Mind/Body expo 05

Hello there, I am feeling great and very calm as I have just returned from the mindbody expo in Boxboro MA. I won several free passes for the whole weekend so I decided to take full advantage as it was the closest I have had to a spiritual retreat in years. My whole mission so far this fall has been to get the heck out of the city and having a car with just fourteen thousand miles has been helping me do that. So I picked up a close family member yesterday and we headed up at about four in the afternoon. Today I returned by myself at noon and stayed five hours, it was worth it. The event took place in the functions wing of this Holiday Inn out in Boxboro. The best way of describing Boxboro is that it is the kind of place you only go to in the fall, because the leaves changeing along the way made for a perfect roadtrip, as opposed to the return getting lost in pouring rain and driveing an extra hour from 195 to route-nine then to the mass pike with an overly loquacious relative talking my ear off. That being said, the Holiday inn itself with its indoor pools and kids running around screaming brought me back to a time when I was a kid when my family used to go to these church conventions in distant towns in distant creepy hotels like this enormous Holiday Inn. There were free apples as we walked in, another sign that it is fall and that we were out of the city.
The Expo is set up in one GIANT room and has several smaller rooms which are used for one hour workshops. In the giant room, there is everything from acupuncture, to psychics, to flower essences, to reiki demos, massage, spontaneous healing, aura photography, books, crystals and my latest acquisition a salt lamp and lots more.... The workshops that occured, covered all sorts of areas, Avalon(celtic afterworld), opening the third eye, living consciously, sex and spirituality, world peace, past lives, feng-shui, healing the heart. I did about eight of these workshops and spent countless minutes moving from booth to booth, trying to absorb the different info. I liked and dis-liked different aspects of the whole thing. I dis-liked the whole sales pitch part of the booth area. I found some of the practicioners overly-aggressive in trying to sell me something or get me on their e-mail list or the like. Its funny that such spiritual pursuits still have the used-car salesman thing attached to it. The thing I'd like the most is when I was allowed to take my time reading about a subject or doing a demo and felt the connection with the subject or person teaching me about it. I had an AWESOME fifteen minute free massage by this french women, who at the end of the massage, started rubbing my head and seperating my ears and when she did this, it just acted as a catalyst for all the other rubbing she did and at that point, all the energy just spread through my body. I also got alot out of the workshops, alot of intuitive info I tried to absorb about the heart, the world, spirituality and relationships. So much info from so many classes I feel like it is still swishing around my head.
This Salt Lamp I just plugged in is very cool. It is a large piece of solid salt, mined (supposedly) at the foothills of the Hymalayas. It is hollow on the inside where a light fits in. What it does is emit, negative IONS which convert the plethra of positive Ions in the air and make whatever environment it is placed very serene. From my experience with other peoples ion machines, its like the difference between fog and clarity outside, but at a much more subtle level. I think it will go well in my studio as I know I am in positive Ion central with the busy street right outside my window and all of my electric gadgets, like the one I am writing on right now.
As I said earlier I am feeling overwhemlingly pieceful and spiritual and that is how I want to stay. I am becoming more de-tached from the day-day existence that is characteristic of life and particularly, life in the city. I want to return to more of a heart oriented natural spiritual existence, like the one I had in Vermont, years ago. I am not saying the city is bad or I am leaving right now but I feel better when I break out and have other geographic and heart/mind destinations, even if they do occur within a mind/body exposition in a Holiday Inn. -S.

Let It Flow

In the immortal words of Spirtualized, "Let it Flow." The only reason I ever bought spiritualized is because someone said they were a current Velvet Underground, back in the mid-ninties. No matter how many minutes I spend during the day stressed out that I am in my studio making art while others are out in the world making big money, this is who I am. Ten years prior to right now, I was wandering around the streets of Burlington VT. looking for myself. I was stairing at the clouds, the lake, going into different churches, reading all sorts of spiritual literature. I was in a dungeon of insecurity. It was almost like I was seeing something that noone else was and new I was in chyrsalis. Spiritual death and rebirth is a heavy subject that entails a place words can't reach. Suffice to say in all this misery there was a certain sense of rawness a pain junkies wildest dream. I wasn't into the suffering, I just suffered and longed for clarity, thoughts of my middle-class suburban past, my existential Phish Vermont present and the ever Mysterious future loomed.
My new rule is to never talk about any painting or sculpture until they are done as they become cursed. The last painting I mentioned, "turtle earth" got buried under fresh acrylic. Things are going well with the new work,(probably shouldn't have said that.) Something that saved my spirits this past week was time spent in Nature. Last Tuesday, I was at my witts end and was so unconnected with my painting. The usual Central Square run did not do it. I hightailed it to Walden Pond in Concord MA. Hiked around the Park and saw the sun set, the next day as well. These few hours in nature melted my anxiety about everything from bills, art, future, girls, parties etc. Being in the city is like being in a kitchen and only being in the oven. You literally have to break out to realize there are other parts of the room(strange metaphor, oh well.) I did some tree hugging, tried to do a sitting meditation in the woods, but could not keep my eyes closed because of the tremendous scenery. Upon getting back to work the next day I felt rejuvinated and nourished and in line with whatever it was My sub-conscious wanted to excorcise on to the canvas. No matter what blocks that come up with my work, I thank God that I have that little tiny spark inside me that reveals itself only after I've spiritually prepared myself for its cameo. Peace, Scotty.

Artist's First-ever blog/ Finding the "me" in Memo with my niece

This is cool. Have been reading blogs. Never written one. Finally a chance for my horrible use of the English language to be witnessed by a countless three people. Anyhow, made a laundry run to my parents late last night and could not sleep past four in the morning. Found it needed to watch almost the whole season of Entourage on demand television. The character who plays ari, the acting agent is in hyper-space. That actor is so funny he makes me scream, along with Matt Dillon's brother who plays the star's brother, VERY FUNNY. Got my laundry done, had breakfast with the folks at a familiar breakfast nook a town away. Most of the conversation consisted of money, something I am in short hold of as I am a visual artist. Not that I don't believe artist's cannot be rich but right now I am "getting buy."
After leaving the meal which my father paid for, I hopped in my car back to my studio to continue working on a very abstract painting called turtle-earth which so far in its groundpainting form consists of a huge cosmic turtle with the earth as its massive round shell. As always I wasn't sure where this one was going but its truth became revealed as soon as I started painting it from the middle of the canvas and working out to the paremeters. On my drive to my studio I realized i was near my brothers house and had the option of swinging buy and seeing my beautiful young three year old niece. I did and the two of us sat together, her in my lap, and she screened finding memo for me. My first time ever. She even knew how to use the dvd player and she is just three. In my mind I was like, alright, I need to swim so I will only stay and watch for like fifteen minutes. From the onset, watching memo, "I was hooked" brilliant colors, funny dialogue and about fish. I have been an amateur icthyologist for most of my life and have almost always kept a fishtank at one point or another so, I was really "hooked."
Needles to say there was a scene which incorporated these Bill and Ted type surfer turtles giving the protagonists a ride through the australian jet stream under the ocean. These turtles, not only gave me ideas for my "turtle earth painting" but also reminded me of the universe. Because I wasn't in such a rush to get IN to the studio and work, I ended up here seeing these turtles which hopefully will inspire me to finish my painting.
Another thing nice about the visit was that fact it felt like quality time. As a single artist I am very selfish and tend to go out alot. Alot of late nights and other things. Fun for a bit, but in the end much like a hangover. Its good in small doses, but those doses become regular. Lately I have felt the need to stay in more and paint or sculpt, (I also carve stone.) Its taken courage for me to live more of a "sober" life. Lately I try to have the best people around me for that. Not that other people are bad, but just people with good energy where I feel energized after being with them and not drained. My niece IS at the top of my list for this and I love her, I know (ah!)
Anyhow I do recommend Memo and also taking time out to arrive in a situation where you could watch such a film that entails a shark intervention ten step program type thing to stop them from eating fish. Cheers.