Honoring the Dream

For this month's DreamTribe post, I wrote about one of the ways I like to honor my dreams: by creating collages. This brings the energy of the dream into waking life in a creative way and allows me to put aside the yammering of my Inner Critic who always shows up when my paints and pencils come out. Click the link to see the full post.

Leap...You Already Know How to Fly

I created this collage back in September, and somehow along the way I forgot its message. That's me in the picture standing at the edge of the cliff, looking out into the open possibility. Maybe if I had real blue fairy wings attached to my back I would not be so nervous about leaping.

I'm at a point in my life where part of me feels ready to let go. I want to shed old ideas, old messages I replay in my head that are lies. I want to fully embrace the new me, to embody her and feel comfortable with her. Right now I'm stuck in that painful, confusing middle space between the old me and the new me and I am here because part of me fears letting go. What if my wings don't work when I step over the edge?

But the thing is, they will work. And I will soar. And so, very soon, I'll take a deep breath...and jump.

Small Work for a Small Space

I am thrilled to announce that my collage piece "Repair" has been accepted for the upcoming show Small Work for a Small Space at the Red Door Gallery and Collective in Oakland!

The reception is on March 6 from 6-10 p.m. and I'd love to see you there. You can see the address in the "Events" section of my blog. The piece will hang through March.

This will be my first showing at an art gallery, and it is doubly exciting that this piece was chosen, because it holds special meaning for me. I made the piece last summer while I was learning about Terrapsychology and writing a paper about the local landscape and what it might want to say to us. After spending some time by the side of the road near the former site of the Concord Naval Weapons Station, I heard this: "Repair. Restore balance."

This land, which appeared pimpled by abandoned bunkers, is blocked off by tall chain-link fences. No one can even approach it. It's sealed off from the healing it needs.

Here's an excerpt from the paper I wrote last summer, which had a piece about this land:

"'Repair. Restore balance.' Quite an appropriate message from a land that has been abused and neglected. The Concord Naval Weapons station was established in 1942 to store weapons. In 1944, the marine area was the scene of a massive explosion that killed more than 300 men when a munitions ship exploded. Two-thirds of the men were African American. Surely, this had a devastating effect on the land, and since it became a weapons station it has endured enormous change, death, contamination, and neglect. The Naval Weapons Station was deactivated in 1999 by the military, and in 2007 it was declared 'surplus property,' giving the City of Concord a chance to develop or conserve the land.

What has happened to the land here is truly a microcosm of what has happened to the land across the globe. And our destruction of the land does not just affect the land--it directly affects us."

The City of Concord chose in January to use 65% of the land for open space and parks, with the remaining space going to community facilities, a satellite campus for CU-East Bay, and commercial and residential use. It will be interesting to see how the land feels during and after this transformation.

Sonoma Show

It's almost here! The fabulous Sonoma Valley Holiday Artisan Faire is only six days away! This is a group of eclectic and talented artists, most of them from Etsy and all of them from the Bay Area. I am thrilled to be taking part.

I will be selling original collages, 8x10 prints, 8.5 x 11 prints of my collages, 5x7 note cards, and note card packs! My note cards are made with 100% recycled paper, and all my prints are packaged in biodegradable bags.

I am also doing a raffle to give away a framed and matted print of Big Sur...so make sure to stop by my table!