This week I focused on the transformation within myself, I thought alot about the whole, what did I learn from this quarter as a whole?

I taught myself to throw pottery, which is a really amazingly embodied and fun thing to do!  Within doing this I witnessed many metaphors for transformation from within, which i talk alot about in my paper, which I worked alot on this week, being my main focus.

I Also finished Neuro!

I glazed many bowls and pots and thought about what I wanted from them.

I worked with Herbal First -Aid

and I started my self/teacher evals.

This week I worked for 37 Hours

I believe what helene cixous was getting at with her own exponential need to write and with expressing the dire need for all women to write, was that we need to allow space for the sensual, for the right brained, for the image driven culture to find their voice in this typically male-driven, left brained culture of writing.  You can see it in her writing, the expressive, incredibly image-filled words all strung together.  She is writing the goddess, writing the simplicity that was first inscribed on clay.  Rememberance being the point. She even states, once something is written, it is in the past, you now longer live it. Here I believe she is taping into the ideas behind cuniform, when cultures would write things down to remember, like what time of year they sowed seeds or how many cows they had.  It wasn’t necessarily to capture anything and convey it but a simple way to place mind onto matter, a place to return to, a representation of image, imprinted.   Its interesting how in remembering, in a sense we have become prone to forgetting..

Cixous beautifully conveys the tragedy of the male-driven culture that sprung from writing, in her own words she firmly states that, “Logos opens its great maw, and swallows us whole.” (Cixous, coming to writing, 46)

She asks the question, “What is the body for?”

This is fascinating to me, how can we see the part the body plays in a world where things are extracted from the body and written down on paper, removing the body from the equation?  Can we write the body into writing? Will this remove the body from writing?  Is it possible for the body to come into writing? Spoken word comes to mind, creating images and seeing words spill from the body.  But I believe the written language has boundaries, a full point, and that point of overflowing comes when we think of the body.  The body and writing can simply not survive together. Once you’ve written down the body you’ve lost the body.  I believe what needs to happen is the gratitude for the body, for without the body, there can be no writing.

May 20th

paper

neuro

2 hours

May 21st

Paper

Neuro reverie

6 hours

May 22nd

Class (Eirick)

pottery

haikus

paper

3.5

May 23rd

Paper

pottery

“women who runs with the wolves”

“The vegetative soul”

6 hours

May 24th

Rose harvesting/medicine and lore

“Women who run with the Wolves”

6 hours

May 26th

Paper

reading response

reading women who run with the wolves

reading neuro

7 hours

Total hours: 30.5

Week 7:

– A week full of difficulty.  Questions pondered: How does the body appear in writing? Why do we Write? Can you write the body, or are words woven to remind of the body? A look at Cixous and Pinkola Estes, searching for the feminine body in writing.   As we experience a sense of failure in the body, how do we empty the vessel? (body) Coming home to the body, coming home to writing.  recognizing the fluidness that lies in pottery and in the body, cycle after cycle coming home into the heart.  Goddess’ bringing light to the darkness, motherless, wordless, images getting cut away, and yet laughter provides release to the body.  Words containing vessels of continuously shifting meaning, vessels continuously shifting form, empty, full, overflowing and emptied again.  The mind works in similar ways, shifting and changing patterns and form, creating space for new meaning by emptying out old memories, a vessel of the mind being flushed by constant morphing, holding on and releasing, the mind working on both sides.  Both sides creating harmony, using word and image. Body and Word. Word and Clay. Empty and Full. –

May 14th

class, perloff and neuro

searching for sources on somatic experiences of feminine body

writing outline for final paper

reverie and reading neuro

8 hours

May 15th

writing outline of paper

testing glazes on plant plaques

throwing vessels, watching process

6 hours

May 16th

Class (Justin Gere) speaking on plant spirit medicine of Peru.

2 hours

pottery, shaping, focused and intent.

1 hour

May 17th

Herbal apprenticeship, doug fir tips, speak of grandmothers and the need for women to take secrets to the grave, themes from women who run with the wolves this week.

each week i am finding syncronicitys throughout my readings, life and understandings of my female body.

6 hours

May 18th

reading shlain

writing paper

2 hours

May 19th

Pottery studio

writing/collecting quotes for final paper

reading “Neuro”

7 hours

30 hours

 

May 6th

Polishing work, Meeting with Sarah, Glazing pieces – taking responsibility for my role with the relationship

3.5 hours

May 7th

Class (Susan Givertz), 2.5 hours, Reading Perloff chp 6, Plant research, Salal (stalking the wild asparagus/moore)

7 hours

May 8th

Pottery Studio/glazing, reading about rocks, boundaries of categories/language

Print (about snakes, the middle of opposites, childhood creativity, all in response to my readings today.  Omniscient comes from “The Alphabet Versus the Goddess” and Solipsistic comes from “Neuro”)

Salal Research

6 hours

May 9th

Reading Perloff – 2 hours

May 10th

Herbal class – Hawthorn Lore, Reading “Centering”, writing response, Perloff

11 hours

May 11th

Pottery/ Plant ID plaques – 3 hours

May 12th

Pottery studio, reading Neuro

5.5 hours

Total this week: 38 hours

A week of woven boundaries.  I took time to be in the ceramics studio this week, to really see where it is that pottery, language, poetry, neuroscience and plants merge together.  I notice boundaries within myself, boundaries of time and of stretching thin the lines of interweaving themes that I am working with. I found constant overlap, from reading Perloff, Rose and Abi-Rached and working with the text “Centering” by RIchards.  They all touched on themes of fire, what does fire represent and look like from these three extremely different texts?  Fire became a theme for me to work with the clay, what drives me, what ignites my fire, what ignited language representation to move from image to word? What makes me wild with fire, and what keeps me sane and yet in touch with my fire?  With my ceramics tools i carve into the clay, deep words, deep and slowly rising to the top, the words sink into the clay. As the sun uses it’s fire to dry the clay I touch my knife to the clay to recognize the plants that I love, my knife as a form of applied fire.

I worked with Opening clay, making a plate to get the full sensual effect with my fingers and body by experiencing what it means to fully open clay.  This was extemely sensual. I had to ease the clay open and be graceful with my movements, words that came to mind:

persistance, pressure, light, flow, ignite breath

all of these words also resonate for me when thinking about…fire!

This week has been focused around snakes and what they represent, the historical context surrounding them that have to do with the rise of the alphabet and the decline of goddess worship.  I played with clay and thought about the metamorphic phases that are represented by the dark birthing the light, i played with words in clay and clay shaping words, light shaping darkness and darkness shaping light.  The feminine as plant and vegetable was thought alot about, along with the rebirth and constant change that the snake or ouroboros represents.

April 29th

Pottery Studio (playing with Poppy)  – 4 hours

Reading “The vegetative soul”-  1 hour

April 30th

In class – 3 hours

Lucia Perillo reading – 1.5 hours

May 1st

Reading “Vegetative Soul” – 2 hours

May 2nd

reading “centering” 2 hours

writing mind-term eval – 2 hours

Plant profile on Plantain -2 hours

Shlain – 2 hours, reading notes

Pottery in response to centering/”Books of Ice” article, 2 hours

May 3rd

Herbal class – leaves of berries/horsetail -5 hours

May 4th

“The Alphabet Versus the Goddess” Shlain – 2 hours

“Women Who Run with the Wolves” Heat, sexuality and snakes-1 hour

Pottery studio, playing with herbs, latin and light in clay – 3 hours

Mid quarter evaluation touch up – .5 hours

May 5th

Reading “The Alphabet Versus the Goddess” – 2 hours

Reading (In the sunshine!) Neuro Chapter 5 – 4 hours

Reading Response – 1 hour

Poetry – 2 hours

Total this week: 42 hours

April 23rd – 7 hours

Read Alphabet Versus the Goddess by Shlain

Responded with poetry and transers, playing with harmonizing word and image.

Posted on WordPress

Poetry

April 24 – 8 Hours

Read Shlain

Paper on Healing (Poetically)

Pottery, woven “basket” and glazing pieces.

April 25th – 3 hours

Reading Shlain and Perillo

April 26th – 5 hours 

Herbal class – focus on wise woman weeds , including Plantain, Horsetail and Cleavers.

Dandelion harvest, cleaning the vessel of the garden, and poetry response

April 27th – 5 hours

Reading “On the Possible Spectrums of Death”

Reading “The Vegetative Soul”

Poetry on: death.  In response to thoughts provoked by Perillo’s works, recycling thoughts about a friends death through poetry.

April 28th – 7 hours

Reading “The Vegetative Soul”

In Ceramics Studio, making vessel’s for tea. Shapes inspired by poppy capsules, using foraged plants as a statement of my femininity, inspired by reading “The Alphabet Versus the Goddess.”

Read Article for mid-eval

Read “Centering” and wrote poetry on forming vessels today with my eyes closed.

Total hours this week: 35 hours

Week 3 Log of Hours/Work

April 15th – 5 hours

I worked on my ILC, fresh back from the Hoh rainforest with lots of inspiration in my pocket!

I also read Centering by M.C. Richards on this day.

April 16th – 7 hours

In class, 9:30 to 12, Back for meeting at 3:30-5

I also sat on the ceramics wheel and worked with the letter A, i then wrote about this experience and tied it to Centering. (see Poetry, Plants and Letters post)

April 17th – 6 hours

I took the morning to read from Centering and wrote about what i read.  I then went to the Evergreen Ceramics studio and worked on a few pieces and got introduced to the studio!  I then went and saw Girl Rising! a traveling film that played at school, about the importance of girls being educated and the difference it can make for communities.  I was deeply inspired by the young Poet from Peru.

April 18th – 5 hours

In class workshopping with Sam Cook and Michael Lee, so amazing!

Plant Profile, Dandelion! (Wood and Ink) also see post about Dandelions.

April 19th – 5 Hours

Herbal Apprenticeship, talking about Alder (Alnus rubra and our ideas on healing)

Total this week: 28 hours