vision mining

I'm finally getting settled back in here on the home front and catching up on emails and blogs and facebook (still don't like F/B).  I often wonder what the expiration date is on leaving comments to the comments, so I'm thinking I'll try this ... Thanks to each of you who left comments here and there while I've been on my travels.  I really do appreciate the effort and always love comments - I really do.  And Hillary, you're killin' me with the Paris thing.

The trip to Dallas was a long haul, but here's a video of what made it all worthwhile ...
 My mom (aka Mae, aka Maisy) rockin' out on an African style drum.


She's slowed down a bit, but she can still throw down a nice little boogie woogie ...

How cool is that????  Music was the theme for the trip.  My little brother and family have a whole music store's worth of instruments and equipment and everyone ('cept lil ol me) plays multiple instruments.  I do sing, but my fear of instruments still has me in its grip.  Kathy the hermit talked the whole 12 hour drive from Nashville, where I had collected my big brother, and by the time we got to Dallas, my throat was aching.  Needless to say, after a week's worth of talking and singing and laughing, my throat is still trying to recover.

Getting back to work, after being decidedly distracted for the last month, has been something of a challenge.  One nice thing on the way home ... my brother ended up doing pretty much all the driving (with one 2 hour break from me) and we had talked ourselves to a quiet time.  So I picked up the current issue (don't laugh) of the Oprah magazine for an article on vision boards.  I was curious as to what Oprah would have to say and it turns out it was Martha Beck's take and a fairly different take to boot.

I've been wanting to put something up on my walls in my studio for months, been wanting to do a new vision board just as long - remember those blank walls???  They're still blank.  Turns out this version of creating a vision board is really resonating with me.  Main idea - don't go at it from the front, don't approach it with a specific goal in mind.  Assemble images and components that hit on a deeper, visceral level, or as she says, "your animal/angel self".  Another new thing is gather and assemble the images and keep the mind out of it, maybe meditate on the finished product for a bit, but then lose it, forget it, recycle it.

So now I'm starting to collect images, rather I'm trying to look at things from a different perspective.  I'm going to have to sneak time here and there to look for images, but this post on Martha Beck's blog has some potentially good links.  The final step in her process is the part about participating in creating my vision - caveat here, "be still and still moving".  You know being a visual person, I'm always looking for 3D models to represent concepts.  You're gonna love this one, well I love this one ...

My model for the idea, "be still and still moving" is a gyroscope.  The first thing I did on Tuesday was go to the toy store and buy one.  Here's my new visual aid:

I was looking for a nicer one, but fell back into my immediate gratification mode and decided the toy version is just fine.

I have no idea where this is all going, but I'm thinking that's pretty much the point.  I've struggled this last year and a half with trying to pin down a vision, a goal, a direction.  The trip to Provence seems to have been the catalyst to crack open my frozen psyche.  The trick now is to stay still while still moving.  It's jolly good fun to be in observer mode, no judgments or qualifiers or opinions.  I'm looking forward to seeing what shows up on this trek.  Here's to mining that good old subconscious!

A few things that have hit my radar in the last week ...

a renewed interest in the Pre-Raphaelites
Waterhouse's Boreas ... lovely

From my friend Lynne's blog, I just discovered the blog of Erin Faith Allen, which I'm liking very much.  Then on Erin's blog roll, I found the incredible chakra imagery of Mykal Aubry and his Visions of Origin site.  Lots of things relating to chakras hitting my radar.

I've been listening to my Incredible String Band station on Pandora - a great mix of 60's folk legends like Nick Drake, Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Bert Jansch, Holy Modal Rounders, etc, etc.

That's where I am for now.  There's more in the works, but I'm glazing over and need to take a break.

OH!  I knew there was one more thing!  I've got work back on Etsy.  I'm especially fond of this bracelet.

For now .......
with gratitude and many blessings - kvk