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Women’s Genesis Art Retreat in Gifu
The Genesis Women’s Art Retreat participants, aged 13 – 80, with art gifts. I spent a pleasant week at a farmhouse in the Japan Alps with Liane Wakabayashi and a group of artistic women that spanned three generations. We gathered to create intuitive art using Liane’s own Genesis cards. One question with three answers: If…
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Revisiting Anam Cara
Twelve years ago, Tod & I visited Anam Cara for a poetry workshop given by my sister, Jenny Hill, and Jack McGuigan. (My main memory of that trip is memorialised in this poem.) When I realised that we’d be in the area this year for the European Juggling Convention in Millstreet, of course we had…
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Building a Geiger Counter
Meet bGeigie #2209. We built her yesterday. Tod soldered 179 points. I did the non-soldering bits. The build took us most of the day, but it wasn’t too hard. I think some of the time was taken up awe, making comments like “Wow, we’re adding the smallest disk drive ever” and “This tiny thing is a…
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Spring Sketching
I took my watercolors to the park today and although the output isn’t anything special, it was glorious to be out in the fresh air focussing my attention on the environment for a few minutes. I am reminded how much I enjoy this form of meditation. More drawing…
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Winter Hoop Dance
I joined a group on Facebook called The Hooping Game. Players are assigned songs, then have 48 hours to make a hoopdance video and post it back to the group. I got my song yesterday morning and braved the almost freezing temperatures at Yoyogi park to make my video. You may notice the orange-hatted preschoolers…
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Mandala Belly
Heather invited me to paint a mandala on her pregnant belly. She’s a mandala artist and I’m not, so it was a little bit stressful. I hoped I’d do OK. It turned out to be very fun and pretty thanks to the gorgeous array of body paints that Tracey gave me for my birthday. The…
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In A Band
After 20 months of study, practice, and carrying my ukulele with me on trips around the world, I’ve joined a band. Maybe it’s no surprise that the band is me and Tod. Ukulele and melodica with me doing some singing. I am so happy to make “a joyful noise” with Tod. A shared creative pursuit is…
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Summertime
You are expecting a rant about summer, aren’t you? You know it’s not my favorite season. But I am talking about Summertime by George Gershwin from Porgy and Bess. Tod & I are learning to play it in our music lessons. Our lessons with Huw that started out as ukulele instruction for me and piano…
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Stagaki, the Status Update Postcard Project
Though I limited my Facebook use a few days ago, I still find myself wanting to update my status when I am doing something vaguely noteworthy or see beauty in the world. I’ve been trained to share little moments of my day but I decided not to post personal status updates and I want to…
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Nengajo time
Pretty colors, inappropriate tool, and lots of imperfection. My kind of art! This afternoon I am indulging in one of my favorite holiday preparations, creating our holiday cards. This year’s nengajo project is especially delightful because I am returning to what I consider my artistic roots – printmaking. I love creating multiples. The multistep process of creating a…
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