Following the Moon:

Luna See, Drozda, ink on Bristol, 2012

Welcome to Following the Moon... This week we begin the 'Illumination' Moon which visits us each year during the Moon of June. This New Moon began on Sunday, May 20, in the early evening (EDT). Perhaps you were able to witness the extraordinary 'ring of fire' solar eclipse.



This is a great time to set your Art/Life creatively ablaze for the 6 Moon/Months ahead. From the Equinox in March through the Equinox in September the primary creative quality is 'masculine action'...step up...step out...act...assert...it's completely natural to get a move on now. What would you like to have sizzle into your creative expression between now and November? Keep a journal...track the steps you need to take.


In June, with the Gemini Moon, you can be natural and seek to expand. Each New Moon provides space for a vision. Start with a vision that can expand your mind. This is a great Moon/Month to continue the active push that is expected at this point of the year. Move yourself forward and notice how qualified you are to create the work of beauty, goodness and care that only you can bring into the world.


The New Moon, and your opportunity to visualize your genius, continues through Thursday, May 24 and then opens to the Crescent Phase in the late evening. At the Crescent Phase (which extends through Monday afternoon, May 28) it's time to do your research focusing on your 'Illumination' vision.

read whole post here

Subscribe to the Luna See all new format in the Year of Change
 

Following the Moon: Love is a Verb

Heart Work, Drozda, 2009, underpainting

Welcome to the First Quarter Moon phase of the ~Love Moon cycle~

“The love we give away is the only love we keep” Elbert Hubbard (1859-1915)

The First Quarter Moon phase began Sunday, September 4 in the early afternoon (EST) and extends through Thursday, September 8 at dawn.

At the time of the First Quarter Phase under this September Moon we rally and manifest what we’ve been working toward. We make a push forward and step up the pace. This Love cycle isn’t about getting our own needs met it’s about giving our best and making what we love visible.
The vision that we held at the Spring Equinox (March 22) and at the New Moon of August 28 (think gathering power) becomes propelled…think rocket booster…blast o’ power… and this level of moving forward requires courage. I may sound like a broken record but this is the month to send your energy ideas into orbit…this is the month to grab hold of your star and shine. And just to keep it all in perspective…a gentle reminder that blasting off into a place of depth connection to ‘loving the life that is’ requires major courage and committment...read more


            IT’S TIME TO BECOME AN AHA ADVOCATE:


On the New ‘Experience’ moon, September 27, AHA’s for the Art/Life e-studio will open with ‘Tools for Change’. Eight focused ways to deepen your calm and quiet as you balance intention, motivation and desire. Being a member of the AHA community will be a rich and enlivening no pressure addition to your Art/Life. This is an opportunity to experience a lot of joy in a time when…hello…we truly deserve to recognize that we as artists are responsible for bringing the best we have to offer to every situation, relationship, opportunity and challenge…this is the time we were made for.

Participants in the live workshop version of AHA wrote in their evals:

“I want more!”

“This is a very powerful,creative and wonderful course. The instructor is very talented and brings forward participants gifts and skills.”

“Uplifting, encouraging, motivating, self-encouragement.”

”This is the second time I took this course and I loved it even more this time…”

Thanks so much (!!) for your AHA interest, email me at drozda33ATgmail.com and we’ll have a grand time as we share this wonderful new adventure…specifics will be coming on September 19… I so appreciate your patience with me on this…I’m in a new world and I’m all a flutter with the technology ‘-) To Paraphrase the wisdom of Osho : “…one learns what is a mistake and how not to commit it. Knowing what is error, one comes closer and closer to AHA’s”…and so it is.

Following the Moon: Passing of the Dream

Passing of the Dream, Drozda, Mixed/board, 12x16", Arttist Collection

Welcome to ‘Following the Moon’ for the week of March 14 – March 21… the ‘Purity’ Moon cycle of the Natural Year.

This is a useful time to remind yourself that lunar phases help to track and keep pace with your emotions. So in essence, as you come to this last four week cycle each year, you will hopefully be completing the release of built up, pent-up, outgrown, and futile backlogs in this department.

Our phases this week span the First Quarter (take an action on you ‘Purity’ goal) which began Saturday evening (EST), March 12 extending through Wednesday morning. Wednesday, March 16, through Saturday, March 19, we experience the Gibbous phase (analyze and filter your action) and on that day in the mid-afternoon we step into the Full Moon (illuminate & experience your goal) and the Spring Equinox, the New Natural year, meeting us on Sunday evening. It’s a packed week.

Those of you who have been syncing your intuitive guidance with ‘Following the Moon’ know that you have been building toward this point for the last 90 days, since Winter’s Solstice. Since that shortest, darkest day, we’ve been building quietly, inwardly, meditatively. We’ve been consciously connecting to that which we would be willing to birth ‘come the spring’.

Read More ...feel free to leave comments here or there ...and thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing so '-]

Subscribe to the monthly Luna See

Following the Moon: The Light Heart

The Four Directions (detail), Drozda 2004

10x8"

White ink on Black illustration board

October is the Experience month of the year. Have you been noticing the way that the last 18 days have unfolded for you? It's quite something to simply allow this to be a glimpse, a mini clip or trailer, of what 2011 will bring. I jot a few notes at the close of each day. I was genuinely taken aback when I did my review from a year ago. I like what I see and yet I found myself whispering: Be careful what you pay attention to...because more is on the way.


The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.

                                      Frank Lloyd Wright

Welcome to the Gibbous Moon phase, Monday October 18 through Friday, October 22. The Gibbous days are some of the most creative each month...read more

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

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

La Luna

One of my favorite publications year upon year is the Luna Calendar edited by the Luny Lady Nancy Passmore in Boston. Living by the cycles of the moon offers a very different rhythm to our days. Check it out the Boston Globe has some well deserved good things to say:
http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2007/12/17/going_through_a_phase/