It is almost Lammas

Here are Klimt's beautiful sunflowers, and Terry has been bringing us the bounty of the Earth, it is not hard to feel the gratitude of the season! Here is Starhawk's explanation of the holiday. Her words seem especially meaningful this year.

Lammas
Lammas is the ancient Celtic festival at the beginning of harvest time. "Lughnasad" is the Irish name for this festival; it was a time of fairs, trading and celebration.
Now, when the days grow visibly shorter and the sun seems to decline, the crops ripen. So too, when we work for justice, when we have expended huge energies to bring about change, the results often come only when the tides of enthusiasm and urgency seem to be ebbing. When the marching and the shouting die away, public opinion quietly shifts.
Lammas means 'loaf-mass', the festival where we honor and celebrate the grain and the food that sustains our life. In a just world, no one would go hungry. All people would have access to good quality food - organic, fresh, local, and truly nourishing.
The grain stands golden in the fields, but has not yet been gathered in. We stand poised between hope and fear. Lammas is a time of consequence, when we reap what we have sown. Globally, we are now reaping the consequences of decades of injustice, of neglect, and exploitation of the earth. Will we make the change, in time to avert disaster? Will we reap destruction, or harvest a new world based on harmony, balance and love? Our choices and actions will tip the scales.
- Starhawk 2007

Triad

A Million little pieces...

30 Seconds to Mars in Atlanta April 29, 2010

We walked over to the show as it was getting dark. I was worried they might give me trouble about bringing the presents in, but the guy at the door was very sweet. The Tabernacle was amazing. An old church, the interior has been painted on every surface. It was packed with people. I really think they should have played the Fox. Next time! We went to the upper level and discovered that there were no seats to be had, so I asked about the handicapped area, and eventually we ended up over on the left side (Tomo’s side) um, Jared’s right, right even with the stage. We had a great view.

More importantly, considering the heat in the place, we had cool air blowing on us. It was perfect. Ben got great pictures. The show was awesome. He makes it look effortless. In fact, after he came out of the crowd during the Kill, I looked at him very carefully, expecting him to be breathless, or to show some sign of what he’d just done – none. Total casualness. Crazy. How you could have all those people all over you and not have to shake it off a bit…

It was great, it is all out there with Mars, what you needed the psychedelics to see with the Dead you can see with your bare eyes – and feel viscerally with Mars. When Jared gets everyone going for the end of Search and Destroy it is a beautiful thing. Then there is the craziness of everyone bodysurfing up to take part in Kings & Queens and he calls the kids up and puts them on Shann’s riser…and of course Kings & Queens is the grand finale. Then there is the afterglow and the mad dash to find the merch booth in the basement before they kick us out and the disappointment that there is nothing left to buy. No small stuff, no 2x tees, none of the first 2 cds. Out then to the barricade around the busses with the other die hards hoping for autographs, everyone grumbling because no one knows what’s going on. I don’t care about the autographs; I want to give them jewelry I have made, chocolate for Tomo and airborne to help get Jared well. I have to scribble on the card I made because I have been too nervous to write it properly. It has been hard to believe – the real guys – out of the ether.

Wow! Was I ever surprised, shocked and amazed! Everyone completely fooled me with the planning of this party, and I was really touched by the effort that went into it. My mom mad the great posters, Elizabeth did the shirts, Hyla donated her house - and of course Ben. Oh and Jim made the beautiful and yummy cake and T did so much - and then couldn't be there.
The shirts were so great!
My mom made the wonderful posters.And my sweet husband engineered the whole thing.My son, Marley and my mom, Suzanne. To the right is the wall where they projected video of the band all night long - it was great!
30 Seconds to Mars has made me feel younger, more vital, energetic and inspired than I have in a long time. Which is a good thing! It is what we need from our artists.

Mars Art

It is fun to be inspired by other artists. This is inspired by the music and message of 30 Seconds to Mars. I have never done a collage so focused on one color before, and you can see how challenged I was by the straight lines! Red is also a very all or nothing color - there's no half way, not really shades. I used a lot more art pieces, and had to seek different images because this had to have specific meaning, pertaining to the band. Everything has meaning and significance in some way. Some of the things I would mention, is that the very tip shows the light of a star being born and the wonderful Janus-headed stand-in for Mithra (the phoenix) comes from an old vodka ad. The bowl represents abundance, and is also the circle about which Black Elk says: "Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round." The red coral in the bowl evokes energy and passion. Uniting the arrow with the circle in this piece is meant to represent the coming together of the divine masculine and the divine feminine.
30STM is a band with rich symbolic lore, it is what really drew me in, and one of the things that they (strangely) share with the Grateful Dead. But with the Dead, it was drugs, divine intervention, and groupthink of a large group of creative tripping people. 30STM was started by two brothers from Louisiana, they are a little younger than I am, grew up poor and without their dad, like so many of us - point is: I can relate to them as peers. They have worked really hard to get where they are, and they express a genuine sense of gratitude that I like and respect. And they put all this thought into how to get their fans reading and exploring big ideas.

Freshly scanned artwork! For whatever reason, getting the art to the scanner (or in front of the camera) seems to take forever. But this is one of my favorites - and it might even make it to the wall one of these days! Though I am excited to be able to share - I do believe that the important thing is the act of creation and the fulfillment that it gives... even if it is not seen or appreciated by others. Like most artists, I create because I need to. This piece, which I called The Bright One, is a good example of what I love about the visual arts - color. Collage allows me to play with color, shape, and ideas in a way that is very flexible and suits my crazy life. I can start and stop whenever, and that works well for me.

Being a Fan

So recently I became a fan of a band again. This has happened to me several times now- and I am struck by how being a fan has changed. When I was a teenager we had magazines - and of course they are still there, but what I am looking at now is European material scanned and uploaded to the fan forum on the band's website. While I remember MTV revolutionizing everything, youtube has really changed the game because here I can watch footage of concerts that happened hours ago, anywhere. Also the fan made videos and the leaking via youtube really change the nature of things, with positives and negatives to consider about both. My point is, it is an exciting time to be a fan, your interest in an artist can be immediately gratified and ultimately that is going to work in favor of the artists. With memories of the Grateful Dead hotline and mailorder with your #10 envelope...we have come some distance.