A Passionate Exploration

I am teaching two classes this summer: Open Book for the Altered Ego at Wellington County Museum (see page 3 of the brochure) and Stitched Paper Explorations at Southampton Art School & Gallery.

I am passionate about working with paper. Its marvellous capacity to accept any mark making method I throw at it (sometimes literally), every stitch I take through it, every cut, tear, and fold I put into it, never fails to excite and delight me.

I want to share that excitement with you.

When I teach a course, it is more of a collaboration than a teacher-student relationship. I love to discover the skills of others, learn what they have to say. The particular roomful of abilities and views soon magnifies. Every one is encouraged, and all expand.

None of this will happen unless you sign up (no pressure :-D). I want to meet you, you would like to meet me ~ let’s dance through some wonderful art making together.

A Whirl of Creativity

The moment in between what you once were, and who you are now becoming, is where the dance of life really takes place.
…………~ Barbara de Angelis

Work Is a Very Serious Matter

David Whyte knows whereof he speaks when it comes to the meaning of “work.” He has been bringing poetry to the corporate world for decades, and challenging people to deepen their understanding and practice of the work they do.

Work is a very serious matter indeed. We freight our work with meaning and identity, and fight hard and long for some kind of purpose in our endeavours. Vocation can never be defined solely by the organization for which we currently work, though it should be the beneficiary of our best powers. Vocation is a moveable, often unspeakable frontier, between what we want for ourselves and what the world demands of us. It is this interior foundation married to the necessities of the outer world that make up a life’s work. Organizations need to understand this wellspring of human creativity in order to shape conversations that are invitational to an individual’s greater powers. The insights available to us through good poetry can provide a compelling vision, grant needed courage and stir the dormant imagination of individuals and organizations alike.
…………….~ David Whyte

David is all about the third frontier between you and the world, or what he calls the conversational nature of reality (http://davidwhyte.com/media.html).

Working Together

We shape our self
to fit this world

and by the world
are shaped again.

The visible
and the invisible

working together
in common cause,

to produce
the miraculous.

I am thinking of the way
the intangible air

passed at speed
round a shaped wing

easily
holds our weight.

So may we, in this life
trust

to those elements
we have yet to see

or imagine,
and look for the true

shape of our own self,
by forming it well

to the great
intangibles about us.

– David Whyte  (The House of Belonging) 

He also has a deep and compassionate understanding of human nature, in general.

Lucky

My son posted this for me today, for my birthday.

If you can read this without weeping (tears of joy and affirmation) then it’s because you are not me.

Lucky me.

I am alive ~ gloriously alive. And I have a son (two, actually) who understand and appreciate what that means.

Lucky

A Little Bit of Poet’s Paradise

Thanks to my connection with Julianne Fuchs-Musgrave, I was made aware of a wonderful collection of readings by various poets.

Poets in Performance | BillMoyers.com.

And a hearty thank you to Bill Moyers, as well, who realizes that poets are TV worthy.

Oddly Enough, This May Make You Feel Better About Your Work

DON’T GIVE UP! (The world needs what you have to give.)

Jane Fonda and I Have a Lot in Common

Yes, I’m with Jane on revelling in the third act of life, although I’m maybe not in quite such good physical shape.

I’ll have to work on that.

Jane had some great lines:

Perhaps the task of the third act is to finish up the task of finishing ourselves.

This was the clincher:

Women start off whole. As girls, we’re fiesty ~ Yeah? Who says!
We have agency. We are the subjects of our own lives.

But very often, many, if not most of us, when we hit puberty, start worrying about fitting in and being popular. We become the subjects and objects of other people’s lives.

But now, in our third acts, it may be possible for us to circle back to where we started and know it for the first time. If we can do that, it will not just be for ourselves. Older women are the largest demographic in the world. If we can go back and redefine ourselves and become whole, this will create a cultural shift in the world. And it will give an example to younger generations so they can re-conceive their own lifespan.

The Girl Effect

This just makes sense. It can be overwhelming, at times, to realize how many things in our world don’t. However, I prefer to look in the direction of what we can do, and would like to see happen.

Be sure to read Julianne Fuchs-Musgrave‘s take on this video. Julianne is an artist/photographer/writer and her blog is always a good read ~ thought provoking, inspiring, informative. I can’t think of a more appropriate thing to write about on this Christmas Day, 2011, than a way to help turn the world around.

How to Have a Good Day

I didn’t have much money, but I had time and a sense of wonder.
…………~ Louie Schwartzberg

The Power Plant of Tommorow is NO Power Plant

In order to get clean, efficient, CHEAP energy, look to entrepreneurs like Justin Hall-Tipping.

What would happen if we could generate power from our windowpanes? In this moving talk, entrepreneur Justin Hall-Tipping shows the materials that could make that possible, and how questioning our notion of ‘normal’ can lead to extraordinary breakthroughs.

A man of vision and practicality . . . . brilliant.

What Percent Are You?

We are the 1 percent.