Following the Moon

                                                                            Dreamboat #1, Drozda 2002

                                                                                                                36x36 inches

                                                                                                            Acrylic on panel

It's the Full Phase of the current moon cycle ... a fine time, each month/moon to reflect and review. Take the three day full phase, to realize that you are half way around the circle for this moon.

I'm investing in something very new this cycle: Blog Triage. I wanted to be able to look over my shoulder throughout the year ahead and see that I took a step toward learning something new and stretchy as part of my Art Life. It's been so fine. My little sweetpea brain is being challenged (hugely) and I love that... but the additional gift is the friendships with the group of  artists participating; a nurturing, stimulating bonus. Thank you Alyson and Cynthia.

How do you follow your dream of being the artist that you know yourself to be? It's a timeless question. One we come to ask in our own way... in our own time. I've reached a certain point in my life where I'm asking the question anew. I made a decision to consciously open a new door. Stepping through I began to look out ahead, to the decade before me, and ask, "What Next? What Now? What Matters?

Since 1989, after returning from an 18 week solitary retreat on a little island off the coast of North Carolina, I've engaged in reading time in a gentler cyclical pattern by following the moon. With the turning of the cycles and the seasons life takes on a gentle kinder rhythm.

The idea of becoming more intimate with the way time moves appeals to me.

While living on the island I invested my days in writing, painting and wandering. I moved easily from working in the studio to meandering through the marshes. In the early morning light I often followed deer tracks. Their soft hoof marks creating a  narrow path through the high grasses...their path stopping at the tideline. All my life I've followed deer paths. Something mysterious resonates when I see those heart shaped impressions in the earth. Yet here, at water's edge, these imprints seemed more mystical...as if these harmless creatures had strolled through the silence of the night marsh under the moonlight to come here to gaze out to sea.

In the Lakota tradition Deer represents Gentle Medicine. Deer is a totem for healing in my Art Life.

What powers and strengths assist you to be whole and centered in your Art Life?

Recovering from any type of trauma/drama requires a deep and gentle care.

There is no way to push the the healing river. Floating, rather than swimming against the current, brings repair with lasting results. Eventually it becomes possible to climb aboard a craft of our own making. I like to travel in a metaphoric mandorla boat. I have discovered that it is actually wiser, for me, to spend a good amount of time floating gently down the stream. I practice allowing my Art Life vehicle to rest in the moment as it prepares to lead me merrily to the opening of the path that lies ahead.

Did I Dream This? Drozda 2003

20x24 inches

Acrylic/found wood

A workshop presenter broke apart the lyrics for the popular Row Row Row Your Boat song. She pointed out that there are three rows and four merrilys. That is clearly the instruction to row gently down the stream. How about we stop struggling against nature. It's an exhausting up stream fight against the current.

I prefer the merrily down the stream approach... whenever possible.

~Sing the Day...merrily.