Helping a new friend Get Out The Word:

Let’s make art together…
posted: November 24th, 2010 by Luna


…while exploring our relationship with money!

I’m writing a book called Wild Money: A Right-Brained, Knock-Your-Socks-Off Approach to Loving Your Relationship with Money (working title).
After looking high and low for books on personal finance written for non-linear creative people, I finally realized I’d have to do it myself. I want to create a book filled with the artwork of “creatives” from around the world.

Want to play?

Anyone can participate. There is no prerequisite other than desire. I envision a community sharing our insights and attitudes; histories and dreams of how money has woven through our lives; tales of helping, healing, hurting, reconnecting, disconnecting, saving, destroying and otherwise wildly impacting our tender, brilliant, expressive selves.

I have a short time frame for this project, so I’ll need all artwork by Dec 15, 2010. If you are willing and able to share your art (and maybe some writing if you’re so inclined), please click here for more information.

I’ve only just begun to explore the vast communities on the web and need some help linking-in. So I’d appreciate you passing this on to as many people, lists, groups and social media feeds as possible.

Thank you in advance!

Luna Jaffe, CFP

Lunaria Financial, LTD

7837 SW Capitol Highway, Portland, OR 97219

503-452-7000

Securities offered through KMS Financial Services, Inc.



*This is a post to assist a new acquaintance get the word out on a project that sounds truly inspired; she has also come onto my radar via a reputable mutual acquaintance. Check out the links, roll the idea around in your head/heart & check out the details for yourself. I have already gotten on-board!

New Project

(Quel réactionism!) *Artist David Black conducts a workshop on Tunisian collaborative painting with League students and artists:


I am beginning a new curatorial project focusing on the collaborative nature of art-making. Hmmmmm, more details to follow in the months to come. Do stay tuned!


(A collaborative work, I co-created some years ago; "An Ode to Gaugin"!)

My artwork presenting at Pegasus Gallery

My artwork is on view at PEGASUS FRAME STUDIO & GALLERY, 341 SW Second Street in Corvallis, OR 97333
As is the intrique of the Drebing Collection, all featured amid the dense collection of true artistic talent in the Mid-Willamette Valley, in this hometown holiday reception tonight from 6 to 9pm. *Come downtown to join us in a delightful fall evening celebration of the local arts.

Hometown Holiday Season: Drebing Collection Reception Tonight

"Nearly 30 years after his death, sculptor Earl Drebing is getting his first big show.

Titled “She Brought Us His Gifts,” the exhibition will run through December at Pegasus Gallery, 361 S.W. Second St. The gallery will host a reception from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday, November 18, 2010.

The show features more than two dozen finished sculptures and a number of fragments.

Drebing, a self-taught California artist who died in 1983, never had a major showing of his work during his lifetime. His sculptures went into storage after his death and only resurfaced in 2009, when his stepdaughter, Corvallis-area resident Jewels Drebing, brought some samples of his work to Pegasus.

Many of the works are highly realistic masks or heads executed from plaster life masks. What makes them unique is Drebing’s artistic process, which he developed himself.

Using the plaster masks as a framework, Drebing would overlay them with a mixture of wood shavings and airplane glue to create the finished sculptures, many of which have large, elaborate bases of carved or inlaid wood.

Drebing’s work was the subject of a lengthy article in the July 18 Gazette-Times and a subsequent documentary film that has aired several times on Channel 29, the Corvallis public-access cable channel. The film will air several times this month, with showings at 2 p.m. today, 2 and 9:30 p.m. Thursday, 10:30 a.m. Saturday, 10:30 a.m. Sunday, and 12:30 and 5:30 p.m. Monday." *This article was originally printed in the GT/Corvallis, OR, Tuesday, November 16, 2010


Bill Shumway, artist & co-owner Pegasus Gallery

"There is no Why!"

"Il n'est pas du courage, quand on suit simplement la passion d'une personne." _Philippe Petit

The Vorticists: Rebel Artists in London and New York, 1914-18

The Nasher Museum of Art on the campus of Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina, is hosting this exhibition as of September 30, 2010 to January 2, 2011.

" "The Vorticists: Rebel Artists in London and New York, 1914-18" is the first exhibition devoted to this Anglo-American movement to be presented in the United States or Italy. It is also the first to attempt to recreate the three Vorticist exhibitions mounted during World War I that served to define the group's radical aesthetic for the public. An abstracted figurative style, combining machine-age forms and the energetic imagery suggested by a vortex, Vorticism emerged in London at a moment when the staid English art scene had been jolted by the advent of French Cubism and Italian Futurism. Absorbing elements from both, but also defining themselves against these foreign idioms, Vorticism was a short-lived but pivotal modernist movement that spanned the years of World War I (1914-1918)."

From ItalianFuturism.org:
"This seminal exhibition is co-curated by Mark Antliff, Professor of Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke University, and Vivien Greene, Curator of Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. The exhibition will showcase approximately 90 works (paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, photographs and related ephemera) by members of the Vorticist movement drawn from public and private collections throughout Europe and North America. The group took its name from “Vortex,” a term coined by the American expatriate literary great Ezra Pound in 1913, when describing the “maximum energy” he and his colleagues wished to instill among London’s literary and artistic avant-garde. The Vorticist painters created compositions activated by zigzagging, diagonal forms and—in contrast to the Cubists and Futurists—more fully embraced geometric, abstract imagery, while not abandoning three-dimensional space. They harnessed the language of abstraction to convey the industrial dynamism they associated with the “vortex” of the modern city.

Among historians of modernism, Vorticism has been traditionally treated as an insular British art movement. “The Vorticists: Rebel Artists in London and New York, 1914-18″ will overcome that myth by identifying the movement as a distinctly Anglo-American endeavor developed in 1914 as an avant-garde response to the impact of French Cubism and Italian Futurism on artists and writers in London and New York."

From the Tate Glossary:

"The Vorticists were a British avant-garde group formed in London in 1914 by the artist, writer and polemicist, Wyndham Lewis. Their only group exhibition was held in London the following year. Vorticism was launched with the first issue (of two) of the magazine Blast which contained among other material two aggressive manifestos by Lewis 'blasting' what he considered to be the effeteness of British art and culture and proclaiming the Vorticist aesthetic: 'The New Vortex plunges to the heart of the Present we produce a New Living Abstraction'. Vorticist painting combines Cubist fragmentation of reality with hard-edged imagery derived from the machine and the urban environment, to create a highly effective expression of the Vorticists sense of the dynamism of the modern world. It was in effect a British equivalent to Futurism, although with doctrinal differences, and Lewis was deeply hostile to the Futurists. Other artists were Lawrence Atkinson, Jessica Dismorr, Cuthbert Hamilton, William Roberts, Helen Saunders, Edward Wadsworth, and the sculptors Jacob Epstein and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. David Bomberg was not formally a member of the group but produced major work in a similar style. The First World War brought Vorticism to an end, although in 1920 Lewis made a brief attempt to revive it with Group X."

*Thank-you for that lesson in art history, the Tate!



**This exhibit will travel:

Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice [January 29 - May 15, 2011]
Tate Britain in London [June 14 - September 18, 2011]

What's Happening Now!

There is a small reception for an "en Plein Air" exhibit at the Pegasus Gallery this Thursday from 6 to 9:30-ish, in which my artwork is playing a supporting role with 5 of my works included in this exhibit. (*Find the address & directions on the website.)
Yet the bigger, splashier reception is scheduled for the 2nd Thursday, same time-frame in November! This is the one show that I would like people to consider coming to, to see my work, as the regional landscape show will play host to the Drebing Collection! Quite the local intrigue. Truly!
*Also of note, is the most recent consignment of a Marc Chagall etching, available for viewing on request at Pegasus Gallery. A heads up for the true print collector!

The invitation design for celebrating turning 56

In my Ariadne phase here in midlife, I am navigating the Labyrinth from inside the center of the womb of the Great Mother. Dying to the last of the former once deeply internalized, unconscious dependent daughter identity. I am carefully discovering that I am Theseus, following the string back out into the light and the world, reborn.

The Cosmic Dance of Shiva; Who sees/hears these myths literally?

Listen to this UCSD lecture on: "Neurology and the Passion for Art," given by tenured Professor Ramachandran of the Psychology and Neurosciences Program at the University of California, San Diego, Adjunct Professor at the Salk Institute, and the Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition, also on the UCSD campus.

Who is a Synaesthete?




Vilayanur Ramachandran on your mind | Video on TED.com

Successful Art Sale

I finally sold this beauty of a painting over the week-end!!

*Don't forget to visit Modest Needs and do whatever you can to help on that project, or contact me via email on the top right side bar_ to purchase a painting from me!

Modest Needs, can you help?

Have you ever heard of Modest Needs?

Even though the link I have provided takes you straight to my particular grant request, you can go to the homepage to check out the whole Modest Needs story from the "Start Here" section on the menu bar. Or really, from the top of any page_ including mine.

My own grant request is modest, as I transition back into new employment, after a recession lay-off 10 months ago. Your donation, of any size to my request, will be ever so appreciated! Just click on the link below and thank-you, very much!!

Application 159557: New Job - Rent Help - Modest Needs®

*Be sure to pass this information on to those you know who may need the kind of help available through a Modest Needs grant!!

I am Finally Rounding the Corner of Coming into My Own!!

I feel surrounded by it more and more everyday, this coming into one's own. This process of 'something' that is becoming more me that I know I have been building since I was a small child. Building this coming into me since I can remember as a small child, learning to navigate the chaos that surrounded my entire world. Building by navigating and constantly adapting my steps and abilities. Adapting to stay focused regardless of the circumstances, or chaos once forever beyond my control. Building and eventually learning to walk my own path, by every step or misstep, into becoming a young adult. Walking the steps that have led me literally solo for years and years on the path of parenting and art-making when no one, absolutely no one seemed to care to ever notice. When no one ever tried to learn to even care, or come close.

Never-the-less mysteriously, wonderfully, just very lately, positive acknowledgments are slowly finding me! They are true heart-felt acknowledgments reflecting such nurturing and offer unknowingly, such soul-quenching depth of nourishment that I am moved to tears of absolute joy at their coming! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Sweet manna from heaven, the nourishment of love! The nature of unconditional love I have always chosen and always will choose over just making money for its own sake! Not that making money is repudiated for its own sake, by me. It has always been the chaos between choosing love or money that I have ALWAYS rejected.

In the struggle of clarifying these dynamics within; in the face of heroically struggling to band-aid together the ability to pay my own rent, with employment that hasn't quite sent me to work that I can be paid for. In the struggle of possibly continued mistiming more hopeful applications-in-waiting for the opportunity to be called to interview for other employment options, more fitting to my long hand-built skills and abilities. Called to share my experiences, reflecting life-long passions in the arts and culture for pay, I am waiting. Waiting for the seemingly endless bureaucratic sluggishness to roll out arbitrary decision-making that may include not just looking at me seriously, but also more aptly for a constructive, long-ever-due change, actually hire and pay me, as a valuable 'member of the team' this time.

In the face of all of these on-going and overwhelming, (needlessly obstacle-strewn) challenges, I have also discovered that some of my images are currently included on the website, homepage banner of an arts advocacy organization in NYC, called Fractured Atlas! The same organization with which I have my fiscally sponsored art project posted, so as to receive funding enough that I might create more unfettered, full-time for a creative, novel change from the everyday responsibilities like rent, bills, etc!

All of this struggling aside today, I then opened this blog to also find one of the most endearing acknowledgments written yet in the comments section of my art blog! A comment written from someone I really admire a lot and who is in my fb network. A comment from someone who I have not always found a natural for me to communicate with, even as I have committed to myself over and over to win this person over to me so, we might become not just women colleagues and allies in the arts, but also friends!!

*Wow! CM! YOU Wow me today!!

And so, from another resource on my path today, I post acknowledgments in the best ways I know how_ by including the fortuitous words of the 17th Annual U.S. Poet/activist- Laureate, William S. Merwin:

Thanks

by W.S Merwin

Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow for the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water looking out
in different directions.

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you
looking up from tables we are saying thank you
in a culture up to its chin in shame
living in the stench it has chosen we are saying thank you
over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the back door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks that use us we are saying thank you
with the crooks in office with the rich and fashionable
unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us like the earth
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is

I am a new EI!

Today, I am posting a small joy being celebrated in this world! At the same time it's really big, when one zooms into focus what joy can represent in one's life on so many levels, and in particular, in no small way!!!
It is a BIG JOY because it does in part, reflect lifelong perseverance of hand-building a dream from my childhood: to be an artist in this world. A dream inside one person, to openly help share and spread truth, beauty and freedom on the soul level, in the creative voice, through creative expression and now, as an Exhibition Interpreter!

This joy came in the mail yesterday by letter, to tell me that I have been accepted into a fairly prestigious program at a local art museum!! Acceptance into 12-months of in-depth training for this important and valuable position. Important and valuable, for the service I can embody in a more public role and certainly, in an additional professional capacity at long last to share my desires, that others know how many ways there are to recognize the value of fine art in one's own world. I am ecstatic to show the art, guide the perception-building abilities of other people, and simultaneously educate how, any person can begin to build a relationship with greater personal depth, to one's capacity for conscious recognition of what value art has in one's own life and world. A depth of recognition no matter what age a person is! From very young to wise and life-experienced, art does hold great value on so many levels, that actively reinforces the quality of our personal and collective lives, in our communities and our nation.
Finally, this news is an invaluable joy to me today, for the long-term benefit a position of this nature has for a hand-built career such as mine, a career that means life to me in so many ways.

I am very proud of this opportunity and of myself, as it has taken almost everything to arrive at a moment such as this. Celebrate with me, small and large joys of personal achievement and accomplishment that are everywhere in this world today! Joys easy to recognize and celebrate if you know where to look_ you will find them!

Women & Power; Our Time to Lead

My goal this fall is to attend this conference! Meanwhile, I am opening my own doors on a vision; my business as an artist/healer. The time has come. This is empowering work that starts in an intersection in body-centered psychology, nutritional healing and in visual work; expressive arts.
Contact me, starting on the blog here, or via the email address on the top, right side-bar.
I am looking for investors and adding clients_ I hope to hear from you!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY 2010

Like a Delicate Wallpaper, Busy Bees Use Flower Petals For Nest

(paraphrased)_ originally written by Kathleen Masterson

May 6, 2010

When we think of bees nests, we often think of a giant hive buzzing with social activity, worker bees and honey. But scientists recently discovered a rare, solitary type of bee that makes tiny nests by plastering together flower petals.

Jerome Rozen/American Museum of Natural History

This nest of the O. avoseta bee, a variety of bee not seen in the western hemisphere, is made of flower petals that holds a single egg.

Each nest is a multicolored, textured cocoon — a papier-mâché-like husk surrounding a single egg, protecting it while it develops into an adult bee.

'It's not common to us to see a bee use parts of plants for nests,' says (paraphrased), Dr. Jerome Rozen of the American Museum of Natural History, of the unexpected find. His team stumbled across the nests of the Osmia (Ozbekosima) avoseta bee in Turkey. Oddly enough, another team discovered the same bee and flowery nests in Iran on the same day. The two teams published their research together in the American Museum Novitates.
Multiple flower-lined nests of the O. avoseta bee are nestled in the ground.


Jerome Rozen/American Museum of Natural History

One mother bee may make around 10 nests, often nestling the single-cell berths near each other.

These nests are a fascinating natural work of art, and they're also key to understanding more about how the roughly 20,000 species of bees live.

"There's a demand for biologists to know bees nowadays," Rosen says. "They are the foremost animal pollinators of plants, and tremendously important for maintaining ecosystems — not only crops but also for conservation."

To learn more, the scientists watched the busy female bees. Building a nest takes a day or two, and the female bee might create about 10 nests in total, often right next to each other. To begin construction, she bites the petals off of flowers and flies each petal — one by one — back to the nest, a peanut-sized burrow in the ground.

Jerome Rozen/American Museum of Natural History

A bee closely related to O. avoseta bites off a flower petal with its mandibles.

She then shapes the multi-colored petals into a cocoon-like structure, laying one petal on top of the other and occasionally using some nectar as glue. When the outer petal casing is complete, she reinforces the inside with a paper-thin layer of mud, and then another layer of petals, so both the outside and inside adhere to one another, in what becomes a potpourri of purple, pink and yellow.

Jerome Rozen/American Museum of Natural History

Peeling back the outer layer of flower petals reveals the paper-thin mud layer.

These meticulous shells are just over a half-inch long and usually will house just one tiny egg. To prepare for her offspring, the mother collects pollen and nectar, which she carries back to the burrow in a nifty part of the digestive tract called the crop. She deposits this gooey blob of nutritional goodness in the bottom of the flower-petal nest. Then, she lays the egg, right on top of the gelatinous blob.

A closeup of an egg, laid on top of nutrients.


Jerome Rozen/American Museum of Natural History

The mother bee lays a single egg in the flowery bower, right on top of a nutritious deposit of nectar and pollen.

At this point, it's time to seal in the egg. The mother bee neatly folds in the inner layer of petals, smears a paper-thin mud layer and then folds the outer petals. The casing is nearly airtight, which helps protect the vulnerable egg (and later larva, then pupa) from flooding or excessive dryness or hoofed animals.

In only three to four days, the egg hatches into a larva. When it finishes feasting on the nectar, the larva spins a cocoon (still inside the shell, which has hardened into a protective casing by this point) and then hangs out. Rosen says he isn't sure whether it spends the winter as a larva or as an adult. But at some point the creature's tissue begins to restructure itself, and it transforms into an adult. Come springtime, the adult bee emerges from its flowery bower.

When the cycle starts all over again.

Continuing A Woman's Worth

EMBRACE YOUR INNER GIRL



Pain to Power

A Woman's Worth

I am still searching for reasonable information sources about two creative and independently ambitious women... Séraphine de Senlis and Edith Gregor Halpert. One born in France and referred to as a 'foundling' and the other born into a well-to-do merchant family in Russia; who upon losing everything, migrated with her family to America as an infant. Edith, unbeknownst to nearly everyone, grew up to become one of the most influential persons to shape the very foundation of modern art in this country! Her legacy was at risk of slipping into oblivion, until it was unearthed a few short years ago and written about by Lindsay Pollock. The story of a creative and resourceful life, as Séraphine uniquely lived her own, is still to be uncovered and told to the world! Who will be called to complete the project of telling about Séraphine de Senlis, possibly as part of their own development of becoming?

Along with these two examples of women nearly forgotten, or not recognized at all for their preciously valuable contributions to this world and humanity, I could point to the poverty of detail in my own female biological family history! As far as the impact this reality has had on the quality of my own development into adulthood, it is no wonder that I may be just emerging from my own struggles to find and shape my own sense of worth as a woman and human being. Just emerging into awareness to understand what my responsibilities are, in shaping my own successes in life. Just beginning to clearly envision a life of value for my own self, contributing to the world in which I now live, and understand that I have arrived internally to a calm that I may just leave a legacy of conscious worth for my daughter. Not that any of this knowing or shaping can be done in advance of the doing; in advance of the living it into reality. Yet, in light of the struggle to simply locate records of the value of other significant women's lives, that a general lack of awareness for the value of self has been such a struggle, a struggle to break through the external layers of cultural amnesia caked on top of the prism of personal experience and history, I must ask, do we need to continue this standard amnesia approaching recognition, orientation and familiarity for the valuable in defining human consciousness evolution? I am searching for a simpler, shared language to do this, learn this, to share this!

This post is not a lament of personal difficulties but only a brief comment out loud for the recognition of my own propensity for naïveté. To somehow always expect what is not already in place in the world, as though it is my right that my expectations of life, ought already be so in manifest reality. Yet too, this consciousness which Western societies define as confidence, this consciousness of expectation is in reality, a tricky balance to learn; to consciously cultivate internally. Learning to abandon the ego in the process.
At risk of sounding egotistical this post then, is an act of my own recording for all the world to find. That I am experiencing recognition for the significance to learn conscious, internal self-worth as a woman, as a human being, on a global and microcosmic level today, this week, and I am posting about this recognition for it's own sake at this moment.
My worth, any person's worth is up to me/each one of us_ to define by living that inherent worth we are each invited (by birth), to bring into reality.
The only expectation then, is to truly consciously become all that we can each be. I am recognizing this is my job to do in, and with my life from here on out...

Life lived in pursuit of clear truth, seems to be a process of distilling everything down to its essential nature. Henry David Thoreau is someone whose words I have paraphrased before, where my own path seems in relation to his wisdom in quiet hours. Having just come back across this quote, I add it here where it seems relevant (in my life) again: "In proportion as she simplifies her life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." ~Thoreau, paraphrased


Tokens of well-wishes sent in support of my very first public exhibit, 1988.

Séraphine de Senlis

This image is (original to me) posted on flickr by, Dalbera

I first learned about Séraphine de Senlis in 1999, as I was beginning to build my undergrad research on French women artists. I chose not to use her work in my research at that time, because there was so little to find out about her. However, I was recently greatly enamored to have rediscovered her as subject in the movie snapshot last fall, about her work, her experience of being discovered as a naif artist & that all too brief time frame the movie covered on her personal life.
My rediscovery of the life and work of Séraphine, occurred through amazing coincidences I was experiencing on line; my own naïve discovery of a phenomenon called blog swapping!
Today, I have decided to renew my (again!) all too brief_ research about this woman and artist, by committing to write more about her, as I unearth the gems of info on Séraphine de Senlis, there is yet to discover!!

Beating the Recession Blues with a little jazz at my RENT PARTY and YOU are invited!

I invite you to join me in some stylish survival reverie!! As my job search endeavors continue in the face of this daunting recession, I am throwing a Rent Party, the roots of which I discovered many years ago!! Since it went over went quite well at that time, in a whole whoosh of last minute spontaneity, making the rent in a sigh of relief and a lot of gratitude, I want to throw open the doors online to some afternoon socializing! With the caveat that your visit here will add some cash to the pot upon arriving! 'Course some folks, at the first Rent Party or "skiffle" years ago, enjoyed themselves first and then, wrote generous checks upon leaving! Wow! It was such a fantastic interaction of mutual support that I am enthusiastic to again re-create what seems to be a great way to spend a special afternoon with you, your favorite food, and a little offering of some great jazz music! Heck, invite your family and friends and make it a whole party right where you are!! Just don't forget to hit the paypal button below!

In afore said resilient manner, I have posted some jazz music via Pandora, featuring the one and only Duke the-man Ellington, the Count Basie and maestro Art Tatum, plus a ridiculous number of other equally talented names in classical jazz & musical history_ who will just show up on each station, for your dancing/listening pleasure!
The longer you stay, dance and listen to the music with that glass of whatever you like to drink best (to your health!!)_ check below the music to find the paypal button I have set up to make it easy to contribute to my RENT PARTY online, and do donate as generously as you can! Remember it's for a good cause; helping one more person keep their own roof over, in this case, my own head, while I continue searching for work! Stay tuned to my blog for updates on this progress too!

Feel free to leave a comment here if you have any employment to offer, as my skills base is broad! I would love a chance to telecommute in a paid entry-level illustration &/or graphic design intern assignment, for example! Here is my LinkedIn connection. On it I have posted my ideal employment goals, plus my work history background; don't hesitate to talk to me about what skills you may be seeking. Employment-wise, let's network and see how we can get connected!! If a RENT PARTY is good enough for Steely Dan...!

And THANK-YOU very, very much for your support here today!!! Enjoy my Rent Party and please donate via the paypal button below!

As an additional treat to the RENT PARTY, I have created an incentive for donors, to own this painting as the highest bidder, in helping me to achieve the RENT PARTY's informal fund-raising goals! This is in conjunction to the main event I will be hosting here at my house, on the 21st of THIS month! Sunday after next, from 3 to 7pm! Bring a pen, some extra cash, a willingness to socialize, network and share a little healthy mirth in the face of challenges. (*Please note that bids start at $200 on the painting!)
It is February, so spread the love and donate today, as often and as much you can and own this painting, entitled: "Vous Etes Né Comme Vous Etes; Un Esprit Beau!"

* It seems one might need to reference: "Timeless Rhythms Studio" when filling in the donate info after clicking the button! **This is my first time to use paypal for anything (!) so, please share your input if you are experienced and see anything that needs attention. Just leave a comment on the blog, and let me know how you like my RENT PARTY_ thanks!

* If there is only a big blue rectangle (below) with a spinning gear in the center of it, just hit the refresh button on your computer and then give the blue rectangle a few patient seconds_ the music menu will then magically appear!

Larry Lessig on laws that choke creativity | Video on TED.com

Stanford Law Professor and Creative Commons founder Larry Lessig Larry Lessig on laws that choke creativity | Video on TED.com

4 years later!

Four years after posting my art blog, Timeless Rhythms_ my visitor count has hit 6000! Woooooo!!!!!! Hoooooo!!!!!! I am excited! It is nice to be posting one of the intelligent locations on the web that an artist can count on. Count on to find tons of reputable materials about all kinds of resources in the art world. From other artists workings, to galleries and museums world-wide; houses of good quality art and even whimsical works! Timeless Rhythms is place on the net that gives focus to the art produced by incredible women artists of all media, including my own, toot! Toot! There are artist resources including 501 c 3 sponsorship for individual artists, and all kinds of support that other communities and states arts organizations seem to continue to resist creating closer to home; resources in support of more local "revenue streams!". Fractured Atlas is an organization that will support the individual artist learning to fund your project where we each live in America! I don't reveal too many details because I want you to be intrigued by your own searches here! Discover for yourself because yes, everything about creating takes time and you are worth the time it takes!
Even with all this resource information, I am still very much feeling my way in the dark on this path as artist with life! A path that requires all of my confidence in being and doing something that I know am supposed to in this world. Contributing to the world more beautifully, that in addition to my journal entries_ speak visually to freedom, to love, to truth.
Therefore, I continue learning to open my life to this creative process, to healthy creative collaborators and patronage of my work, to new friends and loved ones, deepening my connections to those who are so much part of my life, especially my daughter_ I love you with all my heart!
Thank-you to everyone who stops in to visit this corner of my Timeless Rhythms Studio and Online Journal!! Keep coming back; leave your comments! I love knowing you are out in this river of life with me!

It All Happened inside of Five Minutes_ Literally!

Tonight, I came home from my weekly check-in with a friend whose shop is not far from my current abode, and thought I would just check the local craig's listings for employment potential. This has become part of my daily ritual for months now. What did my wondering eyes happen to see first, at the top of today's listings, but the following ad title(?):

Reception and Bookkeeping /ART GALLERY/ (corvallis/albany)

I began this quest about 7pm my time and by 7:10pm, the ad had literally disappeared from the craigslist listings all together! DISAPPEARED right before my eyes! But, not before I had done a little digging after, I had responded immediately to the ad.
I was duped; taken in; my personal contact information scooped up and who knows how it may be being used, as we speak.

I did also just contact my bank to cover my back, just in-case. I am also posting it to my blog for everyone to be aware of the level of unscrupulousness that some desperate souls will stoop to, in a recession. BEWARE of all employment ads on craigslist anymore. I am sorry to say this, but it has become a nest of connivers! Not just this ad, but increasingly there are more phantom employment gimmicks posted than actual, local positions for real work!


The ad of such concern in my experience, as it appeared briefly (a couple of hours total from the look of things) on craigslist tonight, is as follows, DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!!!:


Date: 2010-01-23, 5:40PM PST
Reply to: see below

ART GALLERY BOOKKEEPER

Major contemporary art gallery (specializing in contemporary painting and sculpture), located in midtown, is currently interviewing for a full-time position. This position involves bookkeeping, gallery reception (answering the telephone and maintaining front desk) as well as some assistance with archiving.

The position requires someone who is highly organized, detail oriented, efficient, and quick with numbers, as well as energetic, unpretentious, and personable. The applicant should have experience as a bookkeeper and a strong visual sensibility. The applicant must be proficient with a Windows PC and have knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel, as well as some experience with databases and the internet.

The work-week for this position will be Tuesday through Saturday during the fall, winter, and spring, and Tuesday through Friday during the summer.

This is a long-term position. After an initial trial period, the Gallery requests a commitment of at least three years.


Please contact Thomas M. Smith at thomasmsmith@gmx.com and attach a resume if possible.

* Location: corvallis/albany
* Compensation: great compensation - negotiable!
* Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
* Please, no phone calls about this job!
* Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.



This is a copy of the autoresponder email contents that came back in my emailbox:

thomasmsmith@gmx.com
to me:

show details 6:56 PM, 1/23/10

GMX Autoresponder

Thank you for your interest in the Reseption and Bookkeeping position we have posted through Craigslist. To complete the application process please click on the link below.

To apply for this job click here http://newjobsforlife.com?183466

Thank you
Thomas Smith

This autoresponder e-mail was sent in reply to your message. Please note that additional automatic replies will only be sent once per week, regardless of the number of times you try to contact this recipient.

© 2008 GMX Internet Services Inc.
GMX is a registered trademark of GMX Internet Services Inc.


THIS IS THE SITE, CONCERNING FRAUDULENCE THAT CAME UP, IN A SIMPLE GOOGLE SEARCH FOR THE NAME OF THE COMPANY (THOMAS M. SMITH GALLERY), it came up as a "Money Mule Scam":


http://www.fraudwatchinternational.com/fake-jobs/thomassmithartsgallery/

Thinking about Stillness_ and Noticing

"Beauty Arises In The Stillness Of Your Presence

What you have just described is something that I have occasionally experienced for brief moments when I am alone and surrounded by nature.

Yes, Zen masters use the word satori to describe a flash of insight, a moment of no-mind and total presence. Although satori is not a lasting transformation, be grateful when it comes, for it gives you a taste of enlightenment. You may, indeed, have experienced it many times without knowing what it is and realizing its importance. Presence is needed to become aware of the beauty, the majesty, the sacredness of nature. Have you ever gazed up into the infinity of space on a clear night, awestruck by the absolute stillness and inconceivable vastness of it? Have you listened, truly listened to the sound of a mountain stream in the forest? Or to the song of a blackbird at dusk on a quiet summer evening? To become aware of such things, the mind needs to be still. You have to put down for a moment your personal baggage of problems, of past and future, as well as all of your knowledge; otherwise, you will see but not see, hear but not hear. Your total presence is required.
Beyond the beauty of the external forms, there is more here: something that cannot be named, something ineffable. some deep, inner, holy essence. Whenever and wherever there is beauty, this inner essence shines through somehow. It only reveals itself to you when you are present. Could it be that this nameless essence and your presence are one and the same? Would it be there without your presence? Go deeply into it. Find out for yourself.

When you experience these moments of presence, you likely didn’t realize that you were briefly in a state of no-mind. This is because the gap between that state and the influx of thought was too narrow. Your satori may have only lasted a few seconds before the mind came in, but it was there; otherwise, you would not have experienced the beauty. Mind can neither recognize nor create beauty. Only for a few seconds, while you were completely present, was that beauty or that sacredness there. Because the narrowness of that gap and a lack of vigilance and alertness on your part, you were probably unable to see the fundamental difference between perception, the thoughtless awareness of beauty, and the naming and interpreting of it as thought: the time gap was so small that it seemed to be a single process. The truth is, however, that the moment thought came in, all you had was a memory of it.

The wider the time gap between perception and thought, the more depth there is to you as a human being, which is to say the more conscious you are.

Many people are so imprisoned in their minds that the beauty of nature does not really exist for them. They might say, “What a pretty flower,” but that’s just a mechanical mental labeling. Because they are not still, not present, they don’t truly see the flower, don’t feel its essence, its holiness_ just as they don’t know themselves, don’t feel their own essence, their own holiness.

Because we live in such a mind-dominated culture, most modern art, architecture, music and literature are devoid of beauty, of inner essence, with very few exceptions. the reason is that the people who created those things cannot_ even for a moment_ free themselves from their mind. So they are never in touch with that place within where true creativity and beauty arise. The mind left to itself creates monstrosities, and not only in art galleries. Look at our urban landscapes and industrial wastelands. No civilization has ever produced so much ugliness." _Eckhart Tolle, The Power of NOW, pgs. 96-98

Image progressions on the current commssion & quality of life musings for the new year

To start the new year off right, I am posting progressions of my current commission, two studies in chalk pastel accomplished thus far.




The quality of these images is not satisfactory as they were both take with the camera on a cell phone! Someone give me real a camera!



What I also want to share with you is that, I scanned through Oprah's magazine out on the local stands yesterday! Hey! I even look at Martha's stuff occasionally and glean great inspiration there also! These are two women who can put only their first names in google... can you?
Anyway, I found two things in the current issue of "O" Magazine that are pertinent for me, and since I know myself as somewhere in the middle spectrum of humanity in many ways, I know there is stuff in there for you too! Besides in a new year, I want to really put my truth out into the world because I do know the ripple effect this practice has in one's own life! It is time for that effect to be more dominantly positive in my life! I am just the last one to learn how make money from any of those good ideas, which is connected to the second really awesome thing I found in "O" this month! (more on that at the bottom of this post!)

So, the first thing is this survey for all of us outsider job-seekers, focused on the seven most striving skills we all possess in one combination or another! They can also make really good adjective resource material for the résumé, just be discerning in your use of them. Or not, depending on your style! Does that work? Are you successful in this approach?
I am asking because I have no experience with other people enough to know about what I am good at at this point! I know I have a lot to offer in this world!

I also recognize I can no longer do everything alone as I have done for far too long in my life. The fear that an adult survivor of a mentally ill parent carries around with them, is an identity of internalized terror and chaos they hope no one else will notice. Hm-m-m-m... truth is, I am really a sunshiny person temperamentally. I just got buried for a long time_ but you know what they say about finding your way in the dark_ at least I always have, "...in the heart of darkness one finds light." I am that pin prick of light, that mere glimmer and we all know what springs from those faintest of shinings!
So here is what I got back from taking the "Who Am I Meant To BE?" survey on oprah.com: (in case you can relate to my profile, these beautiful survival descriptions are accompanied with employment possibilities too!)

Who Am I Meant to Be?
By Anne Dranitsaris, PhD
http://www.oprah.com

MY SCORES
Many people have two or three strong striving styles, and they can all be important in leading you to the person you are meant to be. If you have a few "highest" scores, read each matching description, and see what rings most true.

Striving to help: 10
Striving to be recognized: 13
Striving to be creative: 18
Striving to be spontaneous: 16
Striving to be knowledgeable: 17
Striving to be secure: 13
Striving to be in control: 14



STRIVING TO BE CREATIVE
You scored: 18
You are an artist: You came out of the womb with a paintbrush in your hand; you're an original, and you know it. Even if you don't have a singular gift, you're drawn to the arts—anything creative, for that matter—and you have a unique way of looking at the world. Your need for depth and authenticity in relationships can lead to both great joy and profound sorrow, depending on whether others reciprocate. You don't care so much about adapting to group or societal expectations; your independence and sharp intuition propel you on your own path.

What to watch out for: When fear of conformity overrides your creativity, you can assume the role of "outsider" or "orphan" and end up feeling alienated. You may even go so far as refusing to vote or pay taxes. This lone-wolf stance might be a defense against feeling vulnerable. Try to be aware that blaming others for your banishment, or pushing away those who want to get close, only makes things worse. Also, dramatizing your emotions can interfere with your creativity.

Looking ahead: As long as you genuinely express yourself, you feel like the person you were meant to be. How you do it is irrelevant. A chef or architect can be as much of an artist as a painter or sculptor. Many advertising and public relations executives are also highly imaginative. Beyond work, there are opportunities everywhere you look to coax out your inner artist: Design your own jewelry line, create an innovative blog, dream up a comic strip. Relationships are another avenue for self-expression.

Striving to be creative: Imagination and personal expression are important to this type, so they enjoy jobs as:
Graphic Designers
Art Directors
Yoga Instructors
Drug Addiction Counselors
Architects
Actors/Musicians/Dancers/Athletes
College Professors
Yoga or Meditation Teachers



STRIVING TO BE SPONTANEOUS
You scored: 16
You are an adventurer: Action-oriented, curious, outgoing, and often technically gifted, you live for new experiences. You are drawn to risk-taking and aren't afraid to fail. Generally restless, you tend to job-hop or choose a field that offers constant novelty. If you had to name your favorite place, it might be the center of attention—you're a born entertainer, and can easily adapt to any audience. While you collect many acquaintances, you're less likely to develop deep, committed relationships.

What to watch out for: When you can't satisfy your thirst for variety and excitement, you may see yourself as trapped, which can lead to impulsive and self-destructive behavior—drinking, drugs, breaking off relationships, ditching financial responsibilities. Try to find value in some traditions; if you learn to appreciate repetitive experiences, you won't always feel the urge to bust free. And when a new opportunity thrills you, keep in mind that just because it sounds exciting, that doesn't mean it's good for you.

Looking ahead: Life will have meaning for you as long as you feel stimulated. That might mean chasing twisters, exploring the polar ice caps, getting a degree in dance therapy, or becoming an astronaut. It might also mean reading new books, attending workshops, or letting yourself get swept up in an intoxicating romance. As a risk-lover with a lot of energy, you're a natural entrepreneur. You'll be happiest if you change jobs every so often and travel extensively. Movement is what keeps you going.

Striving to be spontaneous: These action and adventure lovers are drawn to careers that promise excitement, whether as a:
Coach
Police Officer
Events Promoter
Family Lawyer
Nutritionist
Investigator
Broker
Travel Agent or Tour Operator



STRIVING TO BE KNOWLEDGEABLE
You scored: 17
You are an intellectual: As a leader, you're often ahead of your time. As an employee, you try to surpass the competence level of peers, even managers. Incisive and curious, you're driven to deeply understand how things work. But that's things, not people. Oh, your family and friends are important; it's just that you don't need to spend hours engaging with them. Social validation isn't your goal—you're secure enough in your cerebral pursuits.

What to watch out for: When you can't find a way to be the expert, you may withdraw or simply withhold information, which can make you seem smug or arrogant. If you feel yourself retreating into your own world, seek a friend's help to pull you back. Also balance your cerebral tendencies through physical activities like jogging, hiking, or dance.

Looking ahead: You discover who you are meant to be through accumulating insight and knowledge. So follow your curiosity. Are you drawn to learning Mandarin? Join-ing a philosophy society? Studying and practicing Buddhist meditation? Delving into the complexities of computer programming? Writing a historical book? Pursuits that place you near the leading edge of technology, science, psychology, academia, or business are good bets. But any situation that allows you to work independently with freedom to investigate and innovate will fuel your drive.


Striving to be knowledgeable: Deep thinking and an inventive spirit help this type excel in fields like:
Biomedical Research
Computer Programming
Law
Education
Engineering
Management
Environmental Planning
Telecomunications



STRIVING TO BE RECOGNIZED
You scored: 13
You are an achiever: Ambitious, competitive, and hardworking: That's you. With a clear image of who you are, you work tirelessly to make sure your accomplishments are recognized. Your drive for success extends to your family, and you invest a lot of energy in helping them live up to your expectations. Thanks to your knack for diplomacy and abundant charisma, you often inspire others.

What to watch out for: You are prone to becoming a workaholic, slaving away toward success while neglecting your personal life. Because you're driven to gain approval, you can find yourself performing for others like an actor; if you become overly concerned with your image, you end up feeling superficial. To keep your ambition under control, get involved in group activities that require cooperation. Also practice listening to those around you and think about sharing the spotlight from time to time.

Looking ahead: Any career that allows you to scale the ranks and gain recognition, status, even material rewards, lights you up. Actress, entrepreneur, salesperson, politician—you get the picture. And consider balancing your professional challenges with personal ones: Run a 10K, train for a triathlon, compete in a tennis tournament, bike from one end of your state to the other; or join a debate team, play in a poker circle, enter your purebred spaniel in a dog show. Whenever you can win at something, you're happy.

Striving to be recognized: An audience and a chance to show off their charm suit this type, which works best in roles such as:
Teacher
Newscaster
Real Estate Agent
Publicist
Talent Agent
Investment Banker
Journalist/Reporter
Literary Agent



STRIVING TO BE IN CONTROL
You scored: 14
You are a leader: You approach everything as though you were born to be in charge. Confident, assertive, and decisive, you know what you want and you go after it. You also look out for family, friends, and community—you feel you know what's best for them—and have no fear of confronting anyone who challenges your ideas. Taking the driver's seat, you also generously donate time and energy to people and neighborhood projects.

What to watch out for: When you feel threatened, or others refuse to go along with your agenda, you can become confrontational and domineering, sometimes to the point of being dictatorial. Practice letting someone else take charge on occasion. Also try meditation; it can help you be-come more aware of your controlling impulses and ease the anxiety that may be provoking them.

Looking ahead: You discover your purpose when you take control of your environment. For you, finding a decision-making role is key. That could mean anything from producing a play to spearheading a global campaign for something you care about. In work, you're suited for leadership positions in education, government, industry, finance, religious institutions, or politics. But you can find satisfaction anytime you're given the autonomy to do things your own way.

Striving to be in control: Decisiveness and authority come easily to this type, so they work best in leadership roles:
Restaurant manager
Healthcare administrator
Sales director
Teacher
Political consultant
Marketing manager
Advertising executive
Politician



STRIVING TO BE SECURE
You scored: 13
You are a stabilizer: You are the rock in a storm, the one others lean on. Loyal and com-mitted in your relationships, you maintain a support system of like-minded people whom you look out for. (So what if you do it behind the scenes and don't get credit?) You're careful with money, cherish the familiar, and defend the traditions you care about.

What to watch out for: Rapidly changing environments (like a shaky economy) are very hard for you. As a result of such instability, you can spiral into a state where everything seems catastrophic and you're sure life will only get worse. You can also become over-controlling, rejecting any suggestion that doesn't conform to your idea of the way things should be. To avoid being too rigid, each month try changing one habit. Experiment with clothes, drive a different way to work, initiate conversations about subjects you wouldn't normally discuss. And when the opportunity arises to do something new, avoid the impulse to immediately say no—this may be nerve-racking, but the more you practice, the less anxious you'll feel.

Looking ahead: You find meaning in pursuing safety and certainty. Focusing on family can give you great satisfaction. Also consider planting a vegetable garden, hosting class reunions, volunteering as a lifeguard, teaching at your church or temple. In the work arena, look for positions where you're responsible for others, and for making sure everyone is following the rules. You work well in any environment that is stable and consistent. Careers in government, finance, the military, law enforcement, and product manufacturing are strong options for you.

Striving to be secure: Stable, accurate, and with an unbending attention to detail, this type does well in jobs that have consistency, such as:
Paralegals
Accountants
Electrical engineers
Dentists
School administrators
Public servants
Computer programmers



STRIVING TO HELP
You scored: 10
You are a nurturer: You are caring and supportive in your personal relationships as well as in your job. Unselfish and altruistic by nature, you often anticipate the needs of those around you before they are aware of them. If there is one thing that brings you satisfaction, it's tending to others.

What to watch out for: When you're doing things for people only to feel valued, you can become resentful. And if you sense that your help is not appreciated, you may end up playing the martyr. So before giving your time to everyone else, make sure to take care of yourself (physically, emotionally, and spiritually). And practice waiting until someone asks for help: While you may be able to perceive what a person needs, that doesn't mean she wants you to attend to it.

Looking ahead: It's important for you to be genuinely of service in acknowledged ways. Whether you foster a child, care for an elderly aunt, rescue animals, or support a rock star's career as her personal assistant, look for opportunities where you can help other people or bigger causes. Volunteer work has your name written on it, as do many careers: nursing, teaching, customer service, healing, social work. Don't feel pressured to run the company or lead the project; you may be even more effective as someone's right hand. And you'll likely find working with other people more meaningful than flying solo.

Striving to help: A need to take care of other people is important to this type, who thrives in professions like:
Career counselor
Psychologist
Massage therapist
Development, or Training Consultant
Paralegal
Wedding Planner
Paramedic

The bottom three are on the lukewarm side for me, though I like being acknowledged as a nurturer, just more along the lines of the artist as nurturer_ hey! I AM a good cook!



Now, for a little philosophical or acerbic humor (depending on how you see life!) I have unabashedly borrowed from Hugh MacLeod.
I am smiling today after such a collective bounty of creative wisdom & wit & I have to say how much I love my facebook network!! I LOVE MY FACEBOOK NETWORK!!!

"Sing in your own voice.
Don't worry about finding inspiration, it comes eventually.
Being poor sucks.
Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put here on this earth to climb.
The choice of media is irrelevant.
Start blogging.
Write from the heart.
The best way to get approval is to not need it.
Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid a crowd altogether.
Savor obscurity while it lasts.
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE.
Power is never given. Power is taken.
Nobody cares.
Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due eventually.
Do it for yourself.
Beware of turning hobbies into jobs.
Worrying about "Commercial" versus "Artistic" is a complete waste of time.
Merit can be bought. Passion can't."
The mind has lots of questions. The heart has lots of answers.
"When your dreams become reality, they are no longer your dreams.
Allow your work to age with you.
Keep your day job.
IGNORE EVERYBODY.
If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.
Remain frugal.
Dying young is overrated.
If your biz plan depends upon you finally being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.
Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside.
The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.
Everyone is born creative, everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.
Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.
The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.
Selling out is harder than it looks.
You have to find your own schtick.
The world is changing avoid the water cooler gang.
Put the hours in.
Meaning scales, people don't.
The more talented somebody is, the less they need props."

And one more, I recently found in a book titled: "Pay Me What I'm Worth, A Guide To Help You Say It, Mean It, Get It" by, Souldancer:
"It is not so much that our friends' help that helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us." _Epicurus, Ancient Greek philosopher, the founder of Epicureanism (341 BC, Samos - 270 BC, Athens)

Oh! and the second thing I picked up on in my scan of "O" Magazine is this, thank-you Glenn Close: http://bringchange2mind.org/

May this post put a smile on your face in many more ways than one for days to come!