fortune cookie wisdom

I just want to say thank you to all who left me

such warm and loving comments over the past few days.

The support I have experienced, for both what I do

and what I am experiencing, has touched me more deeply than you can know.

I am grateful to know that by sharing what I do

others experience inspiration -

I know that it heals me, but to think it reaches beyond

what often feels like a selfish practice,

and others find healing in my practice

is humbling.

Then I remember -

and we are each interconnected

with one another. When you heal, I heal;

when you suffer, I suffer;

what I create comes from you,

what you respond to, comes from me.

I do believe in the Oneness, and that is why

I keep doing what I do, and sharing it all with you.

~~~~~~~~~~☯~~~~~~~~~~

The cookie fortune above, which inspired this piece,

is tucked within the tea bag tag,

glued in the upper left corner of this image...

For now,

I'm working in this 11½" x 9½" hand bound book I made

a couple years ago. It's got a mish mash of things within it's pages.

You can see the past two images are here,

head to head.

I am creating on another new journal which I'll share in a few days.

I liked Jasmine's suggestion of doing a mandala dedicated journal,

which I haven't done for several years.

More an more the appeal of having several journals going,

each with their own focus, is feeling good to me!

Transitions

I'm still finding myself unsure of what form my next journal should take. After spending over a year and a half with the same book I'm finding it difficult to make the transition. I don't want to make this next journal as labor intensive as the last, wanting to use more of my time focusing on larger art projects. When I started the last journal, I was only spending about an hour on my spreads, but then these pages become so much more, and hours would go by - a whole day on 2 pages. So, you may find I'll be doing less posting, less journal, but more projects.

I am also working on this transition of being a cancer patient. My body has no rhyme or reason as to when it may just shut down with exhaustion that hits like a train head on. Nausea blooms out of no where; night sweats toss me through the night. There is no way to really plan, it's like being on a ride along an unfamiliar highway, at a speed just a little faster than seems safe.

Today pain bombarded what felt like every cell in my body, so I decided it was important to take myself into those cells and try to put them in some kind of artistic order. The above is what resulted, and here it is, deconstructed...

In closing, I want to say farewell my friend Harvee Riggs, a talented assemblage artist, and intelligent conversationalist with a great sense of humor; a lover of music, and devoted husband; a man who left surprisingly early, and will be greatly missed. Blessings on your transition Harvee.

Harvee just recently published his first book, titled I think, Therefore I Art, which I believe you'd enjoy paging through at the link provided...

___________________________________________

Lastly, and am adding this after posting yesterday,

I wanted to mention an anniversary transition for fellow blogging pal Whitney-Anne, who is celebrating the completion of one year over at What Whitney Made Next.

Though it will lessen my chances of winning, drop by and join in - only 2 days remain!

January 30th & 31st

The past few days have been one of those periods of time

where unpredictability is the primary constant!

My computer crashed and a new hard drive has to be installed -

causing me to lose, well, a whole lot of stuff

which I'm sure I'll come to realize more and more over time;

physical experiences caused some tail spins -

or should I say stomach and head spins;

but there was also a happy surprise,

in the form of a visit from my pal Jennifer at reminders2bepresent,

which helped take away from the less fun surprises.

click on images

for closer view

Sometimes it feels good to just make a big mess -

which is how I see these images!

Once completed, life seemed to fall back into an even keel

So here are todays pages,

----------

which happen to be the final pages in this long journeyed journal.

Practically a book in the round!

Now I just need to figure out what I want to use next for my journal -
another used book? a hand bound journal?

I'll try to figure that out very soon!

The Art of the Altered Book

I came across this today,

and was blown away!

I hope you enjoy the unique

look into the art of altering a book...

enjoy!

January 27

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for closer view

January 24-25

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for closer view

Fresh Pics Exhibition

Though my work is made in New York,

and it is sculptural, so not technically a fresh "pic",

if you happen to be in Ridgefield, Connecticut over the next month,

you can visit my sculpture, Scribe's Chair,

as one of the artists included in this exhibition:

FRESH PICS: Contemporary Art in Connecticut
Curated by Camilla Cook
January 23 – February 20, 2010

Ridgefield Guild of Artists, 34 Halpin Lane, Ridgefield, CT 06877 203-438-8863 www.rgoa.org

Opening reception: Saturday, January 23, 2-4pm

(snow date Sunday, January 24)

Curator-led walk through: Saturday, January 23, 2pm

(snow date Sunday, January 24)

Resources & Opportunities for Artists Panel Discussion:

Saturday, February 6, 2pm (snow date Sunday, February 7)

I wish I could say that I'll see you at the opening reception, but I won't be able to be there...

Here's hoping it's a well attended opening, and a big thank you to Camilla, for including my work!!

January 20

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for closer view

January 16

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for closer view

January 14

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for closer view

yesterday, the day before,

today...

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for closer view

doodles of the pen and mind...

I haven't worked in my journal since my last blog entry, but this evening I felt like doing some doodling and this emerged.

I've entered the new year feeling pulled in a few different directions.

On new years eve my oncologist called to let me know the results of a few tests, none of which were what we had hoped for. The bottom line, I will have to go on chemo after all. Tomorrow I will have a PET scan to see if there is still cancer lurking somewhere in my body, since my tumor markers, though low, have gone up. Monday I'll find out the results and the details of my treatment plan. Funny, not in the ha ha way, how things can seem one way and turn around bit by bit...

So I've been busy

with doctor appointments

but also with some upcoming art stuff.

I've been invited to participate in a couple upcoming shows, which is nice - good for giving my mind more pleasant things to focus on, for which I'm grateful.

Gratitude is something I've been thinking about itself.

It was a topic of discussion with a friend the other day, which got me thinking about how I believe in gratitude for gratitude's own sake. I've often had people tell me, when hearing a piece of news, something like "your situation could be worse - at least you have good health insurance, not like some people."; or "you can be grateful because you have a comfortable home to recover in..." etc. I realized I've even done this to myself, comparing my situation to someone else's, as a gauge for gratitude! But isn't to think I have more than another the same as judging them as having less than? I do not want to see "lack" or "less than" in others - I want to recognize them as whole and well in every moment, the same way I want to see myself. Comparing my circumstances with other's is another way of judging, and makes assumptions that either all is not as it should be for them, or that how I live is in someway better. I believe I am qualified to do either.

This is not to say everything is so perfect in this moment that change is never needed! For instance, I want to banish cancer from my body - and I will do what I need to do to achieve that, as best I can - however, in this moment I feel at peace with all that is.