Be a part of a community of amazing artists

I did not know until I was at the celebration that it is meant to be a time you do no work. Not any kind of work. But lei making is not work, it is a social thing. You get together with your friends and walk hours in the forest, collecting material you clean along the way.

Cleaning means you pick a stem, then carefully removed about an inch worth of leaves and leave an inch worth.

You talk, and you can drink wine.

At Makahiki, we talked and learned. This is the teacher and someone who came down from Kona to participate. She brought a girlfriend and we all had an amazingly lovely time, with no wine. She was a slightly tamer version of Lady Chablis from the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I am talking personality only here. She was a lot of fun.

This is my friend Tony. Can you tell from this picture that he is an amazing artist?

He is a rock artist. He moves giant rocks and builds rock paths. I think maybe he is Maui himself.

... I am NOT an artist, I only play one on 43.

Ever since I seriously started thinking about that wedding business, I’ve also been thinking about making up a series of Hawaiian style cocktails. But until tonight, everything has been entirely derivative, like my mahinui mai tais, which are quite good, but still, they are mai tais of a sort.

Tonight however, I made up a total original. It was just a fluke. There was a little champagne left – not enough for 2. There was a little Poire William left in the bottle. And in the refrig, a bottle of lilikoi syrup.

I mixed about two teaspoons of the lilikoi into the pear liqueur, divided that into two martini glasses, and filled them the rest of the way with the champagne.

It doesn’t have a name yet, but it is a very yummy drink. Very much a celebration in a glass. And pretty too. It could easily be served with a pretty little orchid on the rim of the glass.

The people I work with in school are so talented and lovely. Some are moving away soon and it breaks my heart, but I guess it’s what happens. Life rolls on!

The community of artists
The creative forces, united

I feel we breathe life into each others projects, and even each other’s lives

We feed each other’s spirits

We shine lights onto each other’s dreams, helping them to be seen in the universe

This is an amazing community of creative, healing, powerful artists!

I would like to see more of us here, recognizing the artist within that creates the beauty and the experience we share

my friend and mentor came to visit . Funny thing I got a self help newsletter on my email about mentoring in the morning and there he was, also got go to a blacksmith party. big fun. I try to talk any and all of them into collaborating with me. have a great idea about an installation/exhibition of gates. could be set up in a park with the walking through as an experience. gates have such symbolism to me . transition

One thing I love about where I live (and that’s another goal) is that it is a community of amazing artists. It’s not known for that, like the little beachy towns up north, but it is one, nonetheless.

And tomorrow night our little community is getting together at the new local joint down near where the transportation hub is going to be sometime not too far off. We are going to celebrate the election, watch the results roll in, shout ourselves hoarse, drink fabulous cocktails by Gigi and her staff, and celebrate the rites of passage for our country into the Humanitarian Age, at long last. The theory will become the practice.

This time I got to be a part of the Amazing Artist community by hosting the event.

The event was brought to life by the music, provided by Wallace & Allie with their Mardi Gras sax, guitar, and voice.

It was our annual Work-Life Fair, the theme of which was “Bring On Your Weekend Attitude”. It being a Friday, we were well on our way and the music pushed it all right over that edge.

These tend to be run in – run out events where people vacate their desks for the shortest possible time, grab some freebies and disappear. This time, they hung out, laughed lots and even danced. It was a real party.

We brought in Mardi Gras masques from Mississippi and New Orleans and beads-beads-beads for decor. Masques on sticks, masques with feathers and sequins and paint, papier mache & bits of music. It was glorious.

And it was the music that made it amazing & festive & swirled the atmosphere into something intoxicating – not just the music, but the musicians.

but there will be no exhibit

but maybe a market somewhere…

for now, I’m returning to my usual calling.