Friday, July 18, 2008

blogging about blogs

i'm part of a collective blog--art is moving--and yesterday, in response to a post on gitmo and the peace billboards that are up in sf, i wrote this comment:

man--i don't know what to do about this. i hate that we've done it--and i feel a violation--i feel a crazed kind of anger and frustration--how can we be doing this? and to this child? i don't understand gitmo--and i don't know how it is happening--and i don't know what to do about it now that i know it is happening. and so i write letters to my congress people and ask that they do their thing to stop this f**king nonsense, archane, crazy torture shi*. i curse about it. i feel angry and enraged about it. i feel helpless and that makes me crazier and angrier. what does a responsible, thinking, feeling person do when one knows crazy, horrible things are going on in one's own world? i think about nazi germany...and watched on cable the other day the nuremburg trials? and i think about how we, as americans who know about gitmo and do nothing are, in fact, like germans who knew about the death camps and did nothing. i understand the doing nothing. and i hate it.

and so, what can be done about it?

1. make art about it
2. talk to the people in your own worlds about it
3. send letters to congress about it
4. hold a space of prayerful piece for the souls of the prisoners and those charged with imprisoning them
5. light a candle about it
6. send letters to amnesty international about it
7. write poetry about it
8. plant a tree about it
9. ask spirit to do something about it
10. elect someone who will shut it down.

and it seems strange to be here, blogging it again--spending time to talk about it more--but it's crazy to me that we're having some off shore torture facility propped p by a government that governs by the people and for the people. i am an american people--that does not want or believe in this kind of crap. and so i am blogging--in an effort to make myself heard--to speak out loud--to do SOMETHING.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Faces of Your Soul: Luminous Body

I've just had the most extraordinary experience assisting Kaleo with a maskmaking class this weekend. While this was not our soul group--meaning the group that assembled this weekend--it is an extraordinary example of what a soul group looks like at the end of a dna altering experience with Kaleo & Elise Ching. Flickr is the best place to be able to see the depth and breadth of the work Kaleo & Elise inspire. Their work--their artform--is teaching. The space they hold and create when they are working together is the single most healing environment, energy, attitude, outlook, possibility that i have ever experienced. Being in the space they hold--being held by that space--feeling the chi through the chi gung forms they've evolved that are integral to their teaching is quite literally life changing. Kaleo & Elise Ching represent the best teachers and transformative artists i have had the privilege to meet and work with. I highly recommend their books and classes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaleoching/

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

transformation arts find of the day

http://www.artsforhealth.org/

i'm initiating a new direction for this blog--i want to discover and assemble programs and individuals that are acting in a transformative arts capacity in the world.

today, when googling, i tripped into this team of folks bringing art to health centers in manchester. this is a model for what can be done in health care environments. this is a model for adding art to the mix of physical health centers and traditional medicine--and it makes a huge impact on healing.

it's interesting to think about what a visit to the art doctor--different from a visit to the art therapist--might make possible in the world of healing.

i love discovering that there are models for this new kind of integrative behavior inside health care settings. do visit their site and post your comments on what you think of them.