#artists date

Good morning, my loves!

Uploading this from work but definitely making sure that the channel stays updated. 😇 So happy to finally finish these artists dates, these tasks, and to be experiencing so much in my life flourishing from engaging deeply with The Artists Way Everyday: A Spiritual Path to Recovery by Julia Cameron.

If you are new to the greater Los Angeles area or visiting, here is a list of a few places for creative artist dates. The artist date is an idea from Julia Cameron’s book The Artists Way where Cameron suggests making time for an outing or activity to feed your senses and inspire creativity. Even in the bustling Los Angeles area you can find quaint pockets for a day to yourself or meeting up with…

Yesterday I went to see the Manzanar exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center.  I really had gone to see the pen & ink drawings by a Japanese artist that was showing at the same time, but I suppose the focal point was really the Ansel Adams photography exhibit on the Manzanar victims.  I have always loved the Skirball for putting on such great programs and exhibits.  They do a wonderful job in interpretation and explanation.  Better than most museums, in that they assume nothing of the audience.  It’s refreshing, and in a quiet and subtle way, very appealing to me.  Without airs. 

The exhibit was crowded, and the docents were leading tours during the time I was there.  I had the honor of being present with Manzanar survivors, who spoke voluntarily during the tours.  I think the whole situation put a heavy weight on me.  What struck me the most was the level of dignity these people carried themselves with, through such an atrocious time.  The pride of being of Japanese descent, the pride of being American, despite being singled out, and stripped of one’s rights.  I was struggling to keep myself from weeping. 

I started imagining what it would be like, to be taken away, put into a desert, with absolutely nothing.  I couldn’t imagine the shock one would have, being born American, being born and raised in Los Angeles, to be educated at university, to hold respected jobs in society, to then be told that you were less than everybody else?  To live in such harsh circumstances, transported from cities and society, to a place in the middle of nowhere, in the desert, with barbed ware and guns pointed at you.  These people faced this confusing and silent brutality with such industriousness and resilience.  What stopped me from weeping was one man’s account, and when he spoke of the horror, that “these things don’t leave you” - he had nothing but a sunny disposition, a beaming face, and a look of a man that has lived but also accepted. 

Art for Transformation & Healing

I noticed I have been using my Facebook Page to share ideas, articles, and updates. While I love using Facebook and instagram as my main medium of sharing- focusing solely on them has prevented me from taking the time to fully express myself and share my upcoming adventures on and off the page.

During this time away I realized I want to make the switch back to using capital letters. I prefer all…

This is actually about the concept of the Artist's Date, but hold up a minute and let me get to that:

I've been suckered into taking over my daughter's Girl Scout troop, which is to say that no one held a gun to my head and I accepted readily and actually wanted to, but I also want to hide from the world like Jo March, eating bushels of apples and crying over novels in the attic.  Sadly, Jo's way does not pay bills nor does it increase my real-world experience with other humans, which I've noticed actually has a positive effect on my writing.

It's not that I don't love humanity, I do.  It's people I usually hate.

It was genuinely my intention to update this blog everyday and do it with insights and all that.  But it didn't turn out like Field of Dreams, you know, where I reserve the blog URL and then the amazing insights just show up.  Cuz insights don't show up like that, outta nowhere.  Or at least, mind don't.  Not when I'm not doing the dishes.  

I've been doing a lot of wishing lately, as I travel under trains or see the first star of the night.  I'm not supposed to tell you what I wish for, because allegedly that cancels out the wish, but it's not working anyway so I'm going try the Fake-It-Till-You-Make-It approach and tell you: I've been wishing for the stories to return.  The problem with my life right now is that it's gotten so left-brain that my right brain has gone back to entertaining itself without me.  I am awash in ideas and bereft of follow-through, because my left brain is so well fed its able to shout down my right now.  Or rather again.  I keep going through this.    

You know what I'm getting at, right?  The Judge in my head, who tells you the story is going stupidly and your characters are shallow and no one wants to read this crap anyway and why don't you get a real job?

I did the Artists Way waaaaaayyyyy back in the day, and it didn't really work, except to instill in me the need to dump my brain of crap on a regular basis and the idea of the Artists' Date.  I did a couple of them but never got past the "I'm wasting my time with this" phase of it.  Or maybe that's what it always feels like?  Maybe I don't know how or when to do it right.  I mean, yes of course I get the mechanics of setting aside time and all that shit.  But this is really where my left brain has to step up to the plate and help organize my time so that I can.  And this is hard, because like most moms whose SO's don't get it, mine isn't all that supportive and tends to resent my wanting to spend copious amounts of time at the computer, appearing to be doing nothing productive when I could be cuddling on the couch.  It's worse that Mr Word has a pile of self-published friends, and worth noting that those self-published friends are not mothers and not mothers of school-aged children whose spouses are also chronically ill.  I have explanations, you know.