UP Close and FAR Away (sold)

 Tomorrow we are taking my son to Montana State University in Bozeman.  Time to leave the nest.  The hard part will be leaving him there and driving 926 miles away. 

Effortless (sold)

The Smile of the Divine..Happy Birthdays

No life,

then Birth into my body, 

my Life,

then Death,

and then back to...

No life

We come into a body and we live in it as long as we can. We take care of it to the best of our abilities. When it begins to feel compromised, and maybe even gets sick, we are awakened to our body's decline and ultimate impermanence. 

While I still can, I channel the life force coming thru me...I open myself as a conduit of energy from the universe above and the earth below, as if I am suspended between the two. 

I am a bunch of molecules flowing like a flame, burning the energy coming through me. My body is the wick.

Tethered to the center of the earth. I squat into it, thighs engaged, legs bent, center of gravity pulling thru my cervix to meet the earths energy rising to meet me. I cultivate this tether, to keep it strong. It is with me wherever I go on the earth. I stoke it through the music in my dance.

As gravity is pulling me down, my chest is opening toward the heavens, my lungs fill with breath, my arms outstretch wide and my heart fills with love.  I am vulnerable, yet safe.  I can trust each moment as it comes...I kvell knowing the good fortune I embody.

The sun shines not on us, but in us. 

The rivers flow not past but through us. 

Nature was made not just of us, 

but of itself and its own happiness,

 and is the very smile of the divine. 

John Muir

When I am taut

I feel balanced

When I am supported

I feel free

When I am cared for

I feel secure

When I am heard

I feel confident

When I am witnessed

I feel loved

An Ear for Listening

LISTENING

What is the deep listening? Sama is
a greeting from the secret ones inside

the heart, a letter. The branches of
your intelligence grow new leaves in

the wind of this listening. The body
reaches a peace. Rooster sound comes,

reminding you of your love for dawn.
The reed flute and the singer's lips:

the knack of how spirit breathes into
us becomes as simple and ordinary as

eating and drinking. The dead rise with
the pleasure of listening. If someone

can't hear a trumpet melody, sprinkle
dirt on his head and declare him dead.

Listen, and feel the beauty of your
separation, the unsayable absence.

There's a moon inside every human being.
Learn to be companions with it. Give

more of your life to this listening. As
brightness is to time, so you are to

the one who talks to the deep ear in
your chest. I should sell my tongue

and buy a thousand ears when that
one steps near and begins to speak.

— Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273)
The Glance: Songs of Soul-Meeting
translated by Coleman Barks

In the Flow

The Universe is saying:
"Allow me to flow through you unrestricted
and you will see the greatest magic,
you have ever seen. "
Klaus Joehle

This poem, that Eva had sent out, inspired my painting, and when I arrived at dance to include it in the altar, it fit perfectly!  Uncanny.
The previous day I had gone on a field trip with the 5th graders to the Lawrence Berkeley Lab and we did experiments testing the conductivity of heat and electrical current through different metals. This painting shows the conductivity of life force through our being.

6th Chakra: Perception

The 6th Chakra is behind the eyes.  Referred to as the 3rd eye, it is the seat of perception.  What if we close our eyes, stop talking, and imagine we can perceive information through our "mind's eye?"

 

5th Chakra. Throat. Creativity, Communications

The dance class is a collaboration.  The altar design was spectacular last night and again, it's uncanny how my painting fit in perfectly.  I open to Eva's lead, exploring the 5th Chakra of communication, creativity, and connection.   Dancers are happy, alive and dropped in and jamming, by themselves and with each other.  I spent two hours letting the energy dance me like a flame...with it's flow, its rhythm, it's beat, and it's "other dimension" that lifts and shakes my body, opening up meridians and aligning chakras, while letting the life force energy burn through me.  Like a self cleaning oven, the crud is burned off and I become a channel that flows fully.  It's aerobic, it's grounded, it's breathe....it's fast, it's taut, it's slow...and it comes from deep within me. I can trust myself each moment.

The Heart is the 4th Chakra

This is the Heart Chakra and the color is green.
The heart is the unconditional and accepting presence which lives at the core of all of us - that part of us that is  unhurt and full of love.  It may be open and offering at times, and it may be small and protected at times, but if we are alive, it is always there.

My Love Poem

The spirit that comes through me is as divine as the rising sun.

Through out the day, as the light brightens,

my desire and my will 

coalesce into power:

taut with life, 

offering love, 

open to receive.

Tethered to the core,

suspended from above,

I trust myself in each moment.

Second Chakra

. 

This week we are discovering the qualities of the 2^nd Chakra.

In Sanskrit, the second chakra is called Svadisthana, which translates as "one's own place or base," Trying to influence the outer world is not the province of the second chakra. Instead of demanding that our body or a relationship be different, the second chakra encourages us to feel the feelings that arise as we open to life just as it is. As we allow ourselves to accept what is, we taste the sweetness (and bittersweetness) of life. When we relax our resistance to life, our hips let go, our reproductive organs become less tense, and we're open to experiencing our sensuality and sexuality.

A different yet familar dancing crowd

Tonight I went to Valerie's Soul Motion class on Monday evenings in the same hall I dance in on Wednesdays with Core Connexion.  It was packed.  There were too many people for me to look at, so I covered my eyes with my scarf and found a tiny spot on the floor to lay down and drop into my self.

I expel all the breath in my lungs and pull my stomach muscles tight.  I inhale breath through my limbs, exhale breath along my muscles and inhale breath to open up my joints and strengthen my core, cultivating attention along the way.  

Where my breath goes, heat follows. This is how I warm up.   

Valerie acknowledged how crowded it was and asked us to slow down and feel the presence of the other dancers instead of creating stories based on how people look.  With that suggestion, the room opened up, we all slowed down and dropped into ourselves and each other.  "Dropping in" is learning to ride the music energy flow without much thought.  It's a vacation from thinking and an invitation to be 3 dimensional in space without words.  I love being big in the world on the dance floor, but tonight was a challenge to be big while staying compact.  It was fun to experience who I am a new set of people.  Towards the end, a young woman, a "same-sizer", came right in front of me, so close and open, as if she was asking for me.  I  took the invitation and met her, twirled her, grooved with her.  I pressed myself against her back to lift our arms high above our heads, her chest and mine opening, channeling the Goddess that is every woman.  What a gift.

Elixir: : a substance held capable of changing base metals into gold: a substance held capable of prolonging life indefinitely!

This painting sizzled.  I had the urge to paint figures with less than half an hour before the painting was expected on the wall of the Altar for the dance class at 7 pm.  I quickly outlined the dancers in flesh color and left them unattended until I finished the flowing wash of bright colors the figures were swimming through.  My time was running out so I took a risk to paint them out black as silhouettes.  No time to think, just paint.  I needed to delineate the woman's chin to show she was tossing her head back, opening up her chest and feeling the life force energy flowing through her. It was exhilarating!  We ran out of there with the paint still wet.  I couldn't wait to stand back and see it from a distance. It was sizzling when I put it on the wall and the response from my fellow dancers was immediate. It rocked the house.
As I danced with my friends throughout the evening I felt as if a self cleaning oven, burning out the crud and letting the rich mixture of life force channel through me at full throttle, as an elixir : a substance held capable of prolonging life indefinitely!

the Body Language of Power

I have had a big bosom since I was in high school, and I feel I have lived my whole life with my chest concave, not wanting to draw attention to my bust. Then for years spending hours at a time on the computer, doing dishes, driving around and even breast feeding two babies, I felt like I was caving in on myself, although I didn't realize this until I started dancing over 10 years ago.  That first night at dance I threw my arms back and opened up my chest.  I felt empowered.  I've evolved into a big arm dancer, willingly opening up my carriage to the world.  It turns out this is a position of power and can change your life.  Check out the TED talk on body language by Amy Cuddy. She suggests that taking this power position for 2 minutes before a meeting, will change your chemistry.  Testosterone and Cortisol will increase and you really will be more powerful!

New Year 2013, New Horizons

New Horizons

 

I spent the first day of the new year with P.  She said "getting cancer is like a perverse slap in the face to wake up to your own life".  One can a diagnosis of cancer, go through the treatments, and choose to not change one thing about your life and hope for the best.  OR...one can see it as a wake up call to reflect on how you might find a better balance of lifestyle to strengthen your immune system and cultivate your passions. 

We gave ourselves the gift of time to just be. No agenda.  The low sun rays were streaming through the windows as the sky changed colors and the sun got closer to the Golden Gate Bridge.  As the sun began to blind us, we stood in front of the window and raised our arms, opened our hearts to the breath of life and asked the ancestors for a low Oncotype DX score so P can skip chemotherapy.  If you don't ask, how will they know what you need?  

Mountain Countenance

I went with my friend to the oncologist to hear what the pathology report said after her lumpectomy.  It was a different experience to be the support person and not the patient, and I was overwhelmed with how grateful I am that I have family and friends to support me. It was a gift to go with her and offer my ears and understanding.  As we were sitting across from the Dr with his desk piled high with important papers and his walls covered with art from patients and his own photographs, I remembered how hard it was to wrap my head around the many scenarios of "IF this Then...." or "If this Then....".  Whether to have a second surgery to get clean margins or to have a mastectomy and remove the habitat.  He said more information is needed so he will send her tumor sample for the Onkatype DX test.  This expensive test compares your tumor markers with a data base of others to give you a risk score from 1-100 and  can help you decide whether you will choose Chemotherapy or not. I had a low score and choose to skip Chemo.  How lucky I felt 2.5 years ago and how I hope and pray she gets a low score...(plus she has beautiful hair :)  But when discussing the rates of recurrence and the probability of having it return in her bones or my brain, let alone a breast, I was reminded that Breast Cancer can kill me and now her. I know that sounds silly, because we all know women who left behind small children and great lives because their breast cancer went out of control, and we all know how a crazy gunman can take away your life with no notice, but it reminds me of the daily challenge to live in the present yet plan for the future. I am oh so grateful to have made it past my 53rd birthday and past my son's 17th and 10th birthdays.  Each day is a gift, yet I forget and get angry because the house is a mess or lights were left on.

This painting is from last year, Strong Like A Mountain, and I realized in the Oncologist office, that I can let the wind sway me, the water move me, the sun warm me, but let the mountain remind me that I am not going anywhere anytime soon.

Negative Space (sold)

Another friend of mine now has Breast Cancer.  She has a big job, two kids, a partner who isn't always on top of things and she financially carries the family.  I met with her in the park and we hugged and cried, remembering what an ordeal surgery and treatment were for me as she faces her own journey.   I remembered what Angeles Arrien had said in the Gratitude workshop...."focus on what IS working".  My friend texted me a few days later and said "focusing on what's working..its like working with negative space..it reveals itself if you avail yourself."  It's been said that you tell people things you need to hear yourself.  That is the truth on this one.  What IS working is there for everyone to see, but often invisible to those closest to it.  I came home embraced my family, and felt grateful to be able to support my beautiful friend.

Home from the Tropics

I took the boys to Puerto Vallarta over Thanksgiving to join my cousins at Villa Celeste, a beautiful home facing the ocean with a stepped pool at the beach.  We swam before breakfast, after breakfast, upon returning back from excursions, before dinner and then after dinner. I was a mermaid. The moon was waxing, the temperature was in the 80's and I could walk along the beach, watch the tide pools fill and empty with the rythym of the waves or jump in the warm ocean and feel the strong currents. I was relaxed and happy, enjoying the visual delight of the art and textiles.  We went south and took a water taxi toYelapa and spent another day climbing through the botanical gardens amidst the exotic leaves.

Upon my return, the theme from Eva for dance on Wednesday was trees...how roots go deep and have mountain countenance while leaves sway in the wind and are released.

Now for something totally different...

the theme was Be Yourself. So I began with nothing in mind, just started dragging paint across the surface and letting it drip. I love to do this. It reminds me of big sky and horizons off in the distance.  I layered and dripped, layered and dripped. 

Whew...and my gift to strangers

I had my bi-annual mammogram today and although I don't have the formal radiology report, there seemed to be nothing of interest on the images.  Whew.  Every six months I find this combo mammogram/Dr. visit nerve wracking. .  After you have your turn in a room getting your breast squashed between two cold plexiglass plates, you remain in the light cotton wrap sitting in a waiting room to see if they need more images taken.   There were three other women in this inner sactum, and we were all at varying stages of the breast cancer experience.  One women was 19 years out, another just getting a Fine Needle Aspiration, the first step to see if there are cancer cells in a new found lump.  I handed the three women one of my painting mini-cards.  A bright little image emmanating life force.  It felt wonderful and somehow liberating to offer my images to strangers.  They were delighted. When I came out the 2nd time (I was called back in for more images because my scar, coupled with my dense breast tissue, obscures the area of the original tumor site, making it hard to detect new lumps) there were two new women deep in conversation. When one was called in to have her mammography, the other seemed crushed to be separated and left behind.  I retrieved my belongings from the locker and dressed in the changing room. On my way out, I handed the lone women two mini-cards and said "here is an offering for you and your friend."  The women took them, looked at each one, and then looked at me with surprise and big smile and said "thank you."  It was a random act of kindness and felt incredibly gratifying.  It seemed the right place to hand out my painting cards to strangers.

  

KINDNESS

OPEN to Gratitude

I spent last weekend in the presence of and listening to anthropologist Angeles Arrien in a workshop on Gratitude at the Mount Madonna Center in Watsonville.  She is a lovely woman with an open heart. To sit in her presence and hear her speak was magical.

I hadn't been at dance for two weeks due to Yom Kippor, (another experience atoning and cleansing of the past year while sitting in community). So when I entered the dance hall, put my painting up, and saw Eva, I told her "I feel I'm a different person than I was when I was here two weeks ago."  That statement popped out of my mouth, and I'm still not sure why.

The dance theme from Eva was "Be in the space/room NOW"   But after having this painting witnessed on the Altar for 2 hours, someone suggested the title...OPEN.  It sums up my experience of gratitude...that I can open my heart to myself and others.  That I can be protected and still offer compassion instead of judgement.

Returning

Swan: Returning to Nature

Our painting practice has commenced again after the summer break when Eva was in Europe.  I trusted myself and painted with joy, and the image emerged flowing from my heart through my arm to the tip of the brush. 

Stuck...Release

Can you see the word NOW in the painting?

All sides of Me

Hello Again, It's been many moons since I posted an entry, but rest assured that the painting practice has continued.  Here is one from March 2012. For the past year,  I've been painting every Wednesday with Suzanne. It has been richly rewarding to paint side by side with the same theme, and yet some Wednesdays, I don't even look at hers until they are both attached to the wall of the altar and we start to dance.  I am the literal painter and she is the abstract painter. I am the outsider artist and she is a trained painter. A great sharing has occurred.  This painting shows how I have been influenced.  I used to cover all the white paper with paint and think I was done.  Now I can layer the paint and add some depth.  Like?

MAGIC

EXTEMPORANEOUS

Make + Shift

PAINTING PROCESS

COLOR :  MOMENT : TIME

dance * awareness * boundary

SHIFT + ATTENTION + CONTAINER

EXTEMPORANEOUS:  Carried out or performed with little or no preparation.  IMPROMPTU

Unrehearsed performance

the paintings reflect

LIVELINESS

process

PASSAGE OF TIME

layers

inner spark

Inner Spark.

April 25, 2012

I stopped by Flying Colors today in Berkeley on 7th street.  I went in and asked for Michele. She designs libraries and I spoke with her before I accepted my current job.  I knew her from taking the Painting Experience out in the Avenues in SF in 1988. she and her husband David and I would drive over from Emeryville together for a few weeks.

I hadn't seen David in over 20 years and he came out and said Michele wasn't there and could he help me.  Then he recognized me and we sat down and talked.  He had just spent one month in Hawaii.  I showed him my paintings on my phone.  He is lovely.  Sold the  business and they are going to move to Hawaii and live where they feel at peace.  He thanked me for sharing my paintings. He felt it was evident that they were painted by someone with life force.   They are a gift to the world from  my soul.  From my attention to my intention.  I am exploring an idea through the paint.  the imagery i feel compeled to repeat is bodies alive. Bodies stoking the Goddess. Bodies honoring the Hero.  Bodies channeling Life Force. I hope that when someone looks at an image of the painting or the painting itself, they get a split second of appreciation for being alive.

And now for something totally different

Autumn Release

Some paintings are a struggle and some paintings just flow. This one flowed and then while dancing and seeing it on the altar, I saw how the leaves fall and go into the soil and become seeds to begin the life cycle again. Soothing.

Finding your center

Theme: Finding your center when you and everything around you is changing. We visit this theme in different ways from time to time and it's fun to see what comes through.

Back at it

My dance teacher, Eva, was in Germany for the summer and I was enjoying the dance in Sausalito for a change of space and energy. So I wasn't painting regularly. Now I'm back at it and want to share what has emerged. The theme was "subtle transformation" and it coincided with the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashana. I went to services at Chochmat Halev in Berkeley. As always, it was beautiful and inspiring. To sit in a big space with high ceilings and look around and see familiar faces creates a sense of awe. How often are we in spaces with hundreds of people to sing and pray to return to our soul? With Chochmat Halev we celebrate the Spirit and with reverence and gratitude ask to be written into the book of Life for another year. All the more precious since having cancer.

Summer Solstice

It's pouring rain out as if its October...very strange. The theme was summer soltice. I had painted a sun in 09 that I never liked, so i just painted over the center with a fresh design.

Dreaming out of your mind

The theme was Dreaming...dreaming out of your mind.
I cut a big piece of paper and imagined I would paint a big head and chest and have the background dark and forbidding and have the inside of the person come alive with color and swirl and hallucenations, but I pulled out a painting from just a few weeks ago and realized I'd recently painted something similar. (see MAY 5th Inner Resources)
So tonight I did something I'd never done before...I made a template..I drew a figure on watercolor paper and cut it out and then traced it with a small paint brush, the first one centered on the bottom of the page, the next one opposite and on top, then left, right and infill until there were eight figures hand to hand. I painted the center yellow, around their heads, where the dreaming connection takes place.

Anyone ever read "the King of Ata are Waiting for You" by Dorothy Bryant? The island is inhabited by deceptively primitive people where every aspect of their waking lives is governed by their dream life. They slept in dream circles and considered the dream world their reality and waking world the support world.

I had just spent 3 days in Mendocino, including an afternoon at the botanical gardens! the rhododendrums and the azaleas are in bloom and are so large and saturated in color..reds and purples.

The painting has many layers, you can see different things depending on the focus. Someone said he saw big fish heads taking a bite and making the center star, many people did not see that the blue ring were figures. I find that satisfying.

Dreaming 5-25-11

Another amazing night of dance. Toward the end of the evening with tribal drumming music blasting, a spontaneous dance circle formed and we took turns in the center. The rythmn was fast and it was as if we had decorative war paint on our faces and grass skirts on our hips. I couldn't stop moving, vibrating, and smiling.
The theme was "Dreaming...the dance is our body dreaming."
I had wanted to paint a head with all kinds of images floating out in dreamland, but I realized I needed to paint a whole body.
The dancer is moving through her dreams as light as a feather.
I became aware of my own style, that I like to blend the colors and paint breath into all parts. Laura did the warm up sequence last night and asked us to imagine our bodies filled with fluid...and that is what I paint. Fluid bodies moving through space....dreamy!

Suspended in the NOW upside down...Flying!

When I got to dance, Kathleen the Altar designer, chose to hang the painting upside down...which I loved! The "flyer" looks untethered and free! The support figure is open handed, and the flyer isn't dependent on him, she is flying all on her own!

Suspended in the NOW

The theme was "NOW". That everything in life has brought us to this moment. I was thinking that when my dance partner spins me around, I am very aware that I am flying through space, and that I must sense the lift and trust that when the momentum is waning, I will twist around and land on my feet. What could be more "in the moment" than that?

Freedom

Altar Image

Apr 6, 2011 Growing Toward the Light

My Gift

Last week I had my first "art opening." A collection of my paintings are in a big display window on Harold Way at Addison in downtown Berkeley. I met a woman with the Downtown Berkeley Business Association and she offered me the spot for 3 months. I put an invitation on Facebook and 15 friends and family showed up, including my lovely teacher Eva and Altar designer Kathleen. We then went into the Hotel Shattuck and had a drink (I love the Black and white wallpaper in there), then some of us went to dinner at the Revival Cafe. It was wonderful!
I finally understand that having a show is not the need for validation, although it is that, but it is truly my gift to the world.
Someone said how much art rejuvenates her, and who am I to deprive her of my vision? Another said that seeing the paintings together offers not just a viewing but an experience. Thank you for those words.
I like to paint and see images of Life Force energy coming through us and connecting us to the source and to each other, which is what the dance offers.

Inner Resources

THEME: What inner resources do you draw from to maintain well being? Ah...what a challenge for me, since I am someone whose emotions change with the wind. What do I return to when my well being is off? The dance has taught me to breathe in deeply, down into my solar plexis, and to find the spot I carry anxiety in and breathe into it. To find that spot, stay with it, and know that I will be okay. That is the level of faith that has eluded me...trust in myself that whatever happens, I will be okay.

a Cruel drug

I just searched these blogs with the tag "breast cancer" and "met" fellow bloggers dealing with BC. those lucky one in eight that are members of this rotten club. It is such an emotional roller coaster. The Tamoxifen continues to reveal its affects on me, blocking my estrogen and tweaking my body. A little league mom who is a year ahead of me on this BC journey said "Tamoxifen is a cruel drug." That says it all. It's robbing me of the natural unfolding of menopause. The journey of becoming a wise old crone has become a journey of recurrence avoidance and down shifting from 5th gear into 3rd gear...lots of grinding and surprises. Not a smooth ride. there is always something odd now going on with my little body. Last year someone who had cancer told me that "every little ache and pain you feel you'll ask yourself if it's cancer." I remember thinking, no I won't....but guess what??? Yes I do!

The Center Line

The theme for was "the Center Line...moving with Balance." Look how the painting lines up as a head dress for the buddha...and the dancer is supported, the feet wedged in. This painting is inspired by a new dancer to our group who spins from the center line so elegantly and with verve and passion. I can barely keep up with her. I'm good for a song at a time, but now I am learning to follow the slower rythmns to accomodate my "new normal" of energy. Slowing down isn't as much fun, but showing up and giving it my all is worth a lot.

Hello Friends, The ultrasound didn't reveal anything to worry about...it's dense in there and the scar tissue makes it hard to read so the radiologist recommended a breast MRI, but for now, I'm clear. With my new job comes new insurance, so leaving Kaiser is scary, but now onto Blue Cross/Blue Shield. The Mondor Disease, the blood clot under my arm along my ribs that goes into my left breast, reads as calcification on the mammogram and that is what the radiologist wanted to look at more closely. One doctor says take it easy, two say keep swimming and dancing to promote circulation. I swam on Saturday and yesterday I dropped my sister off at the airport and went dancing last night! Thanks for all your support.

Life just keeps on coming

I'm making calls, going out on appointments, learning all about a new company, fixing dinner, keeping up with my 3rd grader's anti-social behavior, my teenager's experimentation with alcohol, my partner's business struggles, my own schedule of dance, swim and paint. Wow, it's alot to keep up with and I am once again being challenged by my left breast. I had what felt like a bruise on my side, and although there was nothing visual on my skin, it has evolved into what the Dr. says is Mondor Disease, a blood clot that makes the vein underneath visible. It comes up my side and then into my left breast. Coincidentally, it was time for a mammogram and they have called me in for an ultrasound to further explore. The radiologist said with the scar tissue and breast density, it's hard to tell what's going on. Dr. ONeal says she feels a swollen lymph node and while I'm there tomorrow, I should have them ultrasound that, as well. If it seems suspicious, ask for a biopsy, although it could be from the blood clot. "blood clot" sounds horrible, but supposedly it's not the kind that could travel into my heart or lungs and take me out instantly. The remedy is an aspirin a day and warm compress. Since the two surgeries a year ago, my breast has all kinds of weird sensations going on. Now it is more than ever...psychosomatic or is something really going on?

Last night in dance I saw how easily I am blown off my center. The theme was "moving from the center line.... In a balanced state." I have always been easy to rock, and yesterday was no exception. I just wanted to cry and hit "start over" so I might do things differently, create a life that wasn't so full of stress. Yet I do know that it is not what the stresses are, we all have them, it's how we carry them. I carry them as big heavy burdens wanting direction and decision, two things that challenge me on the simplest level...like what to eat or when to shower.
I'm reminded of an inflatable clown that you can punch and it gets knocked over but always comes back to standing. I need that kind of resilience.
Again, the challenge is to stay present in the moment and appreciate what I do have, and not let the fear of the what might happen ruin my NOW.

New Beginning

Hi Friends, I'm off to Chicago today to train for my new job, as a sales rep for No. California for Agati Furniture. My SFO project isn't quite finished, lots of delays at the airport, they are running construction crews 3 shifts, but the terminal 2 looks great and I can't wait to fly out of it in the future. THe furniture is almost all installed. It's been a great project for 1 1/2 years, now on to Agati.

Here is last week's painting. the theme was Unity Consciousness, that we all tap into the same life force. I intended to paint the life force coming from below, but instead what emerged was life force side-to-side. In the class, Eva had us stand in a circle and hold hands and imagine our roots intertwined, reaching to the center of the earth. It was a wonderful sensation, to be a part of. I realized my side-to-side imagery suggests we are all connected to each other.

In my last post, I wrote that I'd finally given myself permission to paint breasts. Three people have told me I am "delusional," that in fact I have painted breasts many times. So I went through my archives and sure enough, I found a few paintings with breasts, one that you see here. But allow me to make a distinction: I have painted breasts before, but I realize they were in the context of fear, pain and disease. This time around it was breasts in terms of pure pleasure (hence the fancy nipples.) I plan of giving myself permission to paint them again and again!
Thanks for reading and offering me feedback.