Thoughts

Image: Anni Albers Weaving design 1927, reweaving: 1964
double weave, cotton, artificial silk from Bauhaus Archive, Berlin
Image: Photo of Anni Albers by Lucia Moholy 

”A DREAM YOU DREAM ALONE IS ONLY A DREAM.
A DREAM YOU DREAM TOGETHER 
IS REALITY. “
Yoko Ono

First time in Berlin, visiting friends. Went to the Jewish Museum.
There was a wonderful show entitled DEFIANCE:
Jewish Women and Design in the Modern Era

The exhibition pays tribute, for the first time,
to the work of 60 German-Jewish women
artists and designers who forged their own paths,
in a time marked by exclusion and upheaval. 
In 1933, the National Socialists systematically destroyed
the careers and lives of many.

This piece of Anni Albers stood proud; from across the space, 
one knew it was hers. She was one that survived. 

What I found so profound was how many ceramists, writers, 
silversmiths, puppet makers, took their lives.
Before their lives were taken. 
Though ones’ lives are never really taken.  
Their essence remains, and we bring that to life in our memory 
and our thoughts, every time they enter our minds.
 
The 60 women represented paved the way for women designers to
overcome social obstacles and 
to fight for change and visibility today.

Last image: Yoko Ono’s piece entitled Mend Piece
at the Neue Nationalgalerie, 
from an exhibition entitled Dream Together,
a work from her groundbreaking artistic career,
all of which aim to bring about peace. 
Let’s BE the collective for Peace together at Group Meditation. 
And Every day.

08.24.2025 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Images: Works by David Hockney entitled —
Berlin: A Souvenir, 1962 
Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), Acrylic, 1972
Midsummer: East Yorkshire, Watercolors, 2004
Self Portrait, 10th December 2021, Use of iPad technology, 2021

Was thrilled to stop in Paris, en route to Berlin,
to see David Hockney 25, at the Fondation Louis Vuitton.

Born in 1937, he grew up in the North of England
in a working-class town of Bradford.  
He ventured to London and enrolled in the Royal College of Art
and was a leading figure in the Swinging Sixties…
He moved to Los Angeles, where he painted
the swimming pools. 
Moved back to Yorkshire, where he was born, and painted
these beautiful watercolors, likened to a show of Chinese
watercolors he had seen at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The exhibition entitled Hand, Eye, Heart came
from this Chinese saying…
He states “the Chinese say you need three things to create
a painting: Hand, Eye and Heart. Two won’t do.”

At the end of the show were many portraits
and flower still-life paintings.
Here, his Self Portrait uses yet another technique, incorporating
still lifes and self portraits on the iPad.
Then copied and applied to Aluminum boards.
Forever trying new technologies. 
He has been relentless in his search for new progressive 
ways to share his work.  

Ever Evolving.

08.17.2025 info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Images: Detail of 1980 Etching entitled Entangled Mesh
Entangled Mesh 1980 from BFA Show at U of Iowa

When Individuality Gets in the Way

There are numerous advantages in experiencing
our absolute Being through our daily Vedic Meditation Practice.

It influences the life of the individual at all levels
to such a degree that the 
whole value of life is transformed
beyond the imagination of the human mind. 

How can ordinary human intelligence,
on the level of intellectual understanding, 
comprehend the greatness of cosmic intelligence to be found
in the field of our de-excited state of Being?
How can an individual, functioning within the limitations 
of his ordinary mental capacity, conceive of the enormous possibilities
from the creative energy of his full potential,
when he is in tune with the creative intelligence of absolute Being? 

It would be like looking at a detail of a piece of art,
feeling and sensing its part in the whole piece of art.
But not seeing or understanding the entire meaning of the piece of art. 

Many of us live our lives
not really understanding what our true meaning
and potential is for us to realize.

Without meditation and releasing stress sensations,
thoughts, feelings and pain, one cannot see 
the entire picture in which life unfolds each and every day
for us to be a part of. 

The mind, body and surroundings are the three main fields of life. 
Rejuvenation of body and mind are the special blessings
of the experience of Being we receive in our 
daily practice and its influence 
transforms health, education, and social behavior. 

It eliminates fear, tension and suffering,
on both the individual and social planes, bringing peace in life.

The material and spiritual values of life are brought into harmony:
Through the art of experiencing Being, 
it is possible to live life in freedom,
while accomplishing the maximum in the material field.
It is not difficult to live Being in all phases of life:
the body, mind, nervous system, speech, thought, breath, behavior
and surroundings.

Our state of Being is who we really are, in playing
a role in the uni verse.
Living in Unity with everything and everyone.

(excerpted and adapted from MMY’s
The Science of Being and Art of Living, 1963)

08.10.2025 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Images:
Mosaic Peace Sign Ashtray 1969
Silver Collar and Cuff from Mexico 1979

Cycles

Innocently, at the age of ten, I made this mosaic tile
‘Peace sign’ ashtray,
rebelling against the world, from what 
I deciphered from conversations my parents had about Vietnam.
My parents sent my brother and me to Chicago
with two hip babysitters to see HAIR performed.
I felt I had some context of what was happening with the war and draft.

So the Peace sign mosaic sat on our living room table, for years.

Ten years later, 1979,
my parents took my brother and me to Mexico,
just over the border from Arizona.
While there, my dad (he loved to shop)
asked if I wanted anything.
I had spotted the cuff and collar at this 
little silver shop the day before but hadn’t said anything.
They weren’t very expensive and he was happy to get me something
as a holiday gift.
I recall thinking how warm and friendly everyone
was on this trip, in this rough and tumble little town,
and how scary it felt crossing the border.  
Even back then. 

This week in Atlanta, teaching,
I discussed the Vedic worldview on the three evolutionary forces
at play, which govern the way Nature unfolds.  
Everything starts as some form of creation,
moves through a time of being maintained
and is ultimately destroyed.  
Spring planting yields flowers and veggies,
Fall maintains the garden
and Winter destroys the garden, (at least up north). 

I realize, in looking at the ashtray made years ago,
that I wanted to create a path to end the suffering,
by reflecting on Peace. And then,
ten years later, to give to the economy in Mexico, that was in need.  

I’ve maintained, over all these years, a call for peace
over killing, and I stand with those that feel the same. 
I got my silver jewelry out recently and had it 
all buffed up in solidarity with the innocent people
being mistreated in this world. 

We are living in such unprecedented times,
that I can wish that the cycle of peace will prevail, write postcards, and desire that the people in need are protected by the laws of nature. 
That our world can only maintain what is going on for so long, 
and I can only wonder now, what more destruction looks like.

I rest in the cycle that CREATION Always follows destruction.  
And we will unite to Let the Sunshine In.
The Age of Aquarius is upon us.

07.27.2025 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Images:
White Washed 37″x 6.5”
Warp: Sheath Core Fiber
Weft: Recycled Drycleaning hangers

Weave Studies 2 and Weave Studies 1
Warp: Sheath Core Fiber
Weft: Sheath Core Tape

The Fundamentals

The fundamentals of weaving are the core of 
any sequential process. 
Selecting the Warp and the Weft materials are
essential. 
In the three studies I share, there are combinations of 
neutrals.  White, Black and White.
Gold warp in White Washed with Recycled Drycleaning hangers and
White and Black Warps in the Weave Studies series, 
using a new development at the time that could never
be produced. 
Each time, weaving different structures to see what 
we will get.  
It’s always the trialing that paves the way to new ideas. 
It’s seeing the kinks in the road that tell us the story.

The same goes for our meditation practice. 
If we start with the fundamentals that we have affluence,
unboundedness and abundance as our natural state…
Say that’s the warp. 
And for the weft we add, restoring the memory of what we know 
already.  (Like…”I remember times feeling like that as a child.”)
We move past all of the destructive thoughts, emotions, fears, anger and news reels that jar our core.
And do our practice twice a day.  
We trial all these emotions and let them go…
We don’t follow these thoughts in our mind…
We trial them and then let them go, as stress release.
(that is all that thoughts are anyway)

And after meditation, we go back to creative endeavors.
Our trials in life would be better served… 
Tap into your creation operator and feel the fundamentals.

07.20.2025 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com