The Narrative Within

the soul and the sea

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Art for Housewives

Paros

Once they’re written, New Year’s Resolutions seem to vanish like dew. Fortunately, still fresh on my list is that of trying to meditate. Everything you read about increasing your vibration level insists that meditation is a must. But my thoughts are so loud and difficult to silence that I’ve been reluctant to try. So I got the book “8 Minute Meditation: Quiet Your Mind. Change Your Life” thinking I could give 8 minutes a try. The book seems a bit padded with unnecessary text just to say that meditation is basically focusing on your breathing in a dark and quiet room while trying not to think about anything else.

To keep my mind focused on not focusing, I made a mental mandala—that of the promontory on Paros. I love standing there looking at the horizon. But is it the sea I like or the possibility of seeing so much sky?

“The soul can split the sky in two,

And let the face of God shine through…

And he whose soul is flat—the sky

Will cave in on him by and by.”

from Renascence by Edna St. Vincent Millay

related links: So Young, So Good, So Popular + Renascence , complete poem + Renascence, critical essay + Change Your Thoughts With Meditation

Posted in Health & Healing, Paros | Tagged 8 Minute Meditation, Edna St. Vincent Millay, meditation, Paros, personal vibration, Renascence, sky | Leave a comment

The danger of diaries

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Art for Housewives

Much has been said about the benefits of keeping a diary. For one, it helps articulate feelings and thus sharpens the blurs. Also, when we get that feeling ”it’s not easy for me to be me”, a diary can act as a confidant eager for our psychological striptease.

I use to keep diaries until an ex-boyfriend stole one of them. The whole experience was a real telenovela. If you keep a diary, there is always that risk that someone, without your permission, will read it. So how can you really write spontaneously?

My bedtime book this week was Erika Robuck’s “Call Me Zelda” about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wife, the original flapper. I was amazed to learn that Fitzgerald stole Zelda’s diaries and blatantly copied passages from them for his novels. He also had a habit of copying down anything she said he thought he could use for future reference.

Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald with daughter Scottie. Photo: REX FEATURES via

For “Tender is the Night”, Fitzgerald used letters Zelda had sent him while recovering in an asylum. “Tender” is the story of Dick, a psychoanalyst, and Nicole, one of his ex-patients, who marry and unravel. Glamorous and rich, Dick and Nicole have everything yet it’s not enough. Like Zelda and Scott, they are examples of how excess leads to decadence. And of how wanting more leads to having less.

Fitzgerald died an alcoholic at the age of 44 and Zelda was burned alive at the age of 48.

excerpts from my diary pages

“Excerpts” from Diary Pages is a highly edited and illustrated diary that was presented at an exhibition I had at the Canonica Arte Incontro Gallery in Milan (1997). Now I keep notebooks and not diaries!

related links: read TENDER IS THE NIGHT free online + Zelda Wasn’t ‘Crazy’: How What You Don’t Know About Fitzgerald Tells Us Something About ‘Crazy’ Women, Then and Now+ The Legend of Zelda (Sayre Fitzgerald) + Zelda Fitzgerald’s Little-Known Art

Posted in Drawings & Paintings, People | Tagged “Excerpts”, diaries, F. Scott Fitzgerlad, Tender is the Night, Zelda Fitzgerald | 2 Comments

A bright sun shiny day

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Art for Housewives

via veneto, roma

It’s been a long time since I’ve driven a car. I prefer walking or taking the tram. Or having my Mr. Big chauffeur me around on his mega scooter. I can hold on tight as he zig zags around the traffic. It’s nice not having to watch the road looking, instead, at the world that wraps itself around me.

What a wonderful bright sun shiny day!

Many thanks plus many more for all the birthday wishes that were like candles on my cake!

Posted in Rome/Italy | Tagged Rome | 6 Comments

Songs and scented sighs

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Art for Housewives

Parisian Perfumes 1988

Amarcord*: One summer evening while walking on Amorgos, my nose was unexpectedly bombarded by the smell of honeysuckle and, zap, suddenly I was in San Antonio, Texas where I grew up. My childhood neighborhood was full of honeysuckle vines. During middle school, I even wore a honeysuckle scented perfume. So honeysuckle, for me, represents my distant past.

Smell has the power to instantly transport you from here to there. The first time you smell a new scent, the brain automatically creates a bond between the smell and its place. It’s an indelible interrelationship that provokes memory.

I’ve just finished reading Kathleen Tessaro’s “The Perfume Collector”, a perfect bedtime novel. It’s about a young woman, Grace, who receives an unexpected inheritance that takes her to Paris. Here she learns about the magic of perfume.

In the language of a perfumer, an “accord” is the blending of various ingredients. A perfume, then, is the result of the interrelationship between many to make one. Something like a musical chord…it take more than one note to make a song.

Our senses are invisible threads that connect us to our environment. The more we use our senses, the more we are connected to our environment. And the more our life has harmony.

*Amarcord is Italian for “I remember” and indicates a nostalgic memory. Although not a word commonly used, Fellini made it famous when he used it as a title for one of his films.

Posted in Health & Healing | Tagged Amarcord, honeysuckle, interrelating, memory, perfume, senses, smell, The Perfume Collector | 2 Comments

Living like a pincushion

Posted on January 3, 2015 by Art for Housewives

Pincushion at my studio

Years ago, on a visit to my mom, I was full of back pain (probably a result of the crammed seating on the plane). My mom insisted that I go to Dr. Dung, her acupuncturist of many years. Unfortunately, I have a terrible fear of needles and past out during the treatment. But I woke up feeling great. Now I’m a believer and often rely on acupuncture when physically in need .

Recently I read about Tong Ren energy therapy that uses dolls mapping acupuncture meridians. Meridians on a doll are manipulated instead of those of a person. It made me think of voodoo dolls. So, in terms of tong ren, what is the difference between acupuncture and voodoo? Intention.

Intention is powerful. Many self-help gurus have made much money writing about intention as an energy field that can change your life. Most of these gurus are a bit too New Age and gimmicky for my tastes. However, they are good at making the obvious seem magical. And that’s what’s incredible—we are so distracted and bombarded by insignificant choices that we are oblivious to the obvious.

Intention helps us focus on where we want to go. It is a compass that keeps us on the path. It’s a needle provoking the actualization of a desire.

On the 2015 Resolutions List: live with intention!

related links: Origin of the Voodoo Doll + A Brief History of Voodoo Dolls + Voodoo Dolls + The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World + The Power of Intention