AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

I am in the precarious position of being an unestablished and unemployed artist. I enjoy my freedom immensely and I work on my art every single day. I'm not always pleased with the direction I'm headed, but I've decided to trust that good work will come out and to just keep pushing. I usually have at least 10 pieces that I can be working on so if I get bored, I work on something else. I know to trust myself by the way I feel when making things and how I feel when I look at things I made in the past. I get excited and frantic. Nothing else matters at the moment. While working, there is definitely a zone, the one that athletes and musicians get into. If I don't feel that frantic, adrenaline-like feeling, something is wrong. It means that my motivations or methods are faulty. If I need a special tool or supply, I skip onto something else without regrets. I have enough ideas that I can realize with the resources at hand that I have no excuse to idle.

Dear Friends,

Welcome back to another Ljova update.

Lots to share with you this month, and they're all great things -
please take a look!

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CONTENTS:
1. Upcoming Ljova shows in London, Budapest and New York!
2. Ljova scores SPLEEN - watch it online!
3. Ljova profiled in STRINGS magazine!
4. Enso Quartet performs Ljova's music on tour!
5. Previously: Ljova with Jay-Z, Beyonce, Chris Martin and others in
London and NYC!
6. New Track - "Heat Me Up!"

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1. Upcoming Ljova shows in London, Budapest and New York!

Please mark your calendar for these special shows -

I am preparing a book on Artists and Politics in the US, I especially focus on artists' reactions to the war in Iraq. My work is based on interviews with committed artists.
I am University professor in Paris and I am currently in Los Angeles, affiliated with UCLA. I am in town until mid-December.
I am looking for artists who are politically active and/or are political in their artwork.
Please feel free to contact me and let me know if you have any question! Thank you.

I thought I'd try posting a weekly Motherpeace card in addition to the Dream Symbols Dictionary. For those who aren't familiar with the Motherpeace Tarot, it was created by two women who shared a feminist approach to the tarot. The theme is based on the ancient days of goddess worship and tribal cultures as well as shamanic magic, spiritual journeying and healing. I've owned the deck for years but it really started speaking to me loudly about six months ago. I do wish that Tom would add more blog categories. Tarot is more spiritual than supernatural for those of us who use it as a tool for self-reflection and spiritual growth but I'm not sure that it fits under religion and philosopy, either.

This deck is more than tarot. The "Little People," as the creators call them, are often engaged in tribal and community scenes, depicting women in many phases of strength and spiritual work. It's used by some therapists and social workers in their work with clients.. Although the images are ancient, they still depict the dramas of everyday life that we all face. Although the first edition was written in 1983, it's still so timely that you'd think it was written within the past year. The historical and mythological information presented is extremely thought-provoking - in fact, freaky - because our life today has many parallels to the life that women lived in various periods of history. Although we like think we've learned something and that gender roles in society have changed, in many ways the structure of our society hasn't changed at all.

Motherpeace has come under a lot of criticism for being blatantly feminine-oriented. I won't deny that - but we all have both masculine and feminine traits and qualities, what Freud termed the anima and animus. Society has imposed gender roles on us for centuries, causing us to either deny or squelch some of the qualities of the opposite gender that we naturally possess, creating disconnection and imbalance. Sometimes when we do recognize and nurture these energies, they can spiral out of control, such as in the case of one who becomes overly aggressive in an effort to retaliate for being perceived as weak due to gender stereotyping.

If you're a man reading this, just adapt it to your own interpretation. In tarot, as well as in dreams, male and female symbols can represent their opposites because the symbols are referring to qualities and characteristics rather than the physical or biological.

Journeys With Motherpeace - Week of November 12th -19th

Rather than having recurring dreams, where the dream basically repeats itself, my dreams tend to reflect recurring themes. Dreams with recurring themes are a bit different than recurring dreams. With recurring dreams, your unconscious is pointing to the same unresolved issue over and over again. Recurring themes point to similar feelings and patterns within the way we handle different situations in waking life. Water leaks and damage have been with me for a few years now.

As a dream symbol and in most earth based religions, water symbolizes the emotions. Water corresponds with the west within the concept of the four directions. Emotions encompass feelings from love to fear to anger to heartbreak to weakness to strength.

So, leaking water in dreams represents a leaking of emotions or loss of power. Dreaming of a leak that you can't stop might symbolize an emotional situation in waking life that seems to be out of control. Passively watching a leak without taking action to repair it might be an indication that you are in a reflective stage and are not quite sure whether you want to repair the leak or just let it go.

Dark Kabaret (www.DarkKabaret.com)-A One-Night Stand of Vaudeville and Burlesque Wonder at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.

San Francisco, CA. October 2, 2006 – Dark Kabaret will be presented at the Great American Music Hall on November 18, 2006. The illustrious and musical Dark Kabaret, blends feverish vaudeville with the vibrancy of a modern song-and-dance. It is the setting of magic, mystery and romance, echoing the frenzied bitter-sweetness of a time that was much sexier and addictive than our own, striving to surge people into a frantic gaiety. This show is not the calm before the storm; it is the storm itself in all its majestic and intense beauty.

Sweet.

Driving home tonight on the dangerous rural highway with its curves and drops, I was very conscious of the darkness. It's rained most of the day and while the moon is waxing to full, the sky is so cloudy that it was pitch black. I felt uneasy and afraid, but I also felt moved to reflect upon the light side of the darkness.

Darkness is the absence of light. For most of our society, darkness is associated with fear and wrongdoing. We sometimes feel very vulnerable at night, some children - and adults - are afraid of the dark. When it's dark, we are far more frightened by "things that go bump in the night" that wouldn't bother us at all during the day. Darkness can cover actions that a person doesn't want seen. We sometimes describe the rough times in our lives by referring to them as "a dark year" or "a dark time."

Hey there! I'm not sure how to get the news out about my workshops that I'm holding in Williamsburg, Brooklyn NYC. I think everyone should know about this. Check out the photo--that's what you learn to do!!!

Please go to:

http://www.xyandz.org

There is footage of our last workshop of people learning how to fly. It just is so much fun.

Thanks guys-

tell me what you think!

take care,
Karen
karenfuhr@hotmail.com

Hey there AMPfolk,

I am photographing Johnny Marr (ex-
Smiths guitarist) and his bandmates in
Modest Mouse this Wednesday - day after
tomorrow, and need a place to shoot.
With no budget of course.

Do you know any rabid Johnny Marr fans who
would be willing to host a small photo shoot?
In any kind of interesting locale?

But it is coming up asap, so if you know of
anything, please call my cel: 213/ 610-2361

Best,
Beth H
www.herzco.com