New Years Day

The first song i heard (just after midnight -PBS) in 2012 was Cold Play's "Fix You." Someone comes to my mind here, despite rational intervention, it is what is. As feelings, subtly or not so, rule the rational mind, this one is for faith to handle. I trust my intent for good to align with a natural, larger good.

As i have been calling 2012 the year of healing and transition, hearing this song was an affirmation. This is my year to cross over. I do not know what that means. I will by 2013.

I have an idea that we need to heal gender and generation chasms in order to heal the other rifts between peoples. This is a synchronistic pursuit, as personhood is such a mixed, tangled thing. We are bound to set off fireworks, both dangerous and beautiful.

So this means scouting in territories where tradition has built thousands of forts. We need to storm all the barricades and set life free. Freeing our selves, frees others. This will enable us to come into states of fuller potential.

We need to appreciate each other for who we are and not who we want others to be for us. This will translate across all the other borders. This is how barricades crumble, they dissolve with out attention. This we can do.

Hello 2012

2012

Promise is a granddaughter born

with a spiky do, universe grins!

Tis the year of Transition, setting the direction for the Transformation. However as time was a system made for tracking seasons, it is a cumbersome tool for things with no moon phases or fixed points. Good labels are a matter of hindsight, but without foresight we fail to get out of ruts.

So playing with energy and intent, here is my take:

Transition is the step up and out, towards hope, towards global healing. Transformation is the next illumination.

In other words, transitions, transformations, epiphanies and evolutionary leaps are constantly popping up all over the "timeline." Each person progresses at the speed they are able. i think starts, stops and do-overs are how we learn best. It's a timeline through a kaleidoscope.

Transforming a whole wrong minded culture is big. But we must in order to thrive as individuals. This is the new paradigm of the whole.

However, we are culturally brainwashed. Some of it like, "thou shall not steal" is still relevant, but a lot of it is not so much. Much of what we are taught is stuff deemed necessary by "they that rule," so "they" can continue their good thing. This means we get a twisted version of facts to swallow. (Funny as designing for comfort practically screams of developmental stagnation which explains the rut! Our brains thrive on challenge, but we have allowed this lesser state to hunker down and settle in)

Back to time; on the way past Rome, feudalism and into the Renaissance there were tweaks. Enlightenment brought on revolutions and the new elitists joined the ranks. (Our Founding Fathers and their wealthy alliances)

The profit minded industrialists became the new players on the block. They quickly aligned with regulators and policy makers. Their "success" led the west to see the world as a vast machine. Life "the mechanism" could be controlled, organized and counted. Whereas nature was viewed as chaotic and frightening, machines helped humans feel powerful, safe and in control of their domain. These humans felt they were winning the "war against nature."

Now we understand that way of thinking is about to take down the life support systems of the planet. While corporations shuffle to own the pieces of our collective biosphere, We the People are standing up and yelling "Back Off!" (India suing Monsanto!! after Dow and Bhopal she has had enough, Occupy Wall Street going global, more)

We are not as suicidal or as brain dead as the systems we are plugged into. We are part of the blooming, messy, natural cycle. We are Nature. We are not machines we are far MORE! The obvious doesn't wear a business uniform or khakis, the obvious wears truth as best it can.

AKA, the system we (living beings) set up has declared war on itself, is this classic or what?

OK so the transition is to start on the healing. We need to wake up from the e-drugged state of
* dependent energy into an appreciative and mindful energy. We all have a lot to do. This is good, this is change.

This is something we can do for ourselves and others. Start with the professionals, read and explore your personal territory while you learn. Then when you feel secure enough in your knowing heart, peel back the covers and share. Invite others to do the same.

Our friends and loved ones know us best. We can start there to build the trust and the spaces for healing in our lives. Then get braver and speak up at every opportunity. Change waits for no one, it is the direction that counts.

The shows i am doing with the Kerf International Exhibits and fashionRIP Project's "Peoples Media Arts Uprising 2012" are experiments in all of this. I know only from where i am, and i know i must participate to nurture the more, and so it goes. So we all go.

2012, welcome. May we learn together to thrive as whole beings in a living, energy filled, dynamic Universe.

*
Dependent energy: our food system (esp refined sugars and carbs, now GMOs and pharma frankens- patents mean $, nature is "free" until Dow/Gates pull out heritage disaster food relief from the Arctic..OMG! what price are "we" willing to pay, who are "WE?") oil and petrol chemical by products (plastics in medical devices to alleviate the symptoms of diseases caused by our Wars and from the toxins in the plastic life cycle) apps on smart phones hooked to corporate vampires, too much Facebook, too little face time. Our dependencies (addictions) on created needs will never be satisfied here, even if we had an infinite planet to carry out the experiment, which we do not, so the game is over! Please everyone, help us all move on!!

99% love

fiber collage on flocked organdie

Sweet video of the people in Bellingham speaking up against distorted human reality.

It just stands to reason that no one group has the right to grab and gobble everything. In human development they would be spoiled brats, in health science they are a cancer, in economics they are unsustainable and resource abusive winners of loss, creators of scarcity and death. How is that a win, a thing to be proud of?

The capitalist (and too, the communist, socialist) system grew from a host of antique views that we have outgrown. This is normal developmental progression.

Therefore, our human made systems need to respond to the science and wisdom of today's people; people who are are challenging the lack of dimension and the vast ignorance of the earlier premises.

We are living things that need to grow in ideas and spirit. The physical, material, consumer focus of the old capitalist system denied the whole of truth to grow; that is not acceptable nor adequate. We are wonderfully More and that great potential needs freeing. I trust the human spirit to bloom evermore brilliantly, after all, we are children of the universe.

Occupy Everything is rooted in the need for change and it warms my heart and is growing my trust. Thank you.

The Gift of More Being

The man who went forth to gift the world, wore plaid.

Grateful

One Love / Occupy Everything
Street Art message of mindful awakening.
i am grateful for this! (Actual photo 12/24/11)

I mix my holidays quite a bit, a day for thanks is awful skimpy.

Right now i am in gratitude for the legal system taking on the rights of real people that were "hushed" at occupy camps. I am grateful for all those who weather the front lines for social, economic and environmental justice. I am thankful that the dancing copper in Providence is proof that all cops are not para militaristic thugs. (It is sad how the worst can effect the image of the whole)

i am thankful for the gift of friends and family.

I am grateful for Annie Leonard and Colbert putting "stuff" in its place.

I am grateful that every day is an adventure of possibility. The more aware and present i learn to be, the more the universe responds. This you must try out for yourself. Please let me know what happens.

If being aware is a key to activating the healthier, vast and expansive energy of Life, Light and Love, then anything is possible. That means we can manifest our vision of a better world by acting in it now. This validates an amazing, larger reality and gives it the energy it needs to thrive.

We know this pattern in our own biology, in ecosystems. It is cosmic condition, a fractal of the whole that we now see. Is this not an expanded state of consciousness?

If the above is true, then we have barely tapped our potential. We are moving beyond mere consciousness and the physical realm (material) into a super consciousness. Out of the primordial mud, past the garden and into the light.

I don't really know any of this, but it makes sense with what i do know. The experiment continues, i just report the results.

Give Presence

Photo site: 45th and U Dist Library, Seattle

Empathy and nonviolent communication for healing relationships as described by Dominic Barter in the Empathy Documentary Project, really got to me.

Consider the gift of being present this holiday season; for empathy can transform the person being truly "heard" and that encourages growth. When we reflect back another's presence we can empower them to see for themselves how they are able to change. We hear ourselves better when others hear us. That is beautiful.

This is a gift, a new tool that we can share sustainably. As we understand more the limits of our current situation we need new tools and practices. (Einstein law of repetition -"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".)

We are a civilization in need of responsive adaptation to a reality that was unknown when we started building the systems that now control our very lives. If the super food of life is our giving of presence to each other then go forth and give abundantly. This is about living in an understanding of connected reality and that changes the paradigm.

I am personally coming from a place of not being heard aka, being misunderstood. I felt i was rarely validated for who i was, but for who i appeared to be, even though i was the one that set up that persona.

I tried to reflect in life a collage person of fashion and glamorous decadence. i pieced myself together from the sound bites, movie clips and images that i responded to. But when i was perceived as such, i felt very alone. I fought back by looking for cracks in everyone i cared about. I thought that way i would find the truth but instead i just broke things.

Then i tried to assert my transforming self and that made matters worse. I think i came on like a shipwrecked alien, people, men especially, couldn't relate. I started to experiment with life because what i had believed in proved to be lossy, and there had to be more. I had faith in 'the more."

If being truly heard can evoke healing and if listening emphatically to others helps us see our common beingness, then that means we can transform at the rate needed to overcome the wrong mindedness that appears so dominate and deadly. This transformative action is something we can all do every day.

We can transcend our primitive past and come towards our becoming. We can bloom in spirit, love and gratitude.

I am challenging myself and others to start gifting the world with presence. Lets experiment with it, and share our stories, let's see what happens. Cheers!

Happy Winter Solstice

fabric scrap cards for Winter Solstice,
i delivered them right after this picture was taken.

On the threshold of 2012 let us move forward with Heart. Gifting the world, passing kindness, compassion and joy we will co create the new paradigm that resonates with the connected, interrelated reality we now understand.
Peace and blessings this holiday season.

Video by Life Vest, enjoy the heart.

Gifting the World

Tacoma bus stop, on the way to my evaluations at TESC, i had a Banksy moment. Propped against a concrete pillar was a framed print of a still life landscape. Highly romanticized, i am guessing it was circa mid 80s, in great condition.

I had to take a shot and in the process a tall gent told me I could have it, he had rescued it from a dumpster. I told him i was on my way to school or i would take him up on the offer. Then we spoke of recycling and as he walked away, i thanked him for gifting the world. When he turned around and grinned, we shared a beautiful moment of being. I am so thinking the sun came out!

The silence of others broke as well and humanity touched grounding. We are made for this.

Oh and my evals, excellent. My prof gets me now, though suggests i slow down and walk people through my ideas. Turning the paradigm from "profit" to nurturing the potential of everyone releasing the amazing possibility of life, got me a thumbs up.

Thank you Dr S. (science base) I needed that!!

Upside of the Down

Ballard recyked metal

The cure for the insanity we are experiencing in the world is to put our collective energy into healthy alternatives.

Realizing that we are part of a functioning whole means we have to learn new ways of being. Sharing spaces, ideas and resources expose us to the good and the bad side of building trust. We are in a grand experiment of DoBetter and there is a learning phase. Cool! Humans actually spark at challenge, it is good for us!

Last night,at the Kerf International Exhibits meeting, we got into a conversation about the book/movie Collapse. I later started thinking that i should have spoken up more on the positive side of this scene. Michael Ruppert has an every man for himself tinge ( bear attack story, be faster than other campers) that i and others need to dispute. In a healthy aligning with nature we are seeing how it is synchronicity, harmony and cooperation that allows life to thrive. The well being of the whole is directly related to the well being of the individual in the long term. (That bear will get hungry again and then one by one all campers go down)

The problem/changes are huge, but like an addiction, the cure is more than abstinence, it is finding a way to live with joy, health and less resource abuse. I think stressing the "potential of rebirthing the cultural mindset" is about full awakening, not just to the scam of "economics" but to our own amazing possibilities. A visually compelling exhibit at the Kerf can illuminate the spectrum and be a catalyst for more connections. Working together makes us stronger, wiser and more abled than stoic individualism. We can create the framework for the next part of this amazing journey.

Kerf workshops can be a functioning space to attract more connections, engage the community and promote creative thinking. They can also be part of the antidote for "virtual reality" that is changing brain development in children. This phenomena is becoming a part of psychological, sociological and neurological discourse. Play Again , shown at Wallingford Meaningful Movies (probably in their lending library) speaks to this change by taking a group of young people into the outdoors for a real life adventure. Art, sewing other craft skills build real world confidence as much as camping, and are not as weather dependent.

Kerf International Exhibits and the PMAU 2012 show meetings will continue in January. Please help build the future positive -at the Kerf or Anywhere, Earth.

Original Art

Charmed Seattle 2003

The article The Library Rethought by Papova caught my eye as PMAU 2012 is meeting at the Greenwood library today at 2 pm (open) and the video from the NYPL Live Remix is spot on. Thank you, DailyGood.

Creative diversity is a big thing with me and we seem to be narrowing its possibilities under the guise of "protection."

We are born to mimic, that is how we learn. So where is the line? What is really "original?" Ideas come from somewhere and we are influenced constantly, so again, where is the line?

Once upon a time, copyrights were to protect the artists, the creative person who wrote, drew or designed something. The original law (Statute of Anne) to protect authors was written in Britain in 1710. In 1975 US copyrights "died" 50 years after the death of the originator of the work

In 1975 corporate copyrights lasted 75 years. In 1998 the Copyright Extension Act or
Mickey Mouse Protection Act added 20 years to the "ownership."

"The Act extended these terms to life of the author plus 70 years and for works of corporate authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever endpoint is earlier.^[1] Copyright protection for works published prior to January 1, 1978, was increased by 20 years to a total of 95 years from their publication date." Wikipedia

Now that corporations are in charge, they have forced governments to change the laws to suit their agendas. Copyright law was changed when Disney wanted to keep Mickey under their thumbs.

As corporations can outlive humans our laws get rewritten to accommodate their needs. This allows corporations to control creativity. When profit rules thinking, what thoughts perish? When you consider humans natural learning mode, inspiration, building on prior ideas so as not to have to re-invent the wheel - ...hmmmm.

PS my article in Green Wiki was used in an eco fashion article in the Philipines, would've liked a credit but knowing it was reaching a wider audience, made it sit well in the over alls.

Peoples Media Arts Uprising 2012

Target Love Need
Aim at Insecurities
Hide it in "fashion"

PMAU 2012 will be meeting at the Greenwood Library this Sunday the 11th at 2:00 pm. Please show up if you are even remotely interested.

FYI:"Occupy Wall Street" was coined by the man behind the magazine Adbusters.

"On July 13th, Kalle Lasn, and colleagues created a twitter tag #occupywallstreet."

They made a poster showing a ballerina on top of the bull sculpture near Wall Street.

"For some they were just words and images, For Lasn they were tools to begin remodeling the "mental environment" to create a new "meme," ( transcendent cultural message coined by Richard Dawkins)

"There's a number of ways to wage a "meme" war, Lasn said, "I believe the most powerful thing of all is aesthetics." (William Yardley, The New York Times via Seattle Times Dec 4, 2011))

Peoples Media Arts Uprising 2012 is not a war -it is a means of enlightenment. When the untrue beliefs and false premises of the old industrial, business model are exposed, they whither. They shrink in the light of today's knowledge.

However, the power of aesthetics is amazing either way. If Occupy is the battle, then PMAU (Peeps- Me And U ?) is the lamp. We want to shine light on the information that marketers avoid and governments ignore. Our health and the health of the whole is at stake and that is something too precious to leave to the memes of war.

The tools that made the problem need to be put into the hands of healers. Money is one of those tools and Occupiers are demanding a reevaluation of its use. And in asking for economic justice the whole of the system is being confronted for its unsustainable , callous and narrow viewpoint that promoted an American lifestyle of mass consumption. We have come to this and it is time to wise up the whole and heal. And so it is!

Hormone Disruptors

envelope collage, stitch, marker and digital
hole in heart

Theo Colburn, " principal investigator, analyst, and constructor of the "endocrine disruption hypothesis" and author of Our Stolen Future (1996)

"For over half a century....humans have been engaged in chemical warfare against themselves. "We have dusted the globe with man-made chemicals that can undermine the development of the brain and behavior, and the endocrine, immune, and reproductive systems, vital systems that assure perpetuity.. ...Colburn says, "You cannot escape from exposure in your homes, work places,the outdoors or in your meeting room."

Restricting the use of of a few of the most deadly pesticides.-those made from chlorinated hydrocarbons (like DDT) -and phasing out the production of PCBs came too late. The world has already become permeated with these and other long lasting synthetic chemicals. these residual poisons in all our bodies are leftovers from hazardous synthetic chemicals that have been discharged into the environment since the 1940s. ..

...everyone is carrying at least 500 measurable chemicals in their bodies that weren't there prior to the 1920s. ( p 85-86)

Persistent organic pollutants -POPs -" are circulating throughout the world on ocean and atmospheric currents. "

The endocrine disruptors "wreak havoc a on many different biological processes..." Safer States

The good news is that human genes have not been damaged, -just turned on or off at the wrong moments. If exposure to POPs "can be eliminated, future generations can develop normally again."

Colburn says "what distresses her most about how humans interact with the planet are greed and short thinking. ..Colburn notes that some corporate leaders are beginning to realize that the survival of their companies depends on their changing their policies, products and processes. In a sense perhaps, greed and concern for their bottom lines might be turned to advantage..." (p 86) Women Pioneers for the Environment, Mary Joy Breton (1998)

"We" did not promote these chemicals, the industry did.

"...develop normally," POPs are only a % of the chemical onslaught.

"...greed and concern for their bottom lines might be turned to advantage." Creating more sustainable, greener processes, products etc do not offset the fact that huge corporations wield too much power over governments and global policy makers. Creative diversity is stilted when profit is the most valued result.