Is Life but a Chess Game?

"After the game, the king and pawn go into the same box".

This is a great old Italian proverb that I have heard many times in different ways. Years ago a college professor I worked for at the University of Rochester School of Medicine whom I respected for his brilliance and always called him "Dr. Berg..." one day came to me and said: "Ilona, please call me by my first name, George, because you know....we all put our shoes and pants on the same way". I was surprised, but also realized he was giving me a gift of respect by saying he was not better because he had a Ph.D. and I did not. My contribution to the world was just as worthy of respect as his. It was a valuable gift that I hope I passed down to my children.

I hope it stuck with them as it did with me. I had been raised to respect authority figures and people who have distinguished themselves with higher education and positions of authority--out of respect. I respected my parents and grandparents too, but did not always agree with them. I was also taught to respect people for what they do and not what they say or what position of power they are in. That goes for friends, teachers, doctors, religious people, people of the law and especially politicians. I'm glad I learned that young because over the years I worked for professors, doctors, lawyers, scientists, and politicians. I respected them all, and treated them with respect deserving of their positions, no more and no less.

When I left the "business" world and entered the world of alternative healing, I thought that the people in this profession to be another breed unto themselves. Initially wondering if I even belonged there, I soon realized I was with like minded souls very quickly. Most of us were people searching for a new life...breaking away from the corporate world of "rules" we were all forging ahead into the unknown. Coming from every conceivable background, everyone was excited to be doing something that was healing to us most of all, and that when we went into the world of work, we would be offering ourselves for a profession greater than ourselves. The first few years were a real financial challenge but after many years of travel and learning, I fell into a comfortable place where I felt secure knowing I had a space to work in that afforded me five full days of work with a schedule almost fully booked every week, even into six weeks out at certain times of the year. The other two days were devoted to my sculpting--which was just budding then. I also gave myself a day a week devoted just for my business chores.

My years in the business world helped me to relate with my clients as "real people" with "real health issues" and not Mr. or Mrs. this or that title. In my office people left their titles outside and I, as well. Ego's have no place in the healing world on either side. My clients felt comfortable with me because I related to them with friendliness and compassion and my focus was for their healing in their own time, not mine. I firmly believed that anything is possible, and healing does not distinguish between a person's education, background or professional title. It is the purest form of energy exchange when two people can work together for the same goal but one is the receiver and the other the transmitter of healing energy in honesty, compassion and the highest good of all.

If the entire world worked like this we would have no wars, because everyone would have the best interest of all in mind, not only what is "in it" for them; we would have no greed because the heart has no desire for more than it needs; we would not have wanton killing of helpless animals who have no desire to harm anyone; we would not have a financial crisis because a few people are here to prosper for their own good only, and we would have no need for any government intervention because people would just "do the right thing" by their own conscience and not need anyone standing over them with a bat forcing them to "do it my way". Acceptance of other points of view would allow men and women to succeed at their own pace and not feel they have to "measure up to someone else's standard of excellence" but all would strive to a standard of excelllence naturally that does not take away from someone else but gives back what it takes from the world.

I know this is all idealistic phoo phoo...and a lot of you probably think I'm some kind of spiritual airhead and not very realistic, but I don't get why our world seems to be in such horrific disarray these days. IF it all has to do with the fact that we are in a hot political year, I can understand it because all of the political and media world seems to be so ego oriented that it sets the stage for all kinds of negativity and mind games. But the whole of our world is off course. Maybe I'm feeling it more than most folks but maybe not. I have not even been able to post on my site lately, out of fear of sounding too negative, and indeed I know there is plenty of beauty in the world to be grateful for, so I will try to forego the philosophy 101 lesson today.

What I have done this week is to create an altar for prosperity, thanks to a good internet friend of mine from the website"Angels in the Whirlwind" and I am expecting very positive results from that. I started a walking regime two weeks ago and when my legs start to recover from the beating that one mile a day is giving them, I will tell you if that is helping or not. And yesterday I finally took some well deserved R&R time and went to Quail Botanical Gardens about five miles from me and spent about two hours walking through the beautiful gardens, looking at the gardens, the water features and 22 beautiful outdoor sculptures that are on display there. (See photo of Lion at the top of the page).

Some of the sights in the Garden": This white flower is a very rare type of tropical plant that is like a shooting star....very beautiful and is in the tropical forest part of the gardens.

All throughout the gardens are colors and fragrances
of flowers blooming everywhere. Many have already passed and many are in full colors.

Color abounds in the variety of sculptures, ponds, water features and places to sit and just enjoy the peaceful surroundings. Since it was Tuesday, the garden was nearly void of visitors, the parking lot nearly empty, so I had the gardens virtually to myself. It was heavenly; just what I needed to connect back to nature.



I hope you enjoy some of the sights and sounds too!

No tropical garden is complete without the lily pond.


"Nature, in its own perfection seeks nothing extra...

Air, Sunshine, Earth and Water...all exist to complete Mother Nature's perfect creations, the plants and flowers.

They, in turn, exist to give back to nature, to the soil, to the air, to us...both in oxygen so we may breathe, and in beauty to restore our soul.






A sight to behold.....








and sounds of natures perfection....

The Way?

A human being is part of the whole, called by us "the Universe." Our task must be to widen our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty............ Albert Einstein

In my studies and reading on "The TAO" I came across this by Huang Po:

Question: What is the Way and how must it be followed?
Answer: What sort of thing do you supposed the Way to be, that you should
wish to follow it?

Many people ask about "The TAO of Stone"...what do I mean by the TAO? The TAO is not a thing - it is a Way...a way of being, not something to follow, as the answer above explains. It is not a religion or a particular philosophy but I believe perhaps the word philosophy describes it best as describing what the Way IS but in and of itself it is UN-describable. One Taoist master said that if you can describe the TAO, then it is not the TAO. It is a sense of being in spirit with all that is. Deep compassion for "the ten thousand things" or in other words, all of nature and life and being "in tune" "receptive", or at a state of total acceptance, or non resistance to what IS.

Think of a rock...or a stone lying in a quarry in Tuscany, Italy. It is there for perhaps hundreds of years, undisturbed until one day someone comes along and removes it. This person then packs it on a pallet, and it is shipped over the ocean to New York, and subsequently later shipped on to California and ends up in a stone supply warehouse in Escondido, California. There it sits at the bottom of the pile until--along comes me.

Now I am what is considered a "direct" stone carver, one who carves by feeling and touch, rather than forcing an
object out of just any old stone. So when I search for a stone, the stone has to speak to me. Not literally, but something in the stone does grab me, or attracts me to it. When you have found a special piece you just know. The subject of the stone sculpture is already there in its "essence" and you see it with your heart. That is what I mean by following "the TAO" of the stone. It is the only way I can sculpt, or create a new piece. I must be in touch with the material.

The latest piece I created, which I have been talking about for the past few weeks, "Another Side of My Self" was an interesting piece because I did not know I was going to create it until very recently. Unlike many of my sculptures or mosaics especially, I think about them for months in advance and often have the entire concept already completed in my head. This time was different. I was recently selected to show three other works of art that I currently have finished, in a show at Bistango Restaurant in Irvine, California http://www.bistango.com/ from October through January. The owner asked if I could create another mosaic to go with the piece entitled Mirrored Image which they had selected as one of the pieces for the show: http://www.passinogallery.com/pages/gallery_14.html Being that I really wanted to do the show, I said yes, but knowing also that I only had six weeks to complete the piece gave me a little bit of a challenge. Normally I take three months at least to complete a large mosaic because I don't work on them full time. I work a few hours a day or up to six hours max. It may look like you are just cutting glass and gluing the pieces on randomly but there IS a pattern and a method to create the right effect. I try to pace myself to avoid becoming burned out. Stay focused but also keep my mind open and fresh and above all, have fun with it. Nothing ruins a piece of art more than monotony or pressure to complete.

The challenge was in developing the concept from the beginning. No artist works totally without a design even if it is just in their head. I work with a conceptual idea or what I want to convey with my work, and basic and very simple sketches initially. I then determine my general color scheme and what materials I will use. With a mosaic, which needs to be built out of a variety of materials to create the basic structure, the glass is the last thing to go on, but also the most effective and essential for the right effect. You have to know what the piece will look like finished in order to put the mosaic together correctly, as it is not something you can change once the grout is done. That is the final product.

Unlike stone, where you don't have any idea what the finished product will look like when you start, you work totally
by intuition, feel and touch. The concept begins to develop as you work and sketch as you go along. Once the basic
structure is developed then it is much easier to finish but it all takes time and just a lot of trust. The final product in stone is a much more time consuming and tedious project and it is very doubtful that I could finish a stone sculpture in five weeks, but not impossible, providing the stone cooperates.

And last of all, being in the "now" or present moment, also helps when you are working with art. If your mind is wandering all over the place that doesn't work. It is very important to stay grounded and if you are not really grounded, try working with stone. Nothing connects your energy field to Mother Earth like Stone! Glass is close, but not the same. When I work in glass I feel the energy of Fire, more than Earth, which is why it helps to have a fountain nearby to help calm you, and I also play music while I am working , usually either classical or Native American Flute music. For me it is the best way for me to lose track of time and just be in the flow of my work.

So today I finished putting all of the last pieces of glass on my sculpture, and grouted it completely. All in all it was about six hours of work-just for today. Grouting takes a long time and there is much tedious cleanup and polishing required to make it perfect. It is not something you can do in a hurry or you risk ruining all your hard work. Remember we are working with tiny pieces of glass that are as small as 1/4 of and inch in some cases. The grout fills out the piece, softens the colors and smooths the form so that your work finally comes to life. This sculpture has a story, and
in my next post I will talk about the mosaic series on "the Self"...

She is truly "Another Side of My Self"....more later.

Peace be to all....Love and Light

On Passing Time

This photo of San Diego taken at dusk from the opposite side of the harbor called Shelter Island, is a snapshot in time. Nothing seems to be moving, but if you look at a photo taken just minutes after, you would see that something did change, the sky looks different and there are boats in the scene that weren't there in this photo. Everyone knows time doesn't change, it just IS. But we wonder often, "where does it go?" there "never seems to be enough time"; "time flies when you're having fun"...and on and on we go with comments about "time".

When I looked at my last blog post, I realized I had not written for two weeks, and I wondered to myself, "what have I been doing for two weeks that I didn't take the time to write one word in my blog?" Well I will tell you, I have been cutting hundreds of mini pieces of stained glass and gluing them to my sculpture "Another Side of My Self"...and I am still not done. It is a labor of love and one in which once started one must persevere until the completion. Kind of like baking bread. Now the mosaic is not all that I am working on, in between that I am, like everyone else, multi-tasking and trying to keep my life in balance, although the latter seems to be a little on the far left of center at the moment. I am always working on the balance issue, whatever that may be.

Lately my thoughts have wandered into the area of passing time, and how "what I do with my time" is either helping or hindering my progress for self-improvement and success. Yes I still think about being "successful" even at my age! Successful at what is the issue. Often, when I become interested in some new idea or project, I never feel as though I have completely achieved success at it unless I have mastered all the parts. I am one of those people who have many interests and when I become interested in something, must learn everything about it I possibly can, short of going back to college. But reading books, talking to people who are knowledgeable about the subject, and studying everything I can to know as much as I can, to not only feel comfortable about trying something new, but in judging what is good and/or bad about it and deciding if I even want to spend my time developing this new idea or project. I am definitly not a
just "jump in and tackle it" kind of gal. No, I'm the analytical type.

Although I have have done that on occasion, like when back about 20 years ago while living in South Florida, one of my best friends and I decided on a whim to become SCUBA certified. This was a total off the chart kind of thing that, on retrospect, I think I must have been slightly out of my mind to do. My reasoning was that I had always been afraid of the water since at the age of five so this would help me overcome my fear; I almost drowned in the Atlantic ocean in New Jersey, saved only by the quick action of my father, who jumped into the water, clothes and all, to save me. Now don't get me wrong, I love the ocean and have always been drawn to it, but it was a love/hate kind of thing. As a high school student, my coach threatened to fail me if I didn't pass swimming, and it was just by sheer luck that I made it across the pool without drowning.

Anyway, back to the SCUBA story. My friend and I decided this would be a great way for me to overcome my fear by doing something so ridiculously difficult for a non swimmer to achieve that surely I would never fear the water again and it was slighly akin to people who jump off of bridges attached only by heavy rubber bands at their ankles; it would give me a higher sense of inner confidence and personal power. Now that sounded great. So in we went and signed up. The class was actually a six week course and entailed all kinds of physical endurance type things, swimming being one of them, but the focus was not on swimming. Staying afloat for fifteen solid minutes while treading water in the pool, fully dressed in all the SCUBA gear was one of the trials. How I passed again was probably due to my strong legs and ability to tread water, rather than swimming skills, and my ability to stay calm. There were others too, and a lengthy and detailed instruction course which gave us many of the important skills to understand in order to survive out there in the ocean if something goes wrong. The most important one being: never dive alone, and never panic!

The second to last test was the compass dive where we had to dive into a 15 ft. deep lake, with visibility no more than 3 feet, (I imagined it filled with alligators) and swim out to a pre determined point, and back, not losing our way and navigating only by our compass, then at the end, remove our masks underwater, and put the masks back on, clear them and ascend to the surface. All in less than 30 minutes. I was amazed when I actually did it! It was an accomplishment that better swimmers than I were not able to do, and as a result it gave me the sense of pride that doing something physically and emotionally challenging as "overcoming your fear and trusting in yourself" can do. It was not about physical ability or being a better swimmer, it was a test of the mind.

The final dive was a deep ocean dive, five miles off shore and 35 feet deep. I still remember how my body ached from dragging the heavy equipment to the boat. The ride out in the early morning dawn, calm waters of the ocean and the sheer exhilaration of falling over backwards into the ocean, and descending down to another world, in a cascade of bubbles. Once landing on the sandy bottom the first thing I saw was a huge parrotfish staring me in the face. What a shock. I quickly joined my group and we spent 20 or so glorious minutes exploring the ocean bottom and the abundance of fish. It truly felt at the time like an out of body experience but a total visceral experience as well. You know you are in your body but time seems to stop, or slow down. The events are so foreign to you, that you remember each moment like it was still happening to you over and over. Even though it has been over 20 years since that dive, I still can recall the tactile experience of the tide, the sounds, and the feeling of bouyancy and lightness in the ocean and what I believe is what attracts so many people to the experience, the sheer beauty of the ocean bottom. I can also recall the feeling of mounting "panic: as we ascended to the surface and I encountered choppy waves. Struggling to get to the boat and avoiding panicking, was probably the worst part of the dive. Once aboard, I could breath again and felt a sense of relief and awe. I knew that I had been through a life altering experience, but just not sure at the time in what way it would alter my life.

I did go on to do many more dives, in the keys especially, but after leaving Florida I have only been diving one time and probably will not go back into the ocean again, unless it is in a boat or as a snorkeler. I am happy to say it is something I've "been there done that and survived it" kind of thing. I will leave it to the younger explorers on their journey through life.

What it does give me however is, on reflection, things I have done in my past and things I still choose to experience, each and every life experience however we choose to explore it, changes us, hopefully for the better. We don't always get to know the outcome of any one thing we do until after the fact, and sometimes not ever, but we CAN choose the intention and integrity with which we program into our activities. I believe the power of our intentions is what makes an experience either positive or negative. We only get one life at a time, and when we get past the middle of it, we begin to feel like time is running downhill for us. I know, personally, I try to do too much and don't want to miss out on anything, but perhaps it is out of a sense of "panic" that I feel like time is running out, I need to do this and do that. "Don't waste so much 'time'....on things that don't matter"....but everything matters. Even those things that we may never master. Just learning about them and trying them IS important. We may pick up a new hobby thinking that this is really fun, and discover a new passion in life that may even become a new career!

Well here is the progress SO FAR...on my latest mosaic. Remember this is bare bones and still not grouted. What you can see however is how the change in colors dramatically change the effect of the piece. My hope is by next week it will be completed and I will include detailed photos of the effects.

Until next time!

Who Am I? and Where am I Going?

If I may borrow a quote from one of my favorite books by Dawna Markova, I will not die an unlived life... "Thomas Hardy once observed that your birthday exists in relation to another day, a day that is impossible to know: we pass silently, every year, over the anniversary of our death. How would it change you if you knew the date of when you were going to die? Would your priorities change? Pema Chodron, author and teacher, describes how most of us go through life like people standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon with brown paper bags over our heads. Would the bag still be there if you knew your "death day" each year? How would you remove it?"

Before my parents passed away a few years ago, I didn't think much about death. Maybe its a subject no one wants to think about, but putting death into another perspective I have chosen to think of death as the threshold of new beginnings. Just as the the inevitability of death comes to all of us eventually, death also happens every moment and every day in smaller ways, but by the passing of time, and change of seasons, the loss of a job, the loss of a dear friend, or our ability to work in the way we are used to. Change is an opportunity to prepare for acceptance of "death" of what unfortunately we seem to hold on to as permanent fixtures in our lives. The ability to think of our lives as un-permanent, and transient, and yet eternal in some way, makes death a non issue. We are born, we live and we die... But during the time in between, what and who we are during this small space in time, is what is important after all is said and done. What are we leaving behind in the minds of those that knew us or didn't know us? How are we affecting those we touch with our minds and souls while we are alive?

I think most people, if asked "Who are you?" would say what they do for a living, or some other type of "label" of who they think they are....but that is not who we really are....we are NOT our labels...we are not our identifiers such as the type of house we live in, or the cars we drive, or the clothes we wear, or our "jobs" or the kinds of foods we eat, or the clubs we dine at or the classes we take or even for that matter the things we create....we are facilitators of energy ... that is all...we transmit and transmute energy through love (hopefully) to create beauty wherever we go....that is all we are...creators. All of the above - are truly part and parcel of our personalities, and certainly affect us in many ways, but truly are not who we are. Those things are part of the illusion we create to illustrate the story we write about who we either think we are or who we believe we are supposed to be...to fulfill an identity perhaps forced on us by our parents, or family or society. To truly know who you are takes time and determination and a strong desire to know.

What if we thought of our lives every day by waking up thinking what a beautiful day we have been given to work our energy magic with! Every interaction you would have from that moment on would change with those thoughts. Some days you are on track to create something defined and specific, but if your intent is to just allow the beauty of the moment to flow through your heart, mind and body....whatever it is you are creating will be perfect. Remember, there are no mistakes. We don't get to take our possessions with us when we cross over to the other side - only our essence travels with us...everything else stays behind and the only meaning it has is what people place on it.

Can we sustain that thought? Work through our fear of death? What if I lost my job? What if I couldn't feed my family? What IF I got hurt and couldn't work...? What if, What if, what if...goes on and on in the mind....all meaningless and nothing but fear. What IF we instead took the plunge and just QUIT our miserable job, and decided to do something else? If you were totally committed to what you were doing, the universe would provide for you I guarantee, because I did it myself in 1993....I can't say it was easy at first but I never doubted for one moment that I was doing the right thing. I have had to change "who I thought I was"....and just be willing to get on purpose, and trust and what I needed always appeared at the right time. Learning to manifest abundance or lack thereof, (and redefining what I think abundance actually IS) is a skill that I am always practicing. I am always open to new ways and ideas to make this process easier and better, but initially no matter what method you use...the first is believing in yourself and your goal. NOT who you THINK you are but who you KNOW you are. Knowing yourself is key. A great philosopher said it "Know Thyself"....and he was right. Knowing who you really are, a shining beacon of light, capable of great things, first and foremost is understanding and affirming that fact.

So much pain and suffering in life could be avoided if we could learn at an earlier age, to ignore labels, and judgment not only of others but in particular our SELVES...Parker Palmer, author, mentor and guide, wrote: "No punishment anyone might inflict on us could possibly be worse than the punishment we inflict on our selves by conspiring in our own diminishment."

What he meant by that is believing the lies we tell ourselves about what we, or society, tells us, we should do or don't do. People who "follow their dreams" are often labeled "selfish" or "irresponsible"....but in fact they are people who have gotten over believing that they should do what other people think they should do, or what other people are doing. They are people who are not afraid to dream big dreams and try to achieve them, who are not afraid to sacrifice all the "things" or societal markers of "wealth and security" for a bigger goal, that of personal happiness.

For some people, having the house, the car and the kids, is essential to their happiness and if that is true then that is their destiny, but for a few others, that is not the case. They tried it, did it, and were ready to move on in a short time to forge their own destiny their own way. For these people the world is their oyster.

For couples who share in the dream of making each other's lives stronger and better, there is an added bonus. For singles, it is sometimes a bit more challenging, but nevertheless still possible to manifest your dreams. Anything is possible! We are not cacti in the desert, baked and parched for centuries, untouched and untouchable...we are human, alive and always growing, like a beautiful sunflower, radiating love and energy. Giving back as much as we take, and more.

I'm not sure where this is all going, or where it even came from, but was on my mind as I continue to pursue the meaning and contribution of the latest art project I am working on, "Another part of myself"...as I'm calling it. Creating something that will hopefully bring joy to its viewers, and with a concept born of my introspective thoughts on where I am going today. Often as I work my mind wanders to these places, thinking of what does this mean...another part of myself? and what it means to me is that I am often evaluating where I am in the spectrum of life. How much did my activities today contribute to my life or to the world? Or did this day provide nothing but a safe pad to crash in for a few hours, while I pondered the state of affairs in the inner and outer world? Did I use my time to truly accomplish my goals today or did I allow myself to be distracted from here and there? Only I can answer that, for all things are important, there are no mistakes and there are no "wasted days"....everything is on purpose, and on schedule.
Love and best always.....

The Unfolding of My Self

"If we are really honest with ourselves, we must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us, so it is how we use our lives that determines what kind of persons we are. And it is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life. I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of humanity is to sacrifice ourselves for something higher--that which we believe in and love deeply" ___Cesar Chavez



I'd like to be able to just wiggle my nose and have new and really great ideas for art pop into my head, magically. I talk a lot about being inspired by nature, but sometimes my inspiration doesn't come from nature or anywhere around me. My inspiration, or ideas, are often born out of past experiences, painful memories, and joyful memories too, jumbled together and struggling to make sense of it all. Nature, or being in and around it, can definitely promote the creative process, but the actual art does not always come from nature.

Through my artistic creations I find ways to process those memories into something meaningful to me, or something beautiful with a defined form using mediums I can control--such as clay or stone. Because in Nature we do not control anything, JUST as it is in life. Control, if you can call it that, comes in the initial choice as we stand at the cross roads of life deciding which way to turn. But once you make that turn, there is no going back. And because life events are so transient, Artistic creativity, whether it is through sculpture, painting, writing, playing music or whatever your medium, is a way of going back over the events of your life and re-doing them or transmuting the energy of the event into something beautiful and lasting. Only the mediums and choices are "controlled"; the actual outcome should always be left to the mystery.


With sculpture, depending on the medium you choose to work with, you can poke, and prod, until you have created something pleasing to your eyes, and move on from there. I believe there are no mistakes either in life or in art but the level of excellence comes through in the process and methods you use, and how well you execute them. Just as in life, there are no mistakes, however some people seem to plod through life falling into one rut after another , whereas some people just seem to have an instinct for taking the right road and staying out of ruts--flawless execution! I have been one of those who always took the road less traveled and seemed to be attracted to the bumps in the road. Luckily I was always a quick learner AND a perfectionist, and didn't often repeat the same mistake twice. But have had a few doozies in my time. I always said, looking back, that these experiences were what have given me character and substance with lots of food for thought to draw on when writing and creating art.

But getting back to the "control" thing....I have been pondering this all week since I am well into my latest project...a new mosaic piece for my Soul series on the Self. This piece has been committed for a show in September and I agreed to make a new piece because I like chaos in my life, it seems. Not that I don't have enough to do with myself as it is, but the challenge of making a new piece was too much to pass up, especially if I was under a time crunch besides. I have said many times that there are two kinds of artists...those who create art for money, and those who create art out of the pure love of creation. The latter is me. This does create a problem however because I have always made art on my own schedule, according to my own terms. I have difficulty with people who try to tell me what to do with my art.
After all it is my creation right? I don't make art to suit someones living room decor, or fit into their color scheme....either they love the art just because and can't live without it, and if they do they will change their color scheme to fit the art or not! Now that said, it brings me back to this work of art. I spent the better of two weeks thinking about what this piece should be?, what would it have to say to the world? Will it be feminine or masculine? Will it have a colorful personality or will it be simple and pure? These are all valid questions when birthing a new idea or a new sculpture. Meditation, writing and sketching are all important steps in the process, but eventually I had to get out of "control" mode and just allow whatever idea came to me flow.

I compiled a stack of supplies that I knew I would need, like toys, and gathered them all around me on my work table.
There were a few basic things I had to do such as constructing the base and inner form but the creative part was just working with the materials. For two days I have been "playing in the mud" so to speak...working with the ideas that just came to me instinctively and finally have the basic element for the inner structure of the new mosaic. I have yet to name her...it is a feminine form with a ghostly apparition attached to her....so the mystery is what to call her...what have I created from my past? What am I trying to teach with this piece of art? What will be her message? That is all in the mystery and will be unfolding as I progress....So far I call it "Another part of Myself"

Stay tuned for more "unfolding".... In the meantime just enjoy the beauty of nature around us. Try to imagine your life as a balloon, floating, drifting and being propelled by the winds of time, totally out of your control, and yet you are at the drivers seat turning the flame, that keeps you afloat. When the flame goes out, you have reached the end of the ride. Remember to keep the flame alive at all times and enjoy the ride from a higher perspective...when you look down from that higher point of view, you will see things differently. Things that once seemed so large, are meaningless and almost disappear from your site.

Blessings to all...come back to visit again!

Finding Inspiration in Nature

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes"___Marcel Proust

I mention often in my writing about how much I enjoy Nature and how I love to find inspiration for my artwork from Nature. These photos were taken a year or so ago during a trip to the the High Desert in Southern California to a place called Joshua Tree National Park. It is an amazing place to visit and the sights are incredible. Many people cannot imagine that a desert could be beautiful but the rock formations are so amazing it is almost as though giant hands actually carved the rocks out of clay and just dropped them into the barren desert a thousand years ago, and they remain unchanged for us to enjoy today.

There is vegetation in the desert, and depending on whether or not the desert had any rain the previous winter, will determine how colorful. But it is all a feast for the eyes. The inspiration I get from being in the desert, is unlike what you find on the beach or walking through the woods in the high Sierra region of California. That area is no less serene however, with the same kind of gargantuan rock formations and lovely streams and watersheds scattered throughout the region, but with the tall forests around, you feel a sense of protection, perhaps, less vulnerable than in the desert. But either place is a place of beauty and serenity. If one was inclined to paint, you would never run out of subject matter, for the shapes and colors of the simplest things take on new meaning when you start to examine them from different perspectives. Like the photo I took of the small stream with leaves and branches suspended above it.

Both of the two photos here were taken in the High Sierra mountains where the giant redwoods grow and if one wanted to get lost forever, this would be the place to go. A beautiful paradise to discover and explore nature, opportunities for hiking, camping and taking pictures are endless.

How I derive "inspiration" from Nature is not that I seek to copy nature in my art, but true inspiration to me is a feeling that fills me INSIDE my Heart and Soul with the joy of just being there. Touching the ground, smelling the trees and walking on the rocks, I connect to something older and larger than myself. It is a humbling experience. It also encourages a feeling of inner peace. It is from that place of well being that I regenerate my own creativity, problem-solving ideas and general overall being more grounded. My head is clear, my thoughts are more focused and my thoughts flow more easily.

People have become so "out of touch" in their busy lives: get up, make breakfast, read the paper, rush to get ready to start the day, rush to get to lunch, grab a "meal on the go", finish our job, run errands, get back home for the kids or pets, throw a microwave dinner in the oven and spend the night watching TV...and on and on it goes for days on end. Some of us even have more than one job! This is life for many people today, not all, but many. Is it any wonder that we have so much depression in the world and people with feelings of low self esteem? Is it any wonder that so few people can derive inspiration from anything when they do not understand or seek out the balance between Man and Nature? Nature is there for all of us to enjoy and derive love and joy from...that is its precise purpose. But it is Man who has turned its back on Nature it seems and at time appears to be at war with nature and Mother Earth.

Many of us have neighbors in our neighborhood whom we have never met in two or more years. We are living less than 500 feet from each other and don't even know their names? Our society depends on the television, and computers to tell us what is real. But true reality is right in front of us....living and breathing. Are we too out of touch to notice? Are we too focused on the insanity of day to day meaningless nonsense most of the time, to even take time to notice what IS real?


How can we be inspired for anything magnificent if we are too busy to notice a beautiful rock formation, or the colors of the rainbow in a stream? or the flowers of a cactus in full bloom? How can we write a beautiful stream of words, to someone we love, if our minds are too cluttered with thoughts of nothingness just to get through the day? Can you find beauty in a cactus? or a desert junkyard? Can you be awe inspired by an exquisite sunset ? Inspiration is all around us every day, we just need to make the choice to seek it out. Nuggets of beauty are all around you in the desert, and forests, along the beaches, little gems of nature that are there for everyone's inspiration!




I realize that not all people are so out of touch with Nature and themselves, but a lot of people, myself included, are managing a lot of things in their lives these days and often do not take time to "smell the roses". But as an Artist and creative person, it is extremely important to recharge your creative batteries from time to time, on a regular basis. The more you do this the more you will realize that it is not only fun, it is essential to staying balanced and inspired. Some of my best creative ideas come from taking a walk in a quiet place where I can observe nature in action - or non-action. There, you are forced to slow down as you "attune" energetically to the environment. A desert or forest is not exactly the place to go if you want to see things moving quickly and in fact, everything seems to slow down to a crawl, which is good. It's also why things there do not appear to change too much from year to year except for the effects that Man has upon Nature. Left to its own accord, Nature is pretty resilient and not normally violent. But when Mother Nature does decide to attack, she is the most powerful and potentially destructive forces on Earth. To me, this is a good reason to treat her with respect.

Another beautiful end to a beautiful day.

Self-Reflection

"The world is a looking glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face."

William Makepeace Thackeray, an English Novelist from the 1860's wrote this quote, and it has been repeated in many different ways in the years since. In fact it may even be responsible for the current mode of thinking that we see and hear about so often that our "thoughts create our reality". It's like the old saying "what you put out is what you get back". My mosaic shown here called "Self Reflection", is a visual observation of this quote; (Click image to enlarge) showing two faces gazing at each other, or reflecting off of each other. One side connected to the essence of our being (the Soul) and the other, more colorful side, demonstrating aspects of our personality, but both sides are still connected through the heart and both sides are also connect to the universal life force depicted by the mandala above the heads.


It is also an interesting observation that as we get older, our faces start to show the reflection of the kind of life we have lived. Our facial lines, or lack thereof, have more to do with our thoughts and feelings and deeds of a lifetime rather than if we remembered to brush, floss and wash our faces every night and use night cream. If one could study the anatomy of our body you would discover that the human face has over 200 major and minor muscles. The face, when studied by cameras and slowed down to show the slightest movement, reveals an incredible amount of movement that is undetectable when viewed at normal speed. What does that tell us? That our face is a mirror of both our inner and outer world and things that happen to us to cause our face to move--either through speech or eating, and in normal everyday activities no matter what we are doing the face is in perpetual motion from our thoughts.



This is why people who study facial expressions, and bodyworkers who study the anatomy of kinesthetic movement of the body and face, are able to detect restrictions in the body, thereby enabling them to help correct problems. Science has also learned that it is possible to detect micro movements in the face to detect emotions and read a person's energy (or thoughts if you will). The bronze sculpture here is entitled "Dream Weaver" and depicts a person deep in meditation, dreaming a better world.

What does all of this mean? To some people it may mean nothing but a mere observation of fact. But on another level IF it is true, then we need to be aware at all times that our thoughts are not only helping to energetically create our reality but create our bodies and faces as well. It is more important what we think than we think! Thinking happy thoughts, rather than dwelling on the past or sad events in our lives, or "mistakes we think we have made" does no one any good unless we are trying to resolve a painful past memory, or event, and thus come up with a creative solution to remedy it or change it. We all know we can't change the past, but we can heal it. We can also learn from it and move forward to create a much better today!

Most people have very interesting lives and could write a book about themselves if they sat down to think about it. But because time seems to pass so quickly, it is often difficult to remember what we did yesterday, let alone three weeks or three decades ago, but our bodies remember everything, and if you think you don't remember just because you cannot immediately recall the events, you are wrong. Somewhere in our DNA or inside of the massive computer called the brain, are stored the facts of every detail of our life ever since our first breath. We just are not consciously aware of it.

When I was practicing therapeutic and energetic bodywork and Reiki healing energy, we learned to work with somatic illness as a way of helping people to release through bodywork, either energetic or muscular, deep issues both emotional and physical that are stored as pain, deep in the body's muscular layers. I learned that there are 12 layers of pain. From the point at which you first "stored" the painful memory, to the point at which you sought help for the pain, the body has a unique way of referring bodily pain "somatically" from one area to another . It was also amazing to see the way a person looked after a session on the table. Not only did they feel better physically, but their face would look younger and lighter. I learned then and there how much our emotions and feelings affect our faces and bodies.

As an artist, putting emotion and meaning into a work of art, whether it is a portrait or sculpted face of someone, or simply a landscape, there is a great desire on my part to convey something of what I am feeling, in my art. If that emotion conveyed makes someone feel empathy, or compassion, then they will take that with them whenever they see the art. If it depicts joy and humor, the person viewing the art will feel that as well. Often I have looked at paintings by other artists and immediately felt a sense of calm, and order or possibly confusion or disorder! Whether I liked it or not was my own subjective opinion, but the Artist was successful because he or she had derived out of me the response they wanted with their art. "The Angel of Abundance" shown here by this joyful, Angel with child.

If having fine art in your home brings about a sense of joy and peace, and enriches you as a person, then that is a noble cause for art. If it incites you to action, then that also is a noble cause as long as it is "right" action. Because we know so much more today about the body and mind connection, this puts an even greater responsibility on all artists for what we put out there. Some say freedom of expression should mean you can put out what ever you want to put out, but I am not in total agreement with that, especially if what is being put out is harming society.

It is my hope that my artwork will express what is within me, and ALSO express what I think of what is outside of me. Not everyone has to agree with my thoughts but I believe "in a perfect world" or society in which all creative people will seek to convey the highest goals possible through their music, art, film, theater, through speech, both spoken and written, and that all of society will conduct itself better as a result. For as a human race, as we ARE so shall we BE. Just as it is for the inner community of our own bodies....as we ARE...so shall we BE. Each generation lays the groundwork for the next. How do you want your children or grandchildren to find the world? A world with the highest integrity and intelligence or one of desolation and suffering? I believe it is not up to any individual culture or country to demand this from their people but up to each individual person no matter what their culture or upbringing, to find the way to higher mind and demand it of themselves. The good literature is there and fine art is all around us, even in nature, if we choose to seek it.

Many blessings.



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