Sunday, July 30, 2017

Highlights from Season 14 Great River Shakespeare Festival

Last Concert on the Green of the Great River Shakespeare Festival with Ilika Ward & the Moonlight Riders.






















Grace Marco and Bob Stuber working sound magic for Concerts on the Green.



Two lovely artists, Margaret Kiihne and Julie Johnston, enjoying a few moments at the concert.



 Thirty-two artists showed their work at the River Arts Alliance Member Show.





I feel so honored to be part of this beautiful show.

 Hallowed Ground by Ken McCullough


The stage set of Comedy of Errors.  Watching the people on stage interacting with the actors was another part of the fun!


The Winona community thanks the artists of the Great River Shakespeare Festival after the final performance of a Comedy of Errors. Community coming together in love.




Friday, July 28, 2017

Compassionate Resistance

In the current political climate in the United States of America, I often feel ashamed, angry, frustrated and repulsed.  I joined a group of resisters in my community; I often feel that I am not doing enough.  Exhaustion at the sheer weight of the dilemma makes me want to pull my head in, if I was a turtle.  I am not a turtle; I'm a feeling, breathing, living and loving woman.

Here are some things that I'm doing.  I call my representatives when I can.  I add my name to petitions.  I make art.  I dance.  And I send my positive energy into the world to help set a new course for myself and encourage others.



Compassionate Resistance
July 11, 2017
Photo imagery on cotton, acrylic paint, dyed fabric
Screen printed fist print by Kathy Seifert
16.5" x 21"

"Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how.  The moment you know how, you begin to die a little.  The artist never entirely knows.   We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark."
                                                                    Agnes de Mille

 







Tuesday, July 18, 2017

City Museum









The City Museum is located in St. Louis, Missouri. When you open up City Museum's website the first words that you see are: "Always building..."  It is an old shoe factory that has become a play museum for young and old.  I traveled there for a Nia Moving to Heal conference.  Before the dancing began, I met up with two dear friends to climb and slide and shimmy through many known and unknown areas.  There is a ferris wheel on the roof top that I went on with Nyah, my 11 year old friend, and a 10 floor slide that Nyah and her Mom slid down.  I did not.  I took the stairs down and wondered if I would see them again.  We had cell phones and I knew that we would; however for a short moment, I was a little scared.  And then there we were together and we were near the caves and a white whale.






 Taking a selfie of us two on the ferris wheel: double brave!









Nyah went to Ridgeway Community School and loved art.  Her family moved and we only see one another occasionally when she makes a return visit with her family to Winona.  This time,  I was traveling nearer to her home and we met up for a play day.  What a treat to spend a day of exploration and fun together!  Living Life as Art all the way!


Friday, July 14, 2017

River Walks

Mississippi River Walk near Bud King Ice Arena


 July 6, 2017, it is hot.


 July 3, Morning light




 All times of the day and evening

 July 1, 2017


 June 30, 2017 On the Winona Bridge after Barre class at 7:00am










































Views of the Mississippi River on the Mississippi. Photo credit: Bob Stuber









Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Prairie Garden Time
















Our front garden--yard--is a prairie.  And now the butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa, is in glorious bloom.  The butterflies and bees love this plant.  





We have some pale purple coneflowers, echinacea pallida blooming now and the yellow ones are echinacea paradoxa--yellow coneflower.


Each year there are changes.  It's fun to see how the plants grow and change through time.

Here's a poem called 'Hum,' by Mary Oliver

HUM 

by Mary Oliver


What is this dark hum among the roses?
The bees have gone simple, sipping,
that’s all. What did you expect? Sophistication?
They’re small creatures and they are
filling their bodies with sweetness, how could they not
moan in happiness? The little
worker bee lives, I have read, about three weeks.
Is that long? Long enough, I suppose, to understand
that life is a blessing. I have found them-haven’t you?—
stopped in the very cups of the flowers, their wings
a little tattered-so much flying about, to the hive,
then out into the world, then back, and perhaps dancing,
should the task be to be a scout-sweet, dancing bee.
I think there isn’t anything in this world I don’t
admire. If there is, I don’t know what it is. I
haven’t met it yet. Nor expect to. The bee is small,
and since I wear glasses, so I can see the traffic and
read books, I have to
take them off and bend close to study and
understand what is happening. It’s not hard, it’s in fact
as instructive as anything I have ever studied. Plus, too,
it’s love almost too fierce to endure, the bee
nuzzling like that into the blouse
of the rose. And the fragrance, and the honey, and of course
the sun, the purely pure sun, shining, all the while, over
all of us.

Thanks to the Honey Bee Conservatory for this poem.   
For more about Mary Oliver visit her website or connect and become a fan on her facebook page.





Sunday, June 11, 2017

Looking Inside and Outside

It is the season of summer in Minnesota. Though the summer solstice marking the beginning of summer is 10 days away, the heat and humidity are high in our land.  The days are long with sun and everything is growing.  Here are some images around Winona in these beautiful days.

 Peonies are blooming and oh so fragrant.

 Fox live at the edge of the city


 Mississippi River is part of my favorite walking trail

 An inch worm on Bob's biking jersey

 Baby robin  fledgling

 End of the day--thanks for all the beauty on the Earth.




 

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Nia Another Perspective

Why men who do Nia, do Nia - Jason Alan Griffin (JAG) interview 

by Fred Bass

This lovely video of Nia from the perspective of a man is rich with insight.  Take a listen, if you’re curious about Nia as a man or a woman.
 

 

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