Lockdown

I do admit that it is a bit melodramatic, but when I am confined to the house and little or no activity, I might as well be in lockdown.  The hardest part of this disease is not knowing.  I know that sounds ridiculous and it is hard to explain.  As I have said a bazillion times I am so lucky that heart failure has little pain (not like cancer).  What it does have is overwhelming and frustrating exhaustion!  And to make it even more difficult this fatigue is not constant.   What is not functioning today, may function tomorrow and vice versa.  There is no early warning system. So, I had the most phenomenal 3 nights at the Nude Nite Exhibition, would not have missed them for anything, loved them, had a great time but apparently, the “payment” has come due.  The heart numbers “ratted” me out on the weekly nurse visit, although in my own defense I had no idea.  I knew I was a little “tired-er” but not to this point.  The question that is a constant swirl in my head, as well as nurse Ed’s is what and when is “living” well?  Lockdown is precariously close to my quality of life red line!  The lockdown good news...I got the income taxes done!

"Shake Me Like a Monkey"  Dave Matthews Band

Never too late!

This pretty much sums it up.  I am very aware of how many people just do not get me and it really is ok…well it is now. 

There used to be a time where I felt like I needed 100% approval from 100% of all the people all of the time.  When I first accepted the premise, “no one would like me all of the time” it should have been very freeing, but I felt part of my personal growth process was to learn why they did not like me. I spent hours of my life examining them, examining me and the hopes I could fix it. But the best I could come up with is we were different. No one needed to be "fixed".  None of us are all bad or all good (well maybe every now and again I would run up on an all bad, in that case, you just run like hell in the other direction). There is no such thing as 100% anything! Every now and again there may be a fleeting moment of it, that is only if we are lucky enough to recognize it when it zips by, but it will not stay.  Husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, friends, and neighbors will never agree or understand each other all of the time.  The only thing I have to understand is if and when the relationship becomes hurtful and toxic for me I need to hold it at arm’s length.  But I will never let go totally. I can never give up on the possibility that love can turn everything around at any moment…it is never too late!

"Never too Late"  Michael Franti

I think it is my superpower....wicked and grateful at the same time!

3+ glorious nights and days of Nude Nite have come and gone!  And my celebration of I can do it, creativity, a wonderful smidgen of naughty, and art of every possible medium, but with a single theme, has now entered into recovery mode with yesterday’s full day nap!

Thanks to all of my friends and family that truly understand how important this part of my life is and facilitated all of my desires to be a part of it again!  I am so grateful! I think that is my superpower....wicked and grateful at the same time!

"Good Girl" Julian Moon

"F#(k" Heart Failure

Where else but Nude Nite….. could you be a part of an interactive installation?  A couple of years ago there was the most irreverently awesome confessional! I did NOT participate in that one…I just watched and strained to hear what was being said behind the curtains of the artistic confessionals (and that is exactly why I did NOT confess) I was not the only one listening!  This “unburdening” was much more anonymous but not at the same time.  We wrote on then tore out “Funk and Wagnalls” Encyclopedia pages and threw them in the coffin to be burned on Sunday! I had not seen or heard of Funk and Wagnalls since the 70’s! I need for the"universe" to know and to see this disease is not going to destroy my spirit, I get that it will eventually claim my body and I have no choice about that…but my spirit and my love…that is MY CHOICE....Heart Failure cannot take those from me …although it tries to on a regular basis…Fuck Heart Failure, you will not win this one!

"The Secret of Life" James Taylor

First Night-Nude Nite 2019

  The art and the people there is just nothing like it....there is more coming this is just the first night!

....horrible paralyzing fear is always going to be a part of my journey

Delivery Day is like all of the bubble gum I have stuffed in the cracks of my life are beginning to give way!

The drive to the “Nude Nite” venue feels like a slow walk to the gallows. A litany of questions unravels inside my head, as I get closer and closer.

“Do I belong here?

"They must have made a mistake."

"My work is not good enough!"

"If I turn around now and run, they will never know it was me.”

At the venue….Without emotion or approval, they ask my name, have me sign the legal documents, and hand me a brown manila envelope with my name on it, it contains a lanyard and comp. tickets.  I gather up the paperwork and artwork and walk into the gallery area where no one notices me, it is a simple matter of fact business transaction of dropping off art.  The curators will make the decisions later where and how all of this artwork hangs and the Installers will set about the job of building pop up gallery walls, gallery lights and hangover 200 pieces of art for opening night in less than

36 hours. It is an amazing feat!

I go to the empty spot I was directed to and stand long enough to take a deep breath, before setting my work down.  I feel everyone in the room is watching and knows that I am just plain not good enough to be here! After I set my work down and unwrap it, I finally feel brave enough to lift my eyes and look around.  All of a sudden it is not about me anymore! I am surrounded by the energy of incredible artists, artwork, massive amounts of glorious unimaginable talent, images that take my breath away and a feeling of incredible satisfaction and belonging envelopes me. I am surrounded by magnificent creatives and their work and energy.  Like storm clouds clearing, my breathing slows and my heart calms. At that precise moment, I know this is exactly what I am meant to do.  This moment is what makes all of the fear worth it…It is that fleeting but so very real moment that I feel the universe wrap its arms around me and lovingly tell me…this is who and what you are. I am embraced in the "knowing" like a big warm hug. This is why I am alive.

This horrible paralyzing fear is always going to be a part of the journey.  I do not think I will ever get used to it. I just have to know it will be there every time I deliver artwork for an exhibition.  I have to do the work, show up and move through the fear.  For this, I am rewarded with the unquestionable understanding that this is who and what I am in the world.  This is the amazing gift of being an artist that I do not think most people will ever have the opportunity to understand….

"Naked" Lakshmi

Letting Go of Cetainties

And so do a whole bunch of other things…I am just now figuring this out!  I have been measuring my accomplishments, my worthiness and everything about me based on the certainties of how and what I used to be and what this body would do.

I get that creativity requires the courage to “let go” but I confess, there are very few of my works that have not been created without some of that certainty.  It could be the colors, the subject, the presentation that is created for the sheer need to be certain it will be liked. Even when I am pleased with my work, I stand back and wonder how much better it could have been if I did not care whether others liked it or would buy it or not.

This letting go of “certainties” is what I need to do a lot more of!  It is not like it worked that great in the past…why do I think I need it now???

"I Can't Make You Love Me"  Adelle

I do not even have to get a running start!

From day one I have had a “love-hate” affair with the “stuff” that identifies me as “sick”. Love...love…love when it helps me breathe, park closer, see who is at the door without getting up, stay longer-drink more at gallery openings.  Hate...hate...hate that I need them and that they identify me as weaker than.

There is another one...CRAP...  A ramp at the front door…NOT for me but for grocery wagon.  Trying to get in and out of the front doorstep

had gotten to be such a production.  Trying to muscle that wagon full of groceries over that step was a hysterical joke!!  Now I can go up, over and in and I do not even have to get a running start! Maybe it is not all bad, sometimes maybe even a little bit good...but just a little bit.

"All That We Let In"  Indigo Girls

...but I really liked my old software!

Pre-emptive computer crash…. First of all, I would like to make a declaration!  I am not a computer geek although I do know how to do a bunch of things.  I have a slow learning curve but once I’ve got it…I have got it.  This means that a 6-year-old laptop I have just now gotten a good handle on how, what, where, when to use it…FINALLY!  And then the son of a bitch begins to slow down, crash intermittently…all signs that the end is coming!  The rush is on to find an affordable replacement before I lose all of my files.  With the help of my amazing techno son. The new extremely affordable refurbished machine has arrived but apparently, I have no choice but to be forced into the world of updated software…but I really liked my old software and I knew how to use it! This is going to take another 6 years….at least!

 "Got to Get You into My Life"  Beatles

Pay Attention!!!

I have always adored Brian Andreas’s  “Story People”.  They/he just seem to know how to communicate simple and profound messages wrapped in non-threatening whimsy. This was a big one that dropped onto my FaceBook page.

#1  Yes my real life really SUCKS right now!

#2  I know complaining does not help…but sometimes…

#3  And…because I am a big believer in “synchronicity” what is happening has really smacked me upside the head!

So 3 does seem to be the magic number.

  

#1  Two of my small sculptures were juried into the Nude Nite Exhibition,

#2  I was asked to participate on the city’s Art House Expansion Planning Board (including a dedicated 3D building)

#3  A VOG art sister calls and says the Sculpture Guild has had a renaissance I should come check it out.

I think the universe maybe SCREAMING at me.  Pay Attention! "You cannot have what you used to have, that is gone forever, but here...here is a gift...physically "doable" new...different...challenging...creative...what more could  you possibly want?

 
"Carry On"  Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young