reverb10 - party

Hi Beautiful,
This is an inspiring on-line project I've decided to jump in to! "Reverb 10 is an annual event and online initiative to reflect on your year and manifest what’s next. Use the end of your year as an opportunity to reflect on what's happened, and to send out reverberations for the year ahead." Every day in December there is a new prompt for writing and reflection. 

December 9 – Party Prompt: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans. 

As you may know by now, I live in a small, relatively isolated  island community. We have no pubs, cinemas, nightclubs. We have one really great restaurant, but they serve dinner only once a week (once every two weeks in Winter.) What we do have is a community of lively, creative souls who have become expert at creating our own entertainment. Parties tend to be pretty great around here. It was hard to pick just one highlight of 2010, so I'll tell you about the last party I went to - it was pretty wonderful.

The Full Moon Supper Club was founded this year. A group of 10 or so couples meet monthly to eat and drink, hosting rotates. The November supper club was exquisite. We travelled to our sister island Hornby, to the vineyard home of Suzie and Steve. A beautiful fresh snow was falling as we made our way up the bamboo lined path to the door. You know that special feeling of standing on a doorstep in the dark, smelling fresh snow, and then suddenly being drawn in to the warmth, light, conviviality, hugs, and delicious smells of a friend's festive home? Ahhh. Timber rafters, earth coloured walls adorned with beautiful land and oceanscapes by  local painters, smells of something roasting, woodsmoke, hints of perfume. Soon there is a glass of very good red wine in my hands, and I'm drawn in to circles of conversation. A long table, beautifully dressed, and the food! Wild mushroom crostini, with chantarelles picked that day in the woods. Beef carpaccio, tuna tartare. Then the main course, the best lambchops (I was craving more for a week afterwards) gorgeously plated. Excellent wines. Creme brulee. The perfect dinner party.

10 Reasons Why I Love Living on the Island

• going to sleep to frog song and waking up to bird song
• buying fresh organic free range eggs from our neighbor for $2 a dozen
• having friends of all ages from 4 to 90
• not locking my door, ever
• the ocean - being surrounded by it
• it's like an intentional community of misfits
• harvesting oysters, clams, berries, nettles, and other beautiful wild food
• yes you can eat nettles, you just steam them first
• tall, tall trees
• dogs are allowed to come to dances
• I know everyone's story and they know mine

Artful Reminder:

Soulful, artful island RETREATS for women - make art, journal, dance, do yoga, practice deep self care, learn to celebrate the sacred in daily life - all with a group of like minded women in our forest retreat at the heart of our Gulf Island... YUM!!!!!! Read more here.

Intimate Windows

The place I live feels so spacious, benign, and beautiful, that I hardly ever think of it as isolated. My community is small, but my social connections are rich. It's all very familiar and intimate, and New happens slowly. It's a backwater, but not a stagnant one. Still, my window on the world looks much the same day to day. Two really important vehicles that bring New and Fresh and Perspective into my world are books and blogs. I have a super active and creative mind, and I'm highly visual and emotional. I don't really ever get bored, but I can get stuck. Stuck for me is more like a mechanical toy in a corner than anything else - my stuck is frenzied and active, and only a new, creative direction can save me. Over the last year or so, I've been bumped out of my corner countless times by the fresh or strange or beautiful ideas of a number of women from all over the globe, whom I have never met! I have had the privilege of observing and being inspired by their lives through the intimate windows of their blogs. When I first started blogging I kept hearing things like "blogs shouldn't be confessional" and "nobody cares what you had for breakfast." It turns out that the blogs I love the most are occasionally deliciously confessional, and that some people have the most beautiful and fascinating breakfasts (like here, here, here, and here.) If you have the nerve to be honest, and the skill to show us the beauty of life through your eyes, then I will be honoured and fascinated to witness. Although each of these women is vastly different from the others, and from me, there are common threads: creativity, entrepreneurship, compassion, artistry, love of beauty, spirituality, strong visual sense, courage, lack of artifice, positivity, talent, love. Here are a few of my CREATIVITY faves - next week I'll feature my LIFE STORY faves:

Tranquility du Jour
I love Kimberley for her indomitable cheerfulness and positivity, her sense of life-as-play, her incredible business savvy. (Washington DC)





fine little day
Elisabeth is just the embodiment of euro-bohemian cool. She has an incredible eye for light and colour, she conveys a strong sense of place, her design skills are enviable, her life is interesting. (Sweden)









Geninne's Art Blog
A life full of charm, serenity, colour, joy. Geninne is a talented illustrator with a quirky and original style, and a model of balancing art, business, home, and family. (Mexico)








Artnlight
Vineeta has enthusiasm, talent, humility, and a great eye for the decorative. Fantastic eye candy, and exotic inspiration (India)









Goddess Guidebook
OK, Leonie is just adorable. I can't explain. Check it out. You too will adore her. (Australia)

An Afternoon to Celebrate Women and Creativity

I'm so happy to be participating in "An Afternoon to Celebrate Women and Creativity" on Saturday the 22nd at the Courtenay Museum. There will be a screening of the movie Who Does She Think She Is?, and some time to chat and network with other creative women. I'll be one of the five featured artists, and will be on hand to discuss my work and show what I've been up to lately. This event is organized by lovelies Lianne Raymond and Charlotte Hood-Tanner. Check out all the details here.

Artful Life Moon Circle - New Moon!

Welcome back to the Moon Circle! I love New Moon days, my monthly opportunity to start fresh. Hosting this circle has already been a powerful experience for me; making the commitment to be here for you has allowed me to also be here for myself and commit to the process of intention setting. It's good.

Last month my intention was to begin to joyfully and consistently create sanctuary in my surroundings........ and watch what other gifts and lessons doing this might bring into my life.
How did that go for me? Well, my house is much shinier and more peaceful. And I've had some real insights into the reasons I held on so long to dis/order. And I have a manageable routine in place for continuing to make and keep my home shiny and sacred. All of that feels really good, and maybe what feels the best is that I kept an important commitment to myself by following through with my intention.

How did you do with your intention last month? I'd love to hear about your experience here in the comments. I believe your experience is valuable, whether it is the contentment of having kept that promise to yourself, or whether it is the frustration and disappointment of having fallen short of your aspiration. What is valuable is what really happened, and what you have learned from it. If your original intention was a good fit for your life now, if it was specific, measurable, and manageable, chances are you followed through with it. If you weren't able to follow through, take a look at the questions here and see what insight you can gain to make this month's intention workable:

• did you try to do too much too fast? this moon, think baby steps.
  
• were you vague? (ie "My intention is to get organized" wouldn't have worked for me last month!) this moon, try to keep your intention specific and measurable so you can measure your success.
• did you do an intuition check? this moon, take a moment to check in with heart and gut and see if your intention really feels like the right thing for you now.
  

My intention this moon flows out of last moon's intention. I want to continue to work with the theme of bringing gentle order & creating sanctuary; I'll continue to focus on my home, but my special intention for this month is to re-commit to the physical practices that I know support my well being. I have to be careful here to follow my own advice and not overcommit! What I believe I can manage is this: 15 minute meditation daily, at least 20 minutes of dance or yoga at least 4 times a week, and daily attention to mindful eating - that is, being aware of my food choices. My hope is to establish a manageable rhythm that is something I can maintain consistently. What I have noticed is for years now I pick up these important practices for months at a time, then drop them for months, pick them up, drop them, pick them up... so my New Moon intention is not so much about the practices themselves, but about finding a way to make them a consistent and ongoing part of my daily life. I think I can gain valuable self-insight from attempting this, because the picking-up-and-dropping pattern is a big sticky pattern in many areas of my life.

Now, to you! Take as much space as you want in the comments, anytime over the next few days, and share insights gained from last moon plus this moon's intention - there is power in this circle of women under the moon! Let's reach for it!

All About The Artful Life Moon Circle!

Are we really affected by the phases of the moon?
Does the moon exert some magical pull on our watery bodies or our primitive minds? Maybe. What I do know for sure is that to flourish, we need to feel connected to the world around us. The practice of patterning our lives, even in small, symbolic ways, on the patterns of nature can be very affirming. For me, the cycle of the moon is a beautiful reflection of the cycles of increase and decrease in my own life.

I love the tradition of "Moon Circles,"
women meeting together under the new and full moons to share our joys and sorrows, our dreams and intentions, and of course our wisdom and support. Aligning these qualities with the lunar cycles can be super-powerful.  I've been a part of many of these circles face to face, and I really would love to bring the power and healing of these gatherings here to The Artful Life.


Here's how it works:
On each New and Full Moon days, I post my intentions for the coming moonphase. Then I invite you to leave a comment, with your own intentions and reflections. Writing your intentions and sharing them with others will help keep you accountable to yourself, and you'll have the benefit of all the yummy energy and encouragement from the other artful women in the circle, not to mention the moon magic.

The New Moon is a great opportunity for new beginnings and goal setting , so you might want to set an intention for something you want to INCREASE or GROW as the moon waxes.

The Full Moon is an opportunity to reflect on this growth, and to set an intention for something you would like to DECREASE or RELEASE from your life as the moon wanes.

 I think you will be thrilled with the extra power boost you give to your intentions by sharing them with the circle, and matching them to the powerful symbolism of the lunar cycles.

Everyone is welcome! To join the circle, just drop by  The Artful Life on New & Full Moon days, read the post, and add your intention to the circle, either silently or in the comments.

To learn more about working with lunar rhythms, you can print out the In Tune With the Moon Cue Card I made for you, click here for a large, printable version.

You might also want to check out these posts:

• How To Set New Moon Intentions
• New Moon Magic!
• Things to Do on the New Moon
• Harness the Power and Magic of the Full Moon
• Things to Do on the Full Moon
• Archive of All Moon Circle Posts

Creative Journaling

I just spent a lovely afternoon in the light filled, high ceilinged rooms of the Old School building (Denman's first school, built at the turn of the last century). Seven women gathered to while away a January Saturday making art and sharing life insights. We did some dream collages and shared them, then began a collage about visioning a more balanced life. I teach lots of fun and sometimes complex mixed media techniques, and I love to play with all kinds of art materials, but today I wanted to play with keeping it strictly casual, cheap, and low-tech. Our main tools were old magazines, glue sticks, some donated paper, and our rich and vivid lives and imaginations. As often happens in an all-female group, the talk, and focus of the art, turned to the many challenges of the various stages of the feminine life cycle.... and the challenges of staying peaceful, healthy, and balanced while juggling a multitude of commitments and relationships.... but hooray for us for taking a whole afternoon for pure creative play and self-care!

After a little hiatus this fall to heal my back, I'm ready to bring dance back into my life in the new year. I've jumped back in to my dance blog, and I'm looking forward to building my spring teaching schedule, including another sacred dance retreat with Gillian. Yay! Dance brings me so much joy, as does the rich community of women I've been honoured to dance with over the years. The physical limitations imposed by my injured back have forced me to take a break from all of this over the last half year or so - I know from experience that these "breaks," however unwanted and unexpected, are usually important times of incubation and hidden growth, so I am excited to see what comes to light as I invite dance back into my life! I'd love to hear about your physical practices and how they feed your life/spirit. And how will you renew them in the new year?

THIS is inspiring.

I stumbled upon this very cool fund raiser while browsing designsponge this morning. Wow. Beautiful wares, some of my favorite contemporary ceramic artists, positive activism - this kind of thing gives me hope that change is possible - something I really needed to be reminded of this morning. Here is an excerpt from Sarah Archer's essay 'Kitchen Table Politics':

On October 15th, 27 top American ceramic artists will unveil a diverse group of cups, plates and other pots called "Obamaware" as a fundraiser for Barack Obama's presidential campaign. What a great idea! A convergence of the handmade aesthetic beloved by progressive Americans, a 'green' object you can use over and over, and a way to support the arts during difficult economic times. What better way to support the candidate for change?

The wares shown above are part of the auction. The platter is by Jill Oberman, and the mugs are by Victoria Christen.

upcoming exhibit & celebration

Painting by Dwayne Rourke and Terry Wild titled 10 CABAN. Caban is the Mayan word for Earth Force/synchronicity.

My friend Cathy is curating the following show - it will be wonderful! Here is the press release:

Celebrate Dia De Los Muertos in Cumberland!
Art show and opening celebration Oct 31st- Nov.2nd at the Abbey Studio in Cumberland

Come and celebrate Dia De Los Muertos, or 'Day of the Dead' in Cumberland. The Abbey Studio for art and dance will be hosting a Day of the Dead art show, with a community altar, and opening celebration on Friday night October 31st . The Show will be up for one weekend only and will feature a variety of art (painting, photography, mixed media, book arts, shrines, and more) by; Terry Wild, Tracy Kobus, Bronwyn Simons, John Tallerino, Dwayne Rourke, Levon and Grant Shilling(father and son), Cathy Stoyko, Sheila Nopper, Marc Randall and Roxanne Cowles-MacPhail. The Day of the Dead, or “Dia De Los Muertos” is typically celebrated on Nov. 1st (All Saints Day), and Nov 2nd. In Mexico where the Day of the Dead originated, the celebration has ancient Aztec roots, and is a national holiday. The belief is not that death is the end, but rather the beginning of a new stage in life. Is a time for remembering and celebrating the dead, ancestors and the continuity of life. Everyone is encouraged to bring offerings for the the altar opening night or during the gallery hours on Saturday and Sunday. Traditional offerings include flowers, food, and photographs of those passed. The altar is a interactive installation and is there for everyone!
Please join us at the opening celebration on Friday October 31st from 7-10PM. Fools Paradise Sound System will DJ the opening and we will be welcoming guests and sharing food and drink. Also, there will be a dance performance by Cathy Stoyko. Start off your Halloween night with a visit to the opening, families and 'trick or treaters' of all ages are welcome. Cumberland will be host to many festivities that evening including John Bates and the Voodoo Dolls at the Waverly and, Six Gun Buddha with Nova Fire Spinners starting at about 10PM just around the corner from the Abbey. If you can't make it to the opening please stop by and see the show on Saturday or Sunday between noon and 5 PM. There will be traditional Day of the Dead crafts and activities set up for visitors of all ages. Paint and decorate mini paper mache skulls for the altar, or create cut tissue paper banners. Curator, Cathy Stoyko will be there to help visitors with these activities. This is a free, non profit show/event and small donations to cover show costs are welcomed.