A Mantra a Day

Do you have some 'words of wisdom' that carry you through the tough patches?

Last week I found myself humming John Lennon's Let It Be and that prompted a little project titled 'Wisdom Words'.

I'm making a list of "words of wisdom" and creating a new series of Mantra collages that take images from my files and reconfigure them as 8x10 inch pieces for the upcoming Contemporary Art Center Holiday event ...pictured here is one of four that have been created this week.

Happy Thanks Giving Day to All Living Beings...

Gratitude to Mother Earth, sailing through night and day—

and to her soil: rich, rare and sweet

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Plants, the sun-facing, light-changing leaf

and fine root-hairs; standing still through wind

and rain; their dance is in the flowering spiral grain

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Air, bearing the soaring Swift and silent

Owl at dawn.

Breath of our song clear spirit breeze

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Wild Beings, our brothers, teaching secrets,

freedoms, and ways; who share with us their milk;

self-complete, brave and aware

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Water: clouds, lakes, rivers, glaciers;

holding or releasing; streaming through all

our bodies salty seas

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to the Sun: blinding pulsing light through

trunks of trees, through mists, warming caves where

bears and snakes sleep— he who wakes us—

in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to the Great Sky

who holds billions of stars— and goes yet beyond that—

beyond all powers, and thoughts

and yet is within us—

Grandfather Space.

The Mind is his Wife.

so be it.

Prayer for the Great Family / after a Mohawk prayer

Gary Snyder, Turtle IslandNew Directions, New York, 1974, pp. 24-25

View from my window

cormorants driving fish in the cove

Last week's Nor'easter brought the Cormorants swarming into the cove. It's a great spectacle. day after day they come in droves diving and pushing the fish out toward the open water. In fly the Egrets rising and falling and causing a beautiful ruckus with lots of screeching and croaking as they ready to grab the passing buffett.

Great White Egrets fishing the cove

The ocean has been quite dramatic too...and some fine treasures have been rising up onto the tide line. ...

this morning's oceanfront view

All Mother Sentient Beings

Buddha Ratnasambhava (detail)

It's been an excellent week...traveling to New York and the beauty of Westchester County to visit my dear soul sister/friend and artist extraordinaire, Karin. Mostly we chilled and enjoyed one another's company in the comfort of her lovely home/studio. I had the opportunity to actually hold in my hand the amazing book that we've watched unfold over the past eighteen months on her blog space. I have so swooned over the images in digital format but now I was offered the chance to fall in love anew...and I did. There is no describing in words (thus, I'm sure, the reason why her blog is titled as it is : ) the beauty of these pages and the multidimensional depth of her technique only to be seen when this hefty tome is held in hand.

Mahavira's Final Liberation (detail) Standing Jina

On Friday we drove 'into town' and invested the afternoon wandering through the Rubin Museum of Art on West 17th Street visiting the glorious galleries filled with Tibetan and Himalayan art. Being a student of Tibetan Buddhism and having spent time in Nepal and Tibet I feel almost overcome when surrounded with the spirit driven imagery from this culture.

page 105 The Red Book

Also on display is The Red Book by Carl Jung filled with his private journal entries, vivid dreamlike imagery and mandala studies.

Creative Contrast

It has been cranking in the 'Saturday in the Studio' as ten artists age 9-11 worked to accomplish their individiual projects. It's such a treat to witness the process of concept to completion. It's all up to them...no assignment...no one telling them how to solve their problems...it's the creative nature plowing through the ground of the mystery for each of them. There is so much happening in the studio all at once that trying to get photos is rather pointless but I did snap these two wonderfully contrasted pieces as they came closer to being done. The mallard is the work of a nine year old girl who practically shocked herself as she went from the initial drawing (which must be done to scale and must show all views) to the 'sculpting' using recycled materials. The finishing touch and the only purchased part was the addition of google eyes...kids love em'.

The dragon is a grand and mighty fellow. He was finished with a base to stand on, feathery wings, a beautiful cobalt blue stipe down his back and yes...google eyes. The work done by an incredibly gifted 11 year old boy who makes magic happen with Model Magic and who here expanded upon one of his small pieces...this dragon stands about 28 inches at horn tip.

The only formula for Saturday in the Studio is the pattern of: first 3 weeks =research and development of the idea followed by week 4-7 as the studio holds a whirlwind of creative problem solving and production...for some reason almost all the artists in this age range want to work in 3-D and I love seeing their proud smiles and amazed parents when they carry out the first thing they've ever built from start to finish on their own.

The Wabi Sabi Wrap

Today was our last Wabi Sabi studio at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia and a delightful gathering it was. Each of the six artists presented their completed, or near to completed, piece(s) with an attendant statement regarding their personal experience exploring this ancient Japanese aesthetic. The images posted here are well representative of the handmade, imperfect, transient, natural, soft, aging, patina quality that is often used to describe Wabi Sabi. The artist has a love affair with seaweed and enlisted it as the basis for the hand made paper bowls. She intends to allow them to return to the sea by casting the driftwood (holding the bowls) back into the Chesapeake Bay from whence the seaweed came.

click on image to enlarge

All Soul's Day

The entry for November 2: All Soul's Day in A Pocketful of Miracles by Joan Borysenko reads:

Seed Thought

All Soul's Day is celebrated in many countries as a day both for remembering the dead and for celebrating the liberating aspects of death. Death is a loss as we perceive it from this reality, but for the mystic who has dedicated his or her life to union with the Divine, it is a joyful celebration__the Marriage of the Spirit that Jesus and other teachers discuss. In his autobiography, Memories, Dreams and Reflections, Carl Jung wrote that "when the pious Cabbalist Rabbi Simon ben Jochai came to die, his friends said that he was celebrating his wedding. To this day it is custom in some regions to hold a picnic on a grave on All Soul's Day. Such customs express the feeling that death is really a festive occasion."

Prayer/Practice

Divine Beloved, sometimes You seem so far from us in daily life. May that gap be closed by my growing desire to be One with you now, so that at the moment of death I will fly to Your Heart on wings of awareness, forgiveness, tolerance, gratitude and the growing wish to be of service to all beings. May all remnants of negativity be burned from my heart so that the purity of love can burst forth in joy.

Spend a few minutes in the peacefulness of shamantha/vispassana meditation, centering prayer or egg of light.


This evening my studio/home will be filled with women artist/friends. It's our final 'Moon Day at the Wren' for this year. Each month we've gathered and honored the 2009 theme: 'Women Taking the Lead to Save the Planet' for the Womens' History Project.

Tonight under the Full Moon we'll step outdoors and gather 'round the dancing fire to welcome and remember our 'creative ancestors' and the roots of our expressive nature in joyful anticipation of what will be surfacing in the year ahead. Let your spirit fly over to join us!

ALLI Awards

This little guy is part of an exhibit at The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum in the DeWitt Wallace where I had a special experience this afternoon...

I was nominated for a 2009 ALLI Award. This is an excerpt from the Newport News, Daily Press:

Sponsored by the Cultural Alliance of Greater Hampton Roads, the annual awards recognize professionals, volunteers, businesses and media representatives for their contributions to the region's arts and culture.

The list of arts professionals nominated includes Diana Davenport, an artist and community arts supporter; John Dixon, director of the Academy of Music in Norfolk; arts educator Donna Drozda, who works with Tidewater Arts Outreach; arts educator Patty Edwards; Vincent Epps, who works with the Southeastern Virginia Arts Association (SEVAA) Summer Arts Workshop; Martha Frances Fortson for her work on behalf of the Portsmouth Museum Foundation; William J. Hennessey, director and president of the Chrysler Museum of Art; Edwin Jacob, director of theater arts at Tidewater Community College; The Hermitage Foundation Museum Director Melanie Leigh Mathewes; associate artistic director Patrick Mullins for his educational outreach programs at Virginia Stage Company; Richard A. Singletary, owner of the Singletary Gallery and African Art Museums; and Mal Vincent, movie and theater writer and critic for The Virginian- Pilot.

There was a lovely ceremony and reception in Williamsburg at the DeWitt Wallace Museum and though I didn't win, I also didn't lose, as being in such marvelous company was the best part of the recognition of being a nominee.