Bodhisartva ..... Art/Spirit/Life

Tuesday Blues

I've been so discouraged lately; feeling that I don't know where I'm going or what I'm doing.  Today, I realized that some of the problem is that I cannot seem to choose anything.  My approach to life has always been to just gobble it up.  I look around me and see so many wonderful, fascinating, intriguing things to learn and do and be.  And, I try to learn and do and be all of them.  At once.  All the time.  Crazy, yes?

I'm sitting now, bewildered, in my studio.  It's overflowing with projects and "stuff".  Don't get me wrong.  It's organized as all get-out.  A place for everything and everything in it's place.  But, where is that place?  If everything is put away, I can't see it and be inspired by it. But, if it's all out, I can't move.

Then, there is the list of things I could/should be doing. 

• Gift for my going-to-college niece (that's a priority!).
  
• Work on the journal for Art House Co-op. 
  
• Master the drum binding.
  
• Make some scroll books from three neat vintage do-hickies I found at the flea market.
  
• Make the black and white journal I saw in my dream (honest, I dreamed it - full blown/complete/in detail!).
  
• Finish my travel journals from Nags Head and Mammoth. 
  
• Oh, but print the photos first, so they can go into the journals. 
  
• Find a thermograph machine. 

And this is just the book stuff.  I've got about 10 jewelry pieces in various stages, have three more books just kind of sitting there; want to paint, want to learn to take better photographs, want to get really good at PhotoShop, want to rearrange the studio so I remember where I put things.

You see my issue now, don't you? 

Register for ArtFest.  Finish the journal from Orly's class.  Fix a broken necklace.  Practice that cool technique Darcy showed us. 

We're not even talking about the list at my day job. 

And then there's the lose weight, get exercise, make time for meditation, catch up in the garden, paint the bedroom walls, fix the door, finish building the shower.  Replace the earthquake supplies.

I'll bet you have lists like this too.

How do you handle it without getting frustrated.  I know I should just pick one thing and do it.  Or do something every day for three or four priorities.

But, I'm stymied (what a weird word - wasn't he a character in the Little Rascals?). Oh, yeah - there he is.....

Really, I think I am just procrastinating in the studio because if I don't, I'll actually have to do something.  Actually create something; take a chance; be bold, be brave.  Scary.

Enough about me; what stops you?  Or even better - how do you START?

Bluesapalooza!

I wish I could have taken a panoramic view of the crowd. If I stood in one spot, I could have taken pictures like this in every direction.  Folks were way back into the trees.  People set up their chairs and then headed further back for the beer tasting and food, which is why all these chairs are empty!  Loudspeakers are set up all over, so you can hear the bands from anywhere. The line to get in was a mile long; sell out crowd.

Steve looking very serious; probably because he knew my camera was so out of focus.  Or maybe he was worried about the altitude.  It didn't affect his singing though. Maybe that's why he's smiling below.

Still out of focus, but not so serious.  And here are the lovely ladies selling the DBs merchandise.  There's still some left for tomorrow's show.

Tomorrow - opening for Dave Mason.  Should be very interesting....

Radio Stars-Listen Live

The Brothers did an in-studio performance at the local station here in Mammoth.  The tiniest studio, but we all crammed into it somehow.  They did "Joy You Bring" and Steve told about writing it for his daughters and talked about them. The interviewer laughed and said she would use it as her theme song for "The Exhausted Parent Network".  Turns out Stacy was serious; she actually does have a show by that name, LOL.

This morning, he walked into a store in town and the radio station was announcing them - they'll be broadcasting live from Bluesapalooza.  You can listen online if you want: KRHV.  They go on at 12:45 today (Saturday).

Road Trip!

Sitting here listening to the Delgado Brothers rehearse downstairs in the garage.  Fitting soundtrack for the view from my room.  Steve didn't realize he wrote the lyrics for this place, but it's obvious now.  "I often fall to my knees at the glorious places I've seen.  Our mothers and fathers before us blessed this sweet land and our life-giving forests".  Indeed. 

I love road trips!  They played Wednesday night at the historic Fox Theater in Bakersfield - what a beautiful restoration of a treasured building.  They opened for Los Lonely Boys and the Brothers brought down the house - standing ovation and sold out of CDS and t-shirts. 

Then, the long drive up through the desert and the Owens Valley to Mammoth Lakes and the Bluesapalooza Festival. This is the strangest landscape.  It changes every 30 miles - desert, chaparral, rocky outcroppings, pine forests, granite, basalt, dried up lakes, abandoned ranches, cows, sheep, elk...it's a ride!  Elevation change from 2,000 feet to 8,000 feet.

Millions of stars  and temps of 40 degrees at night.  Perfect for sleeping and I think I will take a nap right now.