Where was Mighty Mouse today!!!!?????There was real trouble- it wasn’t just the repetitive dream that I have, where I am in deep trouble & then way off in the distance I hear “Here I come to save the day! Mighty Mouse is on his way!” and as he approaches, getting bigger & bigger, my troubles disappear.

(I chose the postcard of a burning, sinking submarine titled “The Destruction of the Virginia” because Virginia is my first name. )

My dog, Joy, had a big chunk taken out of her side today – I don’t know if it was a coyote or sharp stick that caused the wound. She was running loose on our walk through the woods …she ran super fast ahead of me as I reveled in the aspen trees budding out- a sure sign of spring. Suddenly Joy ran back toward me, every hair standing up on the back of her neck crying in pain-with a big gaping hole in her side. Mighty Mouse where were you!!?? I grabbed her up- no easy task- she weighs 30 lbs, jumped a small stream & struggled up the side of a steep hill to the road- luckily we got a ride to my car & then quickly made it to the Vet- Joy will be fine- lots of stitches and a drain in the wound…….whew!!!

Anyway, this is a painting that will be in the Dreamland Show in Fort Collins at the Poudre Valley Art Center during May. I have 2 others: “To My True Eyes”- where the devil was whispering in one ear while the angel whispered in the other and “My Sister of the Night”  which is about comfort offered during a dream. Check them out on my web if you are interested. In the meantime I am feeling so grateful that Joy will be okay!!!

I don’t think my Temple of Dreams will ever be finished-and that is a good thing- it means I have lots of dreams to dream about and to accomplish!! When my boyfriend, Joe 2, first read about Michael deMeng & Judy Wilkenfeld’s workshop “Temple of Dreams” that was put on by Stacey & Rob of Arcangelo Productions in Bali, Indonesia, he thought”Hmmmm…. if I send this on to Deedee I know she will say let’s go!”… a moment of hesitation & the “send” button was hit. Joe & I each use a credit card that earns airline miles for EVERYTHING (I immediately subtract that charge out of my checkbook- so, no, I am not in debt!) and we used those miles, almost 9 months in advance, to get tickets to Bali for ourselves and my 2 sons. Whoopee!!!

Stacey & Rob are partners in a beautiful, beautiful resort called Apa Kabar Villas- which means “How are you?” in Balinese. It is located on the east side of the island & I recommend it highly! The east side is not as touristy as the Kuta Beach/Ubud area. It is right on the beach- which has wonderful snorkeling and diving; the pool is one of those dream pools,

the staff have to be some of the finest on earth;

the accommodations are lovely  and Stacey (Rob was still back in the States while we there) was the hostess with the mostess!!! Their Balainese partner, Wayan was just fabulous and because of his knowledge as a Balinese our excursions were awesome!! Arcangelo Productions does all kinds of workshops- check them out. Did I mention that we also had a wonderful group of fellow artists that took the workshop?- 

I have decided that this is one of my favorite ways to vacation- hang out with other artists in interesting places and do & learn more art with fabulous instructors while getting to know a little bit about the area. It was superb!!!!

Okay, so what did we make? Michael supplied the temple base pieces- which were boxes on wood platforms in varying sizes to make the basic shape (and paint, tools etc.) and his expertise on painting techniques, how to tie in the overall picture- or in this case assemblage- etc. I had thought a lot about the concept of the Temple of Dreams before I went. I have been working on a program called Heart Math (thanks to my Creativity Coach, Vicki Schroeder) and doing a lot of heart meditation. My dream is to be able to live from my heart: listen with my heart, connect with my heart, create with passion from the heart etc. So, I decided to make my temple about this idea. I also wanted my temple to reflect the place where it was created: Bali.

At the top of the temple there are hands open in offering/gratitude for LIFE and 2 little monkeys to represent the fun!

One side of the top finial piece has a woman’s face/moon that I bought at the market in Ubud and the other side has a blooming lotus blossom- beauty rising from the muck. A lot of the ornaments( corner pieces, the top) on this temple were cut apart from an inexpensive Balinese dance headdress.

I used wooden carved magnets of the Boma & Garuda on alternate sides- that I learned how to “age” from Michael using a variety of painting techniques. These figures are on most Balinese Temples- the Boma to scare evil spirits away and the Garuda as a vehicle for Vishnu (and the name of an Indonesian airline). I used sheets of aluminum on alternate layers to write on; “Listen to my heart” etc. Stacey gave me some pieces of “sacred” cloth that is the hot pink and the green on some edges.

Judy Wilkenfeld taught the “book” part of this workshop. The temple layers come apart and we had the opportunity to create a special “book” for each box. I put the word “book” in parenthesis because usually one thinks of a book in the traditional way- paper pages that are bound together that tell a story- fiction or non: using words, pictures, photographs or symbols (which can be any of the above but that is another story- I digress). Our books and pages were made from traditional and nontraditional resources.

Here is the book that we made from Tibetan amulet covers and paper and small boxes that open up. Judy showed us how to age these using fairly innocuous chemicals.

First “page”- the outer cover has a milagro (miracle) heart from Mexico growing up into a leaf skeleton that was cast in bronze.

The box opens to reveal “Ganesh”- the remover of obstacles, black & white checked cloth that one sees in the Balinese temples- it represents the yin & yang, negative & positive, feminine & masculine etc.; there is also a Buddhist representation of the Wheel of Life, and some dice to represent luck of the draw.

Second “page” the box cover has the words “I Love You” on it- inside are representations of all that I love.

Third “page’ has a hand (that Judy casts & sells) holding a nugget that says trust, offering it to the heart in the corner that has my name on it “Deedee”- this came off of a charm bracelet I got when I was a little kid.

In this box you see “X” marks the spot and a level to represent balance- when I am balanced it is easier to be in my heart. There is also a scroll book that I made from a shell that my son, Paul, gave me while there. ( “X” is a brand of cigarettes & I found this wrapper on the ground)

This box has the little bitty traditional book that Judy taught us along with a carved bone calendar (from Sumatra, part of Indonesia) to remind me of being here in time- the NOW.

Rocks from the Bali beach- some shaped like hearts and other objects that remind me of special moments in nature, along with a book I made from a shell that I found on the beach (that my “boys” each wrote a memory in of our time together at Apa Kabar) are in this box:

We also made a “book” from a small Tibetan prayer wheel using a hole punch to create the circular pages and a dremel to smooth the rounded shape- THANK YOU Judy for your help with this!!!                                                                                                             A side view:

As Joe & I stood on Monkey Forest Road in Ubud, Bali- while sweat trickled down our spines, we watched 3 little bitty Balinese women- they couldn’t have weighed more than 90 pounds- load bricks up on to the top of the wood board situated on the wrapped piece of cloth on the top of their heads. They then walked a block down a narrow alley to the construction site balancing the bricks on their heads in 98 degree heat with at least that much humidity!!! Most of the women carried 20 bricks at a time but one carried 23!!!!  23 bricks on the top of her head….makes me sooooo grateful that I don’t have to do that kind of work for a living and it also makes me super grateful to all of the people who make my life easier and better by doing hard physical labor- thank you!!! We didn’t have our cameras with us that day but we did capture these scenes of the Balinese working hard- carrying water out to the ferry boat-we even watched them carry the passengers to shore on their backs one morning when the tide was too high to dock:

Working in the fields then carrying “dinner” home:

Carrying the shopping on her head & the offerings in the other hand:”

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll:

Balinese Hinduism has 1 supreme god called Ida Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa- I bought this wooden carving of him/her because I was intrigued by the flames shooting out of it’s “vagina”.

In most of the household shrines that I saw Widhi Wasa was depicted at the top of the shrine

and even in the humblest home there he was dancing away.

The BIG 3 are incarnations of Widhi Wasa: Brahma, the Creator; Wisnu (Vishnu), the Protector; and Siwa (Shiva) the Destroyer or Dissolver. The BIG 3 are sometimes represented by phallic stones called lingams-

they almost always rise up out of the feminine yoni.

AND then there is Durga,who is the destroyer of negativity and the spouse of Siwa; Dewi Sri is the consort of Wisnu & she is the Goddess of rice or sustenance. There is Rangda- the Queen of Witches,

the winged lion/eagle, Garuda that Wisnu rides

;

Ganesha the elephant headed son of Shiva & Durga who is the Remover of Obstacles;

the demons and guardians etc. etc. 

These gods, goddesses, demons and guardians embody universal paradoxes- the negative and the positive, the male & the female, the yin and the yang. For example, the Barong represents a special category of demons. Barongs represent the spirits of animals (other then humans). There are some Barongs, like Barong Ket, that the Balinese believe are primarily good in nature. Barong Ket is a mythical creature that has been described as resembling a cross between a lion and a tiger.             They are everywhere- even on the beach!!!

Part of the creative process is absorbing what one sees & then having it magically reappear in a creative surge… even when what one sees at the time is incredibly boring. Yes, when Joe & I flew to Yogyakarta to see Borobudor (see blog of April 8 ) & Prambanan(a century Hindu Temple with lingam & yoni’s galore- which I will post more about in the near future):

we went on a guided tour of the Sultan’s Palace. Sultan’s Palace…sounds exotic….unfortunately we got a guide with a tic- she repeated everything she said 3 times:”Now over here, Now over here, Now over here…” “We have, we have, we have…” and then she would finish with: “a piece around 100 years old!” then on to the next object AND most of the objects were about as interesting as this oven mitt display:

Upon first glance, that is… then I started getting that creative spark looking at some of these pieces thinking- hmm…look at these interesting badges- I would like to do a Badge Series- off the top of my head- one for going through childbirth….hmmmm

or how about these genealogy trees- the leaves stand for the girls that were born and the fruit/flowers for the boys- hmmmmm….interesting concept

and these portraits- with the elf ears (that are actually the fabric sticking up from the hats they wear) – they look a lot like pieces I’ve seen in Somerset Magazine:

And then there is the beautiful Javenese script on this document:

Bali truly is an artist’s paradise!! We visited the only village on Bali,Tenganan Bali Aga, that does double ikat. Ikat, or Ikkat, is a style of  weaving that uses a resist dyeing process similar to tie-dye on either the warp or weft before the threads are woven to create a pattern or design. A Double Ikat is when both the warp and the weft are tie-dyed before weaving. In other words, to create the pattern in the weaving the threads are dyed BEFORE being woven- so they have to figure out exactly where to put the colors on each thread so that it creates a fairly intricate pattern as it is woven. Here are dyed threads drying in the sun:   and a young woman weaving a double ikat:

I fell in love with the bamboo poles called Penjor- they line the narrow village streets and are a symbol of victory against the evil spirits. They are decorated with agricultural products as an offering to god, the straight base represents an honest straight path through life, and the curving tops represent respect by bowing:                                                                      There are also plant- bamboo? decorations made for everything!!

Masks are used in the dances in the temples- in the West when we put on a mask we pretend we are someone else in Bali when they put on a mask they become what the mask represents:

a Barong- notice the ikat aroud his neck:

The Balinese are amazing dancers- with supple hand gestures, wide eyes and amazing body language- all performed to the cacophony of gamelan music

(click for a youtube audio/visual of the music) They perform in the temples in devotion to the gods & to pass on values to the next generation through the stories told:

The stone carving is so detailed -as you’ve see in some of my previous blogs on the temples- The village of Batubulan is center for stone carving:

the cave temple, Goa Gajah-the Elephant Cave   carving on a temple- notice the guy in the foreground “plugged in” to an ipod

Stone mosaics were everywhere too-on floors, steps:

When we flew to Java to see Borobudur we also visited a few place where Batik (a methosd of using wax as a resist and dye on cloth) artists were working:

Now that my time clock has finally readjusted- and we have spring- blue skies, Colorado crisp cool air-and I had a day off from “day” job- into the studio I went- and the Indonesian trip influences are starting to show. I started my biggest- in size- painting ever yesterday (30″ by 30″) & it is influenced by some beautiful relief sculptures of Borobudur. Borobudur is over on Java not Bali (a quick plane flight away) & is Buddhist & not Hindu. We stayed in a hotel very close to the world Heritage site so that at 5:30 in the morning, as the mist was rising and the roosters were crowing, we climbed to the top with very few other people and watched the sun rise from behind the volcano across the valley. It was a magical moment!

Here are some of the relief sculptures: I was really struck by how we, as people, do so many similar daily activities as people from hundreds (!) of years ago-                                                                                   in this one the person in the middle is receiving a massage:

I loved the animals depicted on so many of the panels- see the elephant?

here is one of the bird women panels that influenced my new painting

This sculpture is sort of poignant- the condensation dripping down makes it look like Buddha is crying

I am back from tropical Bali (Bali is a smallish island that is part of Indonesia) and have been greeted by wet spring snows- sort of like when we left- we had to wait 2 hours for our wings to get deiced in the Seattle airport (not that I minded at all- better 2 hours on the ground being safe than sorry later!!) Look how “black & white” the landscape is:  

We flew through Bangkok, Thailand with a 6 hour layover- already the personality of the people landscape is changing- I took a photo of this sign in the airport- have you ever seen a sign about Generosity being a national trait to exemplify in the USA?

After 42 hours (!!- there is something about embarking on a journey  that is arduous that makes the trip all the more precious and appreciated upon arrival- for me) we landed in the afternoon to be greeted by the green of the tropics and a wall of wet HOT air, fragrant with incense and Frangi Pangi flowers!!

I am not sure yet how this trip will affect my art work but want to share photos of this beautiful and interesting place in my blogs. I went partially to take a workshop called “The Temple of Dreams”, taught by Michael deMeng (Michael has fabulous photos) and Judy Wilkenfeld (Judy does too!) and hosted by Arcangelo Productions, Stacey Mattraw and partially to revisit a place I thought was paradise on earth 27 years ago. I’ll do an in depth blog on my temple & the workshop a little later when I have finished it but here’s what it looked like on the final day of the workshop (that’s mine on the left & Jane Ann’s on the right):The Balinese are Hindu’s and their spiritual lives and the rituals involved are a BIG part of daily life. Every morning fresh offerings are made at public shrines and temples-

In front of their stores-on the sidewalk

Inside the stores:

In the rice field:

this shrine box shape  is every where:

and then there is “the Lobster Shrine” located appropriately on the beach:

I’m back from Bali with many wonderful memories of that beautiful island. I’ll be posting photos very soon of the “Temple of Dreams” created in Michael & Judy’s workshop; the beautiful Balinese and intriguing temples, gods, goddesses and offerings-I am still catching up from the 14 hour time difference, 38 hours worth of flights home (think about that!! it took almost a full work week to get home between flights and lay overs!!)and the very cold weather here versus the HOT of Bali-in the mean time here is my assemblage piece about the loss of memories….

What happens when a memory is no longer remembered? Does the memory cease to exist? Is there a shell or a fragment of memory atoms floating around in space some where? Is it like the tree that falls in the forest when no one is around to hear? Is it like one hand clapping? I am smiling but I wonder… These are very fragile paper rolls that my friend Susan Anderson gave me after she took them out of her kiln. She rolls up old National Geographics and fires her beautiful clay “Spirit Houses”- the houses pick up the ghost colors/memories of the magazine articles. I chose to put an empty shoe on top because it evokes a melancholy memory shell of the person who walked in them and then lost one shoe? threw it off to join the other single shoes by the side of the road? or out grew it after many summer nights of “Kick the Can” out in the streets?  What meaning does seeing an empty shoe evoke in you?