I could not say it better...

'We all create change from our conversations, our commitments, our intentions and our creations. When we 'consciously and responsibly dismiss what insults our soul,' (paraphrased from_ Walt Whitman), when we stop to ask the young what their visions are, when we start to ask not how can we be the best in the world, but the best FOR the world, then we begin to piece it together, guided by what we want to be ours.' paraphrased from_ Jan Phillips

May this year end consciously, honoring the faith and traditions that are sustaining for your soul. I wish you a wonderful celebration of peace and love, in the freedom of your choices.

Happiest of Holidays

A warm invitation to women the world over

Hello!

Today, I have posted a new link to my blog. It is an invitation for you to join me on Skype, in a world-wide chat on Women in the World.
This forum is not limited in topics that we women might want to discuss, and to help open this broad door of possibilities, I am framing it as sacred space; of mutual respect and safety for women the world over, in order to come together and talk about what is on our minds.
For example: can we end war world-wide now: city-by-city, country-by-country until we have abolished war all over this planet? That's a big topic! Do we feel worthy to take this one on?
How about something a little more manageable like, how do we feel about ourselves out in the world of work? Competitive? With whom? Why? Is this a choice we are freely making? Does it fit? Do we want this idea dominating or framing the way work is pursued or accomplished in the world?
Since I am an artist hosting this chat, I invite women in the arts to come forward with the areas that are important to you. What is it like to be a woman artist out in the world in the 21st century? Do you find adequate support to develop your work? If so, what does that look and feel like? If not, how would that support look and feel for you?
Join me there won't you?! Scroll down on the right until you discover the link for yourself. I invite you warmly for this world-wide chat on all topics, between us girls.

Hint: look for this image on the chat link, as you scroll down!

My daughter is turning twenty-one today!

This is some classy kid, having her twenty-first birthday in Florence Italy today! I wish I were there.
Happy Birthday My Love! Your my angel! I am very proud of you.

Rough Transition to Transformation

My life is so incredibly blessed right now because I am recognizing that more deeply everyday!
In the most ordinary of ways, I am having one transforming experience after the other. It is hard to articulate much more than that tonight as this past week has been one of major accomplishment through hard physical work_ in the most ordinary of ways. I am tired, well deservingly.

What is different is that I am showing up with no preconceptions, or rules, or conditions in my head for how things have to be ahead of time. In my experiences with circumstances as they are occurring, I am not chewing on reactions in my mind, until I have chewed them flat.

I am solidly skilled and I am negotiating with life with success in small, significant ways!

This is my path as I am building it now, moving away from the interior life to a life transitioning back out into the material world and the world of relationships with other adults. This is what I bring to the table of the world after many years of family history healing, working with personal insight and cultivating a conscious relationship to silence; to the eternal stillness that dwells within. I bring that mountain solid sense of self that Thich Naht Hahn teaches on so much in the work of Loving Kindness.

Life! I came back to express my eternal love for life, in all of her inexorable ecstasy! I dedicate the remainder of my life in humble ways at the beginning, moving into guiding and teaching others, what I know and understand in order to empower the voices of impact. Those female lives marked by addiction, abandonment and the violence in those whose job it was to protect us a long time ago. Through self-expression, yoga-centered somatic psychology and alternative nutrition, I dedicate my life to guiding and teaching others to heal themselves, standing up to violence and saying, "NO. This must end now."

It is a humble statement of intention. Fuzzy in the beginning, yet in time and experience, my students will also be my teachers

Gosh!

The folks back home are looking at me!! I started a new job with folks who are all over the country and I can't believe the numbers that are comin' in from the deep South! Dang! Hey ya'll!! It's only been since 1979, shoot! Just yesterday, huh?!

Really the new job I have is online, and I think it is going to be the bomb! So, one step forward surely, surely. That is how I am traveling to my home, still; healing is happening within where I am needing it right now.
Also, my daughter is overseas in the home of the Renaissance, studying music. She and I are peeking through the door of possibility that I will come over for Christmas to be with her even for a few days, and then fly back together!

My treatment of this blog is becoming more and more personal in tone, as I traverse these steps in transition, ever as the artist! I know myself becoming more connected to the larger human family now. See! There is love in the world, if you know where to find it!

For example, it's a full moon tonight! Where have you sat and allowed the effulgent moon to whisper in your heart? These are among the important things to do in one's life. I bid you many nights howling at the moon, consciously.

Namasté_ wildly!

You know you're an artist when...

You know you're an artist when, after the boxes have all been unloaded following the big move, the studio gets set up before your bedroom! Granted I set my bed up first thing, but I have my priorities! As long as I can find clean clothes to put on each day that choice seems appropriate, and I can turn on a lamp to read my exhausted self to sleep... no real help needed there! Then, all is right in the preliminary weeks of resettling!
Today, I can say that my studio is up and ready to rock and roll! I just need a paying free lance job so I can buy all the ink cartridges for the big 8-color printer, among other things, to do some real damage in the world of visual communication! Please presume the last part of that statement also includes the constructive! Use imagination! Hey, it's in there even in the deconstructing... ha!

Now, I am not going into the gory details of the past two homeless months right now! It is mid-morning, I am starving and in less than an hour I get taken to lunch, so I am going to stretch my bones and sinew!


Someone else's healing visual imagery! Hold the vision with me...

I'm BACK!!

Whew! Stay tuned! I am back on my own computer living among the "housed" again, since this past Monday. Just got my computer online today!! News from the edge to follow!

New Life Experiences

For a few years now, I have been looking at my life and all its possibilities as brand new all over again. This view only seems to be increasing with every new development in it as I recognize myself as more often alert and attentive! I can see more clearly in how many ways I am truly blessed then; to have retreated from society for so long in order to turn significant areas in my life around for the better, healthier_ more functionally balanced! The work is paying off naturally! It is to have more youth; a new view on all of life and myself_ to be new at entering the world-at-large with life experience!
Daily it seems, I consciously notice there are gifts that cross my path in many forms and expression(s); invitations to wake up more deeply and see through fresh perspectives what is possible within and outside my sense of self.
As the artist in life, I am trusting my way through this portion of the life-painting metaphorically_ tapping inner vision to see what details may work best in every peaceful step from here and beyond the healing life-path I have crafted for myself and my daughter, in a small Pacific Northwest town.
She has launched really well, yet I am in a rough crossing now and yet, allies, new friends are showing up almost daily saying directly to me, "Here, take my hand_ we can help each other."

For these experiences and awarenesses, I am deeply grateful.

Please hold the visualization with me, of my becoming very well employed, most especially in the face of all seeming economic odds. My ultimate goal is healing work in this world: the artist with life.

*I will also add an image to this post when I am accessing a more user-friendly computer!

Eh voila! Here it is:

The Thing Is...

Your support can help right at this juncture, in my immediate efforts to secure housing again for myself. A safe place from which to continue my renewed job search back in my "hometown." I have returned here for as long as it takes to get my feet back under me and to not get overwhelmed in any other transitions out there in the future. I even believe that I can get myself to Italy for Christmas to visit my daughter as she finishes her semester abroad!

Contact me about your interests in my art work; the works posted here that are for sale (ask me about what catches your eye), or my muralettes offerings, the details of which can be found here!

Remember, I am NOT homeless! I am an intelligent, talented woman in a rough transition right now. So, I ask that you very simply help this hardworking individual toward her own successes, and be part of my new presence in the world! Thank-you for all your support.

The Ginger Path Back

I seem to be making steps back from the abyss of homelessness; a hard lesson in beginning to own other neglected facets of my own personal power. I am not 100% back on my feet as that is going to take time, yet simultaneously amazing acts of kindness and generosity keep showing up each time I renew my commitment to this developing stage of conscious attention to my own life. One example, includes a stay in the rural-side to doggy-sit my commission portrait subject, "Rufus." Yes, I have painted and made more progress on his portrait! I will upload photos of this stage in the painting when I can get a camera to do so. Meanwhile, you can get to know my newest art business by going here.
Always resourceful in my thinking and responses no matter what chaos appears to threaten to tear up my life.
I will add that I am ready to face my needs for engaged, meaningful, healthy friendships, and indeed online this past year, I have experienced some of that development. Thank-you!
I have traveled a long way on my own for way long enough now. Some of this history reflects flat-out wrong choices I made in earnestness and naïveté. I can say that I am more than ready to change this now as well. Stay tuned. Make contact. Do let me hear from you, won't you? I am ready to have great conversations on the consequences of running away from generalized perceptions about social prejudices such as homelessness. What does that mean: "homelessness" and running away?
But I have received another gift: I am not a homeless person. I am a capable, intelligent and talented woman going through a very hard transition right now.

Homelessness

I post for the time being as I venture into unchosen, unwarranted, circumstantial homelessness today, an essay on my own homelessness.
Many voices are sending their words of love and support to me. If you have such words, please post them here.
There is also room for other responses, especially to solution-find with me. Understand that within reasonable measure of my own endeavors along with your support, my conditions in this state will not persist for very long at all!

I will close by leaving a copy of a posting I submitted concerning my own impending homelessness to the local craigslist. It is confounding to me to realize what is happening in my life as the artist in America in the 21st Century. Arriving at this moment, I can see that in my future creative work, a book and a painting series will come out of what I've learned so far. For the sake of America's well being, invest your spirit and faith in what this country stands for in all her ideal by considering in your own communities, the pro-active ways you support the artists' fiscal access to an income much the way a plumber and electrician are enabled to support themselves:

My craigslist post of July 22, 2008:

A Call For Social Justice

Date: 2008-07-22, 4:28PM PDT

I am a fifty-three year old woman who has very recently completed 20 years of full time, single parenting_ yet not parenting itself, as one can never "complete" parenting. During that twenty years, I earned my undergrad degree and home-schooled my child. I built my foundation as a producing, exhibiting bartering/selling artist, while I negotiated all levels of cultural exposure, choices and access for my child through on-going activities and travel that has only added to the quality of experiences with which my child has grown up. I am skills-rich where work is concerned, and I have done more years of therapy, self-examination and spiritual enlightenment discipline, than many people my age it seems. In a nutshell, my child now a young adult, is doing quite well at a very good college with lots of scholarships. Likewise, I have finally been freed up to rejoin the world of healthy social connection and most importantly to work long and well! I relish this part of my path, except the on-going threat of homelessness that shadows my every step right now.
After many months of struggle pertinent to me, I have at last found wonderful employment. Yet, the benevolence of one who has housed me in my efforts to transition from a small town to the "bigger city" where more employment choices abound, has run its reasonable course. I must leave this coming week-end: 7/25/08.
I have titled my plea for reasonably supportive access, "A Call For Social Justice," because this seems to be all too common a scenario out here: women who have sacrificed willingly for the well-being of family to be faced with an uncaring society in large measure. This is simply a reality-based recognition. I understand the system very well, having made myself unfit for it by virtue of its challenges that a recipient better one's life. My own background of understanding, isolation and lack of traditional forms of support coming into this nature of experiences so many years ago, also plays a role. In effect, I am truly as unique as anyone in this world.
In greater advocacy for the well-being of our collective humanity, I do call on the greater community to cognizant(ly) recognize the wealth that is here in this society among everyone who is working, earning benefits, and able to care for a family. There are those among you all, who have gone without all those traditional mechanisms of support, courageously, ingeniously, persistently providing for self and family against all the odds, that have in other ways evolved by forced choice, yet have made it heroically nonetheless, most of the way to responsible social participation. I personally have done this in ways from which even the most materially successful, can learn. Creative business people take note. I embody those ways that can inform solution-building processes that do not have to leave human lives on the street with no place safe to live.
At this juncture, at this moment, I need your help to get into my own place to live in order to complete my return to responsible social participation. I may even have help for your own enlightenment on compassion, beginning with your own self. Simply. Not judgmentally_ that informs how others can also find solution for homelessness, for reasonable social access, education, and in natural health resources. Portland, you are not as enlightened or as organized or as motivated as you market yourself in the media. Please hear my in-earnest plea, for reasonably accessible support, to get on with my own successes for self and my child. Let us open a door together on possibility that can only result in what is always bigger than what any one of us can ever accomplish alone. My position of resource-lessness at this moment in my life, is truly only in-part, a reflection of my individual choice-making. Will you meet me in this opportunity where I am right now? To step into solution-building with me is to learn what is possible together for (your) own self and many more!
I am hopeful for this city and our country. I hope you will respond to my call for social justice, as compassionately as you know how. I am yearning for this in earnest.

Namasté


Look over my new blog. It is my calling card for a more streamlined manner by which to be self-employed; to offer my creative services in a manner to meet regular folks incomes where they may be during this down turned market.

Rufus, the final sketches- a comparative

If you have been keeping up with the process and progress of Rufus' portrait, his painting two-thirds complete_ is on-hold for now. I am so disappointed. Rightfully, albeit graciously, so is my client.
Even though the canvas as I say is two-thirds complete, and I have completed all four of the full-color drawings I knew I wanted to do in order to learn this dog, and get myself back into the habit of looking, seeing, and drawing in order to paint after nine years(!)_ it just got to be too tough to get through a creative project without my own roof over my own head! All the while attempting to keep up with a traditional job search, living in someone else's home who is unyielding and quite giving in real limitation, (yes it is a paradox!)_ think though, for the past twenty years I have been sovereign in my own queen-dom! Nonetheless, as awkward and disappointing as everything is right now, I am equally_ awkwardly grateful!
It is such a huge transition I am making in my life, and I really don't have quite the adequate resources to do it properly, to be affective economically and individually at the same time! I am pulled in too many directions where just an ounce of right resource support would make a universe of difference for the better!!
I think over and over, between meditating and looking for work I could sure do with an old-fashioned rescue: re-defined in an updated and healthy context! (i., e.; No obligations of sex for money or marriage, kind-of-fantasy_ bluntly put.) Just intelligent, human being-to-human being trust in the invested, based on my track record! Just plainly and simply, because you can and want to, and that is fulfillment enough for you.
Meanwhile, as sad as it feels not to be finishing this project and beautiful portrait, still(!) in the making, I will come back to Rufus when I am reestablished in my own place! I am a follow-through person. My client, has at least assuaged me with a good-hearted agreement to revisit this possibility, when that wonderful time comes.

As the wheel turns and I embrace the traditional job search full time again, I have also put out a new calling card/ business in art, to keep creatively active and try another approach to earning money by my trade. This approach is in a more streamlined manner, and meant to accompany the renewed full time search for the job-job_ the details of my newest hunger to be creatively fulfilled, can be found sketched out_ here. It is what I call painting the muralette: small murals, commemorating what is important in your life, for a set price! Done inside your home or office in a four-hour turn around from hire to finish! Simple, memorable, pleasurable imagery!

So come on world, be open enough! Be awake enough! Be brave enough! Allow in beauty enough to celebrate your world! Be open-minded enough! Support the artist enough!
Do you know how you got your favorite anything in your world? Design! Someone creative had to put the intelligence into making any object you may take for granted. It has to be functional for your use! That is all about design. So how valuable is the artist in community?!
Listen, most all artists do earnestly want to work for a living (doing their own work) and thereby be financially able to independently provide themselves their own place to live. How hard is that?! It's wanting a life that works, just like everyone else. Therefore, check out my new muralette idea and hire the artist! Thanks_ really!

By the way, I have posted all four of those color studies of Rufus on this blog. You can see them in the scrolling slide show at the top, or you can go back to December '07 and look over the progress posted to this blog, through the months to June '08. Again, thanks for your interest and support of goodwill at the very least! Hire the artist to assist you in beautifying your world! Celebrate! This is your life!

The Launch of a New Project blog

Ok! Here it is! I got the site launched late last night. There are rough spots perhaps, yet I wanted to get the idea out there no matter what. Being good at what I do, I would rather get out there and connect with people so I can help others to enjoy in their special moments in life!
Use these muralettes as gifts for yourself, someone you love, a friend or special person you care about, a boss or someone in your life to whom you wish to communicate something special; something important to you both!

I will be launching this idea on craigslist in the next few minutes, so I look forward to hearing from you!
I am really excited about the journey to paint that special muralette for you, or someone you care about and wish to communicate more than words can say. A special image to be shared and enjoyed about a special place, a special time, special idea, goal, or object of desire in the goodness of the heart!

The Final sketch for the Painting

I will replace this image maybe tomorrow. If one looks closely there is a shadow from the 'batch automation' process!
Yes, that is a Fall season reflecting river with no leaves on the grass! You could say that I was excited to get it finished...! They will be in the painting itself. Still this image deserves a lot of touch-up time in, PhotoShop!
When I do get into the painting tomorrow, I am thinking of giving the light more gold, hence all the colors will appear a little less "Easter egg-ish" in tone; slightly more toned down! Maybe it is just the fallen leaves that are needed and that will tone down the grass.

Impressionist Rufus

In gratitude, I post the latest painting progress!

Get Involved

policy and advocacy

Americans for the Arts Organizes Hearing on Arts Advocacy Day 2008

For the second year in a row, in conjunction with Arts Advocacy Day, Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA), chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior hosted a hearing on the importance of investing in the arts. Rep. Dicks once again invited Americans for the Arts to organize witnesses to give testimony before the subcommittee which determines the budget levels for the National Endowment for the Arts. The hearing, Role of the Arts in Fueling Creativity and Innovation, was held on Tuesday, April 1, following the Congressional Arts Breakfast. The entire hearing can be viewed at CSPAN's online archives.

Those testifying and topics addressed were:



Robert RedfordRobert Redford, Chairman of the Sundance Preserve, actor
Mr. Redford is both an Oscar winning filmmaker and the chairman of the Sundance Preserve in Utah. He has been in such notable films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, and also won an Oscar for his directorial debut on Ordinary People. As the chairman of the Sundance Preserve, he is the creator of the noted Film Festival held annually. Mr. Redford spoke to the subcommittee about both the importance of the arts in his life and his work with the Americans for the Arts National Arts Policy Roundtable. Read Mr. Redford’s testimony (pdf).



John Legend

John Legend, musician
Mr. Legend is a five-time Grammy Award winning R&B singer, songwriter, and pianist. His latest album has been certified Platinum and has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide. Mr. Legend is a member of the Americans for the Arts' Artist Committee and was awarded the Young Artist Award in 2007. He is also the founder of the “Show Me Campaign”—a grassroots movement to fight worldwide economic and spiritual poverty through fostering sustainable development at the individual, family, and small community levels. Mr. Legend discussed the importance of a creative foundation in today’s society and the opportunity to use arts to spread a positive message. Read Mr. Legend’s testimony (pdf).



Kerry WashingtonKerry Washington, actor and filmmaker
Ms. Washington is an emerging actress who has appeared in such films as The Last King of Scotland and Ray. She has also worked behind the scenes as both a director and a producer. Ms. Washington is a member of Americans for the Arts’ Artist Committee and was awarded the Young Artist Award in 2005. While attending George Washington University as a presidential performing arts scholar, Ms. Washington helped create a support system for people of color in the arts called Shades of the Fine Arts. She spoke on how National Endowment funded programs impacted her life and continue to affect children’s participation in the arts. Read Ms. Washington’s testimony (pdf).




Mayor Mufi Hannemann, Mayor of HonoluluMayor Mufi Hannemann
Mayor Hannemann serves as the Chair of the Tourism, Arts, Parks, Entertainment and Sports Committee of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He represented the whole U.S. Conference of Mayors when he discussed their new 10-point plan, Strong Cities, Strong Families, for a Strong America, which includes the arts as a driving force for America’s economy and diplomacy. Mayor Hannemann also discussed the example that Hawaii’s arts culture can give to the rest of the country. Read Mayor Hannemann’s testimony (pdf).



Jonathan SpectorJonathan Spector, CEO of The Conference Board
Mr. Spector joined The Conference Board after serving as the vice dean of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a trustee of Wesleyan University and a Board Member of the March of Dimes. He is a former senior partner at McKinsey & Company, and chief executive of two startup technology companies. Mr. Spector also co-authored the 2007 book We Are Smarter Than Me, which addresses the way businesses can harness the power of collective intelligence. Mr. Spector discussed the importance of creative professionals in the workforce and the results of the report Ready to Innovate: Are Educators and Executives Aligned on the Creative Readiness of the U.S. Workforce. Read Mr. Spector’s testimony (pdf).



Robert L. Lynch, President and CEO of Americans for the Arts Robert Lynch
Mr. Lynch discussed the economic impact of the arts (including statistics for some of the subcommittee members’ communities) and the dynamic work of local arts agencies that are providing resources and programs to citizens across the country. Read Mr. Lynch's testimony (pdf).

This is Lame All The Way Around!

Tate Admits Need to Buy More Works by Women Artists

By Arifa Akbar
Monday, 26 March 2007

The trustees of Tate Modern have admitted that the collection fails to give adequate recognition to female artists and that they need to rectify the gender gap.

The gallery's trustees acknowledged the imbalance in the existing collection at a recent board meeting, and have resolved to acquire more works by female painters and sculptors, according to the next issue of The Art newspaper.

Of the 2,914 artists represented in the Tate's collection, only 348 - less than 12 per cent - are women, and only two of the 39 major works bought over the past two years were by female artists.

The initiative was inspired by the need to recognise female talent that had so far gone unacknowledged, the Tate said. "We examine our holdings on a regular basis to identify what may have been overlooked in the past and research what may be available to fill the gaps."

While some contemporary female artists are well represented in the collection - especially those who emerged in the 1990s Young British Artists movement, including Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas and Rachel Whiteread - those from previous generations are not.




(above photo of) Shibboleth, by sculptor, Doris Salcedo

Those who have been overlooked include the US painter Georgia O'Keeffe, the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, who was the subject of the 2002 Hollywood film Frida, and the British painter Alison Lapper, who received an MBE for services to art in 2003 and was the subject of Marc Quinn's Fourth Plinth project in Trafalgar Square.



Dame Barbara Hepworth, the Cornish sculptor whose major works are displayed at Tate St Ives, is the best represented female artist, with 128 works. The collection holds 31 works by the German performance artist Rebecca Horn, 30 pieces by the Op Art painter Bridget Riley, and 21 and 19 by the Turner Prize winners Rachel Whiteread and Gillian Wearing. There are also 14 works by the early 20th-century Welsh artist Gwen John.

Sir Nicholas Serota, the director of the Tate, said: "It is striking that among the emerging contemporary artists, the gender balance is much more even. And that is pleasing."

A spokeswoman said: "The contemporary female artists are pretty well represented. Historically, it has been difficult prior to the 20th century."

The Tate said its drive to purchase more works by women was not part of a positive discrimination policy. "While we do not stipulate positive discrimination in relation to women artists, we are very concerned to address areas where, historically, women artists may have been neglected."

The two works by female artists acquired by the Tate in the past two years were by Emin, for less than £50,000, and the Spanish artist Christina Iglesias, which cost £115,000.

Tate Modern has staged several exhibitions by women artists including Kahlo and Riley.

The current programme includes displays of works by the Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gill while a show by the English painter Prunella Clough, opened at the weekend.

Tate artists

The best-represented women artists in the Tate are:

* Dame Barbara Hepworth - 128 works

* Rebecca Horn - 31

* Louise Bourgeois - 30

* Bridget Riley - 30

* Cindy Sherman - 29

* Rachel Whiteread - 21

* Gillian Wearing - 19


Prunella Clough, Alison Lapper, Bridget Riley, Rachel Whiteread, Gillian Wearing, Gwen John, Emin, Christina Iglesias, Amrita Sher-Gill

I don't know if it is the cute short list of women artists' works catalogued at the end of this article, or the lack of specificity written about committees looking at...
I left this article wondering where was there even a mention of any intelligent, proactive program at the Tate, not just recognizing but rather, one that is also already collecting_ historic Women Artists works? Then, it wouldn't just be a committee "looking at" the issue would it? Yet, from this article, it really doesn't seems that there is yet to even be such a program at the Tate Modern! Isn't this what is still institutionally still true here?
Not a real program taking specific action(s), to rectify historical prejudices against women artists' works_ right?
So, the lameness I refer to, is making careers out of writing about admissions of inequity. Boring!
This is writing about institutions that are still not doing something relevant. Writing again about facts that have been highlighted in contemporary culture, since the second wave!
Hello young journalist, it is way past time for the details, the specifics on what is being done!
Looking at women as nouns is a tired, tired subject.
Looking at, has been dragging on and on, over the thirty-five years I have been an adult female, working artist!
"Examining the issue", "finding" mere examples of works," "cataloging" those examples by whatever criteria seems important the time," and actually getting the works into the general institutional setting has lain fallow for hundreds of years, even before my lifetime!
How is it relevant that a younger woman-journalist's voice, view, perspective, hunger for a career, comes along again later to say the same things in the new century?
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Don't the young want to write about that instead? Why should your life be just a repeat? How does repeating continue to happen? No, really_ to the extent that one can proactively change old habits? A young collective mindset assumption is rightfully in question here.

I realize the article above does describe committees with quotes even, who are 'looking at the issue'... H-m-m, really?
What quality consciousness is this?! Looking, not doing? This is us, folks!
Is this all anyone really has the courage for, during a lifetime?
Just looking and talking about looking?
Systems, institutions, money-lack-of-consciousness, and change happen all so-o-o very slowly...
First, there is the reactionism to change at all. Then, there is the manipulation of any subject.
Next, seems to come all the varieties of forms that express confirmation that indeed a noble slight has occurred within an environment; a society.
Media manipulation, perspective manipulation and awareness confusion.
These pattern just continue. The goal is to influence all who refuse to see, all who know no better and especially targets those who are newly arrived to the weight, the inertia underneath old, old habits centered in the ego!
You know the ones: "the way it has always been," "the way it has always been done!" "Those in the know, know best and one needs approval from them to go forward!"
No one is in the know!
Anyone holding power, or even imagining themselves as powerful over others, is ultimately only holding onto fear_ even in settings with the best of intentions.
Power and control centered in the ego, is so insidiously endless.
Wake up young journalist to what is possible about the challenges of looking, seeing, understanding_ everyday!! Wake up first! Understand more what it means.

I would love to be independently contracted, housed and fed by the Tate Modern, to research and curate such a project. At least as one active and contributing to the action of collecting the works of women artists; working in an authentically appreciating environment. Undaunted intelligence, flourishing motivation, pro-actively participating in pursuit, acquisition and development of such noble work!
I can draw on my own research skills in addition to contemporary, personal experiences as a woman artist!
I can start if not create, a foundation from which to build a truly, dynamically alive collection of women-centered art. To do so reflects gender balance_ duh!
Again, I bring experience as a researcher of women artists!
Yet, me getting a contract is not going to happen as long as there is the perspective that one is only clamoring to get in. No.
I say outloud to the universe, where are the truly independent teams of women? The courageous, intelligent and motivated? The female dream team of the twenty-first century that is fully self-sufficient monetarily? Women poised and ready to take independent action outside and inside the institutional walls!
As a woman and artist, I do express ego in relation to absolute hunger for greater balance; real tangibility in outer reflection for women like me. Women artists who have been doing what we each do and have done all along!!
I am willing to take action, at the risk of "sounding" lame from my unfunded position on the social spectrum at present.
Again outloud to the universe I say, how long will this walking nightmare of isolationism remain present?!
I am willing and able to actually help build a solid collection of historically representative women artists' works, NOW!
What say you Tate Modern, to contracting an independent woman artist, curator and researcher of women artists' works?
What say you to one completely available to aid in this noble collection-building work in this lifetime?
Oh, one can refer to my post dated May 12, 2008, titled : 3 Lovelies about a woman artist in action; in the verb tense not subject!

3 Lovelies

Collecting women artists' works is still a little known and undiscovered corner in the art market, meaning it is (still) within a person's budget.
If you are new to the possibility, middle-class art collecting is a concept developing momentum inherent in its freedom to mine one's own personal aesthetic and connection to life, while empowering one’s curious passion for fine arts collecting on a budget!
I invite you to reap the rewards of the artist’s hard work, because I want to help you learn that when you see the right piece, you will know it and know why it is right for you!


11"x11", Summer's Bounty

Beginning with these three paintings, discover a wealth of talent and life expressed in each intimately created work of a woman artist! These paintings excite the senses, attention and one's very awareness. They are archivally created and among some of my best works to date.


14"x (just under) 20", Finlandia

*Painted in acrylic and framed in a simple 1/4" width frame, I am interested in reducing any visual conflict to an image that flows off the canvas by its own visual and energetic suggestion: that of filling up space beyond the painted surface!
Intimate in size, expressive and lovely, each one_ these paintings are available for sale in prices that can be reasonably negotiated from between $750.00 to $350.00; shipping is additional and guaranteed.
Truly timeless; these paintings are a family heirloom-in-the-making that you can thoroughly enjoy now, as well as pass from one generation to the next!


12"x12", Vous êtes la naissance

I look forward to consulting with you to develop your abilities to confidently collect original art on a budget! Amaze your own self and inspire those around you, especially in a down turned market: begin collecting with a focus on Women Artist’s work today, by clicking on the highlighted word “comment” below, to contact me.

wild details

Painting Rufus

On the canvas in stage one, blocking in color and shapes.

As I stumble through to completion of this project, general attention jumps around quite a bit. In life, there is great transitioning from what was, to what is yet to be. This "Timeless Rhythms" journal has been created at the headwaters of this feed of my past life into the big river of life.
Like-wise, my focus on, and efforts to produce art also reflects the struggles and jostling with reality I continue to experience. What serious obstacle continues to repeat from the past, is too much isolation. Isolation, in trying to figure out what is holding up attention and ability to move forward in a coordinated manner between creating householder reality, and navigating out in the world as a multi-dimensional artist, woman and cultural human being.
At this stage of experience with paint and life, I sometimes call myself a Well-being Lifestyle Diplomat.
Wow, what has this got to do with the painting of Rufus in the now, you ask? Short answer? EVERYTHING!
Every stroke on the canvas is completely dependent or connected to the whole life-frame I have been testing and developing, for a very long time. An original vision that has guided my presence in, and healthy understanding of life since early childhood. All of my attention and priority has been intuitively focused on an individual whole-picture commitment for over twenty years, and now that foundation is strong.
What seems confounding at present, is what I call the appearance of distractions persisting in my immediate experiences; general responses to my intentions for creative work don't seem readily understood by most everyday people. Hence, the interconnected whole doesn't even make it to the table in a typical conversation... help! While it is true that I have counted on subtlety in large measure, assuming the intelligence of people to 'get it,' it appears that maybe it is me that doesn't get it... or is it a combination of factors that culminates in too little of any one forward moving element? Help!
I think, a team willing to take the time to learn from me could easily trust in my vision.
Then, the context of an appropriate place to work and live this commitment, would truly combine to answer my deepest nighttime conversations with the infinite!
The whole-picture impact of my work would be of perfect timing in the world now, as crisis impacts more and more everyday. I am quite good at facilitating BEING with what is... this is the truth that raises one's quality of life experiences with reality as it is happening. What happens in an individual's responses from this alignment in body/mind consciousness is truly what humans have historically referred to as the miraculous!
Even as I continue to simultaneously pursue a traditional job search, I put this intention for support to create for the greater good out into the world, and release all attachment to this request as much as I am able.

Street Art Enlightens!

Positive Energy Activates Constant Elevation:
The Street Art of Chase
March 19,2008 Written by: Steven
LA.CityZine.com is a website about Los Angeles and everything in it.


“The hardest thing to do in life is to send love in response to hate…” Those golden words scroll across a screen as you wait in a sea of black. Queuing an ethereal hip hop beat you are about to enter the world of stencil street artist, Chase.

Belgian by birth, Chase, like so many other transient artists has journeyed in search of creative outlets and experience. Once an avid skateboarder in his youth, this energy transferred over into the world of his art. Yet Chase is just another LA transplant… or is he? Searching for answers about life, fleeting youth and creative energy, where can we look for inspiration? Surrounded by a sea of rapid highways, scratchy airwaves and blinkers bouncing off concrete, we suffer in a wasteland of thought. Drones of being. But, sprinkled upon the tar and metal are rays of light and innovation.



“Remember who you are.” A mural done free of charge by a man with a simple message. This existential idea is so simplistic that at first glance you might overlook it’s significance. In the world we live in we are constantly bombarded by mindless advertisements, war, poverty, images of greed. Have we lost touch with our core and the creative energy which feeds our dreams and fuels our purpose?

Good art makes us marvel… how? Great art makes us think… why? A key to Chase’s work is forcing the viewer to appraise - not only the spaces and situations around themselves but within themselves as well. Street Art since the early days of Graffiti in the “Boogie Down” Bronx has been sowing ideas in the subconscious of society. The Lower class sent out messages of innovation and creativity and gave hope. Where there was once only a desolate landcape filled with dreary dreams and tumultuous thought, grew an imagination and a voice.

With street artists such as Chase, we see a positive message taking root in the underground and bubbling over into our everyday society. Chase has had fine art exhibits all over the world, Belgium, NYC, and Los Angeles; but it’s his ability to connect with a society on the street level that gives his message the most meaning. People young and old are yearning for inspiration packaged in small easy identifiable messages such as some of Chase’s favorite mantra’s, ” Be the Change,” “You can’t until you say you can,” “be peace” and “seek truth: knowledge is power.”
Passing to and fro in this life, humming along and spewing exhaustion into the air, we regurgitate countless thoughts and images, it all takes a heavy toll. Chase’s artwork not only implies for you to stop, relax and take a second to look and think, but his simple messages demand it.


When asked about the written messages in his work, Chase responds, “The messages definitely plays an integral role, and my work wouldn’t be the same without them. I often say that the aesthetics are just there to attract the eye, but the messages are there to stimulate the mind.” These mantras of positivity resonate deeply. Let us all go out, create and plant our own seeds of enlightenment within ourselves, and others.

River Rufus seated!

Progression sketches, as vagueness abounds. I am searching for living/creating space!
Can you help?

Just about half-way across the world...

In fact, from about right here in: Iraklion, Irakleion, Greece, as it shows up exactly on my stat counter. Maybe even Virginia...

In the land of the Ancient Goddess, an anxious patron is significantly upping the traffic to my art blog. Bring some of the locals along for the view!

Here, I post new image progress on the canvas:



Continue to be patient and enjoy your travels. I am making my own progress in the inner and outer worlds, traveling closer to the land of the finished painting and hopefully, closer too, to happy employment everyday.

Σας ευλογήστε

I have found something!

For years I have been secretly fantasizing and intuiting, ways to think about traditional fine art and the new visual medium of the computer, since 1999 when I had my own aha moment. A moment that prompted me to go back to school and earn a degree in art. Due to the experiences of resistance I encountered in the academic environment, I have never given up on my fantasy since, even as I begin slow, tentative steps back into the studio.
Today, I have literally stumbled upon exactly that fine art and technology combination about which I had fantasized here: This art form may help to show me (and other artists who are also interested) how I might be able to follow my fantasy more true; like an artist!

The artist/computer programmer, San Base calls it: "The synergistic combination of programming and painting in Dynamic Painting," or "a generative art - an art that has been generated algorithmically by a computer system."
In a way that I can very simply relate his working process is to the nature of graffiti artists painting over and over one another's works. Monsieur Base, says that, "Using the latest in computer technology, a still picture is transformed into a never-ending show that adds a whole new dimension to traditional Art. Images replacing each other hour by hour, day by day, month by month. None of the images repeat previous ones and will never repeat again. The picture living its own life with objects moving and transforming but still following the original artist's concept."
I noticed at once in his statement, "I'm a strong believer that innovation is often born when several drastically different disciplines come together," that his exact innovations may be speaking to those of us who have been searching for a meet point between the new and the old technologies in image-making!
Further, what San Base says about the nature of looking at visual media, "The painting is always in the state of a perpetual transformation. It never repeats itself. Every time a new image is created, there is an opportunity for a peaceful receptivity and then the work disappears forever," is fascinating for me to think about!
The technology to make "Generative Art"happens generally this way:"using powerful video cards to generate real-time images." So, digging just a little deeper, I found Wikipedia has this to say about the process: Generative art refers to art that has been generated, composed, or constructed in an algorithmic manner through the use of systems defined by computer software algorithms, or similar mathematical or mechanical or randomised autonomous processes.

Generative art is a system oriented art practice where the common denominator is the use of systems as a production method. To meet the definition of generative art, an artwork must be self-contained and operate with some degree of autonomy. The workings of systems in generative art might resemble, or rely on, various scientific theories such as Complexity science and Information theory. The systems of generative artworks have many similarities with systems found in various areas of science. Such systems may exhibit order and/or disorder, as well as a varying degree of complexity, making behavioral prediction difficult. However, such systems still contain a defined relationship between cause and effect. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Musikalisches Würfelspiel" (Musical Dice Game) 1757 is an early example of a generative system based on randomness. The structure was based on an element of order on one hand, and disorder on the other.

An artist or creator will usually set down certain ground-rules or formulae and/or templates materials, and will then set a random or semi-random process to work on those elements. The results will remain somewhat within set limits, but may also be subject to subtle or even startling mutations. The idea of putting the art making process in the place of a pre-generated artwork is a key feature in generative art, highlighting the process-orientation as an essential characteristic. Generative artists such as Hans Haacke have explored processes of physical and biological systems in artistic context.

Generative art can also evolve in real-time, by applying feedback and generative processes to its own created states. A generative work of art would in this case never be seen to play in the same way twice. Different types of graphical programming environments (e.g. Max/Msp, Pure Data or vvvv) are used in real-time for generative audiovisual artistic expressions for instance in the Demoscene and in VJ-culture.

Artificial intelligence and automated behavior have introduced new ways of seeing generative art. The term behavior is particularly useful when describing generative qualities in art because of the associations to biology and evolution, for example with the virus models used by the digital artist Joseph Nechvatal. Autopoiesis by Ken Rinaldo includes fifteen musical and robotic sculptures that interact with the public and modify their behaviors based on both the presence of the participants and each other.

The term generative art is not describing any art-movement or ideology. It's a method of making art. The term refers to how the art is made, and not taking into account why it was made or what the content of the artwork is."

That examples like:

"Composers such as John Cage and Brian Eno have used generative principles and systems in their works. Eno collaborated on the development of SSEYO's Koan generative music system and this software was used in the creation of the album Generative Music 1.

Cut-up technique by Tristan Tzara and William Burroughs, AARON by Harold Cohen, Conway's Game of Life, visual software by Scott Draves and Karl Sims, artwork by Sol LeWitt, and architectures by Celestino Soddu are examples of generative art in different disciplines. Philip Galanter has done good critical theoretical work and analysis of the field.

A specific research on unconventional algorithms to create paintings according to generative principles have been proposed by the Protoquadro project.
The Protoquadro project you ask is: Protoquadro is a painting technique conceived to use digital supports to produce objects that will stand into a space as paintings used to be. It pertain to the realm of Generative art."



Protoquadro objects have some characters of a painting and some of a totally new class of objects, therefore the name, formed by the greek term "protos" (first) and the italian "quadro" (painting).

The project has been conceived by Federico Bonelli (his comments appear in the comments section to this post) and Maurizio Martinucci in 2003, and developed thereafter through various collaborations. It produced a small number of protoquadro.

All of these ideas are based on the concept of transformation through Synchronicity. The painting has to evolve in time, this evolution has to be connected to the situation where it has been conceived and to the material chosen to compose it.

Existing Protoquadro are based on photographic material, a compositing idea and a rule of evolution.

Very relevant to the spirit of the existing objects have been the Italian Futurist painter Umberto Boccioni. He writes in his own book about painting:

"We synthesize all instants (of time, place, form, color-tone) and we build the painting upon them. And this painting, as an independent organism, has its own law, and the elements that made it obey to this law, creating as such, the similarity of the painting with itself" (Umberto Boccioni,[Italian Futurist Painter and Sculptor, 1882-1916] 1914)

So far the algorithms invented and/or used for protoquadro have been:

NG# The NG# algorithms uses as a engine the geometrical properties of the Enneagram symbol. The Enneagram is used to generate sequences of values according to a feedback process that involves the color on the canvas in some peculiar points and in some determined instants of time.

SATOR# The project SATOR involved a research on magic squares. The original protoquadro called SATOR used the property of a order 5 magic square to generate the flow of numbers necessary to control the painting evolution.

BOIDS# used for a multiscreen installation called Junglescape, a specific variation of the boids algorithm, agents that responding to varying parameters create a wondering flock. The flock is aware of the presence of someone in the vicinity and reacts to it, splitting if the presence are two or more. Brushes are generated according to the flock behavior and heuristic rules chosen to massimize aesthetic effects. The original algorithms for drawing boids was developed by Craig Reynolds in 1986, is an artificial life program, simulating the flocking behaviour of birds."

Art, Science and Mathematics merging in 21st Century Art!

Exploring the PDX Art Scene & Employment/Networking Possiblities therein!

First, I believe I did a smart thing by getting onto this young man's email list! Ah-h-h, the prolific energy of youth when intelligently, creatively directed well!


Next, I linked out of Chris' site to find these two inspiring young women artists and entrepreneurs!

(P-s-s-st! They're ALL entrepreneurs!)

Then, by doing some in-depth exploration on the work of Tamara


and Martha,


I happened into this cool little video on making your own zine!
It is instructed by none other than another PDX or maybe an LA artist.

Well, you watch it and see what you think!

A News Release

This picture is a synoptic visual statement that very simply outlines my longterm career goals and vision.
You can also click here to visit my culture blog. Once there, I invite you to read the April 9, 2008 post that briefly states my interests in attracting supporters to help me realize my dream.

Never say never

Which is your fav and why?

Final two versions

Rufus, the latest round of images!

Another image-posting on the progression of this particular portrait (in the process of preparing for the final painting) is soon to follow_ stay tuned!