Today this is a new chapter towards becoming.
The previous posts speak of a darker period filled with beautiful pain, laced with copious amounts of hope.
I've learned much.
But it is time to let go and move into the light.
Today I am literally Elsewhere!
The Elsewhere Artist Collective is in Greensboro, North Carolina USA
It is a living museum and artist residency.
Check out their rich website to know more:
I see this place (and concept) as a turning point for me on so many levels.
I am here for the month of May and am already in serious heaven!
This is where I sleep.
This is what I look at before I sleep and when I wake up.
This is my work desk.
This is our communal closet. All vintage. All the time
This is the communal kitchen. We get to eat and cook amazing, local foods.
This is the shower and sink.
Here is the back alley garden...and caged in pups:(
This is overwhelm and stimulus at its most intense and exhilarating.
First tactic for me is to NOT THINK.
To simply explore, mindlessly. Be attracted and thrilled and overwhelmed.
To just feel all this stuff and history.
This is what I made, re-made, arranged, re-arranged for five glorious hours the first morning.
Bliss.
While having my first morning constitutional here I randomly grabbed a book (from the THOUSANDS!).
It was an early edition Rilke 'Letters to a Young Poet'.
As I always do...I randomly opened the book.
Here is what was written:
"Find out the reason that commands you...;
see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart;
confess to yourself whether you would die if you were forbidden to write (create).
This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hours of your night: must I write (create)?
Dig into yourself for a deep answer.
And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple "I must", then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse.
Then come close to Nature.
Then, as if no one tried before, try to say what you see and feel and love and lose.
Dont write love poems; avoid those forms that are too facile and ordinary; they are the hardest to work with, and it takes, a great, fully ripened power to create something individual where good, even glorious, traditions exist in abundance.
So rescue yourself from these general themes and write about what your everyday life offers you;
describe your sorrows and desires, the thoughts that pass through your mind
and your belief in some kind of beauty-
describe all these with heartfelt, silent, humble sincerity and, when you express yourself, use the THINGS around you, the images from your dreams, and the objects that you remember.
If your everyday life seems poor, dont blame it; blame yourself...."
AMEN
...and to be continued regarding:
Greensboro the town
Communal living
The amazing folks running this joint
Livin' in the USA
Exisiting installations in Elsewhere
things I create here
thoughts I have
