As a person, I strive to seek and uncover degrees of connection as well as enlightenment. As a visual artist, I pursue the adventure into the Self to illustrate my individual experience of emotion and relation. As a showcase director, I reach outside of myself to bring together quality local artists to encourage their pursuit of their chosen craft. As someone's beloved, I bring about constant awareness, adjustment, and care of not only another person but myself as well. Overall, I gravitate towards moving forward with progression and compassion.

"No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit"
-Ansel Adams

"I'm having trouble getting my work out there. I have a hard time finding the self-confidence. If it was up to me, I'd just make my work in isolation and not worry about the marketing or promotion, but I know I can't do that. The problem is-- my work is really quiet. It's very subtle and subdued. It takes time to appreciate. And there's so much image saturation in today's world, it seems that only the most aggressive imagery is getting noticed. I'm finding that it takes a lot of boldness to take a firm stance in making quiet work."

"And finally, above all else, it is about leaving a mark that I existed: I was here. I was hungry. I was defeated. I was happy. I was sad. I was in love. I was afraid. I was hopeful. I had an idea and had a good purpose and that is why I made art.”
-Felix Gonzalez-Torres

(Posted by Stormie)
FROM THE DIRECTOR:

Life is too complicated for our minds. Our minds are too complicated for our minds. Individual consciousness, that beautiful mystery, quickly buckles under the weight of it’s own overwhelming drive to figure everything out. To make it all fit. To accomplish certainty. The mind caves in—because no matter how long we think about it, no matter how much we read, no matter how strongly we feel, we really can’t know what it’s going to be like to die. Old or young, hard skeptic or hard believer, we can’t know. We can have all sorts of ideas. Some of them will probably be closer to the truth than others. But all we know for sure in this life is that we exist and that we don’t know anything else for sure. That’s where we all have to agree. Those thoughts can be freeing, if we experience grace through them. We can move forward in faith. But without grace, uncertainty is paralyzing. The mind curls in on itself. The weight of insignificance presses in. Fear eats the will. With enough pressure, the spirit can snap.

So we’re performing Hamlet. What good is there in that? A university is a community dedicated to thinking through ultimate questions in all their various applications, and this play certainly fits in with that program. Is that it? Another thing to think through? Live theater is a unique medium. It shares characteristics with literature and film but remains distinct. Reading a play or watching a performance captured on film each has its own unique benefits, but they are not the benefits of live theater. Here, performers incarnate characters and situations in real time with the audience. It is a kind of ritual. It must be experienced in the present. We’re living at a time when experience is more often mediated by technology than taken in the present with our full human faculties. Technology is good, but we can’t let it be the end of presence. We need to force ourselves to be aware of the fact that we exist, here, right now. This awareness is essential to theater. Be alive to the beautiful absurdity of it all. Many good things are only understood well through experience. What does it mean to be alive? Live with us for a few hours, and we'll try to learn something together. Live with Shakespeare and Hamlet. Life is too complicated for our minds to capture—cosmic, microscopic, subatomic; growing and decaying, consuming and loving—and thank God for that. We can live in grace. - Aaron Young Smith

" I have so much strength inside of me. You have no idea. I have a love in my life. It makes me stronger than anything you can imagine. "

Sometimes beautiful things come into our lives out of nowhere. We can’t always understand them, but we have to trust in them. I know you want to question everything, but sometimes it pays to just have a little faith.

—Lauren Kate, Torment

I was trying to find a blog I use to upkeep and had no luck so....I googled myself ha! With that I found some press. That-a cool-a. Imma steamin', Imma visualin', Imma artin'!

http://www.utsandiego.com/photos/galleries/2013/jul/22/madewell-open-utc/

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2011/04/01/artistic-range-stone-dragon-studio

"2013 has been quite a year and there is still a month and a half left! I've been thinking of past and new resolutions. I love the concept of a 'year' so we can somewhat observe happenings and growth within a time frame. I feel as though 2014 will be a very solid year and one can't deny what is felt through one's bones. Not to say "bring it on '14", but rather open my arms with warmth and welcome."

November 13th 2013

"In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty...in the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known, which is the prison of past conditioning.

And in our willingness to step into the unknown, the field of all possibilities, we surrender ourselves to the creative mind that orchestrates the dance of the universe."


"I am that, you are that, all this is that, and that's all there is."

--The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

"People who shine from within don't need the spotlight."

"The truth is that the more intimately you know someone, the more clearly you'll see their flaws. That's just the way it is. This is why marriages fail, why children are abandoned, why friendships don't last. You might think you love someone until you see the way they act when they're out of money or under pressure or hungry, for goodness' sake. Love is something different. Love is choosing to serve someone and be with someone in spite of their filthy heart. Love is patient and kind, love is deliberate. Love is hard. Love is pain and sacrifice, it's seeing the darkness in another person and defying the impulse to jump ship."

If you want to awaken all of humanity then awaken all of yourself.
If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself.
Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation.
--Lao Tzu

Practicing the Law of Giving is actually very simple:
If you want joy, give joy to others;
if you want love, learn to give love;
if you want attention and appreciation, learn to give attention and appreciation,
if you want material affluence, help others to become materially affluent.
In fact, the easiest way to get what you want is to help others get what they want. If you want to be blessed with all the good things in life, learn to silently bless everyone with all the good things in life.
--The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

I've lost myself, I've lost my soul.

"To venture causes anxiety, but not to venture is to lose one's self..and to venture in the highest is precisely to be conscious of one's self."

--Soren Kierkegaard

"Most importantly, I learned that if you have a preconceived notion of how something should be, YOU WILL ALWAYS BE DISAPPOINTED. Instead, just go with it, just ACCEPT it, because usually something even more wonderful will come out of it."

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/an-artist-mom-started-letting-her-four-year-old-daughter-fin

“An entire sea of water can’t sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship. Similarly, the negativity of the world can’t put you down unless you allow it to get inside you.”

— Goi Nasu

"For the artist, a sketch pad or a notebook is a license to explore - it becomes entirely acceptable to stand there, for minutes on end, staring at a tree stump. Sometimes you need to scan the forest, sometimes you need to touch a single tree- if you can't apprehend both, you'll never entirely comprehend either. To see things is to enhance your sense of wonder both for the singular pattern of your own experience, and for the meta-patterns that shape all experience." -Art and Fear

Kao Tzu said, ‘Human nature is like the ch’i willow. Dutifulness is like cups and bowls. To make morality out of human nature is like making cups and bowls out of the willow.’ ‘Can you,’ said Menicius, ‘make cups and bowls by following the nature of the willow? Or must you mutilate the willow before you can make it into cups and bowls? If you have to mutilate the willow to make it into cups and bowls, must you, then, also mutilate a man to make him moral? Surely it will be these words of yours men in the world will follow in brining disaster upon morality.’ (Mencius 6A:1)

Kung-tu Tzu asked, ‘Though equally human, why are some men greater than others?’ Mencius replied, ‘Those who follow what is great within them become great; those who follow what is small become small.’ Kung-tu Tzu then said, ‘All are equally human. Why is it that some follow what is great and others follow what is small?’ Mencius replied, ‘It is not the function of the ear or the eyes to reflect, and so they can become obsessed with things. Being unreflective, when they come in contact with other things, they are led astray. The function of the mind is to reflect. When it reflects, it gets things right; if it does not reflect, it cannot get things right. These are what Heaven has given us. If one takes one’s stand in the great that is within, the small cannot take it away. This is what makes one great.’ (Mencius 6A:15)

For a man to give full realization to his heart is for him to understand his own nature, and a man who knows his own mature will know Heaven. By restraining his heart and nurturing his nature he is serving Heaven. Whether he is going to die young or to live to a ripe old age makes no difference to his steadfastness of purpose. It is through awaiting whatever is to befall him with a perfected character that he stands firm on his proper destiny. (Mencius 7A:1)

If others do not respond to your love with love, look into your own benevolence; if others fail to respond to your attempt to govern them with order, look into your own wisdom; if others do not return your courtesy, look into your own respect. In other words, look into yourself whenever you fail to achieve your purpose. (Mencius 4A:4)

You can never succeed in winning the allegiance of men by trying to dominate them through goodness. You can only succeed by using this goodness for their welfare. You can never gain the Empire without the heart-felt admiration of the people in it. (Mencius 4B:16)

"The bigness of the world is redemption. Despair compresses you into a small space, and a depression is literally a hollow in the ground. To dig deeper into the self, to go underground, is sometimes necessary., but so is the other route of getting out of yourself, into the larger world, into the openness in which you need not clutch your story and your troubles so tightly to your chest."
- Rebecca Solnit, from THE FARAWAY NEARBY

http://iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=63454

A guide to understand Introverts.

Amara Louise and Oliver Joseph

When he rang the doorbell, Zia hadn't planned to step inside. He was there to pick up his fiancee who was babysitting, but she couldn't leave (the parents were running late) so Zia agreed to hang out for a bit. His fiancee said, "Let me introduce you to the kids" — the 2-year-old girl, the 7-year-old boy and, most important, squatting, with no shoes on, surrounded by ants on the back patio, the oldest — the 9-year-old — the one he would make world-famous on YouTube.

This is the boy he now calls "The Philosopher."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/03/27/175455214/socrates-in-the-form-of-a-9-year-old-shows-up-in-a-suburban-backyard-in-washingt

THE SKY GAVE ME ITS HEART

The sky gave me its heart
because it knew mine was not large enough to care
for the earth the way it did.

Why is it we think of God so much?
Why is there so much talk about love?

When an animal is wounded
no one has to tell it, "You need to heal"; 
so naturally it will nurse itself the best it can.

My eye kept telling me, "Something is missing from
all I see."
So I went in such of the cure.

The cure for it was His Beauty.
The remedy, for me, was to love.

—Rabia of Hasra (translation by Daniel Ladinsky)

Elizabeth Gilbert

QUESTION OF THE DAY: WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU HATE YOUR JOB AND YOUR LIFE, AND YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE BEEN FORGOTTEN BY GOD AND BY THE WORLD?

Dear Ones -

A friend of this page sent in this heart-wrenching question yesterday, and I hoped that we all might be able to help her. I have been there, where she is now, and I suspect that some of you have been there, as well.

I'm attaching a link to an Etsy page with a design of one of my favorite guiding Rumi quotes on it (I wanted to support the artist!), which is: "LET THE BEAUTY YOU LOVE BE WHAT YOU DO."

Because that is the first thought that came to my mind, when I read this tormented question: Let the beauty you love be what you do. You MUST find something of beauty in the world and follow it, pursue it, wrap yourself up in it, and even participate in it. The great paradox of life is that recognizing beauty is agonizingly difficult when you are depressed — but at no time is the pursuit of beauty more important than you when you are depressed. Because it will save you.

When I was going through my darkest days (the days where I would wake up at 4:30 in the morning already in tears) I remember stubbornly deciding that I must chase light and beauty as hard as I could, with whatever I had left. I would wake up in a full depression and then — almost like as if using an emotional CATscan — I would survey my entire being to see if there was even ONE MOLECULE of light in my body, soul, heart or mind. Was there ANYTHING, any thought, any memory, any wish, that brought even a molecule of goodness, happiness, interest to my mind? It was like looking for a tumor, but not a bad tumor — a good one. A few cluster-cells of beauty. And then, when I found some cells that felt like they had light (even if it was as simple as remembering a book that I wanted to read, or an old friend that I wanted to call, or a movie that seemed interesting, or a tiny act of kindness that moved me, or a course of study that intrigued me) I would commit to building upon that. Take what is good, and add to it. Stubbornly. Very stubbornly.

Remember...YOU CANNOT CHASE OUT DARKNESS; YOU CAN ONLY BRING IN LIGHT. And once you have found a bit of light inside you, no matter how small, cling to it and find a creative way to expand it — until that light grows, and the darkness fades in direct proportion . The God that you feel has forgotten you is hidden in the middle of that tiny bit of light.

Also, I must say...if this is a real depression, and not just a temporary funk, PLEASE find help. Find a counselor, a minister, a sympathetic neighbor, a therapist, a doctor, a support group, a community — somebody good and kind who will assist you. Don't go through misery alone, trying to tough it out. Solitude will only extend it. 

Most of all, though, trust in beauty. Trust in beauty any form — physical, emotional, spiritual, artistic. Trust in beauty, follow it, collect it. Look deep, to discover what you consider beautiful, and then join it. Make something beautiful. A garden, a gift, a cake, a book, an hour of your time donated to somebody in need, a song, a prayer, a dance, a lesson. This need not have anything to do with your job. Forget about your job. Change your job if able to, but if you can't — never mind. I've had shitty jobs, you've had shitty jobs, everyone has had shitty jobs. Lots of people have shitty jobs right now and find a way live full lives, anyhow. Show up at your shitty job if you need the money, but then commit the remaining hours and days of your life to the relentless hunt for beauty. 

Go find out what is the beauty you love. Then go BE that. God will meet you there, I promise.

(And don't be too proud to ask for help.)

So that's my advice.

Please, everyone — do chime in with your own advice to help a suffering fellow seeker. I know you have all been there...

Safe passage, 
Liz 

" Art is the habit of the artist; and habits have to be rooted deep in the whole personality. They have to be cultivated like any other habit, over a long period of time, by experience; and teaching any kind of writing is largely a matter of helping the student develop the habit of art. I think this is more than just a discipline, although it is that; I think it is a way of looking at the created world and of using the senses so as to make them find as much meaning as possible in things. "

"There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally."

Don Miguel Ruiz

"The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but thought about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking. Separate them from the situation, which is always neutral. It is as it is."

--Eckhart Tolle

Live your daily life in a way that you never lose yourself. When you are carried away with your worries, fears, cravings, anger, and desire, you run away from yourself and you lose yourself. The practice is always to go back to oneself.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

"On some days everything goes right.
On some days everything goes wrong.
At certain moments you feel absorbed into the rhythm of Nature.
At some moments you feel as if you disappear into the sky or the ocean.
Sometimes you know that you have always been here"

"When my husband was dying, I said: 'Moe, how am I suppose to live without you?'
He told me: 'Take the love you have for me and spread it around.''"

"When your inner world comes into order, your outer world will come into order"

--I Ching

"Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty."

--Albert Einstein

"May the sun bring you new energy,
May the moon softly restore you by night,
May the rain wash away your worries,
May the breeze blow new strength into your being,
May you walk gently through the world and know it's beauty all the days of your life."

--Apache Blessing

"When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new."

“True, we love life, not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving. There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness.” 
― Frederich Nietzsche

"'I'm bored' is a useless thing to say. I mean, you live in a great, big, vast world that you've seen none percent of. Even the inside of your own mind is endless; it goes on forever, inwardly, do you understand? The fact that you're alive is amazing, so you don't get to say 'I'm bored'"
--Louis CK

"I smile when I look back at the troubles that have strengthened me. What seems to be insurmountable struggles then are now beautiful ornaments illuminating my soul"

--Dodinsky

A Poem Written On The Wall In An Ascending Space Capsule:

We had to stop what we were doing
to see what we had done. Thing was,
we wouldn’t. How devoted we were
to despising one another, to erecting
our own private islands made of water
bottles and various other plastic
disposables. “Will you forgive me?”
Upon discovering that gulls
feasting on our unearthed dead bodies
died of our toxicity, we sobered up
but couldn’t stand to look at ourselves
in what was left of the light. Despite
what so many movies had taught us, “just
in time” was a tick too late. There was
this bird we used to call a whippoorwill.

"I always wonder why birds stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the earth. Then I ask myself the same question."

-Harun Yahya

"The tragedy in life does not lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disaster to be unable to capture your ideal, but it is a disaster to have no ideal to capture. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for"

-Benjamin E Mays

"When man learns to respect even the smallest being of Creation, whether animal or vegetable, nobody has to teach him to love his fellow man. Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man"

--Albert Scweitzer

‎"I think that we can't go around measuring our goodness by what we don't do. By what we deny ourselves, what we resist, and who we exclude. I think we've got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include." --Chocolat