It's coming to a close for me. And the anticipation is mounting...

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My poem.

Fortunate for the ego and the id

The mind has an opening, it has a lid

And one can peer into what would seem

The consciousness running as a stream

And there within that scene now browsed

The identity is sitting there all housed.

Within such emporium so vast

Is all the future and all the past,

Knowledge, pain, hope and fear

And growth and change all appear.

Religion is there as well as doubt

And all the things we're concerned about.

And there as well, it should not seem strange,

Are all the seeds of growth and change.

It's true that within our tiny round

Are all the truths of worlds profound.

-Daniel Miller, Chair of Graduate Program at PAFA

ΔΔΔ

As a tradition, Dan Miller writes a poem for each graduating MFA student, to show his gratitude for our participation in the program.  It is a sending off of sorts, a "good luck and good bye" party - kudos - held over lunch during one of the last days of the semester.  Each poem is inspired by each student's thesis, as Dan reads every single one (39, this year) during his daily train commute between Lancaster and Philadelphia.  He came to PAFA in 1955 as a student, and never exactly left.  He is a true renaissance man, and an "elegant man" in the words of Murray Dessner.  The experience of hearing each poem read to each student was moving and inspirational.  I know I speak for all my fellow MFAs that this truly meant the world to us.  This poem will go in a frame, and on the wall of my next studio.

Thank you, Dan from the bottom of my heart.

practice

I've recently re-entered into my yoga practice.

acknowledgement, awareness, acceptance

I feel that my studio practice translates into so many other aspects of my life; from my relationships and interactions with people, to something as domestic cooking (like in post below).

Yoga, on the other hand, has translated into my studio practice.

acknowledgement, awareness, acceptance

Breathing deeply into positions that may hurt at first.

Eventually it feels natural, and it's time to breath and settle deeper.

> > > > > < < < < <

cooking in the kitchen = making in the studio

As much as cadmium runs in my veins, and as much as I talk about painting, I reject it as my primary medium.

I do not call myself a painter.

I do not believe in being a single disciplined artist.

It doesn’t offer me everything I need when I think about making.

It’s like saying I’m a chef, but I will only cook with tomatoes. You can do an awful lot with tomatoes, but not enough.

I believe in creating in a coincidental way, staying alert for potential, and reflecting or editing after making.

waiting.

Waiting and slow, slow learning how to be alone, and edit, and analyze. Practicing the art of keeping myself grounded and objective, when outside of the making process. It will be the same as when I am here in my Cherry Street studio. The solitude will echo for longer periods of time, but it won’t last forever.

We are never truly on our own. We aren’t like sea creature which are born and immediately subjected to life or death by virtue of luck or being in the right or wrong place at the right or wrong time. Then again...maybe we [artists] are subject to that level of natural selection?