November Astrology - waiting on Uranus

Uranus goes direct on December 10th. I am ready, perhaps. I know the energy in the ethers is asking "who are you really?". I keep asking myself that very question. Preparing to live even more truth as it presents itself. I am. I read Nisargadatta to help me stay in "I am". Not climbing ladders, not dreaming of much more than the richness of the expansion of the moment. Helping my community, helping stay in calm and balance as we think for ourselves, and teach those who can hear - to open to beauty and open to change as everything shifts to black. Being myself. Who am I really? I spend a great deal of time writing this new book, outlining tools and meditations for artists to heal, to find their calling, to build a pathway to their own authenticity through the natural creative impulse that is their inner being. It is good. Who am I really? Uranus goes direct in a little more than a month. We have a few months before the first square to Pluto. I hope to willingly let go of what is not authentic, so the rug stays under my feet. Such a human response. It will be what it is. That is for sure. Who am I really? Perhaps a soul who does not need a rug under her feet? We shall see. We all shall see. Uranus goes direct in December. Perhaps the image will be of a flying saucer, or a helium balloon, or definitions of success that have worn out their welcome. I like that one. I want to be myself. I want to meditate and visualize and help awaken the creative healer in all I meet. Is that who I am really? Down deep I am Venus swimming amongst the shadows always discerning the light as a path through the depths. For what purpose? To be. To share. I am. I have decided to take on private meditation clients again - and teach groups at home how to create and meditate. It is good. Uranus goes direct and is planting early seeds.

Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion Museum - call for work

A good artist friend Carol Hamoy sent the below notice to me - wanted to share it with you. Sounds like a great show, and they are looking for great work. Contact Nancy Mantell at the Museum if you are interested in submitting. ------------ Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion Museum Brookdale Center, 1 West 4th Street NYC 10012 Phone: 212 824 2218 E-mail: museumnyc@huc.edu Contact: Nancy Mantell for more info October 25, 2011 Dear Artist As you know, Hebrew Union College Museum has been successful in exploring controversial topics through the work of exceptional Jewish artists. We plan to present a major exhibition beginning in September 2012, addressing the conflict-ridden subject of Jewish attitudes to gender issues. We are inclosing a list of potential subjects to help you visualize these themes. Without a doubt you will have your own ideas and suggest issues that have not been included on our provisional list. Please let us know what you have available that might be appropriate for this exhibit, or that you think you might produce for it. We are interested in all media, including—but not limited to--paintings, sculpture, textiles, objects, artists books, videos, photography, and cartoons. One caveat, we cannot exhibit work that shows frontal nudity. We would like to begin to review work immediately, so we look forward to hearing from you soon. If you have come across work by other artists that you think we should consider, we would much appreciate it if you would share it with us. Best Laura Kruger Curator Phyllis Freedman Nancy Mantell Susan Orr Curatorial Assistants Phone: 212 824 2218 E-mail: museumnyc@huc.edu Jew and Gender: What is Changed? (A Working Title) Possible Subjects Circumcision, Ritual objects: Tzitzit, tefillin, tallit, Prayer/Inclusion and exclusion in congregations, Marriage/Divorce/Family, Polygamy, Forbidden sex: incest/adultery/sodomy/bestiality, Seduction/Rape, Clothing: cross-dressing/sheitel/tzitzit/tallit, Redemption of the first born (male) What about females? Impurities: after childbirth/menses/mikvah, Masturbation: what about IVF/before radiation treatment/selling sperm, Homosexuality: Holocaust

World is changing - are you ready to help?

As most of you can tell now, what I've been talking about for the last 2 - 3 years is starting to take root. The world is changing. Are you ready? Are you prepared?

What does prepared mean for you. Do you have community, people who watch your back? People who love and inspire you, support you? Will feed you and clothe you if necessary. If not, get to it.
You will need them, and they will need you. Are your ready to help your neighbors, share food, share water, share hope? If not, get ready. The world will become a small world, and you will feel better and survive with a richer heart - if you have meaning, and purpose, and support.

This is NOT a time to be thinking - "what about me" . This is a time to be thinking " how can I serve".

So as artists, how do we serve? How do we provide the authentic vision that is ours alone , the unique talents we karmically came here to share? How do we make beauty, add to the vibration of soulful elegance and stay in the world, real and helpful? It is up to each one of us to find our way through the career maze and the prosperity game. Define it for yourself, envision it for yourself, create it, move towards it, and allow it to manifest. DIY is the game plan.

Remember, that the world is changing. You will need courage, genius and the power to define your own destiny. And all is well. Together, all is well. It is always right, just the way it is. Your job is to find the calm center within you, to see the nimble fluid choices as they appear in the mist. And be willing to redefine prosperity, redefine meaning and purpose. And redefine relationships and community. And then, all is well. Simple and complex.

Prepare - please. Your surrogate Jewish mother worries.

Pluto goes direct - Where can I find enduring significance in my life?

Pluto goes direct today, in the early degrees of Capricorn. Marching towards its first square to Uranus in the spring. Uranus goes direct in December in the early degrees of Aries. Volatile times ahead. For me, 6th house contacts the mid-heaven.

The energy that propels destiny and laughs at us at the same time, asking are you living your truth, working your truth, serving the truth? How do we leap beyond our own vanity and allow the spaciousness for this fierce healer within to move us without killing us?

I went back to one of my favorite books by one of my favorite teachers/astrologers, Steven Forrest whom I've studied with over the years. His book "Inner Sky" an old favorite. Steven says this about Pluto:
The realization of one’s destiny.
The recognition of the absurdity of all narrow pursuits.
The development of the capacity to discern truth.

Key questions to ask yourself:
Where can I find enduring significance in my life?
Where in myself might I find wisdom for which there is a great need in the world around me?
Where must I guard against dogmatic unscrupulous or tyrannical behavior?

We must identify with something larger, more timeless. Pluto is the planet of vast dreams, of visions, of conquest and transformation. By voicing a cry that already exists in the soul of the people.

Pluto is a taproot penetrating the heart of a nation...As artists it strikes me that
through our work, we EMBODY the visions and terrors of humanity. through our work we represent them. Our images serve as LIVING SYMBOLS of a some communal need or fear.

Through making art our lives are given TRANSPERSONAL meaning. We do not lose individuality, but we take on a second level of identity.

I cannot tell you how much I loved re-reading the above passages (you should buy The Inner Sky, book by Steven Forrest)

It is not about the personal self, our individual missions are not personal glory bound, if we take the high road it is about transcendence. No vanity. When you become your mission, when you become your images, your artwork, your dreams - the little you becomes irrelevant. It is the road to the big YOU. You might ask - who is that? That is everyone. That is the I AM self.

Ah.... that – to embody an ideal where the personal self falls away. It’s a paradox surely. A mission for relevance that strikes at the very core of your being with the end route being the journey. There is the true meaning, the real healing. Not ego inflation. To embody the core, through the journey of the dark night of the soul. To heal the personality by transcending it.

Pluto.

Artist Grants from LMCC - deadline 9/13/11

Going through my inbox, and saw this as well. Wanted to share:

LMCC offers two grants for projects that bring the arts to communities in Manhattan, from Washington Heights to the Battery, The Fund for Creative Communities (The Fund) and Manhattan Community Arts Fund (MCAF).

The grants are available for artists, organizations, and arts groups of all disciplines.
Application Deadline: Tuesday, September 13, 5PM
Application Forms Now Online:

LMCC is pleased to announce that application forms can now be completed and submitted online. Certain required documents will also need to be mailed or delivered to LMCC in hard copy before the deadline.

For more information, access the 2012 guidelines and applications here: The Fund / and MCAF

Attend an Information Session:

Information sessions are offered each summer in 12 locations across Manhattan for artists interested in applying to our grant programs. Sessions include a review of the programs and useful information to help applicants put their best foot forward.
If you are a first-time applicant or haven't attended a session since 2008, you must attend one this year to apply.

Get started now and RSVP for one of the upcoming sessions:


Wednesday, August 24, 3PM
Nuyorican Poets Café
236 East 3rd Street, between Avenues B & C

Wednesday, August 24, 6:30PM
CUE Art Foundation
511 West 25th Street

Tuesday, August 30, 6:30PM
LMCC
125 Maiden Lane, 2nd Floor, between Water & Pearl Streets
Capacity for the final session on August 30 is limited. We encourage you to sign-up for an earlier sessions to ensure that we can accomodate you!


For more info go to the LMCC website

Creative Mind and Business Mind

Happy to share that I'm teaching again this Fall at SVA. A Visualize Your Future class (using meditation and visualization for life and career planning which starts on September 19th.

The second class is Fund Raising for Artists, and starts Nov 07th.

Always have to find ways to connect creative mind with business mind.

For more info: go to the SVA website.

Paris Residency

I just saw this, wish I could go!

Open Call for Applications:

Paris Residency
for a New York City-Based Visual Artist
at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France

Application Deadline:
Thursday, September 29, 2011, 5PM
(This is a receipt deadline, not a postmark deadline.)

LMCC is proud to partner again with the Mayor's Office of the City of Paris (Mairie de Paris), to provide one New York City artist or collaborative pair with the opportunity to live and work at
Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France for six consecutive months. LMCC is currently inviting artists to apply for this special residency. The selected artist will be assigned a live/work studio/flat in Central Paris and be provided with a monthly living stipend.

Residency Dates:
May - October 2012

For more information about the Paris Residency, including residency offerings, eligibility requirements and complete application guidelines, visit the LMCC website.