Yoga in the Park

One of my #100favFlorida things is the Sundays we spend in the park with friends meditating and doing our yoga practice. I have been going there for the past 7 years and have learned a lot from Peter, theyogawarrior.org 
To be among the trees is where I feel most comfortable in my skin. Miami is a city with a lot of trees- but not necessarily right outside your door. You have to be intentional about being with the trees. You have to search out sites that aren't under assault of construction. Miami is all about real estate and development so that, over the years, lots of my favorite trees in the neighborhood have been removed. When I practice the tree pose I gain inspiration from the energy of the park. I enjoy the rooted feeling of connecting to the earth and the lifted feeling from spreading my "branches" into the air overhead, visually merging my fingers with the leaves and birds.

I consider this to be my church time. While in the park, I meditate on non-violence, praying for compassion, focusing on my breath. I let go of my expectations and practice self-discipline, intention, concentrating on the gifts and movement of my healthy body. I also pay attention to the sounds of the animals, humans, and machines, feeling the breeze, sun, and grass against my skin... it always lifts my spirit and is the best way to start the day and week. It brings me light and gratitude for the love of God, the great Creator.

I had to do 3 paintings to get one that captures the love I have for Sunday Yoga in the Park.
#100favFloridathings

Do you ever ask yourself if you are enough?

I would never ask that of my friends, but even through a morning of deep breathing yoga, and an afternoon prone under lights for a facial, I keep asking myself if I can allow myself to just "be". Should I not be working? Planning? Promoting? Creating? Connecting? Cleaning? Catching up?

Collage portrait in greys

I reach the weekends mostly exhausted from days spent being a teacher engaging high school students, attending meetings, modeling good behavior, planning, planning, planning. Then I try to do the drawings and paintings that allow me to capture what it feels like to be human.
My art practice captures Time for me in a way that affirms my existence. So I do that... But is that enough?
Everything around me, (politics especially), in this city and state, seems to be spiraling into the darkness of economic, spiritual and environmental disaster. Shouldn't I be working harder to save the endangered, to shelter the homeless, to feed the hungry, to inspire the hopeless? I stand in a place of privelege, yet I am haunted by the responsibility to give back and do more.
When I am breathing in the park, or allowing someone to slather ointments on my body, I am guilt ridden because my Time is so limited. I am living longer than the days given to dear friends, and yet what am I doing with those days?
Is it enough to just Be?

That makes FIVE murals at the Yoga Studio

Peter, theyogawarrior.org, has commissioned me for 5 murals since 2013.
I started outside on the side of the house with a painting of him in warrior pose at the sea.

Then I painted the OM symbol inside, on the large studio-facing wall.

I remember chanting Om while I did it! It was a fun vibration to paint with.
Then, I collaborated with Michael for the next two murals... the body chakras, and a large Buddha head.

The giant Buddha head was done in oil, applied and wiped off.

And today... a Lotus on the backboard! It is mostly spray paint with a little brush work.

The first art marks of summer!

Whenever I am about to paint someone else's wall, I swear my heartbeat sounds like my parents footsteps running down the hall. It was a big deal when I was little and took it upon myself to draw directly onto the furniture or the door or the drywall...

But now, I am so gratefully inspired by my friend Peter, TheYogaWarrior, yoga master at his own studio @13950 100th Place, Palmetto Bay, FL, and at Five Sisters, among other places!  He commissioned me to do something, "anything", with the existing hoop backboard in his waiting courtyard. It is the first couple days of official summer, and I am doing what I love best!

Taking a plane white surface...

and making a mark on it.

My first summer project! Done in spite of the rains. Thank you Yoga Peter @ theyogawarrior.org

24 sites to get your residency or retreat

I have a habit of spending the end of each vacation scheming the next calendar opportunity. So it was that by the new year I had planned a third of my yet-to-be summer. I was looking for a place to play, rest, be a student, and develop my skills.  There are so many opportunities out there.Here are some interesting sites to check out.
I just wanted to share.
Good Luck- Tilly

http://www.fundforteachers.org/
www.teachertrek.org  (free teacher travel opportunities)
www.artistcommunities.org/residencies (great searchable database)
the omega institute: https://www.eomega.org/
chatauqua: www.florida-chautauqua-center.org/
University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing education International summer program: https://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/international-summer-schools
Newriverdramatists.org
The relativity School in Los Angeles, Ca (digital,film and performing arts): https://relativityschool.org/
any of the NEA summer programs
http://www.chefs.edu
Sivanda yoga retreat (Bahamas)- vacation/experiential or study: http://www.sivanandabahamas.org/
Shambala Petit Hotel (yoga retreats in Mexico) :http://www.shambalapetithotel.com/
glorialatham.com (go to the Greek Isles this summer and do yoga!)
Dora Maar residency for artists and those working in the humanities (south of france)http://www.mfah.org/fellowships/doramaarhouse/dora-maar-how-to-apply/
the Vermont studio center for writers and visual artists: http://vermontstudiocenter.org/
The Millay Colony in Austerlitz,NY (for writers. artists and musical composers): http://www.millaycolony.org/
http://www.tamdistrict.org/page/4377 (free global travel for teachers)
•www.starrynightretreat.com/residencies/  (couples allowed- New Mexico efficiencies)
•http://www.middlebury.edu/bread-loaf-conferences/program
care4teachers.org (contemplative teaching methods explored on estate along the Hudson River,NY)
Kalani.com (summer programs in Hawaii)
•Thewritelife.com/writing-residencies/
earthwatch.org/ (great week long programs working with scientists in the field)

Time is of the essence- deadlines for summer may already have passed.

My feet are in Miami and my heart is over NY

Meditation never seems to work for me. My head pops open and I travel hither and yon. Here is one map collage illustrating such an event.

Heading back to the Home Farm today

Amenia is about as far from Miami as you can get- though I have two sisters on the West Coast (CA and OR). I can't wait to immerse myself in the maple forest and the corn fields, to walk along the pastures admiring the cows and the wild flowers, picking black berries by the swimming pond, plotting an art show in the barn, slicing fresh plucked tomatoes for dinner... laughing with my family....simple pleasures of the area I call "home" in my heart.
Michael and I are house sitting about 15 minutes away from the farm. My father, step-mother, and sons are all there. I look forward to catching a few of my dear old friends and spending time talking about their lives, their art/struggles/dreams/successes. My sisters will fly in, and I expect a trail of nieces and nephews as well. Everyday, in contrast to running-late-in-Miami,  I must exercise by peacefully walking and practicing my yoga. In this way I will live out a dream summer vacation.

Stepping into the new year with a new mural

We have a tradition in our family of JUMPING into the new year... I remember leaping off a chair while my dad jumped off a book and my grandpapa sprung himself off a piece of tissue paper. So, it was natural for me to plan a pedicure for myself and started this mural with my partner from the feet up. It was a leap into some new material for me... the ancient art of sanskrit healing. 

Peter of the Yogawarrior studio, had asked us to add another mural to his site, this to be depictions of the energy centers, or "chakras", along our spine. "Chakra" is the sanskrit word for wheel. The energy centers, artistically most commonly shaped like lotus flowers, are thought to be spinning. In yogic and many non-western belief systems, there are many energy centers in the subtle body field that effect the flow and health of the physical body. The seven chakras along the spine are the main and, I think, the most powerful ones. They range from the "Muladhara (root) chakra" at the base of the spine to the "Sahasrara (crown) chakra" bursting out the top of the head. The "Anahata (heart) chakra" in the middle of the line up of the seven, balances instinct and intellect through compassion, love and healing. It seemed appropriate for Michael and I to paint the mural on the two days straddling the new year.

We couldn't be happier than to paint a wall on a symbolically last and first day. So we put the light (signifying the energy) in on the 31st of December and went in with the color on the 1st of January, today.

Personally, I love the "Vissudha (throat) chakra" and how it effects our choice, will power, and the right to speak and be heard. Problems with this chakra may manifest themselves in the thyroid and with our sense of hearing. Those are both areas where I have a history of family issues. I am going to work on my Vissudha chakra with both prayer and intention. It may help me to be a better teacher.

Michael and I still have to add the lotus petals, (in gold!), but the mural feels almost done.

Bowing to the light in others

I am playing with this idea of the final Namaste movement in my yoga practice. Michael is a big help. At first he posed...

But then I felt it didn't have that low enough, total supplicant, type of feel to the drawing.
So we tried again. I posed and he drew.

Then I worried more about the light... the reaching towards the light in others...These sketches are all done on brown paper, which makes a good contrasting middle ground to play light and shadow.

Doesn't the figure look like an anatomical heart in a way? Now it felt too outside the light... where is the light in me? This flowing bend is the acknowledgement of the communion of light within us all.

I wanted something with this feel...and this is where Michael took it last night:

I think it is beautiful.
This is the way I can visualize the light within me reaching and touching the light of others.