wooohooo! I learned a lot today...can I remember it now?+

Between the normal schedules for beginning a new work week and allowing myself to give myself permission to work on my quilt...so I can get to the embellishing part with beads and buttons. (This is my favorite part of the process and sometimes I get so jazzed I begin to embellish too soon and my threads become a knotty mess.) Yesterday I took part of a live chat with Sheri Gaynor who has written a new book _Creative Awakenings_ hot off the presses. She allows each reader a chance to work into a yearly schedule where you now have the permission to leap into your dream. She gives us, the reader, exercises and adventures to allow creativity to flow in a more gentle wave into the natural part of your being. If you have played with The Artist Way a few years back you might enjoy this next step. The live chat alone was a little intimidating in the beginning but I jumped in right away...what the hell? By the time our time was up I saw Jo Rice adding her comments and questions. There were 64 artists from the UK and Turkey and around the USA. Each question lead to a new avenue or possibility to add to each artist's repertoires /toolbox. Susan Sorrel was the host of this chat and Sheri Gaynor was the guest speaker for 90 minutes. My brain is spinning with all the things I am willing to add to my process. Then our dear Mr. Tony Reynolds sent me a You-tube connection to see a wonderful writer, Elizabeth Gilbert, talk about her own creative process. You may know her book _Eat Pray Love_and in her video lecture she began sharing a history of how the creative process and people have been analyzed and scrutinized in the past. I am still digesting this convoluted process as she describes the sometimes insurmountable pressures and anxieties we often put on our processes and art making. I plan to watch it a few more times to hopefully embed this lecture into my subconscious mind and memory. Tomorrow I will meet with Cody Miller to accept his artworks from the Art Bridge Studio to install in the central gallery at 50 South Second in the Works complex; hopefully we can help bring more patrons back to Skip's Deli. I was there for a quick bite today and it is a desolate space, all dark and cold without the enthusiasm and energy the Art gives a room. They think our old space is rented so maybe a new life to the old place will help add interest...but who could be more interesting the the LCA artists? Tomorrow I need to start the intake process for my next cranial brain exploration in March. I need to do another piece to expose the dreams of scientific experimentation; much like the Bride of Frankenstein. Maybe I will end up with the wild wavy hair the bride was sporting when she met Frank. In the afternoon I will go to Denison to attend a lecture with the visiting artist Jude Tallichet, she is a contemporary sculptor and painter that creates in a foreign direction from my work processes. I met her years ago and had forgotten that we were both born in Louisville, KY. I am anxious to hear her presentation and hopefully her power point of progression in the last 18 years. I downloaded a review and a press release from her December exhibit in 2008 but I am sure she will have a few more surprises hidden up her sleeves. I hope I can keep up with her...I ,too, am cloaked in my blanket of self doubt when I find myself way out of my comfort zone. Do I have a comfort zone now? I feel as if I am in perpetual transcendence with my identity and almost out of body exposure. I suppose Elizabeth Gilbert would possibly say this is normal and is a manner of growth...always reaching. I have so much to do inside my body and soul. I told Tony and Ken I really do not care if anyone reads this blog but the whole exercise is an outlet for my new formulation for Who Am I?, at least for tonight. Thank you Ken for helping me with the addition of links and photos. I will worry about "watermarks" later when I possibly add some of my images of assemblages and collages. I also discovered a self publication spot to help me organize my thoughts into a small affordable book. Yes I do dream BIG! Imagine and live in Peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart