All in Your Hands

Dear All,

Due to a slight injury to my right hand, I will be taking a rest from using the computer in order to use the hand as little as possible (currently typing this with 3 fingers of left hand). I will therefore not be updating the blog over the next few days. While it may be tempting to write little bits and pieces on occasion, I will try my hand at some discipline and resume blogging on 1 August, 2006.

Unfortunately, this may also mean a rest from the windows. I think singlehandedly lifting so many of them (heavier ones than usual) when moving the other day put strain on the hand and, since the work I've been doing on them in the past few days has involved a lot of gripping of tools, hard scraping (to get off old paint), hammering, chiseling, etc., that has aggravated the injury further. However, not wanting to do absolutely nothing with the lamps over the next few days, I will resort to gentler work - things that I can do with my left hand if possible.

I wrote to my friend (who had ordered Serendipity) some days ago with an idea (to do with Serendipity) and ironically he wrote back today saying: "Good idea. It's all in your hands." Had it not been for how my right hand feels now, I would have read that phrase differently.

So, until we connect again on 1 August 2006, may you all keep well and safe ... and may many magical moments of serendipity find you.

*

Elspeth

Time can fly yet feel like ages

Working on Serendipity is not like working on Diva. Obviously because Serendipity is not Diva and perhaps because I'm working indoors, in a room - and not 'wherever' my mood takes me. I suppose being within the four walls of the studio makes me focus in a different way. I don't think about being outside, yet every now and then, I am wondering about outside (not wandering about outside). Creatively, I am still adjusting to the change of location. It's a bit like becoming accustomed to spending time in a new country.

Whereas Diva was like a leisurely stroll through the park, taking her sweet time, Serendipity is like an ox, plodding along with a mysterious purpose. Like an objective viewer, I watch her take shape.

Whatever you want to be,

Serendipity,

You will be.

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Elspeth

Serendipity says ...

How it came to be what it is

When least expected

Because you believed in something

That existed

without being seen

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Elspeth

Dreams

Yesterday's workshop on 'Creative and Innovative Thinking' for entrepreneurs was fantastic - given by a woman from England (Dr. Venus). Won't go into any lengthy details, but it involved a lot of interaction and playing of games, which is what I enjoy. Even with my short attention span and propensity for falling asleep in lengthy sitting situations, I was awake and alert for the whole eight hours (further stimulated by a delicious midmorning snack, sumptuous lunch and 'decadent' desert). At the end of that workshop I felt that anything is achievable, the simplest ideas really can be the most powerful and be fearless about risk taking, even in the midst of 'the real world' creeping in and saying 'that's not possible.'

After the workshop I went to the studio for the Greenlight meeting. I decided we would have it there since (for an upcoming public awareness project) we needed to work on making a trail for a 'wedding dress' out of plastic water bottles (the kind of bottles people normally toss out of their car windows, toss into drains, to clog up waterways and and contribute to causes of flooding, etc.) Out of four people who were supposed to come, only Janessa turned up. The two of us worked on the trail for about 3 hours into the night, stringing the bottles together and chatting. I had been collecting plastic bottles used at home over a period of time, for recycling - and luckily at the workshop yesterday we were given Blue Waters to drink and I asked the hotel staff to keep the empties in a large garbage bag for me (so I ended up with a good stash).

So last night was the first time I had done anything in the studio apart from clean it out that first day. Being in there for that length of time felt comfortable and embracing, quiet and still, except for our movements. And somehow the room itself seemed vast ... perhaps with the windows gathered around watching with their invisible views projecting us beyond where we actually physically were. Despite the feeling of comfort, a part of me felt lost, wondering 'What am I doing here? What is this all for?' (But then again I wonder that about most things/situations because I normally head in without knowing ... but just feeling that I should be there ... for reasons I find out later).

I've entitled this post "Dreams" because I just woke up from a series of amazing dreams which I won't even bother to 'tamper' with by trying to put into words. It's all connected and I know that 'everything' is unfolding as it should.

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Elspeth

While I've been away

Since depositing the windows in the studio on that first day last week, I have not been back. And I can't go today during the day because I'll be at an all day workshop. I'll have to 'begin' on Tuesday.

However, even though I'm not there working on the windows, I don't think that 'nothing' is happening. Just like Amelia Jane and those other toys come alive in Enid Blyton books when everyone is asleep, the windows must be doing their own thing, constructing abstract sequences within their wooden frames, projecting surreal views from their glassy eyes. So when I finally do get to work on them, my inspiration will come from their dreams of being.

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Elspeth

100 good things ...

I'm feeling like I won't turn on the computer tomorrow morning, so I'm updating the blog tonight before going to sleep. (So I'll date this post July 16th in honour of tomorrow, even though I'm writing it tonight on July 15th). Out of curiosity I just looked to see what I had written on July 15th, 2005 and got this: (At least) 100 good things. That day I had started off by writing ten good things, then in the comments we made it to '100 good things'. Interesting looking back at those good things.

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Elspeth

Isn't she ...

Lovely?

Moved

Enter

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Yesterday I got a good workout, carrying each window one by one up the flight of stairs leading up to the building and then one by one to lean up on the wall in the hallway just outside of Studio 2.

Some of the windows leaning up in the hallway

Prior to bringing them into the new space, my friend Rosanna and I swept and mopped the room, lit incense and smudged with a smudge stick that she had brought along for further cleansing. I will get some white paint and we will paint over the walls and some grey floor paint to do over the floor (which naturally has various paint stains from other artists gone by) ... to give the place the newer, starker appearance of a 'new beginning'.

There is one window in the studio ... and it struck me that I was bringing in more windows ... each with a different kind of 'view' waiting to be created. Being all white with a space between the wall and the roof, the room has enough light coming in to make it feel airy - and the ceiling fan seems to do a good job of keeping the place cool.

When I got home, there was a letter waiting for me. It was a letter from the United States with a cheque for Serendipity. Interesting, as this was the first window I took up the steps into the gallery and will be the first window I begin working on.

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Elspeth

A moving experience

Lined up in the front yard after our washing (they were washed by me-with-hose ... and the rain washed us both while I was doing it).

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Yesterday I washed my windows in preparation for the 'move'. A few days ago I had the sudden feeling to rent an art studio at CCA7. I acted on it swiftly by finding out if one was available. Studio #2 was available, 'for two months'. I said I would think about it, wondering if it made sense, since by the time I settled, it would be time to leave. After some (brief) thought, I decided to go for it even though it was two months ... only to find out I could have it until the end of the year (and maybe longer? We'll see how it goes). At any rate, enough time to accomplish 'my mission', whatever it is. I will know as time passes and it unfolds.

A friend will be coming at midday with her station wagon to help me move the seven windows (not all featured in above photo) from 'here' to 'there' ... where I will officially begin working on Serendipity ...(N.B. Serendipity has her two panes again, just in time for entering Studio 2 ... synchronicity).

Looking back, it's as if Diva's launch was the end of one phase and the beginning of another. As soon as Diva had cleared the way, Serendipity stepped in and started pulling things together in suddenly surprising ways, like a little cosmic spider, aware of everything that needs to be as it is ... and making it so through Divine timing and the placement of essentials.

*

Elspeth

Between the lines, read ...

Two days ago, the woman in the glass shop in Arima had said that Serendipity's missing glass pane could not be replaced without destroying the window, so I had decided to leave it as an open pane. However, yesterday when I went to Jaglal's in Arouca (where I usually go when I want glass scraps), I took Serendipity and showed it to Mr. Jaglal. He knocked off a few bits of putty which he described as "dis ting like rock" and then told me that it could be risky trying to put in a new pane since, with any hard knocking required to remove the old putty, the already existing pane could break.

"But leave it wit me. Leave it wit me," he said confidently. "Ah go do it fuh yuh."

It felt as though I was leaving Serendipity in the hands of a surgeon. But, since yesterday's post was about Trust, I trusted him with it.

By two o'clock, I returned to collect Serendipity ... whole again with a shiny new glass pane and new putty. It's amazing how things happen on so many levels. What seems to be "just about a window" is not.

*

Elspeth

Trust

To not trust You

Is to not trust myself.

So I trust

You

with my bare foot entering your jaws of glass

You

with my bare hands removing your sharpened teeth

You ...

with closed eyes

unveiled heart

I trust.

*

Elspeth

Baptism and Blood

I kept getting the feeling that Serendipity should be washed in the sea and/or a river, as opposed to the tap in the garden at home (as with Diva).

Serendipity at Salybia

So on Saturday (8 July 2006) I took the window to Salybia for a washing (where the river meets the sea). My two sisters and nephew came along. When we arrived, there were some Baptists preparing to baptise a man in the river. Usually whenever I go to that spot, there's a baptism or some kind of spiritual offering taking place near the mouth of the river. I found it quite fitting that morning, seeing that I was going to 'baptise' the window as well.

Serendipity in the sea

After washing the window in the sea, I placed it in the river a little way off from where the baptism was taking place. At one point, it floated away from me and my video camera towards the baptismal area. I looked up and saw that the Baptists were gone, but there was an offering of bright yellow flowers floating in the path of the current that was pulling Serendipity.

Floating Serendipity casts a shadow on the river bed

Shortly after, I was talking to my sisters and standing with my foot on the window to hold it under the river water so that it would not float away. Suddenly I felt something sharp and realised that my foot had gone straight through one of the two panes of glass.

The pieces of broken pane resting on the whole pane.

Even though I had not intended to break that pane, I didn't fret over it. I feel it was meant to be broken (whether to be left empty, or whether I decide to replace it with a new pane of glass) ... in addition to which, the subsequent shedding of blood from my sole into the baptismal waters struck me as an interesting symbol.

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After the shedding.

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Elspeth

Thought Bubbles

In the stream of consciousness,

I shot an image

through Serendipity's glass ...

of wind writing ripples on the water,

sun writing ripples in the sand ...

and Serendipity's shadow floating, amongst bubbles,

in a deeper place.

*

What happened yesterday will be seen tomorrow.

*

Elspeth

Journey

An open day with a learning curve

around the bend to somewhere new.

*

Elspeth

Windows galore

Suddenly I've been finding many windows:

The little one from Woodbrook ...

And another one, "over 100 years old" the man said, in St. Augustine.

Then there were many windows by the roadside

Which one future lamp owner called and told me about.

I immediately went to them.

There were about six or more, some broken.

They were large, with wide rectangular panes.

I took a short one in my car.

Then I took two large ones and put them aside,

to return later with a pick-up truck ...

All the while I was saying to myself:

"I'm not sure I feel these as much."

A friend who was with me asked me why I wouldn't take all.

"Better to take them and realise you don't want them

Than to leave them and then realise you do,"

she said.

Still, I only took those three.

If there are to be more, they will come from elsewhere.

They are forming themselves into what they will be

Before I even know.

As another friend told me yesterday:
"You could build a house."
"Yes, I could," I replied.

*

Elspeth

It exists

New space.

My first frontier.

Where?

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Photo section of another window commissioned post-Diva.

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Elspeth

Photos from Diva's launch

Click here to see photos (by Kristen Alcantara) taken on the night of Diva's launch. Thanks, Kristen, for setting up this little website, especially as I didn't get to take many photos of my own.

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Elspeth

Out of the blue ... Serendipity

About two weeks or so ago, a friend in the States e-mailed me and comissioned a window lamp as a gift. In his e-mail request he had asked for 'something discrete' since 'a large piece would overpower everything'. He also described it as an "out of the blue" present. As soon as I read that, I knew that I had the perfect window for the job ... a unique little window which I had found "out of the blue" not too long before his e-mail came.

The little window, found in an empty lot on a Woodbrook Street.

It's amazing how things can 'come along' which turn out to be just what you're looking for - even when (or especially when) you're not looking for them. I had been walking with a friend along a street in Woodbrook and my eye flew across the road and landed on this little two-pane window in an empty lot. It seemed to be waiting for me to pick it up ... in the same way that my dog, Hindi, had waited for me on the steps of the Temple in the Sea on Independence Day (or Hindipendence Day), 1999.

"Take me home," the window said (just like Hindi had said) ... and I did.

Serendipity has always been one of my favourite words (and experiences). Here, it is described as "the faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident" ... "good luck in making unexpected and fortunate discoveries" ... in other words, stumbling upon things you were not actually looking for at the time but which turn out to be extremely interesting and valuable.

*

Elspeth

Thank You

Diva in her glory,

with offerings at her feet.

*

Photos cannot do justice and words cannot recount Diva's launch. I thought I would have taken tons of shots, but I barely took any. Somehow it seemed incongruous to try and capture Diva's essence ... and even the few shots that I did take don't live up to 'the real thing'. I thought I would have been writing tons of words, but now I am speechless and empty (as often happens to me after any heartfelt massive creative output). I will leave my words for "Thank You's" ...

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THANK YOU

Thank You to JAH ... not the judge of Diva's poetry competition (although we thank her too), but the JAH without whom none of this would have been possible.

Thank You to Allison for being such a gracious hostess and providing Quest as (i) the intimate and ideal space for the launch, (ii) the symbolic portal through which Diva passed to go to her new home (where I hear she has settled in well and is very happy) and (iii) the symbolic portal through which each one of us present entered and exited and were transformed in some simple but significant way.

Thanks to everyone who came and brought offerings, whether physical or intangible. In what turned out to be a gathering of kindred spirits, your presence filled the room with positive vibes. I felt it turned out to be a simple, magical and multifaceted launch.

Thanks to the night's performers: Nicola for opening the show, introducing Diva and reading that very fitting little story and honorary poem; Carolyn and Liseli for reading for the first time in public from your new books/novels; Tracy for sharing your original, sensuous Diva poems; Rosanna for closing with that powerful Adi Shakti meditation. (Ironic and symbolic that so many people read from their 'first books' since Quest is a bookstore ...)

Thanks to everyone who brought something to eat or drink. We certainly had a divine feast, fit for a Diva. For those who were asking about the recipe for my 3D (Divine Diva Dip), I will provide it below.

Last but not least, thank You, Diva, for taking me (us) on this inspiring, intriguing and pleasurable journey. Along the way you became more than an inanimate object. As you developed, you definitely seemed to embody the spirit of someone very special. (It was interesting to see/hear us last night at the launch addressing you as if you were one of us - as I take it you were). I feel honoured to have helped you become who/what you are now. (Here I will admit that when I took Diva to Quest on Saturday and then returned home, there was 'a space' left in the house, as one would feel when a special guest or a friend who has been visiting for an extended period is no longer there. But this is merely a physical space, since Diva's essence extends way beyond the mere frame). Diva, may you stand with pride in your new home and always give light to those who encounter you.

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Recipe for

3D: Divine Diva Dip

Ingredients

1 tin of channa/chick peas

1 large onion - chopped

3 pegs of garlic - diced

A few springs of celery - chopped

A few olives - diced

A red garden pepper (not the hot ones) - diced

Half a pack of Philadelphia Cream Cheese

An 'oomph' of water

An instinctive dollop of mustard

A few sprinkles of sea salt (or any salt - if you don't have sea salt)

A tad of honey

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Method

Put everything in a blender and blend until satisfied.

*

Elspeth

D-Day

... where D is for Diva, of course. The much anticipated launch is upon us and we are ready to experience it. I took Diva to Quest yesterday afternoon and Allison and I set her up on her 'pedestal' (a soft leather poof), which was then covered in a beautiful Indian-style patchwork quilt. Fit for royalty. Photos and possibly video will document this evening's proceedings and be shared on this blog.

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And in other news ...

You can go HERE to see photos from (and get a brief recap of) yesterday's Greenlight REvolution.

(About 25 - 30 people turned out to hold words. Not the full set, but very effective nonetheless).

*

Elspeth

REvolution Day

I'm quite curious to see how this whole thing pans out ...

If anyone (in Trinidad) reads this early enough and wants to be a part of The Greenlight REvolution, come down and meet us at St. Vincent Street (the street just before the Tunapuna Market). Everyone will be gathering from about 7:45 p.m. The movement from that spot to Curepe junction will begin at 8:00. We will be escorted by the police ... and both Gayelle TV and Sidewalk Radio will be sending representatives to cover the proceedings.

For those who live abroad and want to vicariously take part, you can select at least one word (or even all if you like) from the 'RE' list and find your own way of making the word(s) a part of your day/spreading it around to others.

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REJOICE

REBIRTH

RECYCLE

REINCARNATE

REDEVELOP

RECHARGE

REBUILD

REJUVENATE

RECUPERATE

REMEMBER

RETURN

REINVENT

RESERVE

REFUEL

RELIVE

RELAX

RECOVER

REPLENISH

REVIVE

REUSE

REFLECT

RETRIEVE

RESTIMULATE

REPLACE

RESPECT

RESPOND

REDISCOVER

REAWAKEN

REWRITE

RESOLVE

RESEARCH

REFORM

REHABILITATE

REUNITE

REVERE

REPAIR

RE-EVALUATE

REWARD

REVITALISE

REGENERATE

REPRODUCE

RECONCILE

REFOCUS

RE-ESTABLISH

REDESIGN

RECREATE

REGARD

RECONNECT

REVEAL

RELIVE

REGROUP

REINVIGORATE

REKINDLE

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Elspeth