Wabi Sabi Moon

'Wabi Sabi Moon', Drozda 2010

pavement pattern

Today through Friday the days are referred to as the Disseminating phase. This is the sixth phase (out of the eight) that repeat month by month...moon by moon.  Now time and space become available for sharing with others, through your words and your work, what you've learned since the cycle began on May 14.

This is subtle stuff...not something that you necessarily go out of your way to do, yet as you begin to track the manner in which you move through your world you may actually notice how your creative process naturally and intuitively flows with the qualities that we touch on here. Then, if you choose, you can factor this way of using time into your studio schedule. Aligning with the organic quality of the moon's rhythm gives us an easier way to allow all situations and circumstances to gently unfold.

The focus now is on Wisdom. So you have the chance to consciously disseminate that. I'm currently reading a  marvelous book that I choose for this cycle: Joyful Wisdom  by Yongey Mingyur. Another great studio companion is The Thirteen Original Clan Mothers by Jamie Sams...rich in First Nation stories to enrich the creative walk.

On Friday we step into the Last Quarter phase and the focused monthly time that is set aside for prayerful gratitude is here. How empowering it is to be grateful for everything. What a fine exercise during this time to write out all that's come to visit since May 14 when the New Wisdom Moon began.

I wandered  a bit this week looking for simplicity and made a few additions to my Wabi Sabi portfolio:

'Wabi Sabi Sunset', Drozda 2010

pavement pattern

It was a different kind of week. It strarted, as always, in the studio.

'Tree Rings', Drozda 2010

works in process

media blend

And it's ended, after much new and different experience, with a holiday in the garden relaxing on the back porch...

'For K'

This week my bicycle and I had an adventure resulting in two broken bones This cast that will be with me for the next 6-8 weeks. Tomorrow I begin a week long residency. Hundred.s of students will join me and we'll explore the joys and wonders of working with the non dominant hand.

The Wisdom that I have acquired this month is that even a sudden accident can carry multiple silver linings. I immediately began to ask for the best outcome and it has been one demonstration after another of Merci33...thank you, All is Well.

~May you sing the days

Following the Moon

'I Die Daily', Drozda

14x14inches

oil pastel, Acrylic on board

It's Monday (moon day) and today begins the Gibbous phase, the three day phase prior to the Full Moon on Thursday. Between now and then you have the opportunity to analyze and prepare. Last week you hopefully found ways to take action. Now your emotional body needs time to filter and digest. This is a very creative period. The creative process is profound, unique and individual. In Following the Moon you may find this phase one of the most rich and productive. So much can happen as we build up to Thursday's Full phase.

In addition to all that may be flowing with an effortless ease, I also see this time as one of being brave enough to be  facing the demons and facing them down. After all... the only thing, ever, that keeps us from being married to our Creative Muse is the voice that tells us we can't be or do or have that which impassions us, that which brings us a natural creative bliss.

Since the New Moon began on May 14 you've had a vision, nurtured the seed idea, taken an action and now the creative flow reminds you to trust yourself so you can reflect, at the Full phase, on the beauty of what you have to share. Could the reason why we see so much reference to lunacy during the Full Moon be due to our not being taught about the natural ebb and flow of our own creative comings and goings, our own inner tides creatively speaking? This is an opportune time for that sort of monthly check in and check up.

'Moon Flower', Drozda

18x24inches

Acrylic/wood

May you learn to follow your own moon, which, for your creative purpose, can be identified as the flow of your own emotions. I thought this quote from Pema Chodron on page 37 of When Things Fall Apart quite germaine for this Wisdom cycle. "Not causing harm requires staying awake. Part of being awake is slowing down enough to notice what we say and do. The more we witness our emotional chain reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain. It becomes a way of life to stay awake, slow down, and notice."

In Following the Moon you learn to calm time down. It truly is an amazing concept. You practice allowing all to unfold in gentle three day phases (or segments) of time. Each phase offers a focus point leading you to a natural awareness of how time and emotions create a rythmn that flows through you. Your rythmn is yours. Get to know it. Honor it. Embrace it. Celebrate it. Though it is unlike anyone elses it is necessary and important... an integral part of the whole.

I hope that your studio time in the week ahead brings just the right balance of doing and not doing...so that everything gets done.

~May you sing the day

What's Your Program?

'Balinese Brahaman sculpture'

Journal page, Drozda

Drozda photo

I went to Bali for a month long retreat and while there I had the delightful pleasure of learning the phrase, "What's your program?"
On the days when a driver would arrive to take me to visit different places on the 'Island of Artists' he would ask that question: 'What's your program?'. It made me further aware of the usefulness of having a daily focus and the helpfulness for all in being able to communicate what that focus is succinctly.

 So, What's Your Program?

We're in the First Quarter phase of this moon cycle and it's a grand time to be knowing 'what's your program' and to be taking an action in that direction. This energy will extend right through the weekend so enjoy the opportunity to increase Wisdom (the focus point for this whole cycle) in the direction that you love to face and keep in mind that when 'Following the Moon' there is no race. 

'Girls Painted Hands', Drozda 2010

nontoxic ink on hands

This is a photo from last weeks Saturday in the Studio at the Contemporary Art center of Virginia...invariably there is the week when some of the young artists decide that their program is body decoration. I let them have at it.

I hope that you enjoy your creative program as much as they did.

 ~May you sing the day

Wren House Wednesday

Wren House Cove, Drozda 2010 

Many years ago I began to ask the Muses for my home "in nature, on water, where I could do my work." As mentioned recently, I am now in my 14th year at beautiful Wren House.

Osprey Roost, Drozda 2010

I have a love affair going on with raptors. It lifts my spirit each time I see the swoop, soar or sit of a hawk, eagle, owl or Turkey Vulture. I know that we as humans can solve any problem because in the 70's, thanks to Rachel Carson, and her 1962 classic Silent Spring we learned that DDT was the cause of the near extinction of many of these large hunters. Ingesting fish contaminated with the poison caused the eggshells to crush under the weight of the nesting parents. Now I give thanks every day for those who 'think different' and visualize what's possible. And I am so deeply grateful that I live with these beauties floating high above the house calling to one another, training their young to fish and sitting here in the tallest pine at water's edge.

Great Blue, Drozda 2010

Here in the same pine tree, a few boughs lower roosts a Great Blue Heron. There are actually three of them in this tree at the time this shot was taken...they don't usually hang out together so I'm guessing it was a family unit.

Canada Geese and Guard, Drozda 2010

And here closer to the ground we have this years brood of Canada Geese goslings. There are many more of them too. At any given time, during this time of year, I can look to the garden and the side yards to see the newbies being brought up to graze the lawns and forage under the feeders. You might be wondering about the large White Goose. She's a guard goose that lives with the resident Canadas. She is always near by. Year after year every spring when the eggs hatch the babies imprint on her just as they do their parents and she protects them vigorously from all threats, including:

Reynard, Drozda, 2010

Dear Reynard...who just wants to be about the business of feeding her brood.

So there you have a little stroll about 'The Wren' on a Wednesday afternoon.

~May you sing the day

Following the Moon

The Bodhisattva, Drozda 2001

48x60 Acrylic/canvas

The second phase of each moon cycle is called the Crescent. It comes three days after the New Moon. The new moon started Friday, May 14. Since then perhaps you've noticed that some new opening(s) has occured for you. I've noticed that in my own life. I've got a large and challenging project before me as I step into this new walk around the natural year.  And I have enjoyed seeing how Claudine and Sharmon are posting 'brand new' news. Be sure to pay attention and celebrate yours.

Stay connected to your current passion, your artist dream. 

It's here, this week, where we can place our focus upon the plan for our goal. The Crescent phase offers this space each and every month/moon...how cool is that!! 

Now we won't be naive and think that we're giving the Universe a shopping list of things we think we deserve. It isn't like that. It's more grown up than wishful thinking. It's recognizing and owning our gifts and our talents and realizing that this 'ain't no dress rehearsal'. ..I tend to look at, and experience, this part of the monthly cycle as if I am tending the seed vision that I recently planted.  During the Crescent phase I observe that seed as it begins to push up and down simultaneously...root down, shoot up toward the light. We can't make that happen...that's a natural unfolding...its instinctive, that's the Crescent phase.

Journal page, Drozda

10.5x8" ballpoint pen on paper

Next step: between Thursday, May 20 and May 24, take a specific action. That time period will be the First Quarter phase. Put it on your calendar: a specific action between Thursday and next Monday! Take intiative. Express some aspect of your artist vison and the dream that lives in your gut that you yearn to give birth to. Make a phone call, write an important letter, start the new series, pick up your camera, go exploring, set up your work area, scope out the gallery or on-line shop set-up....you get the idea.   

See what it feels like for you. Share your action in the comments and we'll all learn as we go.
 
Some excellent words to apply in thinking, conversation and generally moving through life this week are: growth, positive assertion, opportunity, motion, movement, development, breaking away.

Thanks Julie for asking, in the last post's comment section, "what comes after May 14?" I hope this brief post will give you some ideas for engaging in the start of the 'Wisdom/Illumination' moon cycle.

Journal page, Drozda

10.5x8" ballpoint pen on paper

Bottom line, as so many before us have demonstrated ...(listen all creatives who are now hooking ourselves onto the chain of all the artists who have ever lived and worked throughout time)...follow your passion, your bliss, your awareness of your skills. Be reminded as you gently apply the lunar cycles to your studio time that there is no one, ever before, who as had your artist eye, your artist soul and your artist opportunity to shine like the star that you are. Aren't we so blessed that you're here...yuppers we sure are!!

~Sing to your Muse...she loves that.

Following the Moon

Journal page, Drozda

14x17" collage

We're at the close of the Aries moon cycle (April 14-May 13) and these few days leading up to the next new moon on Thursday are opportune for dreaming and imaging what next? what now? what matters?

Journal page, Drozda

10x8" mixed media

As an artist you can apply some time now to talking to yourself. Talk about the direction your life is moving at this time. The over arching energy of this year pertains to developing a new/renewed sense of identity and the particular quality of this next moon cycle is geared to empower your wisdom. Invoke new and refreshing ways to share wisdom through your work. No one knows what that means for you. Delve. You get to discover it for yourself. Dive. There's never been an artist on the planet that has the ability to process and express in the way that you do so make a commitment to discover deeper layers of your language throughout this year.

Journal page, Drozda

11x14" brush & ink

These three days, called the Balsamic phase, take place at the close of each month's moon cycle. It's like a mini death...and it really is rather orgasmic. When you invest in this time with a conscious awareness you can produce extraordinary outcomes. It's a time for listening intently to your inner Muse and for trusting what comes. When you listen deeply the oddest thing happens....you feel heard.

By all means carve out your studio time and keep distractions to a minimum...every month/moon we receive these three magical alchemical days at the close to connect with what we will be giving birth to in the time ahead. Imagine what's coming to meet you.

~Sing the day

Wish You Were Here...and then you are.

Relate, Drozda 2010

4x6 inch Arches postcard

Media Blend

Each week I take samples of  mixed media pieces to share with my adult Tuesday evening 'Media Blend' studio at the Contemporary Art Center. Last evening I shared this new series of postcards.

I had been particularly intrigued, and unsettled, by the felled tree graphic on this Russian stamp. Imagine my surprise when the youngest member of our group, a school teacher, offered to translate. We're in our 4th week together. Her English is flawless. I had no idea she had emigrated to the US seven years ago. She was as interested in the imagery as I. The date on the stamp is 1990. She remarked that she was in the second grade at that time it was issued. She translated the text as 'Humanity Stop!' But she stated that Russia didn't have any kind of vigorous environmental policy in place. This led us to a discussion of the artist's job thoughout time to enlighten the public regarding what often lies hidden from view. Who can say that this artist wasn't doing just that.

I was recently invited to take part in an exhibition titled 'Wish You Were Here'. In addition to paintings participating artists were also asked to create and include 5 postcards.

I laid out five Arches postcards from one of those nifty bound books of blanks that have been in the studio for way too long. I began to assemble a 'media blend' of materials and today I took the postcards and three paintings to the gallery at the oceanfront.

Grow, Drozda 2010

4x6inch Arches postcard

Media Blend

 I may have mentioned how much I love the work of cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien and her book Signs of Life. Five cards. Five elements.

Unite, Drozda 2010

4x6inch Arches postcard 

Media Blend

If you aren't familair with the research and the continuing opportunity to consciously observe the recurrence of these elements no problemo...just begin to look around you and soon you will be seeing them everywhere...the world of nature and of art are made up of these forms and endless configurations of them. They are also well defined in the workbook How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci by Michael Gelb.

Dream, Drozda 2010

4x6 inch Arches postcard

Media Blend

Ian Foster shared a beautiful introduction to The Elements of Design by Loan Oei and Cecile De Kegel on his blog. I bought it immediately. I hope you can take time for a visit. As you will see from the sample pages and the text he shares this wonderful book also explores these recurrant elemental shapes. 

Some years ago I invented a game called 'I Spy with My Artist Eye' to share with my kids at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia. The young ones take delight in going on treasure hunts, drawing board and 2B drawing pencil in hand. We explore indoors, outdoors and in the exhibition galleries looking for the 'artist alphabet' and its endless variations. It's wonderful how it levels the playing field and gives everyone an entrance point for self expression...no matter what the age.

Take a look around. Wouldn't it be fun to play 'I Spy with My Artist Eye'. Go ahead...relax and begin to notice how your environment suddenly speaks to you in fresh new ways.

Wish You Were Here...and then you are.

Build, Drozda 2010

4x6 Arches postcard

Media Blend

~Sing the day