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Monday, August 30, 2010

Roll With it

Am doing:

Eating the blackberries before the bears get them all.  Very delicious!



Making small prints





Also opening up a present from Gail - can you see what I should be working on in the background?  See the right-hand side?  Those are my deletions- ugh!  Got to get this article revised!


 The back


And my birthday goody- Gail made me this neato upcycled bag and a necklace made with a Bakelite poker chip.  An owl no less....life, it is good.




And again....what I must finish....


go, go, go....revise...

Julija's Party

Some pictures from Julija's party

Emma, Taylor and Katie decorated the cake:




Wait! We need to get a picture too!

Cool- Julija likes it! Happy Birthday!


Taylor is confused.


Mom! Stop taking my picture!



Bonus:  They taught me how to play the most fun game ever; Ninja.

Bonus Bonus;  Julija and Emma


So sweet.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

What a Wild Ride It's Been!



So tomorrow is Julija's 17th birthday, time does flies!  We had quite an adventure the day she was born and it continues to be a beautiful winding road that I wouldn't change for anything.



She is so lovely and sweet -


Julija,  have a wonderful birthday and a wonderful senior year! This picture was from my senior picture photo shoot with Julija and Emma.  We had so much fun!

Buddha Mala and Other Details

For a quite a while I've been looking for a new mala and just haven't found one the right weight, color or feel so I  made this one for myself.  The beads feel cool and smooth and the orange is soothing to me. This summer I came across the Buddha bead in a bead shop in Geneva -I am happy he found an orange colored home.







I also made a signature stamp for my art work - this one is an abstraction of 'MERI' .  It came out a bit larger than I would have liked, but it will work well for bigger pieces.  




Time to carve a smaller one.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Sunday, August 22, 2010

A Long Time Ago Drawings: Before I Knew Julija

Drawing the Illusion:








Illusion broken.

Ayumi Horie Pots in Action: Vote for My Picture!

Ayumi Horie is a ceramic artist I have featured on my blog before.  She is running a contest so folks can vote on the best pictures of her customer's pottery purchases in use.  Please go to her site and vote for my picture (I have two up, but if everyone I know votes for this one- I might win a pot!).


Vote for this one!! Here is the site.  My other picture is the one with Domo :-)

Thank you!  I'll let you know if I win!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Peace Pagoda

 In 1985, a Buddhist monastic order called Nipponzan Myohoji erected a large monument in Leverett, MA. This structure, known as the New England Peace Pagoda, is considered the first of its kind in North America.






























Well worth a visit.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Sunday, August 15, 2010

From Me to We; The Buddha Mind Unfolding

This past week I spent at the Mother House of the Zen Peacekeepers in Montague, MA for a gathering of Western socially engaged Buddhist activists, academics, practitioners and artists.  It was a mind blowing experience for me and the words and pictures I share here certainly will not convey how the impact of sharing space and conversation with all of these masters and students has opened my mind to the endless potential of being and doing.  There simply are no limits, no boundaries, all that can be thought is possible.

Bernie Glassman and Robert Thurman discuss socially engaged Buddhism



Robert Thurman wears a clown nose while reminding us to have humor in our practice and reading from his book: Inner Revolution

Some of Bernie Glassman books:
Instructions to The Cook
Bearing Witness

Some of Robert Thurman books:
Inner Revolution
Why the Dalai Lama Matters


Peter Senge


Some of Peter Senge's books:
Learning for Sustainability
The Fifth Discipline


Jeff Bridges shared his programs Little Head for Peace and End Hunger Network.  He started his end hunger program in 1983. He and his daughter started the Little Head program recently- Jeff is an artist working in clay and painting and he has made some heads like the one in the picture that he is auctioning off in places around the world with the hopes of publishing a book with the photos of the heads and their owners.  He donated this one to the Zen Peacemakers. So not only is Jeff an activist, actor and artist, he is a pretty good musician as well- yup  the Crazy Heart movie was no fake.



Jeff Bridges and John Goodwin rocked the Zendo



Anne Waldman read Manatee/Humanity along with some of her other works.  She blew my mind with her fierce intelligence.


See and listen to Anne Waldman read Manatee/Humanity


A panel moderated by Anne Waldman discussed "Arts and the Future of Socially Engaged Buddhism"
Mayumi Oda, Nina LaNegra, Jeff Bridges and Peter Matthiessen


Some of Peter Matthiessen's books:
In The Spirit of Crazy Horse
Shadow Country
The Snow Leopard

I purchased a print by Mayumi Oda.  It is of the deity Sarasvati (Sarsawati):  The name Saraswati came from "saras" (meaning "flow") and "wati" (meaning "a women"). So, Saraswati is symbol of knowledge; its flow (or growth) is like a river and knowledge is supremely alluring, like a beautiful women (direct quote from wiki).  Mayumi is incredibly inspiring to me -she is powerful, graceful and wise. Her work is very lovely and moving, I hope it graces me with blessings of knowledge, I believe it will.






Mayumi and I






Some other presenters at the symposium:


Jon Kabat-Zinn (photo by Erik Tetsudo from his blog La Puerta Sin Nombre) talked about how Buddhist principles are in human action and not necessarily only bound to Buddhist practice. He said "Being human is in all of us" and "...rest in boundless imagination"  - yes, yes, yes!






Jan Willis  (photo from the Zen Peacemaker Blog).  Jan has this wonderful energy and passion, we had a nice chat about the beauty of books with previous owner's notes written in the margins.  Oh I do wish I had a book she previously owned! Jan has written a number of books including, Dreaming Me: An African American Woman’s Spiritual Journey.






Joan Halifax spoke about "death as a liberation"-  Very interesting to me because death and dying is not an area I have studied much about. Joan wrote The Human Encounter With Death with Stanislav Grof and has written a number of other books on Buddhism and shamanism.



There were many other speakers such as David Loy, who wrote, The Great Awakening: A Buddhist Social Theory (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2003) among other books and Fleet Maull, who wrote Dharma in Hell and founded the Prison Dharma Network (PDN).  Some others: Daniel Goleman of Social Intelligence fame and Melody Chavis who has written a number of books on her work with prisoners on death row.


Krishna Das lead us in some powerful chanting.  This week was just magical!






Here are some other pictures from Montague Farm:




Outside the Zendo




The House of One People sign




I couldn't agree more:



Inside the Zendo



Just beautiful.