Having A Light Touch

I'm cheating again!  This picture is part of yesterday's piece.  These two leaves are image transfers of the original Bodhi leaf  that my friend got from India.  I am taking pleasure lately, in capturing portions of larger paintings and of course it makes up for the fact that nothing new came out of the easy bake oven in the studio today.  (Remember those little ovens and those little pans and cute little boxes of cake mix, ah, such fun!) 

It was a gorgeous Spring day (with cloud promised for later in the week) so a walk in the country was in order.  Then a little art marketing.  I've heard it said that artists spend as much time working the business end as they do painting.  Today I wrote a wee bio (which I detest doing).  Somehow they feel pretentious to me (and if you haven't noticed I can have a hard time being serious)  I always remember Miss Piggy's famous line, "who, Moi, pretentious?"  Anyway the Fairfield Artists Studio Tour (FAST) kindly put late ol' me onto their website.  So as things have unfolded I will open my doors and participate in that event.  So if you are in Victoria, mark your calendar for April 25th-26th and drop by and say hello.

It's interesting to me how things go.  My Zen teacher always says, "a no is as good as a yes."  And for me this is becoming a real guide in how to approach things.  It came up a few times as I sat in meditation and in conversations that it might be good to do some brick and mortar marketing things.  So even though the timing was a bit off, I followed the studio tour lead.  If things don't work out I will just let that one go, I thought to myself.  But as I went along doors opened and though it seems a bit of a rush everything points to it being a good thing to do.  The next part of it to remember is not let the cranky, perfectionist part of me get in there and make me crazy!  The Dharma will be in approaching it all (at least that will be the plan) with a light touch, just doing, not fretting (which worked well for my last minute Christmas Open House).

It is so easy to wind yourself up like a little spring bound propeller, thinking of all the things that need to be done.  But in truth it is just a matter of using your energy wisely, not wasting it on fretting (don't I know that one well!).  So this evening I will fill out the application for the "Make It" show in Vancouver and remember that a lot of the work I do for the studio tour will transfer right over to that event.  And again if it works out, it will be a fun experiment, a test of the craft show market. 

It is all good Dharma, remembering to keep balanced and focused and just do what needs to be done.  And there in lies the work of the heart which is there in everything we do when we are willing to look.  My aim will be to keep my intention in mind as time goes on, to have fun, enjoy the process, to practice touching lightly and letting go.  And sometimes that's easy to do when things are going well but how about when you're dragging your tubs of stuff to a venue in the pouring rain, or the hot water tank bursts before guests arrive, or you wake up with a scratchy throat.  How graceful are we then?  It is easy to be nice when people are nice to you, but a real test of the metal when they hiss and snarl.  Then what?  Do we sharpen our own claws?

So those are some of my thoughts as today.  Not to let that mind get racing, not to get so immersed in what I'm doing or have my eyes set so far down the road that I  hardly notice the lovely souls standing in front of me, not to  have my mouth so firmly fixed with grim, work ethic determination, that I forget to have fun.  And oh yes, no claw sharpening!