I ALSO have a residential workshop planned at Ghost Ranch in late September (Sept 20-23). There is something strange going on regarding the residential workshop. I only have two sign-ups and may have to cancel if I don’t get six more people enrolled in the next week or so. I have been teaching this residential workshop for many years. It has many repeaters and has always filled at twelve participants.
Back to “strange matter”. Earlier this year I decided to reinvent my schedule. I am passionate about everything I teach, but I decided to cut back on the number of workshops to which I make a commitment. The Sept. 20-23 workshop RESONATING IN THE PRESENCE OF NATURE, was definitely not something I would chose to cut. But it seems as if this cut may be made for me. Do you think occurrences such as this have meaning beyond that which one ascribes to them?
I am holding the workshop open, and putting this dilemma out in the open . . . till July 29th! If not enough people sign up, then I will have to cancel it. Transparency, a buzz word in politics . . . transparency as a good thing.
In my painting, I am seeking a certain type of transparency. I have gone back to the maxim of my undergraduate training at Pratt Institute a million years ago. Be true to your work and your work will be true to you. I am always influenced by the years I have spent studying and improvising on the mesas at Ghost Ranch. When I look at Kitchen Mesa near my room at the Ranch, I see the layers – the volcanic uprising – the prehistoric creatures – the tumbling water that once was present. I see a variety of creatures, mammals, rodents, humans and fish all scrambling together within the mesa. I am working on evoking a transparency of layers that pile up across centuries. This has been my studio work during the last few weeks.
I see this as a different kind of transparency than the belabored transparency in politics. It is a commitment to truth with no preconception of what truth is. And putting it “out there” – that it is time to sign up for Sept 20-23 at Ghost Ranch if this is right for you.
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