...

Sierra Art Trails in Oct.

Then I had a little Money Doll workshop in November, hosted by the lovely and talented digital artist joyce Whycoff 

We gathered at her mountain home.

She made us homemade veggie soup...how sweet is that?

Everyone was busy every minute and I'm pretty sure they had a lot of fun.
I made new friends...
Everyone seemed really happy with what they created.
When we finished it was late and I wanted to get off and home before it was too dark.
 Winding mountain roads and all..so I took no photos....
but joyce did...


http://joycewycoff.blogspot.com/2011/11/money-dolls-work.html


 joyce's colorful little Money Doll





This little duo below went to the KPFA Art and Crafts Show in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago and speaks to how much easier a dream or desire comes into being when sharing it with another who wants the same thing.
They found a home.

This show is the biggest I do all year...

My half of the booth that I shared with joyce...

We really did well together..

the travel..

the evenings..

the set-up and break-down..

our time in the booth..

Shows can be a bit of a challenge...emotionally and physically.

It's really cool to have had it go so smoothly and create good memories.

Joyce's half..

My belief about shows is that if you go just for money you will miss a lot.

Of course money needs to exchange hands.

there are booth fees..

travel to and from..

hotel room..

food..

materials for new creations..

and always new items to use for display, etc.

So yes, we working artists need to sell our creations...find them homes....so we can keep doing what we are called to do.

But in there too is the opportunity to share why we do what we love....

and that is an amazing high.

Talking to the people who FEEL what my Muse and I offer.

It's hard for me to explain but something happens...magic..

joyce shared this on her blog...

As Saturday began, I started to see the effect of her art on others.  Time after time, women stopped by to tell her which of her spirit figures they had and how important they were in their lives.  I saw women spontaneously begin to weep when they entered our booth, touched by julie and her spirit and the figures that embody that spirit.  It was a great reminder to me of what art can be..more than a decorative object...

a talisman of connection between people and the universal spirit that connect us all..

http://joycewycoff.blogspot.com/2011/12/veni-vidi-no-vici.html

I am honored by her words...and by the women who open to my figures...

 and who share their stories with me.  

What a blessing.

Fun

Custom shoes

amazing craftsmanship

Georgeous

Stunning jewelry

Friendly neighbor all the way from Idaho

Friend and inspiration

the lovely Maggi Belle who comes and plays for both days every year.

We....Maggi, joyce, my daughter jillian, our friends Brian and Shane all headed for Market Street Saturday night when the show closed to share a meal at a tiny vegan restaurant.  Best burger ever!  

Yummy..

and what a joy to break bread with people I enjoy so much!!

These were show stoppers....just wonderful!

Food and coffee are upstairs...

on my way down with a cup of caffeine on Sunday the massage lady said..."deep discount for artists"

sounded good....

but no time and didn't want to miss anyone who might stop by to say hi.

She is called, 'It all leads back to you...'

....and now what?

2011 has been a year of reflection...

...and a year of many changes.

So, now what?

I like to start a new year with direction. 

 A vision.

....and right now I don't have that focus....not  for my personal life or my art...

So many things are interconnected...as you wise readers know...

nothing stands alone

 I am a believer that thoughts become things, that the more I focus, and the more steps taken in the direction I want to go, the more likely I will  experience what it is I call.

Yes, I know that sounds like a no brainer and it is..

 and that's why the need for a clear vision...

gotta get my 2 cents in...

need to let the Universe know my desires....

not just drift. 

 Drifting causes me anxiety.

And I have been experiencing that.  

Maybe everyone is..

The state of the world could definitely cause a bit of anxiety. 

 It's scary here on the little Blue Planet.

I read somewhere that WWW3 has already begun...and it's Man vs Mother Earth.

It's a war we can't win...

She will go on without us.

I know change is coming...and I know it can blow in from many directions....and a wise woman would be getting a little more centered and start moving in the direction of her dreams.

The direction that feels supported and as though the wind will blow against my back.

Focus.

Wishing you all a new year with the wind against your back, 

blowing you in the direction of your dreams.

xoxo

Happy New Year

.....you

If it's not yet obvious to you, the real reason for this, and all seasons, is you.  

A more perfect child of the Universe has never lived.

Until now, only celebrations cloaked in myth and mystery

could hint at your divine heritage and sacred destiny.  

You are life's prayer of becoming and its answer.

The first light at the dawn of eternity, drawn from the ether,

so that I might know my own depth, discover new heights,

and revel in seas of blessed emotion.

A pioneer into illusion, and adventurer into the unknown,

and a lifter of veils.

Courageous, heroic, and exalted bye legions in the unseen.

To give beyond reason, to care beyond hope,

to love without limit;

to reach, 

stretch,

and dream

in spite of you fears.

These are the hallmarks of divinity - traits of the immortal - you badges of honor.

May you wear them with a pride as great as the immeasurable pride 

we feel for you.

Your light has illuminated darkened paths,

your gaze has lifted broken spirits,and already your life has changed the course of history.

This is the time of year we celebrate you.

Bowing before greatness,

The Universe

Thoughts become things...choose to good ones!
www.tut.com

....gratitude

From my Sister Friend Megan at Praying Horse...

http://prayinghorse.blogspot.com/

it is so beautiful...I cried

I hope you can find time to read the whole article...
Thank you Megan!!

xo

The great open secret of gratitude is that it is not dependent on external circumstance. It’s like a setting or channel that we can switch to at any moment, no matter what’s going on around us. It helps us connect to our basic right to be here, like the breath does. It’s a stance of the soul. In systems theory, each part contains the whole. Gratitude is the kernel that can flower into everything we need to know.

Thankfulness loosens the grip of the industrial growth society by contradicting its predominant message: that we are insufficient and inadequate. The forces of late capitalism continually tell us that we need more—more stuff, more money, more approval, more comfort, more entertainment. The dissatisfaction it breeds is profound. It infects people with a compulsion to acquire that delivers them into the cruel, humiliating bondage of debt. So gratitude is liberating. It is subversive. It helps us realize that we are sufficient, and that realization frees us. Elders of indigenous cultures have retained this knowledge, and we can learn from their practices.

They were eager for me to see the recently built school where young Onondagans, who choose not to go off the Nation to U.S.-run schools, can receive an education. A teacher named Frieda, who was serving for a while as a clan mother, had waited after hours to show me around. The central atrium she led me into was hung about with shields of a dozen clans—turtle clan, bear clan, frog—and on the floor illumined by the sky light was a large green turtle, beautifully wrought of inlaid wood. “Here is where we gather the students for our daily morning assembly,” Frieda explained. “We begin, of course, with the thanksgiving. Not the real, traditional form of it, because that takes days. We do it very short, just twenty minutes or so.” Turning to gaze at her face, I sank down on a bench. She heard my silent request and sat down too. Raising her right hand in a circling gesture that spiraled downward as the fingers closed, she began. “Let us gather our minds as one mind and give thanks to grandfather Sun, who rises each day to bring light so we can see each others’ faces and warmth for the seeds to grow.” On and on she continued, greeting and thanking the life-giving presences that bless and nourish us all. With each one—moon, waters, trees—that lovely gesture was repeated. “We gather our minds as one mind.”

My eyes stayed riveted on her. What I was receiving through her words and gesture felt like an intravenous injection, right into my bloodstream. This, I knew, can teach us how to survive, when all possessions and comforts have been lost. When our honored place in the world is taken from us, this practice can hold us together in dignity and clear mind.

What Frieda gave me is a staple of Haudenosaunee culture. The Mohawks have written down similar words, in an equally short form, so the rest of us can have it too. Known as the Mohawk Thanksgiving Prayer, it begins:

http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=3158&Itemid=247&limit=1&limitstart=0

....this and that

This is my favorite news guy....

he is brilliant at explaining world affairs and knows our Constitution backwards and forwards.  And he is entertaining. 

You can find his show on LinkTV & Free Speech TV and you can stream him online...I promise you will be more aware.

and I ponder this...

Fox News viewers
are less informed 
than people who don't watch any news at all...

a new poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

I had the pleasure of leading a Money Doll workshop a few weeks ago.  It was hosted by my friend and fellow artist joyce Whycoff

There were six attendees and they sat at her dinning table as I led them through the process...

What fun we had.

These Money Dolls have a five dollar bill and 20 cents as part of their construction. 

 Seed money...

The one above is joyce's...sitting on her little altar.

This little golden one is on of mine....

We honored Lakshmi the Hindu Goddess of abundance

There is a little ritual that goes along with the dolls

Lighting candles, ringing bells and chanting the mantra below for ten minutes a day for 40 days....with you need in mind.  

“Om Shrim Maha Lakshmiyei Swaha”.
Actually when I find that I drop my resistance and truly open for abundance the process works much quicker.

"Babies"

the movie

Watch it...it will make you smile..

In the late 60's I was a peace activist...

I still am, but then I was really active.

I watched this documentary the other day about the Weather Underground...a group of radicals who split from the Students for a Democratic Society.  They advocated that the only way to get a violent government to pay attention, change, end the war, was through violence.   To be clear, I don't advocate violence...but I do understand why it is almost impossible to have a peaceful revolution.  

And I do understand the frustrations of people living under governments that are corrupt and violent and don't serve the people.  That indeed seem to be intent on destroying any sort of quality of life for the people who live under them.

This is an interesting documentary.  

Not so much has changed in all the years since the Vietnam War or the civil rights movement, of which I was also a part of by registering voters in Texas. 

 A very scary time...scarier now I think.

 We have more war now, and elections are being made more and more difficult for voters to actually vote.

You might enjoy the doc...

History.

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable...

John F. Kennedy

xoxo