'Lemmings' Rachel Gourley©2011 digital print

Ready? Set?
Here we go, bravely heading into 2012!

You’ve been on my mind since last week.
Many thoughtful, appreciative comments came in on The Realm of You. What an intelligent and capable group of people you are.

Here’s part two:

How to Gloriously Rule your Realm in 2012.

Yes, this year will be turbulent.
That doesn’t necessarily mean destructive, although some concepts and systems will be destroyed, and others will be created.  That’s just life on Earth though.

LIGHTENING UP
‘Lemmings’, the image above, is from Vancouver artist Rachel Gourley.
She creates elements in polymer, then photographs them in selected sites. The images are her art form.
Artist and historian Rachel Carren calls Gourley’s work  ‘an Andy Goldsworthy approach with polymer’, and a playful, exploratory edge. She’s using secret knowledge in her work. Gourley is one of my mentoring clients: I’m excited to be working with her. When I opened this image, I burst out laughing, what a hoot! How delightful! She’ll have a website very soon, after Susan Lomuto’s Artist Online course, and I’ll send you all the link.

Back to you. Secret knowledge? Yep. LIghtening up.
You can actually have fun during the remaining 363 days of this year. How? Why?

Because of all you did last year.
Because you have your own secret knowledge.
Because you showed up yesterday, Jan. 1, ready to go, with hard-won and glorious willingness.

Transformations this year will come directly from your creative nature.

I’m not saying this to make you feel good, though that may happen.
I’m reminding you of WHO YOU ARE.

Look at yourself. What a great design!
Quirky holographic mind and big heart.
Clever hands and capable body.
Unique ideas. Curious and playful.
Sense of possibility and how things connect.
You’re designed for creative action.

Creating feels good to everyone. You LOVE having creative jobs.
Why?
Because when you approach things creatively,
you’ve FINALLY gotten the individual parts lined up right, and set them working together.
You’re supposed to do this, like a Ferrari should go fast or a virtuoso should play the right instrument.

You’re happiest and you work best when you see your life as creative opportunity.
Every event in your life is offering itself to you this way.
I guarantee it.

THE NEXT STEP
The next step is easy. Pull last year’s lessons into your creative approach

You have built-in SECRET KNOWLEDGE of how to do this.
Secret mostly from you, because you were probably told not to believe it about yourself.
That’s why we’re having this little chat.

Secret knowledge shows up at the crossroads of your conscious and subconscious minds.
Creative types spend a lot of time at this intersection: they put up market stalls, start gardens, invite friends, get married.
You know how it feels here.  Things are a bit easier, kind of exciting. Giggling in the background. Getting things done flows here, with less effort and more glee.

You  lined the parts up, and now light can shine all the way through.

Here are some examples of what I mean.
Tell us where you’ll act on these in a creative approach to your life.

• GET PLAYFUL

Everyone knows that playfulness and creativity are linked, and we crave a more creative life: yet we think adults should give their playfulness up. It is possible to be brilliant and playful and successful though. Practice a lot, if this is hard right now. Find a kid or a puppy, a book or movie. You’ll get better as you remind yourself how. You have a sense of humor: this is the year to relax into it.

• ENGAGE PARADOX

The universe is too complex to think we can sort out contradictions. The yinyang symbol is a circle first:  then is both black and white simultaneously. Seek out paradoxes. Gently hold both / all aspects, see what happens. No wrong answers. Hint: it’s not what you think. The yinyang makes sense to you because you can see it from a bigger perspective. 2012 will be full of paradox. It’s the universe winking at you. Wink back.

• DO THE UNEXPECTED

Practice this one too. At least once a day, notice a habit and deliberately be unexpected instead. Write with your left hand. Lie on the floor and put your feet on the chair. Walk backwards around your yard. Juxtapose elements out of context. Make yourself laugh. Get radically simple. Neuroscience can now show you pretty pictures of your brain making new connections and increasing your ability to think more widely when you do this.

• RISK CONFIDENTLY

You’ve got vast extra smartness below your conscious mind, like an iceberg but warmer. Confident risk means even if your analytical mind can’t say why, your smart holographic mind knows exactly what to do, because you have lots of extra information. Scientists have shown this over and over. So trust yourself.
An example: The island nation of Samoa and neighboring Tokelau this year voted to skip December 30, 2011, and be the first countries in the world to celebrate the new year, rather than the last. Nothing bad happened, other than more tourist money. This leads right into-

• IGNORE UNREAL LIMITATIONS

Know the difference. Limiting your self-identity to what was given to your country centuries ago may not be effective.
Limiting your spending on materials when you don’t have much money for them is effective. Deciding that therefore you aren’t an artist because you can’t make anything because you have no materials is not effective. Ditto for tools. Ditto for processes. If Gourley accepted polymer as only a jewelry medium, we wouldn’t be looking at her image of an art installation in the Canadian Rockies.

• TRUST THE BIGGER PICTURE

Which you can’t get your conscious mind around, and that is as it should be. As a marvelous illustration, a woman in Sweden lost her wedding ring 16 years ago in her kitchen. They found the ring this year, tightly fastened around a carrot in her vegetable garden. Apparently it fell into the compost, was dug into the garden and a carrot seed grew up through it. You really just never know, so don’t invest too much energy in a small picture when you can inhabit a bigger one.

• ACTIVATE YOUR COMMUNITY
• GET PERSONAL WITH PRAYER

You know what these mean to you. In giving you receive, in receiving you give.

CREATIVITY

Creativity is to art as transcontinental flight is to a nice airport.
The power and the magic are in the flying.
Not in which airport you’ve landed.
Do not confuse the two.

To put it another way:
Creativity is your ability to move, not the footprints you leave.
Love your footprints, but don’t confuse them with loving to dance.
As you master your dance, your footprints become more purposeful and personal. You are mastering your dance itself, not the making of intricate footprints.

GLORIOUSLY RULING means accepting your natural creative design and using your own secret knowledge.
Everything flows from these: the most practical, pragmatic actions to the most sublimely mystical.
I have total faith in you.

In my own news: I’m no longer teaching polymer classes in the US.
I continue to offer retreats and master classes in creative development, like the 2012 Milagro Hacienda, and Creative Sanctuary Masterclasses – in fact, Rachel Gourley will be working here with me in a few weeks.
I am gloriously heading back to my studio, after fifteen years of turbulence…
These things I tell you? They come from decades of intense personal experience, and there’s more.

Also I’m expanding my mentoring programs.
At this time, I have room for three new clients. We do phone  or Skype sessions, so you can be anywhere. 90 minutes long, usually weekly. They’re $150 each, and  you get a discount for five paid together. People have found them effective. You might too.
When you are interested in truly honing your creative approach to your art, career, and life, and making 2012 your most fruitful year so far, contact me.
505-301-9142, or victoria@toryhughes.com
Work with me individually if you want effective help getting your natural creativity gloriously active again.

Aaaaaaaand we’re off!
Stay in touch.

Tory

Two: a golden coupon, renewable on demand and good for two weeks of surprisingly pleasant conversations with relatives, old friends, and long acquaintances.

Three: an open and inviting doorway into next year. Leave December 31st. Enter January 1st, 2012. Notice that the new abilities you’ve developed as you traversed the rigors of 2011 are now showing up in how you approach things.

All seven billion of us are linked together in a way we’ve never embodied before.

We collectively caretake one big beautiful blue-green ball.
And like it or not, we’re moving forward into a charged year. Ideally we’re bringing greater skills and wider perspectives.

In the image of my brooch above, the cat looks at the queen. The Queen looks at the cat.
Observing, thoughtful, each one bringing her own perspective to this moment.
Both are royal, understanding that their world revolves around them. Wherever they go, there they are. Without question.
Each one knows herself, comfortable with her abilities and identity. She’s totally the cat, completely the Queen.

This is how to go through the door into 2012.
The single biggest challenge people have is an unwillingness to let go of self-limitation.
Many people are addicted to self-criticism. Please stop it.
2012 will ask you for your best. You’ve got an idea now of what that can be, after your courage and hard work in 2011. Now’s your time to be fully where you are.

Four ways to do this:

1. Quit acting on your assumptions. Please. Find out what is true, and then choose an action. As Byron Katie says, there’s no point in arguing with what is. Or change what Leonard Block wrote “I swear, if leaping weren’t allowed, you’d never get to a conclusion.”
2. Take more risks. You are so much more capable, secure and powerful than you let yourself be. I promise! You will never know what you can accomplish until you just do it. So stop waiting and just do it. This is the year.
3. Don’t bother taking things personally. It costs energy you’ll want to use elsewhere this year. Realize if you do get caught up in this that virtually no one actually sees you: they see their projections, assumptions, insecurities and memories. There’s no use for bits of their movie in your movie. I don’t want to see parts of “Frat Party” in the middle of “Star Trek”
4. Take pride in your realm. You’re on a mission, as ruler of your domain. Like a good queen or king, know your realm: what makes you special, where you have always been excellent. If your country makes fabulous wines, don’t convert the vineyards to telephone service centers. Have respect and pride in what you enjoy and do well. Support it. Export your best.

Your best is damn good.
The bottom line:  all of us here have so much more to be than who we’ve been until now.
2012. Time to be entirely you. The ruler of your domain.
Time now to make this transformation real and lasting.

My biggest wish and prayer for you this year:

Accept who you. Serenely wield your power and grace.

Power is gentle.
Grace is individuality expressed.

Allrightee. Enjoy the increasing light of this season and your own self.
Let 2011′s  transformations settle in and expand in your soul.
Let 2012 be the year you become the wise ruler of your realm.

Tory

It’s been a satisfying week

If you are anywhere near Santa Fe, come to our ongoing Holiday Open Studios, this Saturday and Sunday. I’ll be open 10 am to 5 pm!
1519 Upper Canyon- the New School / Red Sky Studios, in my space with the prayer flags.
ps: don’t forget that if you’re on the mailing list, at the right, you’ll get a discount in my gallery shop and the bookstore until Dec.20.

Celestial Navigation Brooch polymer, paper, metal, 2011 2″ x 2.25″ x .5″m $210.00    Click here or on the image to purchase this now

These postage stamp brooches have always had a special place in my heart and mind. I’ve been making them on and off since 1982. Getting back to them now is such a joy.

Winjeel 1955 Brooch polymer, paper, metal  2011 $210.00     Click here or on the image to purchase this now 1.75″ x 2.25″ x .5″mmmmmmmmmmm

Quite durable and wearable: I add protective lacquer to the surfaces. One collector sheepishly admitted she ran hers through the washer and dryer, and it was fine. Not advisable, but good to know.

Festive Angel Brooch, polymer, paper, metal, glass 2011 2″ x 2″ x .25″ $150.00       Click here or on the image to purchase nowmmmmmmmmmm

An early collection of related brooches is on display in “Terra Nova”
at the Racine Art Museum with other pieces of mine.
The Terra Nova exhibition will run through February 2012.
If you haven’t been yet, this show is making history. Get the book, visit the Museum.

Blenheim Lake Brooch polymer, paper, metal 2011 $190.    Click here or on the image to purchase 1.75″ x 1.25″ x .5″mmmmmmmmmmm

To purchase any of these brooches, please click on the image,
or go here to my Gallery Shop.
Let my pleasant and efficient store maidens take care of you.

Holiday Greetings Brooch Polymer, paper  2011 $210.00   Click here or on the image to purchase 2″ x 1.75″ x .25″mmmmmmmmm

•  Remember to use the discount code
- you received it recently if you signed up for my newsletter.
Good through December 20, so I have time to ship your gifts to you!

Lascaux Caves Brooch polymer, paper, metal 2011 $190.00 Click here or on the image to purchse 2.25″ x 1.75″ x .25″

I do commissions. In fact, I love to do commissions. Let’s talk.
Email me at victoria@toryhughes.com or call 505-301-9142

Vermillion Angel Brooch Polymer, paper 2011 $190.00 Click here or on the image to purchase 1.75″ x 1.75″ x .25″mmmmmdfaf

Biddulph Topiary Brooch Polymer, paper    2011 $190.  Click here or on the image to purchase 1.75″ x 1.5″ x .5″

I make some of these in series, each one a little different.
Topiary has always fascinated me. It’s wierd, mystical, fantastical. Every time I make a version of this brooch, I’m mesmerized by the image on the stamp, drawn into this world.
Reminds me of the line ‘The further in you go, the bigger it gets‘, from John Crowley’s novel “Little, Big“.

Meanwhile:
I’m quite happy to announce that my Armillary necklace, which in the permanent collection at the Museum of Art and Design in New York, will be on display.
From January till the end of May, this piece will be featured in MAD’s upcoming show “Hanging Around”.

Go visit and say hello.
Let’s meet for espresso. There’s an idea.

Best to you and all your dreams- Tory

“Terra Nova: Polymer Art at the Crossroads” the stunning catalogue for this watershed museum event, is only available at RAM itself.
It will not be at Amazon.
Very briefly, they have a run of copies that all of us signed while there.
You could own one.
Click here. Or call them, 262.638.8200.
Signed by Elise Winters, Jeff Dever, Kathleen Dustin, David Forlano, Steven Ford, Cynthia Toops, Pier Voulkos, Bonnie Bishoff, JM Syron me, Rachel Carren, Bruce Pepich, RAM’s director, Lena Vigna, RAM’s curator… at a book-signing round robin of the artists and writers this weekend. Below, a view of the fun.

The Terra Nova opening itself, and the Polymer Symposium over the weekend was intense and inspiring. I’m humbled and honored to be part of it. Lots of posts to come.
Right now though, if you want to grab one of the few signed copies, here’s your chance. There aren’t many left and it won’t happen again.

Best to you all, Tory – and seated below from right, Pier, Elise, Bonnie, JM, Jeff, Kathleen, Steven….

Racine is definitely The Place to Be this week.

People are coming from around the US and abroad to participate, ogle, shop at the excellent RAM store, and connect around a love of what is possible in this medium.
This pivotal event marks polymer’s recognition as a valid and valuable art medium, and establishes RAM as a museum to be watched. The catalogue is stunning by the way, bring yours for signing if you are coming to RAM.
The RAM staff is outstanding to work with. They sparkle with the genius of a small museum with a clear vision and unified goals. You’ll definitely be hearing more about them and this unique museum!
I fly out tomorrow, to present an evening program for RAM staff and docents. Then I teach a two-day immersive overview class ‘Holy Polymer, Batman!‘ – their brilliant title,  before the big Opening Gala Friday night. Saturday and Sunday we’ll be at the Polymer Symposium, held at the Frank Lloyd Wright “Wingspread” home.

I’ve been deliciously immersed in my studio for the last week, working on this new series.
SeaCliff is a reference to an area of San Francisco,
my personal candidate for ‘Most Beautiful City in the World’.
This series is meant to be light, colorful, sparkling, rich, and full of exuberant energy. Here’s an image of that neckpiece. Photo courtesy Penina Meisels who also did the photos for the catalogue.
This recent work finally lets me carry forward approaches
that I began 20 years ago: and unite them with all I’ve learned and developed in the last couple of decades working in polymer and mixed media.
I’m happy with the result, and thrilled to feel that creative momentum moving in me again.

Presaging the late-night conversations sure to take place in the next few days, a number of us have already gotten involved in fascinating, substantive discussions about Beauty, Content, the nature of Craft, Technicians and Artists, the role of polymer in contemporary art and fine craft, and the differing agendas of people working in this medium.
I feel like I am in college, full of anticipation and excitement about what is ahead. Hope you can pick up the buzz through your inbox!

How rich, how exciting!

I hope to post while there, although our schedules are very full of wonderful, provocative events and dialogues.
Please come, and stay tuned.

Watershed events mean things are different in a big way from here on out.
Buckle up!

Talk to you in a few days- Tory

“We live on the leash of our senses”
Diane Ackerman wrote, then added
“There is no way to understand the world
without first detecting it through the radar-net of our senses.”

Ready to become the artist of your own life?
Deliberately re-engage with your senses, one by one.

Consider: Everything you know and believe, all that inspires you to action and expression, arises when you take in a word, a sound, a gesture, a feeling, a touch.
These elements combine in your mind and heart, then are integrated and interpreted and prompt your behaviour.
Like Ariel and Caliban in ‘The Tempest’, your senses are magical sprites, leading, tempting and informing you throughout your life.
You can become an artist of the exquisite, savoring your senses and letting your experiences keep you solid and happy in the world, right now.
And now, this moment, this light and air, is where you take action.
You have no leverage, no traction in ‘then’ and ‘soon’.
But you do in ‘now’, and ‘now’ is the sum of what you are sensing and what you are thinking.
Re-engage with your senses. Let them take you by the hand back into living – and creating – fully present.

[We'll be doing this in depth in our Milagro Hacienda retreat - and yup, you can still sign up. If you can't get traction in your art and life right now, this may be right for you, because you'll leave our retreat feeling more grounded and confident than you have in some while. Click here. And you'll have a wonderful time in Santa Fe's galleries, museums, and general ambience .]

Meanwhile-
I took the photo above on a midafternoon in southern France last week.
The air was warm and slightly muggy: densely scented with grape juice and the slight tang of fermentation. Interlacing alleys weave through these ancient wine-making towns.
Here, I’m in Luc-sur-Orbieu, having just taught at Corbières Créatives III. The old buildings are a pale limestone, covered in veils of ivy: daytime is sunglasses-bright southern light, here 30 miles from the Mediterranean. Colors are pale and still vivid.
Because my senses are so open, the unexpected, like that luscious violet water running along the street, appears to me everywhere, and inspires me as an artist. A question for myself - How to get this ‘oh!’ into my work?

—-

Sixty-Second Senses
Do this> One minute each:
•Close your eyes. For sixty seconds pay attention to every sound you are hearing.
•Get comfortable. For sixty seconds let your eyes roam and investigate color combinations.
•Go for a walk. For sixty seconds sink into how your skin and body feel as you move around.
•Drink something. For sixty seconds notice every part of you responding to the taste and liquidity.

—-

The difference between ‘technicians’ and ‘artists’ came up in conversation.
Not with an artist, but with a very skilled and experienced chiroprator,  talking about his field.
You can easily percieve this difference in people around you:
take a moment and notice who are the technicians, and who are the artists.
This distinction carries engagement and integrity.
Someone may not be a professional, but still create with the engagement and integrity of an artist.

Where are you an artist?
Where is being a technician good enough?
There are no wrong answers.
Leave a comment on this blog and tell me what you think

This distinction is everywhere, and is an attitude, a position you choose to take in your life.

Oscar Wilde said “Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul”

Now would be a very good time, as Chekov says in Star Trek IV.
The Milagro Hacienda retreat is in three weeks.
If you are waiting till the last moment, “>sign up now. You’ll immerse in delicious, inspiring sensory experiences- a chef teases your taste buds with delicious mystery bites, an aroma-energetics specialist made a menu of scents and fragrances to take you on a journey, an internationally known artist opens her collage and bookmaking studio to you, and more – then delve into synesthesia, as a springboard into artmaking that comes more deeply from you. I’ll teach abundant polymer and mixed media techniques so you’ll leave with a sense of accomplishment, greater ease and lots more confidence.

Click here to sign up. I’ll send you out a package of info and goodies this afternoon.
Questions, call me 505-301-9142

And let us know your take on technicians and artists.

Tory

What I’m most excited about:
In getting things ready for this pivotal exhibition,
I’ve begun making postage stamp brooches again. This is a personal joy!
These brooches were the first major body of work I did,
and became a cover story of Ornament Magazine 20 years ago.
I loved to make these, each one a bit different and rich with content and evocation.
I stopped because I was a serious over-worker, and needed to learn a better strategized schedule. That’s why I talk to you so much about balance.…
I’m so glad to get back to this approach to color, shape, architecture, and content, after fifteen years. And mixing paper, metal, polymer, and other media, of course.
You’ll be seeing more of these, and larger related sculptural pieces,
like the ‘Souvenir #1″ piece above.

Postage Stamp Brooches, polymer and mixed media Tory Hughes©2011 These will all be on display at Terra Nova Oct. 21 – Feb. 5, 2012

In two weeks, I’ll be teaching my “Fantasia! Mixed MediaWallArt” workshop in Luc Sur Orbieu, southern France. Contact Kylee at Corbières Créatives for more information and s’il vous plaît, visiter si vous êtes dans la région.

And for my Facebook friends, this next bit has done wonders for my faith in FB: a friend from college, whom I haven’t seen in decades, searched and found me on FB: upshot is that I am stopping to visit her in Oslo, her home of 25 years, on my way to southern France.

Then after RAM and Terra Nova: the Milagro Hacienda!
More polymer and mixed media, like the talisman for Intuition here,
when we begin this year’s Creativity Retreat in Santa Fe.
Come join us, there are two places left.

Let your senses lead you back into yourself.
Make your art from where you live.

I’ll be away from my computer for a couple of weeks,
with only intermittent emailing in France.
Enjoy the settling peacefulness
of the fall coming on-

Tory

Get back to your inspirational source.
Immerse yourself in your sensory experiences.

Reconnect your art with your life.

Learn techniques and explore tools and materials:
make talismanic objects and wearable amulets in polymer and other media:
Fabricate, text, assemble, hinge, sew, bead, bundle, embellish, enrich.

• Please note: Only three places are left!
We’ll have class at my studio and various places around Santa Fe.
Email me to register and send a deposit in to hold your spot.
Total fee, $1500, deposit $500, remainder by Oct 10.

Creative Impulse – Talismanic Brooch, polymer+mixed media

- Do you crave deeper inspirations for your art? - Want a warm bath of creative and spiritual ease? - Realize you haven’t heard your own playful, present artistic voice lately? This retreat has one purpose: Your creative centering. Feeling and seeing your way back into you, so you can get back to creating art and life that brings you more meaning and satisfaction. Milagro for Possibilities - hinged brooch, polymer+mixed media

Come back into your senses in an inspiring environment. Make small mixed media artworks - amulets and talismans - to bring you more of what you love. Enjoy special events and afternoon field trips to artists, museums, galleries, chefs, and the New Mexico landscape in its fall glory. More about our retreat schedule at Milagro Hacienda. More about Santa Fe, as well as getting and staying here, at Santa Fe Basics

Above, Intuition, a talismanic wall piece in polymer + mixed media.
What is this about? This is what intuition feels like to me.
A piercing insight that moves through my senses, through instinct and knowledge, that links the old and the yet-to-be.

Identifying and translating your experience like this is what you’ll be doing at the Milagro Hacienda.

The retreat begins Monday mid-morning, and ends Saturday lunchtime. When you register, you’ll be mailed a thick and succulent package, with your own folder of information and publications. You’ll receive a detailed schedule of our retreat, a list of materials, some red chile to get you in the mood, and other goodies about your adventures here.The fee covers all teaching and special trips and events, lodging at a charming Santa Fe B+B, breakfasts, other meals, many extras, pick-up at the airport if needed, open studio use, and more. Total $1500. Deposit $500, remainder due by October 10. Class size six people. Three spaces left as of this post. This will be a wonderful, peaceful and inspiring time. I hope you can join us! All my best to you, Tory

Wednesday evening sunset viewing and hanging out

Jeff Dever was in Santa Fe teaching this week, and a small group of us seized the moment and got together. Jeff, David Forlano, Penina Meisels, Carol Blackburn from London and I met last night with other artists and partners on Penina’s stunning patio, watching the sun gild the clouds as it set over the western Jemez mountains.

Terra Nova Polymer Arts Exhibition a few weeks away!

We met in part to share our excitement and satisfaction about the Racine Art Museum‘s polymer arts exhibition “Terra Nova”, opening October 21. Jeff, David, me, and five other artists are featured in the exhibition as ‘Boundary Breakers’. Very much a group effort, Penina did the sumptuous photography and Jeff did the design and layout for the gorgeous book that accompanies the show. If you like art books, this one is a must-have! My work is part of the permanent collection at RAM. Left, the first of my “Souvenir” polymer and mixed media sculptures, collected by Elise winters and given to RAM. The curators selected a nice array of my pieces to display. I’ll also be teaching the Master Class “Holy Polymer, Batman!”. The Terra Nova show runs from October 21 2011 to February 5, 2012.

Polymer Symposium at Wingspread, October 22-23 2011

We talked too about the RAM Polymer Symposium to be held at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Wingspread House. A once-in-a-lifetime event, to be in this unique setting for the weekend, a high-powered and inspiring event about future directions of polymer. I believe there are a few places left at the Symposium. Santa Fe grows these kinds of get-togethers: beautiful settings, interesting people, talent and intelligence coupled with kindness and generous spirits. The evening was a heartwarming and professionally inspiring mix of personalities. We left with big hugs all around, saying “See you at RAM!”. Elise Winters would be proud.

Fiestas Starts!

In other news, Zozobra is this evening, the plaza is closed off to auto traffic and everyone is set up for Fiestas de Santa Fe! The new and the old mix together here, a fertile environment for inspiration. Personally I’m tickled by the multisensory variety of people and activities: smells of roasting corn and sage, colors of the hanging flower baskets and the bright banners of the founding families, the movement and shimmer of kids, couples, people with their grandparents, dogs: everywhere the vibrant atmosphere of happiness and community.

Virtual Zozobra

<———Since you can’t be at the Burning Event this evening,  print or draw this figure and cover it with writing.Jot down all the things you want to release from your life – old stuff, bothersome gloomy stuff. Set it on fire (use your oven if you don’t have a fireplace!) at 8:30 Mountain Time / 10:30 Eastern / 7:30 Pacific Time! We’ll have a Virtual Zozobra Burning. Put your passions into this, and enjoy it!

You all were on my mind: hope you can see the RAM show in person,
and that you can come here to Santa Fe to nourish your creative soul!
Best to you,
Tory