Thoughts

Image: Subtle Stria
Subtle Stria, made from Recycled Garment waste, 2025.
LUUM Textiles 

Beauty in the Subtlety

The stars are subtle yet they shine.  
They are there when you have the presence of mind to admire them.  
Usually in the quietness of an evening stroll, a solo venture.  

This will be the first NeoCon in 44 Years that I will not be attending…
My Collection Unified Field
will be shown at Luum, 311 North Green St., 7th Floor, June 9-11, Chicago, IL

There are some beauties in this launch.  A velvet, Oblique Argyle,
a recycled garment waste stripe named Forward Motion.
With a solid to coordinate named aptly, Stability. 

I want to bring your attention to the subtlest in the collection,
named Subtle Stria.
For its beauty in the subtle.
And the color palette, along with its sustainable story.

Reading a chapter in MMY’s The Science of Being and Art of Living.  
It describes how the mind works through its knowledge of the senses in reaction to an object. 

When one speaks inwardly and the mind hears, it is because the mind associates itself with 
the subtle level of the sense of hearing. 

These days, we are being saturated by image after image. 
When one sees…
Our eyes are open, the mind associates itself with the open eyes and 
connects with the object before it.
Then our senses in the form of feelings are in play.
Like, dislike, too subtle, not strong enough. Just right.

In weaving, one doesn’t transcend the mind from thinking, whereas one does in meditation. 
The subtlety of the selection of what comes next is organized by our senses.
What yarn, color and texture…

In meditation, when we allow our mind to move beyond the organ of speech,
it experiences subtler states of thought;
this turns into a feeling of charm, and as charm increases,
the subtle layers of happiness increase. 
It’s in the subtle that true happiness exists.

The Statement fabrics are great! But the Subtle ones are sublime.

This week as you walk through Fulton Street and the mart,
see what stars stick out in your senses.
And enjoy the beauty of the collective.
I will be with you in consciousness.
Send pics from the Luum showroom : )

06.08.2025 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Image: Still Life
Golden Rule, 2024. Mylar Balloons.
PLEASE, 2016.
Sébastian De Ganay and John Baldessari Chair
Sail Cloth, 2002.
Woven Fiber Optics Collaboration with Harry Allen
Small copper basket from course with Gary Trentham 
Plant from my drycleaners xoxo
Reflection of Noguchi lamp

Bliss is the other side of Grief 

This week a student said she was experiencing
moments of bliss in her meditation
and outside of her meditation.   
Last night on a mentoring session with my teacher,
Thom Knoles,
Shri 1008 Mahamandaleshwar Maharishi Vyasanand Giri,
he discussed the metaphysical description of Bliss,
as being Supreme inner contentedness.  
The mind falls into a constant saturation of happiness.
And the mind can’t conceive of anything beyond that Beingness.  
He then said, “Bliss is not Blissful. It’s not ecstatic happiness.”
We discussed…
when you experience Bliss, the product is Silence.
Bliss does not emerge from Silence. 
Silence is a conscious mind, and it emerges from Bliss.

This is easier said than done.  
When we sit in the Still Life of our space and meditate,
the vibrational quality of the mantra
takes us to the quiet part of our Being
and drops us off there.
The dedication to the twice-a-day practice
allows for transformation to occur,
that can then manifest into feelings of Bliss.  

I inquired about Grief.
As I am experiencing my share of it,
along with many of my friends and students.  

Grief, on the other hand, is caused by a missing,
a vacuum, an absence that nags at us.
The mind comes up with thought after thought
and answer after answer as to why
this happened or that happened.
Grief is a working attempt to gain supreme inner contentedness.
It creates much thinking, too much nagging.  
Therapists give way to work through all manners
of the thinking process
that can bring some sense of solace.
 
Meditation can help by stilling our lives. 
Grieving is like a turbulent river, looking to flow
into the ever-open ocean of awareness.  

Where Meditation can take us to the deeper layers
in the ocean, to the stillness.  

And once we feel that subtle layer of Bliss.  
We know we are getting there.

06.01.2025 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Image: Integrity Matters, 2024.
Sheath core metallic fiber
and Mylar balloons found on the beach.

Integrity Matters – Deck Talk and Meditation

It’s rather hard to define the world today for ourselves.
 
Interpreting the world in equal parts of color was my intention with this weaving.
Blue, red and white. A balance.
Always striving for balance.
An integration, all woven together.

As we enter into the holiday weekend of Memorial Day, we give thanks
to those who have served our country.  
Yes, this country, United, is divided;
but those who served did not have that mindset.
No one was fighting for only one color.  
They were there in unity of all shapes, colors and sizes.
And serving with brothers and sisters alike.
For generations and generations, this is how it was.

Today there are many ways in which we can live our lives.
For those that wish.
We are here on a course filled with spiritual principles
= to serve, to love,
to be friendly and kind.
To Create. To Teach.
To handle things with integrity and humility.  
Surrender and awareness.
And to be aware of those things that don’t serve us.
We want to stay away from the voice of fear and despair.  

Choose a view that allows for creative outlets.
For sharing with others.  
Create the world around you that helps you
feel the love that’s coming from within you.

Join us on Sunday, June 1st at the
Kumah: Rise Up Festival.
I will be there painting, alongside Artist and Signage Protest Artist @juliepeppito, as we prepare for the “No Kings” protest.
From 7-8:30 pm.  
And listen to North African Futurist, Saha Gnawa – jazz  
and Palestinian musician, Zafer Tawil.
This is an all-night festival with poets, artists and thinkers.  
Held at the Theater for the New City, 155 1st Ave.
East Village, NYC

Go to The New Shul website to get tickets:
https://www.newshul.org/kumah-2025 

05.25.2025 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Image: Flash Points, 2022 for the NYC DIFFA by DESIGN Benefit.
Vertical weaving, using tie-on method.
Discarded fabric scraps and discarded mylar.

Flash Points – Deck Talk and Meditation

This weaving throws me back to when I entered the textile industry in the early 80’s.  
(Along with my first forays into a spiritual practice.)
Working on custom fabrics for Boris Krolls’ corporate clients.
Remembering the loss, actually, the disappearance of architects and designers that I was working with on these many projects.  
By the end of the 80’s/early nineties, it became apparent to me that I needed to try something to calm down my senses.
I began my journey into Vipassana.
Then the study of “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying”
to better understand how I could help.

Looking back, I tried so hard to make that meditation practice work for me, but at the time could not find the community of meditators that so many of my friends were finding at the time.
It took me a while to find a practice that was suitable to my working, creative and family life style.
Something easy and effortless, that allowed my mind to stop thinking.
To quiet it down.  
Tamper those flash points to a smolder,
then to extinguish them altogether.
This I found in Vedic Meditation.

One can’t captivate creativity, if caught in the micro
vision that is caused by stress.
Too much stress causes more stress!  
We all know we don’t want to feel the way we are feeling.
Flash points of old history get embedded in our systems,
and it takes some time to allow it to work its way
up and out, by sitting quietly twice a day.
So many students these days say,
“I was doing great with my practice
and then I got really stressed and didn’t practice”!!!  
Those are the moments when we need to make a pact with ourselves to be disciplined.
So we don’t get triggered.

Those flash points were brought out in this weaving,
that still can get triggered inside of us by today’s
political hot spots, that are near and dear to us.

Using the highlighter pink-colored fabric, it reminds me of the flashpoints that were once there and that are now part of my fabric of history.  

05.18.2025 Deck Talk available upon request info@fifthfloormeditation.com

Image: Passing Over to Liberation, 2024
Torah Parchment, Cochineal Dyed Tussah Silk
Can be seen at:
”The Golden Thread 2: A FIBER ART EXHIBITION”
At The South Street Seaport
207 Front Street (Fulton and Beekman) NYC until May 16th, 2025

Liberation – Deck Talk and Meditation

Liberation comes in many shapes and sizes.
It could be letting go of clothes you’ve had for twenty
years.  
It could be friends or jobs that no longer serve 
the needs you were put on earth to accomplish.

It could be recognizing the patterns or addictions 
and actions or thoughts that are harmful
to ourselves and others, that are being highlighted for deletion.

In all of these cases, settling down your inner self
is THE BEST way to begin that Liberation
process.  
It’s Mental Hygiene! We sit for twenty minutes 
twice a day, clear our slate of accumulated 
daily stresses and rid ourselves of deep-
rooted stresses that are hiding inside, ready to be released.
Our body does not want to hold onto 
unnecessary stress.

My personal liberation in developing the Torah weavings
is to get a better understanding of the roots
I was born into. 
So, I bought a Torah in Williamsburg that was going
to be buried or sold for teaching purposes and
began some study.
My form of liberation from ignorance.
On this particular parsha (portion), Exodus 12:2, is the story of the bloodstained lintels of the doorways
of the firstborn sons, to be protected from
a decree passed down by Pharaoh, the ancient 
Egyptian ruler.
This piece comes from my series of allegorical weavings and is about
liberation from ourselves, from our neighbors, from our captors,
from our bodies.
Upon completing the knots — I counted 164, that make up this piece —
I found this # coincides with the belief
that the higher spirits are
sending a message that you are on the right path.  
Always lovely to get these signs!

If you have a desire to liberate yourself
from the stress that binds you each day.  Keeps you up at night.
Bombards you with self criticism and inner chatter.
And keeps you from your Creative Intelligence…
Let’s discuss the next steps to learning Vedic Meditation.
Reach out. 

info@fifthfloormeditation.com