The Credits

We went to see James Bond yesterday and I had a revelation as to why they have all those endless credits at the end... it's to give you time to gather your shattered wits so you don't have to go out and look at the daylight with tears streaming down your face.  It is the grace period they provide, filled with artificial distraction, so you can regain your quiet breath and poise in the dark free from scrutiny.  People who leave before the credits are untethered to their souls and do not require a period of re-entry to the interactive world.

Birthing to the Ethers

As the Age of Pisces ends, the water in which the fish has been swimming for two thousand years will be emptied out of the jug (as the Water Bearer age begins) so that the fish must, as in other corresponding evolutionary times, find a new way to live through a creative adaption that is more self-dependent.

I see a clear correlation here: I lose my job, my father dies and two safety nets are gone...both of them waters in which I swam that supported me and upon which I was dependent.

My goal now: to adapt to the new world in such a way that I am reliant only upon my own wellspring of resources.

The development of a healthy person in the realm of social interaction will always lead away from dependence upon using others' energy through manipulation to a self-reliance that finds its own innate energy source within.

I have a terrific store of accomplished works that I can harvest now through the internet in a way to generate income. I am unlimited in creativity so that once this new generation is in place the opportunity to expand it, and in the process, serve the planet will provide endless support.

Q: So how does the water mammal learn to walk on land?

A: Wrong question. The water being becomes a sky being.

A New Mirror

House-sitting last weekend and shaving in an unfamiliar bathroom and the light is very different in there than anywhere else I have ever been looking at myself in a mirror... at my apartment there are two little lightbulbs on either side illuminating the front of my face so I see it sculpted in a certain way and generally always perceive myself from that point of view. But in new environs with the skylight overhead and a slightly different angle of sidelighting, the mirror shows to me an entirely new perspective... so while I was shaving away and not paying particular attention I was blown away when suddenly out of nowhere I saw my father's face looking back at me. It was unmistakable.

All other responses aside it has had the most piercingly effective way of removing all otherness from him that I ordinarily use to facilitate blaming / disappointment / regret, which has the effect of making me immediately and solely responsible and accountable.

Who could have foreseen such a simple and elegant clue? I have been for many months involved in an intensive search for a key to unlock my own vast potential and here it was shown to me so clearly how much I hold other people responsible for shortcomings and limitations in my experience.

Portfolio @ 2011

Onalaska's Tower

When the word Tower appears in mythology it usually indicates some sort of inflexible MENTAL CONSTRUCT. Think of the TOWER tarot card; which indicates that change is occurring and in order to adapt to it the rigid structure of expectation must be dismantled.

The question that Onalaska poses is simple: that of Hamlet; To be or not to be. Whether 'tis simpler to end life than to re-orient to a new paradigm. In her case it was the end of the tribal/wilderness empire and the onset of Euro/exploitation. She clung to the disappearing reality to the point of disappearing herself.

Perhaps the iconic image of her is not hurling off the cliff but rather poised at the edge. That is what gives it resonance right now- 2011; we are on the edge. The new world is coming and a certain (perhaps uncomfortable) adaptation is required.

There is contained in this iconography a mighty paradox: the leap. At the threshold a leap often represents the unknowing step into faith: a courageous affirmation of willingness to leave the known. In her case the leap was to the end of her life. It is a romantic notion to die for your principles. To take your child with you rather than let it live a life you cannot fathom.

Her hopes were dashed
on the rocks below.


But the image of her hurling to her demise may not represent a failure at all, or a succumbing: it could well be Dying to the Self which is a choice and represents empowerment.

Certainly if our next evolutionary leap as a species is to an interconnectedness of mind & will & spirit then the abdication of one's personal ego/will is a vital element of each individual's evolution. Her leap is not a tragedy at all, but an advanced form of development.

Doing Justice

Working for so long on my film about the Square it has been frustrating to have nothing yet to show for all of that effort. I started it back in the fall of 07 thinking I could get it out by the Bicentennial in 2008... then it was set back on the shelf to accommodate the Underground Railroad film for October 2008, the Library Centennial film for December 2008, then into limbo for Historical Society stuff, Arcadia deadlines, and more and more.

Realizing that it could pend forever if I didn't extricate myself from all the distractions, I quit the Carousel Board, the Historical Society Board, the Cosby Center Board and went back to my real job.

The film is in 4 parts and I have addressed each separately to get a rough working draft going. Finally last month, as I was photoshopping my way through part 4 and the end of pre-preparation actually loomed into sight, I understood suddenly that I have a serious need to see some results that are not in the box of gettingready. I was assembling images of the Lady Justice sequence for the Courthouse segment and could see that within the framework of Part 4 I could never do justice to her story... so in a thrilling moment of clarity I pulled all of her material out of the film to do a short just about her. And set aside Thanksgiving vacation for completion.

I set myself to tell the story of Lady Justice on the top of the Richland County Courthouse, and use her tale to address a topic that resonates to my soul: the cut-through of the Square.

What a blast. That's what I love to do: have the subject, a theme, the materials, the vast possibilities, the time and a deadline.

Here's the best part of this story: the day after I committed myself to this work all full of en-theo-siasm, I ran into a guy who told me that he had just come from the inaugural meeting of a committee who is working to restore the Square to its former whole. And I had already begun their first piece of propaganda.

Mansfield Muse

It is not commonly known that the inspiration for many of the great paintings of the world actually originated in Mansfield, Ohio. As you can clearly see from this vintage postcard, Edward Hopper, riding a late train from Chicago to New York that laid over in Mansfield for an hour, took a stroll down Main Street before rushing to his easel with a great idea.



Jackson Pollock, as well, drew his inspiration from the sidewalks of our town when he woke up one afternoon in 1947 in the Leland Hotel with a terrific hangover and stumbled down to the Square for coffee where the famous Mansfield crows had just the night before hosted a mass roosting in the trees overhead. As his eyes gradually focused on the pavement under his feet his heart leaped and his destiny incarnated.