I am sitting in front of our EZ-Up (anyone who has ever put one up knows they are not EZ)...
.it's Sunday with only a few hours left of the show...
I'm looking at my dirty sunburned feet...
A beautiful black woman steps into the booth..
I think she will be drawn to Valerie's beautiful gourds which have a African flavor,
the woman is dressed similarly...
but she turns left to look at my Spirit Figures....
I give my attention to the parade of people going past, letting the woman look...
It's hard to know exactly when to approach someone who is engaged in looking.
They don't always give me a signal that they would like to talk...
or ask a question.
She has been standing still for a bit now..just looking from one to another...
then she reaches out and touches a face...
she is feeling the energy.
It's time to connect with her...she is being spoken to.
I step inside and move next to her...'do you like them?' I ask. She smiles and says 'yes'..
then she asks about the symbolism...
I tell her about this earth based piece she is drawn to...as well as some of the other figures..
about the hand dyed or painted fabric...the faces,
why I chose the things I chose, what they mean to me.
She tells me she is an artist too. She paints. She is an art student.
She tells me she waits for inspiration but it doesn't come. She tells me how the 'rules' of art have limited her work...We talk a little more about learning how to do art the 'proper' way....couch art...art galleries....Berkeley....then she asks why I do what I do...
She asks about inspiration....
I tell her how sitting and waiting for it to come doesn't work for me.
How even begging my Muse to appear has no effect.
Inspiration seems to require participation...can't be passive.
Walks are good, time with nature, inspirational words and song,
spending time with women..looking into peoples eyes...all inspirational...
She is with me...wants me to keep talking...
I tell her what I do when a image comes or a feeling or a desire..
How I light my candles and put on music..
How I start moving around the room to the rhythm...
Opening
How I can feel a tingle when my Muse arrives...a bit of excitement.
I pick up different things...a strand of beads here, a shell there, paper cloth maybe, red fabric or the black woven, feathers, a face if one is ready and feels right.
I put them in a little pile
A beginning
...I share the floating feeling I have when I begin putting it all together...
the excitement....like maybe if I could go a little deeper I could fly.
Her eyes light up and she gets a big smile...She has been There...in that Place...
where the creativity is really flowing through us...easy.
Not grasping for ideas...just a knowing that the canvas, or little bundle of shells and beads, and feathers and clay, will become something that wasn't here before...
a vision comes to life....
How nice it would be to be able to do the same in life...
put on some music, light a candle or two, gather a few things,
and presto, a new life vision becomes real.
She holds her hand in front of the little figure she has been drawn too and says she will take it with her...put it in her little studio space...inspiration.
What more could I hope for? It is perfect.
I wrap the little figure in lilac tissue and slip her in a bag careful not to cover her face...
she gives me her check..
we hug and hope to meet again.....
Connection...it is what it is all about...xo