tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-338778507683772312024-03-05T01:30:15.537-05:00The Unfolding Momenttaking one breath, over and overTracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-6463846532872871662012-05-19T08:07:00.003-04:002012-05-19T08:08:42.062-04:00From there to here, and beyondI attended a day-long retreat this week where I enjoyed the gift of spacious silence for reflecting on my creative path—how I got here and where I'm headed. I created this sketchbook spread:<br />
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I also made an aspiration card that sums up many of my life principles. You can see it on <a href="http://benttuba.com/2012/05/18/aspirations/" target="_blank">the Bent Tuba Studio blog.</a><br />
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<br />Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-63022136334144077762012-02-21T20:15:00.000-05:002012-02-21T20:15:52.527-05:00Adventures with Tina the Tuba<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm so pleased to announce the birth of <a href="http://benttuba.com/workshops" target="_blank">Bent Tuba Studio</a> - art workshops for adults in Greensboro, NC. The first class will happen March 17, and registration is open until March 10. And if you're wondering about the tuba, you'll want to read this: <a href="http://benttuba.com/2012/02/17/ttuba/" target="_blank">The Tale of Tina the Tuba</a><br />
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I've also been dabbling in the <a href="http://sketchbookchallenge.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Sketchbook Challenge.</a> More of my sketchbook images, like the one shown here, will be posted soon at the Bent Tuba blog. I hope you'll play along!Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-63975821907413400602012-01-03T18:19:00.095-05:002012-01-04T12:12:14.453-05:00Rest is not the opposite of action.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaigaiero2/" target="_blank"> shikeroku</a> (used under Creative Commons license)</td></tr>
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Sometimes my fallow periods are filled with resistance: I want something specific to happen and it's just not happening (yet), leading me to recognize that things are still germinating. At other times, lying fallow is a deliberate choice that I make.<br />
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Six months ago I received two devastating pieces of news within a few days of each other, and the nature of my circumstances led me to choose rest as the best course of action. It's as if I were lucky enough to walk away intact from a train wreck, and rather than immediately searching for another train heading toward my original destination, I decided to just walk for a while and take in the landscape. To slow down, serve in a smaller way for a while, and discern the shape of things.<br />
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Though I've been at peace with my decision, reading this post by Alana Sheeren <a href="http://lifeafterbenjamin.com/?p=1858" target="_blank">on practicing self-care</a> led me to an epiphany: Rest is not the opposite of action.<br />
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Alana writes: "The revelation that has come this past week is that inspired action and
slowing down aren’t mutually exclusive if I let go of the thought that
I need to <i>be there now</i>. I can get more sleep<i> and</i> spread the word about the pregnancy loss support group I’m starting. I can meditate and journal <i>and</i> answer my emails. But I can only do this if I truly let go and trust that there is time."<br />
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These words sparked an insight for me: If "inspired action and slowing down aren't mutually exclusive," then rest contains elements of action, and action CAN include elements of rest.<br />
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I've always seen it as rest versus action, as if the two can only be at odds. But if there is action that happens within a state of rest, then rest isn't just restorative (taking you back to where you were before) but also transformative (bringing you into a new landscape entirely). And if there can be places of rest within a state of action, then that changes the game entirely, doesn't it? What if restorative transformation can happen all along the way? What if there's a deep breath available with every step?Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-14347885807555870392011-08-31T10:31:00.000-04:002011-09-04T14:43:36.316-04:00Metamorphosis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I created this mixed media collage/assemblage, titled <i>Metamorphosis</i>, to donate to the "Art Lives Here" silent auction fundraiser for <a href="http://hirschwellnessnetwork.org/">Hirsch Wellness Network</a>, which provides creativity workshops to cancer survivors and caregivers. This piece is a diptych that incorporates tea and coffee stains, vintage pattern paper, ink, image transfer, magazine collage elements, and found objects.<br />
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A few detail views:<br />
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Some of the other art works to be featured can be previewed at the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/hirsch_wellness/">"Art Lives Here" auction Flickr page</a>. Check out Hirsch's Facebook page for <a href="http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=262952777057537">auction details</a>.<br />
<br />Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-54510914794840576592011-08-22T12:07:00.000-04:002011-08-31T14:36:05.175-04:00On the creative process<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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1. "Just being at the piano – egoless – is to reach that place where the only thing that exists is the sound and moving toward the sound. The music on the page that was outside of you is now within you, and moves through you; you are a channel for the music, and play from the center of your being. Everything that you have consciously learned, all of your knowledge, emanates from within you... You are at one with yourself and the act, and feel as if the playing has already happened and you are effortlessly releasing it. The music is in your hands, in the air, in the room, the music is everywhere, and the whole universe is contained in the experience of playing." [Mildred Chase]</div>
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2. "We create together with our materials and our bodies, not just from our minds... When I move freely from my body and other senses, the materials will respond." [Shaun McNiff]</div>
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3. "I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten – happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another." [Brenda Euland]</div>
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Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-41443158813746113252011-08-10T11:56:00.002-04:002011-08-10T11:56:38.042-04:00Sketching mindfulness.<div>
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I started a new sketchbook. A record of liminal space.<div>
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Making marks / old friends in a new space: seeds and mandalas.</div>
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Finding one thing to love in a place I don't want to be: crooked lamp in a waiting room.</div>
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Seeing the sky: clouds.</div>
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A breath, and a breath, and a breath. That's what I know.</div>
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Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-83795155712723521642011-05-28T22:56:00.000-04:002011-05-28T22:56:20.533-04:00Scenes from the studio.I love, love, love having a studio space again. This one is finally really starting to feel like home, and I look forward every weekend to my studio time and the corresponding (almost physical) act of stepping back into my artist identity.<br />
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The following are photos of some goodies that live in the studio now, after last weekend's field trip to <a href="http://www.scrapexchange.org/">The Scrap Exchange</a> in Durham, NC. Round things and cylindrical things and fabric/wallpaper/paper samples...<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjThnbLgJ3SFyjyt30tkEp8yy2QRDFI95zdSrX0iBfDPVrflX8J73P32ORdNXr_oiqGXWqR1zWpoRsgGDvyhDtzyRYQFvHcVIo1CKWoPzKnfhrqu3VAZtmppRgf_xJXOOSl1QUTwvFoHA/s1600/studio-cylindricalthings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjThnbLgJ3SFyjyt30tkEp8yy2QRDFI95zdSrX0iBfDPVrflX8J73P32ORdNXr_oiqGXWqR1zWpoRsgGDvyhDtzyRYQFvHcVIo1CKWoPzKnfhrqu3VAZtmppRgf_xJXOOSl1QUTwvFoHA/s320/studio-cylindricalthings.jpg" width="308" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJlWDdQIOZt6dimzTSpZ9jfgeeszLplspjVxbXVvmvPMpSnKyiAfdo7QxT2jhvNJhXYIwyw8IoRZqWnI0TIjjfFMpZMSnMmGMDDmdgmrawJSwDtlyQcnociRvd8z2sW0uAADYiwQn9Sw/s1600/studio-fabricsamples.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJlWDdQIOZt6dimzTSpZ9jfgeeszLplspjVxbXVvmvPMpSnKyiAfdo7QxT2jhvNJhXYIwyw8IoRZqWnI0TIjjfFMpZMSnMmGMDDmdgmrawJSwDtlyQcnociRvd8z2sW0uAADYiwQn9Sw/s320/studio-fabricsamples.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><br />
These old friends, which have been packed away since I last had my own studio space five years ago, found a home on my work table today:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRIrfP2vWUUYgb2kkYRcS8kQ0bRna4Wm9-8KeXGysmHlul29AWuHhQWC7mRYCNCxewU4aOTxGd3hod_pchAIZ4S-lOPGGzigwDgbjhPNno9u-4OXA2HiKrn4xruPMfCAy0J_JanMU3Rg/s1600/studio-walnuts-cedarballs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRIrfP2vWUUYgb2kkYRcS8kQ0bRna4Wm9-8KeXGysmHlul29AWuHhQWC7mRYCNCxewU4aOTxGd3hod_pchAIZ4S-lOPGGzigwDgbjhPNno9u-4OXA2HiKrn4xruPMfCAy0J_JanMU3Rg/s320/studio-walnuts-cedarballs.jpg" width="276" /></a></div><br />
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And here is a snapshot of the middle section of my inspiration board:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWHD2tf9lTHQbC3RVtjgoqgKX9ZRz7bZmTDpMVN1ono3u3HnM4FTHCoHet8FBKijoJ5RIF8UILwQOCEqhPSyqNrIA_cmpT1ykhR1-vQjep994RMwVEj6Tt7eF02loM8DcHCd8mSN4dmg/s1600/studio-inspiration-board.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWHD2tf9lTHQbC3RVtjgoqgKX9ZRz7bZmTDpMVN1ono3u3HnM4FTHCoHet8FBKijoJ5RIF8UILwQOCEqhPSyqNrIA_cmpT1ykhR1-vQjep994RMwVEj6Tt7eF02loM8DcHCd8mSN4dmg/s400/studio-inspiration-board.jpg" width="362" /></a></div><br />
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And finally, instigated by Carla Sonheim's book <a href="http://carlasonheim.com/">Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists,</a> a page of cat doodles.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzvWpWgtAfg0H4HwljYmNE_PBmLqTeIXPKPpAMnlLVymh6khGc2bl5PU3ONKb8lRuFYLrF1w61E8oScfK5W9K44yTIm5MnreEroaIwZvMCGGAtf0VGklkcOznIMgz33xJZo4PuAZvARw/s1600/studio-catdoodles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzvWpWgtAfg0H4HwljYmNE_PBmLqTeIXPKPpAMnlLVymh6khGc2bl5PU3ONKb8lRuFYLrF1w61E8oScfK5W9K44yTIm5MnreEroaIwZvMCGGAtf0VGklkcOznIMgz33xJZo4PuAZvARw/s320/studio-catdoodles.jpg" width="251" /></a></div>Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-52636834218362781602011-04-12T08:08:00.000-04:002011-04-12T08:08:42.875-04:00Postcard exchange: Everyday mandalasHere are just a few of the 25 art postcards I've made for the international postcard exchange hosted by <a href="http://www.atwb.org/Postcard-Exchange.html">Art Therapy Without Borders</a>. All made with love and delight in my new studio space.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-d2r9-64hL8hmxgjHF46hf-ynoZ5FStTN3FP-YAnSiozMDpQd3bdQfI7xC3WQGIBAX8gyw22IoWpU72JJWFudpnjv7xMewC_RrWDxv1Jfpv6Q1DDG3-rl1Uj9O7xGd754n9XLLGBBbQ/s1600/ATpostcards-mandalasA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-d2r9-64hL8hmxgjHF46hf-ynoZ5FStTN3FP-YAnSiozMDpQd3bdQfI7xC3WQGIBAX8gyw22IoWpU72JJWFudpnjv7xMewC_RrWDxv1Jfpv6Q1DDG3-rl1Uj9O7xGd754n9XLLGBBbQ/s320/ATpostcards-mandalasA.jpg" width="228" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-QcsR12ozZo0eA3hxfuiNVHRKW97U0Jn1LIxkASWXkUX_uczojHnTD1h4NU7ZikEbkPC6uo4SNFS3yAhT5IQqniZ_focohvFKFW4DbTwuWF7mAbhBgkUd9aDc1PA8TYNv6qZNgf04w/s1600/ATpostcards-mandalasC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-QcsR12ozZo0eA3hxfuiNVHRKW97U0Jn1LIxkASWXkUX_uczojHnTD1h4NU7ZikEbkPC6uo4SNFS3yAhT5IQqniZ_focohvFKFW4DbTwuWF7mAbhBgkUd9aDc1PA8TYNv6qZNgf04w/s320/ATpostcards-mandalasC.jpg" width="205" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_W52hdir9hpafp-44ok6KXJJV41HFlFEO5xHz_EPaYgrr_RIMJb91BBsY3gd1TObHGRRLqZElGbz9GQ54Ny8K-vpfCq5HsYu9-NvJJ9T_Vwj5V04grt8jYSK2MGsVDsawHpXhT0qQbQ/s1600/ATpostcards-mandalasB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_W52hdir9hpafp-44ok6KXJJV41HFlFEO5xHz_EPaYgrr_RIMJb91BBsY3gd1TObHGRRLqZElGbz9GQ54Ny8K-vpfCq5HsYu9-NvJJ9T_Vwj5V04grt8jYSK2MGsVDsawHpXhT0qQbQ/s320/ATpostcards-mandalasB.jpg" width="232" /></a></div><br />
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My weekday schedule has become very busy now that I'm being supervised for my counseling license and art therapy registration, and Saturdays in the studio are a touchstone for me. Now that the postcard exchange is coming to a close, I'm feeling pulled to return to the <a href="http://www.soulcollage.com/about-soulcollage/soulcollage-faq">SoulCollage</a> deck I started about three years ago--but the beauty of a dedicated studio space is the ability to work on more than one project at once.Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-34089270035915999102011-03-08T20:38:00.000-05:002011-08-31T14:35:04.415-04:00On being enough.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCGsQKMMkOfoeJaL-SHCew5wqXdJIbSMSVErhklp05Vx_wBco9eFMhJ1xDKgvn0LpNP1FXtmcSyk8d3IGFCYyV58qaxmvusaA22IRgGxaMHzBPCjU8UUExJqwYN_SO7uIyprsUYsi4zA/s1600/heart-mandala.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCGsQKMMkOfoeJaL-SHCew5wqXdJIbSMSVErhklp05Vx_wBco9eFMhJ1xDKgvn0LpNP1FXtmcSyk8d3IGFCYyV58qaxmvusaA22IRgGxaMHzBPCjU8UUExJqwYN_SO7uIyprsUYsi4zA/s320/heart-mandala.jpg" width="316" /></a></div>
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Lately I've been experimenting with what I think of as everyday mandalas. I created this one, called<i> Heart Mandala</i>, to accompany <a href="http://www.traceyclark.com/iamenough/2011/3/8/i-am-enough-from-tracy-hart.html">my guest post</a> at Tracey Clark's <a href="http://www.traceyclark.com/iamenough/">I Am Enough blog</a>.Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-17969030767314706792011-02-02T22:11:00.000-05:002011-02-02T22:11:33.058-05:00Or is it more?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLlVtXlUpxDtokh7EO4S4LMs826NJRNe0k7h9-2A0WNgNQ9ZGpbsA9ovAgU178Vkhjhx7q4AOh4u5rXRQUN7QXM5gI8At6yMTOK6DU2yUFULW91N7B8kWZB_oBTJ47_pChzrZOWj9a5Q/s1600/more+broken+more+open.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLlVtXlUpxDtokh7EO4S4LMs826NJRNe0k7h9-2A0WNgNQ9ZGpbsA9ovAgU178Vkhjhx7q4AOh4u5rXRQUN7QXM5gI8At6yMTOK6DU2yUFULW91N7B8kWZB_oBTJ47_pChzrZOWj9a5Q/s400/more+broken+more+open.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
I'm keeping a visual journal as a form of professional processing. This is what showed up this week.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><i>is this my same broken-open heart</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>or is it more?</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>more broken</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>more open</i></div><br />
It's an echo of process work I was doing in 2007 during my first year of graduate school. Which, in its turn, was a continuation of unfinished work from my undergraduate thesis the previous year. Artistic process, like life experience, can be a spiral in which we encounter a theme again and again, but always at a richer level.Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-4901601364975431882011-01-09T17:26:00.000-05:002011-01-09T17:26:06.284-05:00Be your own lifeboat.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnAX1q90a2QvRYijqhF2byTV_4tzjq8vZ3_95l0R8BO0QWnqjrY_pGPx0CRHofcTUWVxe4luqecKaRyH_n8_7MMcdfonTDd6EWi5J9-X9d9zypOVRBwchQsRzrpVlQPvjCzbVEvyjAjg/s1600/selfportraitw%253Awaterwings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnAX1q90a2QvRYijqhF2byTV_4tzjq8vZ3_95l0R8BO0QWnqjrY_pGPx0CRHofcTUWVxe4luqecKaRyH_n8_7MMcdfonTDd6EWi5J9-X9d9zypOVRBwchQsRzrpVlQPvjCzbVEvyjAjg/s400/selfportraitw%253Awaterwings.jpg" width="287" /></a></div><br />
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I began this blog nearly two years ago, in a place of transition and unknowns, just before graduating from my master's program in Colorado and moving 2000 miles back to the Southeast. For the past 18 months since the move, I've struggled to maintain my artistic and professional identity while volunteering, networking, and holding peripheral part-time jobs. But this New Year has brought me the gift of a new full-time position, and for the next few months I'll be enjoying a different kind of transition as I learn to effectively serve at-risk youth and their families as an intensive in-home counselor.<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The drawing shown above, titled "Self-Portrait with Water Wings," is a reminder that I have everything I need to stay afloat. (Look for this image in <a href="http://37days.typepad.com/">Patti Digh</a>'s book <i>What I Wish For You</i>, due out this spring.) As I begin this new professional challenge, I'm making a commitment to an ongoing practice of artmaking for self-care and spiritual reconnection.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Here's hoping that the New Year fairy will leave something nice under your pillow, too. </div><div><br />
</div>Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-41016374194593372592010-12-05T21:59:00.000-05:002010-12-05T21:59:14.272-05:00Reverb10: Letting Go<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.reverb10.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJjF1PUxO0qS-qNkE_a95ZcfRXPHjCykccaesTbOvQcZR-syJtCCbj8S0hJmyKmzenuvhOyDT8B_YBWLEzffT7HYF1OSzJZeVb7plCh4TMQFXqT3753aflNW5z23T2c1tYxCb7ThsVhA/s1600/reverb10.png" /></a></div><i>This month I'm participating in <a href="http://www.reverb10.com/">Reverb10</a> with creative responses to daily prompts as a reflection on the year. I'll be including some of my written and/or art responses here.</i><br />
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<b><i>Today's prompt:</i> What (or whom) did you let go of this year?</b><br />
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I can't seem to find the answer to this question. Is there one answer? Is there a concrete list of things I've let go of in 2010? I think maybe this is such a difficult question for me because I never feel like I truly, permanently let go of anything. Every person to whom I've ever said goodbye, whether by choice or unexpectedly, has left an imprint on my heart. Every lesson or awareness that comes from growth has altered my relationship with something, yet still I cycle through these lessons again and again, if perhaps with a deeper or wider learning each time.<br />
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I could make a list of things that I <i>wish</i> I had truly let go of this year, that I want to be done with abruptly instead of gradually. I could describe in great detail what I've been grasping onto repeatedly. But letting go? That's like breathing out. It's only one part of the dance.<br />
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<i>Wanna play? Find out more at the <a href="http://www.reverb10.com/">Reverb10</a> website or follow along on Twitter with the #reverb10 hashtag.</i>Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-52003020598631019412010-12-01T10:07:00.000-05:002010-12-01T10:07:25.331-05:00Reverb10: One Word<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.reverb10.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJjF1PUxO0qS-qNkE_a95ZcfRXPHjCykccaesTbOvQcZR-syJtCCbj8S0hJmyKmzenuvhOyDT8B_YBWLEzffT7HYF1OSzJZeVb7plCh4TMQFXqT3753aflNW5z23T2c1tYxCb7ThsVhA/s1600/reverb10.png" /></a></div>This month I'm participating in <a href="http://www.reverb10.com/">Reverb10</a> with creative responses to daily prompts as a reflection on the year. I'll be including some of my written and/or art responses here.<br />
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Today's prompt asks us to choose one word to summarize 2010, then consider what one word we'd like to be using in December 2011 to describe the year ahead.<br />
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My one word for 2010 (okay, really an adjective phrase) is <b>touch and go</b>. This expression has multiple connotations. People frequently describe a situation as being "touch and go" when things are unpredictable, risky, precarious, with an uncertain outcome--and that pretty accurately describes the past year for me. Things were up, things were down, and nothing turned out to be quite what it seemed at first. But "touch and go" also holds a very different meaning for me because of my exposure to the <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-courage-be-present/201004/finding-balance-in-mindfulness-the-technique-touch-go">"touch and go" meditation technique</a>, which is a way to find balance within the two extremes of withdrawing from experience and clinging to experience. The past year has been an off-the-cushion experiential in returning to the middle place between grasping and letting go.<br />
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My word for the upcoming year is <b>embodiment</b>. Some of what this word means for me: tangible expression of ideas or qualities; being authentically representative; deep relationship with self that is grounded in community; here and now presence; a way of being that leads to creation.<br />
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<i>Wanna play? Find out more at the <a href="http://www.reverb10.com/">Reverb10</a> website or follow along on Twitter with the #reverb10 hashtag.</i>Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-34618230873152728602010-11-19T16:06:00.000-05:002010-11-19T16:06:58.110-05:00How can I keep from singing?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4fBTTfeaUDXUNjaviQLaM5lBtubOzdJWBhZ8IbSIpjSh1wW1oi5dUkZFmyGmNrGRxDSXyxy7Gh0TjRmXH36hjisrlMPzj6VLU8vfT9ieewPvpyWGMKukq84eUeojNa6erJX06vGJfxQ/s1600/finding-congruence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4fBTTfeaUDXUNjaviQLaM5lBtubOzdJWBhZ8IbSIpjSh1wW1oi5dUkZFmyGmNrGRxDSXyxy7Gh0TjRmXH36hjisrlMPzj6VLU8vfT9ieewPvpyWGMKukq84eUeojNa6erJX06vGJfxQ/s400/finding-congruence.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
It sometimes happens that when I have a strong drive to express something, it seems impossible to name or describe that thing. Or vision, feeling, experience... I don't even have the right word to categorize its very <i>thingness</i>. I can't tell you, with words, what the above image (a sketchbook spread using oil pastel, watercolor, and Sharpie) is about. But when I look at the image, it distills the essence of something I am deeply in touch with right now.<br />
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The past couple of weeks have brimmed with connections, potential, joy, and curiosity. And I don't know what else to say about that. In my journal lately, all I can do is make visual marks and make lists; sentences and paragraphs just aren't forming. And that's okay. I'm always a writer, and always an artist, and always a musician, but what I keep discovering is that at any given moment, one of those creative selves is primary and the others recede--and they all support each other.<br />
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Among all the intangible experience of recent days, here are the links to some virtual gifts that have arrived in my awareness this week:<br />
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Jen Louden's kick-in-the-pants manifesto about following your calling, a.k.a. the thing you want so bad you can barely stand to think about it because there are a thousand reasons you can't possibly walk that path: <a href="http://www.comfortqueen.com/holy-selfishness">Holy Selfishness</a><br />
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<a href="http://adelewayman.com/">Meditative artwork by my mentor, Adele Wayman</a>. The images on her website cannot do justice to the visceral gorgeousness of her installations viewed in person, but go take a look anyway. Her art conveys so much about mindfulness that can't be explained with words.<br />
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My friend Melanie Weidner, a Quaker artist and spiritual director, is offering a 5-week online course called <a href="http://listenforjoy.com/event/Creative_Spark_Advent2010.html">Creative Spark: Advent Meditations for Creativity and Community</a>, and at an insanely low price. She's wonderful. Please support her if you can.<br />
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And <a href="http://www.fluentself.com/blog/calm-techniques/safe-rooms/">Havi's blog post about safe rooms</a>, which is bursting with a lot of really useful stuff as always, offered exactly the thing I needed to hear today: the bit about the V formation. Maybe you'll find it useful, too.Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-52677672096566273442010-10-31T09:15:00.000-04:002010-10-31T09:15:48.103-04:00Happy colors and happy news.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgff7d9T8k65OyQ7n8-ZTFvqJ23dCksohh3sjf-Nu5fMcl2UI3mdJ53C6w2uB2aUhBpBv_oe48qC__jmLGE5xnyLN2QAs5JbqHDZ8WWzHe-7YuKANl3QpFIsd8ZJBbPZHsnTZNKhop1kg/s1600/CircleTheRingAgain-detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgff7d9T8k65OyQ7n8-ZTFvqJ23dCksohh3sjf-Nu5fMcl2UI3mdJ53C6w2uB2aUhBpBv_oe48qC__jmLGE5xnyLN2QAs5JbqHDZ8WWzHe-7YuKANl3QpFIsd8ZJBbPZHsnTZNKhop1kg/s400/CircleTheRingAgain-detail.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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Among many things that are bringing me happiness this week, here are three of them.<br />
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Thing 1:<br />
My fiber art piece "Circle the Ring Again" (shown above) was included in Patti Digh's book <a href="http://www.37days.net/bocrisveifyo.html">Creative is a Verb</a> as an illustration for Patti's essay of the same name. This book features a variety of artwork by Patti's readers, and I'm delighted to be included among them. The book is out in stores now, and <a href="http://www.37days.com/2010/10/my-most-recent-books.html">Patti is on a book tour</a>. I'm looking forward to meeting her, since she'll be stopping nearby in December.<br />
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Thing 2:<br />
In totally related news, I submitted a drawing to be considered for publication in Patti's next book, <i>What I Wish for You</i>, due out in April 2011. This week I found out that my work was accepted! I may have done a little dance when I got that email...<br />
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Thing 3:<br />
I live in a gorgeous part of Greensboro, NC, where the autumn leaves are currently at the height of their beauty. I missed this landscape so much when I was in grad school, and I'm still so happy to be back.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivE9xK7epmZdLkphwryYoRPUwtVFB6WO_Zf8M5kMp-fWm-dkIjtB2puGwsIH1uzjHiT_hDmCJS15NXDsLxwPD2x9oLXeeo0v_N_KWWp30LglBFF7Y_J3gKAYbZSlPVqvM6EgbdeD0kbw/s1600/Fall+leaves-+happy+colors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivE9xK7epmZdLkphwryYoRPUwtVFB6WO_Zf8M5kMp-fWm-dkIjtB2puGwsIH1uzjHiT_hDmCJS15NXDsLxwPD2x9oLXeeo0v_N_KWWp30LglBFF7Y_J3gKAYbZSlPVqvM6EgbdeD0kbw/s200/Fall+leaves-+happy+colors.jpg" width="142" /></a></div>Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-70035519895459969642010-10-25T10:52:00.002-04:002010-10-25T11:39:53.049-04:00Meantime.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrEg38GjpHtZ5GFijJZN0EXLw5lVcnhV_wF0gKHGlsas7WghXH1RTS8pQDi-gsukDmje-TpoQ7uLq1IIfJeQk_7qjVDRwWzvWbx0yAnnneXCNR6Y_LOkxlInFKDFi2UXrNDnMN7lhqWQ/s1600/defabri-cat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrEg38GjpHtZ5GFijJZN0EXLw5lVcnhV_wF0gKHGlsas7WghXH1RTS8pQDi-gsukDmje-TpoQ7uLq1IIfJeQk_7qjVDRwWzvWbx0yAnnneXCNR6Y_LOkxlInFKDFi2UXrNDnMN7lhqWQ/s320/defabri-cat.jpg" width="306" /></a></div><br />
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<a href="http://unfoldingmoment.blogspot.com/2009/10/reflection-beginning-and-beginning-and.html">This time last year</a>, I was ruminating about how I'm always surprised by the advent of autumn and all of its emotional connotations. Now, although many of the small details have shifted in a year's time, none of the big questions have been resolved. I guess there's a reason that Rilke's letter about loving the questions themselves is quoted so often.<br />
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So here's my meantime: I'm teaching art to kids. I'm a freelance writer. I've signed up to participate in the <a href="http://www.atwb.org/Postcard-Exchange.html">International Postcard Art Exchange</a> with other art therapists who support Art Therapy Without Borders. My partner and I have re-launched the <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/defabricate">Defabricate</a> Etsy store, featuring handmade baby gifts, mini quilts, ornaments, coffee cozies, and (as of this week) cat toys. (I stitched up a feline mascot, shown above, for the cat toy packaging.) And bit by bit, I'm making marks in my personal <a href="http://unfoldingmoment.blogspot.com/2010/08/keeping-it-small-and-simple.html">mini-journals</a>.<br />
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Doing it all breath by breath, as always.Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-83400828403846319582010-08-30T11:30:00.002-04:002010-08-30T11:30:00.920-04:00Small and simple: ATCs on a themeHere are the <a href="http://www.cedarseed.com/air/atc.html">ATCs</a> I created for the Art Therapy Alliance swap, "Collage Unleashed." Each of my four ATCs features the use of tissue-thin paper from an unwanted sewing pattern. Each card focuses on a variation of a personal theme: awareness of emotional patterns.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN7K1VMNqvLv6AC__ce9ZV8KIapW6s5u2W_96Mr-wGWX0Lyvlwk42-itKV7S6Vt1aMjtHfavSKOeiwmSEYWOr9cPVZpbOM4eLGjLUqb3YaM2XiInQhb16JDIdB1WmwkAJx6ZP5m1aIBw/s1600/ATC1-oldbrickrd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN7K1VMNqvLv6AC__ce9ZV8KIapW6s5u2W_96Mr-wGWX0Lyvlwk42-itKV7S6Vt1aMjtHfavSKOeiwmSEYWOr9cPVZpbOM4eLGjLUqb3YaM2XiInQhb16JDIdB1WmwkAJx6ZP5m1aIBw/s200/ATC1-oldbrickrd.jpg" width="141" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Old Brick Road / New View </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLNdyw4TCbvSDX1pXYC92eUK76gPS35S5RtgcZTYCDKh8LGbZppNH1EkqBmC76a-HHortUu3RkRDuiFKHpf9u0pGrT4ctW7GtkJb8iBIdeMJIJxOWD5SmE2XvwG-99qe5g6qrcy-llcQ/s1600/ATC2-uncertainty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLNdyw4TCbvSDX1pXYC92eUK76gPS35S5RtgcZTYCDKh8LGbZppNH1EkqBmC76a-HHortUu3RkRDuiFKHpf9u0pGrT4ctW7GtkJb8iBIdeMJIJxOWD5SmE2XvwG-99qe5g6qrcy-llcQ/s200/ATC2-uncertainty.jpg" width="145" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Resting in Uncertainty </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiudL0D3tPcBzyz6Z7eq-tbdzZiVjcLC-6pVkRT3QSb9p7FdC-msrSEEv0nncQ6pTjhKBRwJRsXzOt51eidIdYt67RgaInJx8QC_SR3SGXlXqVXMNOw1TBIHHT-rnb26mSQnM99TNPw7A/s1600/ATC3-doingbeing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiudL0D3tPcBzyz6Z7eq-tbdzZiVjcLC-6pVkRT3QSb9p7FdC-msrSEEv0nncQ6pTjhKBRwJRsXzOt51eidIdYt67RgaInJx8QC_SR3SGXlXqVXMNOw1TBIHHT-rnb26mSQnM99TNPw7A/s200/ATC3-doingbeing.jpg" width="142" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Underneath Doing is Being </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhn2FUOA2HJcw3KDOvZ-4xZWXPGBqSfZr_M50jxMOvJx2Y08b9_nJiMHmExhS6P9YDA7BsSttPV9ZqOzx6toU_xzncEmnbmZhN26bi3btiSyyNzNv0yldet_sNNEzYDYHS7twYvJ_IyQ/s1600/ATC4-endoftheworld.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhn2FUOA2HJcw3KDOvZ-4xZWXPGBqSfZr_M50jxMOvJx2Y08b9_nJiMHmExhS6P9YDA7BsSttPV9ZqOzx6toU_xzncEmnbmZhN26bi3btiSyyNzNv0yldet_sNNEzYDYHS7twYvJ_IyQ/s200/ATC4-endoftheworld.jpg" width="144" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the End of the World is a New World</td></tr>
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Check out the <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/101535034726872987451/ArtTherapyAllianceArtistTradingCardSwapAugSept2010#">full album</a> of ATCs for this swap to see what other art therapists have done in response to the "Collage Unleashed" theme.Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-44708920975386670792010-08-24T10:21:00.000-04:002010-08-24T10:21:04.365-04:00Keeping it small and simple<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg_5qn47N51v1nWBP-H6q5mYIZtmtg78r3MrQCXtQr33-RZet_DhENXIIbdbz5uxyQMm-yAolwzpklaTAVY6wFgPmH_oWcI5fHgJ29CA9sYsnf6wrHGIDMEm2ZBGpRFcPjiZCB51TrTA/s1600/alljournals-3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg_5qn47N51v1nWBP-H6q5mYIZtmtg78r3MrQCXtQr33-RZet_DhENXIIbdbz5uxyQMm-yAolwzpklaTAVY6wFgPmH_oWcI5fHgJ29CA9sYsnf6wrHGIDMEm2ZBGpRFcPjiZCB51TrTA/s400/alljournals-3.JPG" width="400" /></span></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I've been making scrap mini-journals, inspired by </span></span><a href="http://lisasonorabeam.com/2010/mini-journaling-to-max-your-creativity-completion-day-5-of-5/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">this series of posts by Lisa Sonora Beam</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. We had a box of collage ephemera left over from a recent creativity workshop, and it's been a thrill to juxtapose these ragtag materials in booklet form.</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3-b-YjIu4bQZzPn8QdoFqJN03gq9HHHPVNllfCMO571z5c-bkLb3PodFMruDQ5P8MkSAVLnrCJrbqeneTmNL-vG3ZlE9Zxeg_RV1Tm7NVJYE8sysSNcKcKCWfLN_gwTVcsu_-7yuOjg/s1600/journal-inprogress.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3-b-YjIu4bQZzPn8QdoFqJN03gq9HHHPVNllfCMO571z5c-bkLb3PodFMruDQ5P8MkSAVLnrCJrbqeneTmNL-vG3ZlE9Zxeg_RV1Tm7NVJYE8sysSNcKcKCWfLN_gwTVcsu_-7yuOjg/s320/journal-inprogress.JPG" width="320" /></span></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My mini-journals use paper (and paper-like) scraps about 7.5" x 4.5", stacked, folded, and stapled. (They could be larger or smaller, depending on what you have on hand. It might be fun to make tiny ones.) They can be used as-is for journal writing or other notebook functions, but they also have the potential to be further altered and embellished.</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrMxw8JxuMGQYcVfjnDj76CVzHMdpIEVbxq3WNbXZk9dV0M_20KvQE2jJsP_G6VT8odQI3Vb6qWv-0E-MiEoxskvsPo4MyFkjb33S2WPbK4lQHjVjJLYnq1E9kVyMk5VzL6E4nHjoHkw/s1600/minijournal2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrMxw8JxuMGQYcVfjnDj76CVzHMdpIEVbxq3WNbXZk9dV0M_20KvQE2jJsP_G6VT8odQI3Vb6qWv-0E-MiEoxskvsPo4MyFkjb33S2WPbK4lQHjVjJLYnq1E9kVyMk5VzL6E4nHjoHkw/s200/minijournal2.jpg" width="200" /></span></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In other small-and-simple news, I joined an ATC swap sponsored by the Materials and Media subgroup of the Art Therapy Alliance at LinkedIn. ATCs (</span></span><a href="http://www.cedarseed.com/air/atc.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">artist trading cards</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">) are very small, approximately 2.5" x 3.5", and I wasn't sure I would enjoy creating images on such a tiny canvas. As it turns out, I love it. I like the challenge of making an image simple enough to be expressive in such a small space, but without compromising on the subtle layers and textures that are my favorite part of the art process. I'll be sharing my finished ATCs soon. Meanwhile, you can </span></span><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/101535034726872987451/ArtTherapyAllianceArtistTradingCardSwapAugSept2010#"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">take a peek</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> at the ATCs already submitted for this swap, courtesy of organizer Melanie Glassey and sponsor </span></span><a href="http://www.atwb.org/index.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Art Therapy Without Borders</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you try your hand at ATCs or scrap mini-journals, I'd love to see or hear about them in the comments!</span></span>Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-62725971441091914832010-07-29T20:05:00.001-04:002010-07-29T20:22:31.821-04:00I feel more human when I play.<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHlHWhVWXKSK3A3ndmve5DJMU_8rlREjFf4RXQ8LgR6Wtz8n_rw_WQjkmrgL8EoMsqIkya8wlwKN9BJON30rJaCqroZ7y7j6I2vakXgfRzrDP7lfHsGE3Gd_0goLPZeZSDOWxGi7jOLw/s1600/play-ifeelmorehuman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHlHWhVWXKSK3A3ndmve5DJMU_8rlREjFf4RXQ8LgR6Wtz8n_rw_WQjkmrgL8EoMsqIkya8wlwKN9BJON30rJaCqroZ7y7j6I2vakXgfRzrDP7lfHsGE3Gd_0goLPZeZSDOWxGi7jOLw/s400/play-ifeelmorehuman.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br>Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-72981959882512141812010-07-26T22:11:00.001-04:002010-07-26T22:16:30.221-04:00A postcard of the ocean<span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD-ykLhjOwO3drEzeIN1auGg3hXVDzkNffLYvBTZ8Sgg0Cxj8hJF6vLqnX-R9Su_aW1flWohbZ3fb0fp7_lqqxJSXIcKfrnKe36yD2ZTs7tjqQ8TG1vufSI0zoRh9WXpUfJ-OxWG_9Aw/s1600/2911648556_b684746c26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD-ykLhjOwO3drEzeIN1auGg3hXVDzkNffLYvBTZ8Sgg0Cxj8hJF6vLqnX-R9Su_aW1flWohbZ3fb0fp7_lqqxJSXIcKfrnKe36yD2ZTs7tjqQ8TG1vufSI0zoRh9WXpUfJ-OxWG_9Aw/s400/2911648556_b684746c26.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Photo credit: Stacy Lynn Baum, Creative Commons license www.flickr.com</i></span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;">I was a teenager when I first encountered the statement, <a href="http://www.paclink.com/%7Eascott/they/tamildaa.htm">“Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.”</a> (It seems to me that dance might actually be a very effective way to evoke architecture... but let's leave that detail aside for now.) This quote comes to mind when I remember that I first learned about mindfulness from books. Reading <i>about</i> mindfulness is a lot like talking <i>about</i> music. You can find plenty of words to describe what music does, or how it makes you feel, but no amount of discussion can convey the true experience of music. It's all secondhand.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">My first experience with mindfulness was secondhand. About six years ago, I started reading books by Western Buddhist teachers like Surya Das and Pema Chodron. I loved the words, which felt like spiritual poetry to me. Mindfulness seemed like something to aspire to, something beautiful and pure, beyond my everyday experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Two years later, in my first weeks as a graduate student at a Buddhist university, I became a true student of mindfulness. In weekly meditation classes, I learned how to meditate Tibetan-style: <a href="http://www.shambhala.org/meditation/faqs.php">shamatha-vipassana</a> (calm abiding / clear seeing), which is an eyes-open awareness practice. When I took a seat on a cushion for my very first meditation session, I fell into the struggle that epitomizes true practice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">And boy, was it a struggle. I had thought that I knew what resistance felt like. But sitting practice showed me the true depth, color, and texture of my resistance, all the layers of experience and fear that had brought it into being. Sitting on the cushion brought me face-to-face with the specificity of my own experience. I began to understand that mindfulness happens in our willingness to be in relationship with the gritty, uncomfortable, awkward details of our inner lives. (I also learned that avoiding the actual act of sitting, out of fear or overwhelm, does not result in one's self-awareness mercifully going away. But that's a story for another day.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">In merely reading <i>about</i> mindfulness, I had been gazing longingly at a postcard of the ocean. But when I became an active student of meditation--on the cushion and fully engaged in relationship with myself--suddenly I was standing barefoot at the edge of the world in the stinging salt wind. When I finally stepped up to meet the ocean, I knew for the first time exactly how small I am, and (yet / also) how vital I am within the complex web of human connection.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">But what about those days when we feel too defeated to even try to practice? If you're like me, you get frozen into inaction by a desire to practice perfectly. What helps me is to reframe practice as being less about mastery--what is there to become perfect at, really?--and more about just showing up to maintain a friendly relationship with myself. Know, too, that what you <i>do</i> as a practice is far less important than your intention. Although I do revisit shamatha-vipassana occasionally, these days my mindfulness practice takes many different forms. Instead of sitting, sometimes I do several minutes of savasana (“corpse pose” in yoga). Some days I do a little <a href="http://shivanata.com/">Shiva Nata</a>.** Some days writing is my practice, and some days it's making art. Some days there is no intentional practice, and I am merely a student of the moment-to-moment: noticing what's happening inside, knowing that I can choose how to react, and just coming back to my breath as needed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Whatever your practice or not-practice, if you're showing up with love, then you're doing it just right.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(**That's not an affiliate link, y'all. I just like Havi Brooks an awful lot, and I want more people to know about the amazing work she does.)</i></span>Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-82924667735163645582010-06-10T13:34:00.001-04:002010-06-10T13:53:02.464-04:00All my work is in progress<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXcAg1X-bucViyHXB1MaSvS2dl2UQeQPaNPEsDhUgAshr4p3aIs4CdmXXGj-ofJlGsu5LOX2KdWF2fPJJYlcpVPgTSV20mYITaVCoGJDZgSUgLOBca5ZZBrgIO5sUpddPtrS5WpcmJvg/s1600/dreamcatcherinprogress.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXcAg1X-bucViyHXB1MaSvS2dl2UQeQPaNPEsDhUgAshr4p3aIs4CdmXXGj-ofJlGsu5LOX2KdWF2fPJJYlcpVPgTSV20mYITaVCoGJDZgSUgLOBca5ZZBrgIO5sUpddPtrS5WpcmJvg/s320/dreamcatcherinprogress.JPG" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This is a dreamcatcher I'm making. It's a work in progress.<br />
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I've started and not-yet-finished several art objects in the past few months. This tends to be the way I work as an artist: an organic start-and-stop, shift-and-reshift of focus, letting things marinate. I have complicated long-term relationships with what I'm creating. Very often this seems to echo the gestation of a human infant. There's a conception event, several months of development (physical, mind-spirit, or some of each), followed eventually by the midwifing of a physical presence in the world that was not there before.<br />
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A list of projects that are in various stages of gestation at the moment: A series of stitched mandalas in hoops. Several essays. A new interest in jewelry-making, from the perspective of amulets or talismans. Collage work in an old planner.<br />
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Less tangible things that are also, always, works in progress: My job search. My professional identity. My creative and personal self-understanding. And, weaving in and out of all of these, my efforts at <i>maitri</i> (compassion for oneself).<br />
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All my work is in progress.<br />
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What are <i>you</i> working on? Or, put another way: What's working on you?</div>Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-30682363460376971962010-05-13T08:38:00.000-04:002010-05-13T08:38:13.960-04:00To-day I Am On Bird Time.<div><a href="http://www.polyvore.com/bird_time/set?.mid=embed&id=11452903"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img alt="bird time" border="0" height="400" src="http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-set/BQcDAAAAAwoDanBnAAAABC5vdXQKFnBBYUgtSzZOM2hHYzF4VE04T0JSN0EAAAACaWQKAWUAAAAEc2l6ZQ.jpg" title="bird time" width="400" /></span></span></a><br />
<small><a href="http://www.polyvore.com/bird_time/set?.mid=embed&id=11452903"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">bird time</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> by </span></span><a href="http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/profile?.mid=embed&id=978516"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">verdissage</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> on </span></span><a href="http://www.polyvore.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Polyvore.com</span></span></a></small><br />
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<div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></div></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I start my mornings with a cup of coffee and a notebook, writing morning pages on the sun porch. Most mornings the trees just outside the windows are filled with a variety of birds, who move quickly beyond the canopy of green leaves and can be tracked only by their songs. They call to each other as if that singing is the most vital and immediate action the world needs in this moment.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Watching birds go about their business, the vital right-now business of perching in trees and searching for food and communicating with other birds, changes my relationship with time. Bird Time is right now, neither fast nor slow, just exactly what it is. On Bird Time, I find myself: mind and body and spirit, right now, just as I am.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I've been wanting to write something here about mindfulness. It's relevant to my art process, my art therapy training, and my everyday experience. It has utterly changed my relationship with myself. And it's hard for me to write about.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So what is mindfulness exactly? And what isn't it? Is it a thing you do (technique) or a way to be (perspective)? And what's the point of all this?</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">After three years of mindfulness training (as a foundation of my </span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.naropa.edu/academics/graduate/psychology/tcp/arttherapy/index.cfm%E2%80%9D"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">graduate school</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> coursework), I have a pretty good sense of what mindfulness means to me. But it is very much a sense--a visceral understanding, a somatic knowing. Like the classic example of riding a bicycle, it's stored in muscle memory. It's difficult to translate the fullness of that visceral sense into words. I find myself stumbling vaguely around the concept, saying only that it's about what I notice, what I'm aware that I know and don't know: my relationship with Self in every new moment.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Other people have created fabulous explanations and definitions and examples of mindfulness. I'll link to some of them in a moment. For now, the closest I can come to describing my relationship with mindfulness is this: it's like being on Bird Time.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It's not just birds who are inherently present-centered, of course. So are all wild creatures, mammals and fish and insects. So are dogs and cats. So are young human children.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Birds don't live in the future: they're not making a mental grocery list or wondering how the weather will be for migrating next season. They don't live in the past: no ruminating on regrets or perceived slights. Birds are fully embodied in present action, vibrantly alive in the now.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And sometimes, when I slow down and listen, so am I.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Five views on mindfulness:</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Havi Brooks on </span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.fluentself.com/blog/stuckification/today-i-am-a-harbor-seal/%E2%80%9C"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">harbor seals</span></span></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Jen Louden on </span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.comfortqueen.com/choose-your-life-mondays-the-ungrind-edition%E2%80%9C"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">sensation (not more effort) </span></span></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Cathy Malchiodi on </span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-healing-arts/200902/be-here-now-mindfulness-and-the-creative-spirit%E2%80%9D"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">mindfulness and the creative spirit </span></span></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Sparky Firepants on </span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://sparkyfirepants.com/2010/03/09/this-post-has-no-seo-blah/%E2%80%9C"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">blauthenticity</span></span></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Carrie Newcomer on </span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.carrienewcomer.com/#Let-it-be.html%E2%80%9D"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">letting it be</span></span></a>Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-35978012027118004662010-04-08T09:07:00.000-04:002010-04-08T09:07:57.564-04:00Retrospective: Transformed by Touch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiJTzv4zoYCj2TQhVf7fiTB6hSRn3eT5ZDSJTFP1Nht9YTOpc0QVXp6j11vGWpghbF96eB20tFK0KjRinSMX1P-bEEq8v9T68vK1tP56znTso6Jol19XKlbNGvuiphxcpRmSEhpWzvfg/s1600/ThumbprintandShelf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiJTzv4zoYCj2TQhVf7fiTB6hSRn3eT5ZDSJTFP1Nht9YTOpc0QVXp6j11vGWpghbF96eB20tFK0KjRinSMX1P-bEEq8v9T68vK1tP56znTso6Jol19XKlbNGvuiphxcpRmSEhpWzvfg/s400/ThumbprintandShelf.jpg" width="203" /></span></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The following is an excerpt from my undergraduate thesis, a year-long exploration of spirituality through making art. </span></span></i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Over and over when the world offers itself</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to us for our awakening, all we have to do is meet it.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">–Jack Kornfield </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">While working on</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span></i><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://unfoldingmoment.blogspot.com/2009/10/retrospective-now-again-poetry-i-grasp.html%E2%80%9D"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Direct Experience of God</span></span></i></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, I became enchanted with fingerprints. I pressed my inked fingers against white paper, marveling in the variation that could occur in multiple prints from the same finger because of how the ink lay differently on the finger’s surface each time. One fingerprint in particular struck me as beautiful. I used a photocopier to blow it up to 200 times its original size. The resulting print, an intriguing visual, hung in my studio for weeks.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In March, ready to begin a new piece, I come back to the fingerprint. What if it were even bigger? I take it to a copy shop and have the large print blown up even more, so that the fingerprint is now the size of my forearm from fingertip to elbow. I sense that this piece needs to remain simple because the fingerprint itself is already so complex. One fingerprint from one individual, and yet it contains multitudes. After a failed experiment with transferring the print onto a piece of wood using wintergreen oil, I decide to simply use the huge photocopy itself. I glue it to a piece of wood. A friend with power tools cuts around the perimeter of the fingerprint so that the shape of the wood becomes the shape of the print itself. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Pondering my next move, I am toying with the idea of building up the lines of the fingerprint dimensionally using the text-and-binder method from </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Direct Experience of God</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. But it doesn’t feel right. Remembering my intention to keep it simple, I decide to enhance the dark lines of the fingerprint with black ink to heighten the contrast between fingerprint and paper. I do this work slowly, on the floor, with a bottle of ink and a fine-tipped brush. Like the stitching I have used in previous pieces, the inking process is deliberate and meditative. I become immersed in the careful process of filling in tiny dark areas with ink to make them darker. During this process it occurs to me that my fingerprint is both unique, because there is no other exactly like it in the world, and universal, because a fingerprint is an instantly recognizable image. Fingerprints manage somehow to be universal symbols of uniqueness. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My fingerprint, now startlingly large and visually bold, makes a statement about the uniqueness of every single one of the billions of individuals currently alive on this planet. We lose sight of that so easily. I remember Annie Dillard’s description of the struggle to comprehend the complexity of all of the individual lives inherent in large numbers of people. Referring to the 1991 death of 138,000 people in Bangladesh, she writes, “I mentioned to our daughter, who was then seven years old, that it was hard to imagine 138,000 people drowning. ‘No, it’s easy,’ she said. ‘Lots and lots of dots, in blue water.’” We cannot comprehend the specific and the abstract at the same time. But I want to attempt to convey this idea nonetheless. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">During the creation of this piece, I have been collecting black walnut seeds from the grassy area outside my basement studio. I don’t know why, but I’m drawn to them. They’re huge, just the right size to fit in my palm with my fingers wrapped tightly around the seed. The pattern of lines on their outer shells reminds me of my fingerprint. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Because the fingerprint itself is so simple, I need something more to the piece, an altar of sorts to hang just beneath it. In the final exhibition, there will be a shelf, collaged with teastained text, which will hold a small pile of these walnut seeds.</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnroSgEw0xPxNdRMH2Fcc91OBFyqs99yEcbzny3OzB0RvgcUWdC-NHLZc4OqkcEppk8HTlD-AQ1a_CQ5Bnk7jT86fxdrnHfACzcRv-KRUbacTDC143dNuZ-ElTLxpxTZRVaOlMVadBmw/s1600/ThumbprintShelf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnroSgEw0xPxNdRMH2Fcc91OBFyqs99yEcbzny3OzB0RvgcUWdC-NHLZc4OqkcEppk8HTlD-AQ1a_CQ5Bnk7jT86fxdrnHfACzcRv-KRUbacTDC143dNuZ-ElTLxpxTZRVaOlMVadBmw/s200/ThumbprintShelf.jpg" width="200" /></span></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Interspersed with the seeds will be strips of stained text. The text for both the shelf and the strips comes from Jack Kornfield’s book </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A Path with Heart</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, specifically from a chapter titled “Enlightenment is Intimacy with All Beings.” Kornfield proposes that “mindful awareness is itself an act of profound intimacy… [which] is both the beginning and the culmination of spiritual practice.” </span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQBxVe6yk6WViB_vs-XEnSYvnNeOt4sxKI4VEam-KcPM9VjzwGPCSM5I2037tGzVy3oDaKXYFgiQHvPuU4NSddsIUdYnfJu7YBROnN5Lxf5BYn366Zj-hkfxUsQY5ixq4a1U1RWm33OQ/s1600/ThumbprintShelf-detail2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQBxVe6yk6WViB_vs-XEnSYvnNeOt4sxKI4VEam-KcPM9VjzwGPCSM5I2037tGzVy3oDaKXYFgiQHvPuU4NSddsIUdYnfJu7YBROnN5Lxf5BYn366Zj-hkfxUsQY5ixq4a1U1RWm33OQ/s200/ThumbprintShelf-detail2.jpg" width="200" /></span></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It is only through intimate relationships with other humans that we can begin to comprehend the enormity of multitudes of complex human creatures co-existing on Earth. And indeed, it may only be through human relationships that we can recognize the presence of God. Pema Chodron remarks that taking the bodhisattva vow is equivalent to declaring oneself not afraid of other people. I interpret this in my own experience to mean that we must be willing to love and be loved in order to know God.</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM8FHJqz_vVktYNiTxf7IqQ5Ymn6cTIcPrjA6hsDceQtuY54LglbbfbZQP1lzQ2M8xXRCC7PqpsB-PUlykDFa0ms3l17cY0xKYXU317W_H7h1b__zYXXMXnZv2e9YcxmzeM7MmLXykbw/s1600/ThumbprintShelf-detail3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM8FHJqz_vVktYNiTxf7IqQ5Ymn6cTIcPrjA6hsDceQtuY54LglbbfbZQP1lzQ2M8xXRCC7PqpsB-PUlykDFa0ms3l17cY0xKYXU317W_H7h1b__zYXXMXnZv2e9YcxmzeM7MmLXykbw/s200/ThumbprintShelf-detail3.jpg" width="133" /></span></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Chödrön defines the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">kalyanamitra</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, or spiritual friend, as someone who makes us see ourselves clearly and honestly, an inspiration to stay on the path. Spiritual friendship can be the primary basis for the understanding of the divine. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ruminating on the unique and the universal, on spiritual friendship, and on the human urge to make one’s mark upon the universe, I decide to call this piece </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Touch.</span></span></i>Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-69591703681712923522010-04-01T11:54:00.000-04:002010-04-01T11:54:29.417-04:00Process: How It All Unfolds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhABGhdpFnsiUpREWmhFSaL9Y7KZQINSKkqVg4qi09L6PoKVUz6gCRhoiZnwdpYtt2HJzWb84Ny-sj8d5ZTjXq1LbfHts0pB-SuPa5v8L53vjx-jf1AXSEvRVV6k6a5y9ReHQcrAWWCOw/s1600/open-to-connections.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhABGhdpFnsiUpREWmhFSaL9Y7KZQINSKkqVg4qi09L6PoKVUz6gCRhoiZnwdpYtt2HJzWb84Ny-sj8d5ZTjXq1LbfHts0pB-SuPa5v8L53vjx-jf1AXSEvRVV6k6a5y9ReHQcrAWWCOw/s320/open-to-connections.jpg" /></span></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I sometimes describe myself as a process-oriented artist. To me, that means that I value the path of artistic creation as much as the finished work of art. I view artistic process as a sacred relationship between me and the materials--a relationship that continues to develop even after the artwork is “completed.”</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Being process-oriented, for me, also indicates that I am continually open to the unexpected. My art usually begins with some particular image or question, but I never know how it may shift and change on its journey toward fullness.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">One thing I've noticed about my process over the past few years is that at least half of it happens outside of the studio. (By “studio” I mean any dedicated space, physical or temporal, where one does the tangible work of making art. At the moment my studio is a portable 12” x 12” box of collage materials.) I love the part of the process that is hands-on and messy and in direct relationship with the physical materials, but I also value the intangible stuff that happens outside of that space.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Studio time is expressive time: making, giving voice, giving form. Outside-the-studio process is often receptive: not </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">giving</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, but </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">receiving</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. Sometimes this means simply noticing what thrills me, calls me, makes me curious. It could be a particular color that makes my heart sing, or a found object. It could be a line of poetry or the musical bridge of a song. It could take the form of ideas, materials, sensation, or conversations. Receiving can mean soaking in new information and experiences, letting them sift and settle among the inner layers. A connection may emerge: two unrelated pieces of data, juxtaposed, suddenly make sense.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Need a creative jump-start?</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">• Try changing your perspective, literally: </span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/2010/03/25/strategic-planning-is-for-the-birds/%E2%80%9D"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Strategic planning is for the birds</span></span></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">• </span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://expressivehart.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/take-ten/%E2%80%9D"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Take ten minutes</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> for a creative practice.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">• Consider: </span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://amusingfire.blogspot.com/2010/03/full-egg-moon-what-are-you-hatching.html%E2%80%9D"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">What are you hatching?</span></span></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Share in the comments: What do you know, or notice, about your own creative process?</span></span>Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33877850768377231.post-90911328139470151762010-03-25T09:34:00.003-04:002010-03-25T09:39:43.511-04:00Awakening from a Fallow Season<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJukBrvHZCQn_rKirxCNaro4jEd8RXg6KMo6z1xaqjfEVgIoOfKqWSJbnmXIrsnzIoSvWeZwQ42QHDiBbyvX8Era6dy_xhxh14dP9k7a5fJEiuXB-VeLN5veGOIBaYxkMXXE4PNqOAxg/s1600/spring-from-fallow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJukBrvHZCQn_rKirxCNaro4jEd8RXg6KMo6z1xaqjfEVgIoOfKqWSJbnmXIrsnzIoSvWeZwQ42QHDiBbyvX8Era6dy_xhxh14dP9k7a5fJEiuXB-VeLN5veGOIBaYxkMXXE4PNqOAxg/s320/spring-from-fallow.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
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<div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I've been wintering over. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">After being fully underground for a while, I'm easing back out into the sunlight. Slowly uncurling roots into the earth, gathering my energy for a re-emergence. Ready to begin again, but not from the same place or in the same way.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This year my inner winter paralleled the external shift of seasons. Right about the time that I saw the first patch of tiny purple flowers--my personal indicator that </span></span><a href="http://www.livinginseason.com/signs-season/the-scent-of-spring/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Spring is really here</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">--I also felt the hint of an inner thaw, a visceral sense of coming alive to new possibilities, a renewed interest in old passions.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The really amazing thing about blooming is that it happens too slowly for us to watch. What occurs in an inconceivably slow progression, hour by hour, can seem abrupt: yesterday just a tiny velvety bud, this morning a flower.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile, there's a frisson of expectancy. Hiro Boga's lovely first blog post describes the </span></span><a href="http://hiroboga.com/blog/stories-from-my-journey/beginning-words-of-a-feather/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">mix of anticipation and dread</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> that comes just before the commencement of a new project. Feeling ready and also not-ready.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><a href="http://www.listenforjoy.com/art/isittoday.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
Is it today?</span></span></a></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><br />
</div>Tracy Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17494708372587358789noreply@blogger.com0