So I've been off the map for a long time now. Nearly two months since my last posting. Life happened with a vengeance at the end of March. My dad was hospitalized for nearly a month and my family spent a lot of weeks in and out of the hospital. Scary times. It's amazing how everything else fades to relative unimportance when the life of someone you love is in danger. I'm glad I was able to go home and be there for my family. I know it's a cliche but it really made me look at my life and what was most important to me. Things like this make you confront how precious and precarious and short our time here is. How do you want to spend it? My answer is being with the people I love and making art. Nice to eat well, sleep well, and dance as often as possible, but that's my main list. I need to create and I need to love and they are pretty much the same thing for me - manifestations of love. Love of the world as it is. Love of the world as I'd like it to be. Love of the process to get from one to the other.
The past two months have been full of a lot of less than desirable things - hospitals, fear, sleepless nights and tears. However, they have also been full of some amazing things - friends and neighbors offering help and support, time with dear friends and family, beautiful spring days and a heightened appreciation for every little thing I find beautiful and comforting. New eyes and an intensely grateful soul.
Also on the good things front, when I was in New York I was lucky enough to be working as a studio assistant for a good friend and fellow artist, Tarra Bandet, who just opened her first solo show at The Richard J. Massey Foundation for Arts and Sciences in Chelsea. Her work is beautiful and the show is stunning. If you are in NYC over the next couple of months you should make an appointment and go see it. I spent a lot of hours helping with the mosaic piece - tweezers and tiny pieces of glass - I'm an expert now ;)
I've also been working on my Sing For Hope Piano whenever possible. Now that my Dad is doing better, I've been up in NYC working like a fiend to finish it up. I'll be posting separately with more specific updates. I hope all of you will come check it out when it's on the streets in June (June 5th - 20th to be exact). Here's a pic of part of the almost finished top as a teaser:
Here's a pic of the almost finished top of my baby grand piano. Glass and grout and FINALLY PAINT!!! Fianl pics will come when it's on the streets - maybe with you?!?!?!
Also on the horizon is the first work in progress showing of a play I've been developing with some amazingly talented women - Tina Mitchell, Virginia Logan, Beth Ann Hopkins & Kelley Swindall. An excerpt of The Graces is coming to the SOAK Festival June 5th and 6th at Leimay in Brooklyn. Come check it out if you are in the area.
So, like I said, a lot of amazing to go with the not so amazing. Life - it keeps you juggling and balancing. Now that my tightrope is broadening a bit, keep an eye out for more frequent postings. Check out the Dreamcatcher over the next few days as I'll be updating it with a backlog of dream submissions and the Recycling Center should be seeing some action too.
Take care, hug your loved ones early and often and I'll be talking to ya soon.