by Cindy | Sep 11, 2011 | Uncategorized |
Stop The Bleeding, a non profit in the Virgin Islands, is in the process of completing a music video entitled, “Believe”. Padric Coursey is editing and producing and Michael Nissman worked the camera. It was shot at various places on the island including Tutu’s and The Guadeloupe Projects across from Alfredo Andrews. The concept is to believe in yourself, the opportunities that are available to you, the options you have in your life, and not to let anything keep you down.,,especially a closed mind. Open your mind to the possibilities that are right there in front of you. It is an excellent venture and I am so pleased that Stop The Bleeding put forth the time and effort to involve teens in this project.
This is one step the government has taken that shows the vision necessary to perceive this same concept for the collective VI mind, the Virgin Islands community. To open one’s mind, or in this case, a group of minds, means to deliver it from all that keeps it restricted. It means to make every effort to eliminate ignorance and all false perceptions and prejudice projections. Look at the facts. The Caribbean has what the world needs.
First: A hodgepodge of people from all over the world that has for more than five hundred years been living together and, by the necessity of limited space and hard decisions, had to work together.
Second: A regenerative energy within nature that heals and cleanses.
Third: A year round climate that offers its gifts 24/7/360.
Fourth: The ability to be self sufficient in terms of green energy and food production. So much we have to learn. How exciting it is. And so much we could have to teach.
So, then, what holds us back? Selfish ego, negative attitude, and non-cooperation. Who better to lead in this region’s growth than the US Virgin Islands? Is not the larger picture of productivity and peace a more important picture than the image of the past. A new paradigm for our world is being made. Are you in or are you out ? Are you on the bus or are you off ? As Bob Dylan said many years ago, If you can’t lend a helping hand, get out of the way”.
Being an artist means reaching beyond earthly environment to touch the Golden Gifts (Robert Bly, “Iron John”) that teach us to know our Most High Selves. We are all artists here to create, and through our creativity we do our Best Work. Get to know and love your artist self. BELIEVE and CREATE.
by Cindy | Jul 30, 2011 | Uncategorized |
Who is your hero? There are so many personas one can emulate, that it is not even necessary to enter into a relationship with the Self. It is easy to assume the posture of another, even if it guides you so far from love that there is a constant coming and going of loneliness and depression. One forgets that there is more to life than survival. How to begin to find happiness? Take a minute to check yourself. What would bring joy to your life? Really?
“Be still and know that I am God”. Be still and listen.
Robin Thomas has given many in the St. Croix prison the opportunity to listen, to find, and to express their voices in a way that can be heard loud and CLEAR. Through poetry and applied arts projects, inmates have brought forth beautiful, meaningful, complex, and truthful words and images. One nearly completed project, sponsored in part by the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts, is a mural painted on the water tower by The Manor School. I am sure Manor student, Stephen Smith, will never forget the community service hours he has earned helping with this endeavor. In the majestic suspension of time within the act of making a truly CREATIVE mural, many secrets are whispered into the ear of those immersed in their process. Self discovery and growth are a result of such endeavors. Not to mention self worth.
There was much work done to ready these men for their contribution to their community, a contribution above the act of self expression. “I Wish I Would Have Listened” is the type of contribution that requires understanding of what was and what is and what could have been. There is much work yet to be done to make sure this program that Robin has begun will continue.
The next time you are headed to Christiansted by way of Five Corners, take a detour. See the LOVE for yourself.
Robin, you are my hero.
by Cindy | Jan 20, 2011 | Uncategorized |
It does not take much to inspire me. Last night as I flew from Miami towards Savannah, the full moon was reflected in the water with Miami’s lights behind and faint gray pink cumulus clouds at the top of the mind’s canvas. Always there is a canvas. Perhaps that is why I like the kimono. It is a Great Coat canvas. Today, visiting with my friend Laurie Linen Lovell, I went to a new art store in downtown Savannah. New types of pencils, paints, huge papers, tiny canvases. So much with which to experiment. Then we came back to Laurie’s place and we checked out her new studies and ideas and the things she has collected from which she sees potential for art making. Her house is full of natural found objects that she manipulates as college, weaves into hangings, presses into clay, spins into fibers. Wow! Tomorrow we visit my first mentor, Nancy Terry Hooten. Nancy creates sculpture from beads. Laurie and I can’t wait to see her new work. There is inspiration every where. Once it gets inside of your being, it is found in the smallest of things and the bigness of things and in the everyday-ness of things.
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