Not content with organizing a move to another country in three weeks, we have also signed up for the 48 Hour Film Project which will be freaking intense! But I (I am not speaking for Dan here) thrive on stress so bring it! There really isn't any prep we are allowed to do except get into a truly creative space.

So I am on the move again. Another time, another continent. Six months ago if someone had told me that I would be moving to Lebanon I would have laughed. Yet now...well it seems so natural and I am so excited. Sometimes we go to places that we feel such an attraction to, that we connect with on such an organic and spiritual level - it's like falling in love, it's that intense. Beirut feels like that to me. The energy there is so electrifying, so creative; I felt that I accomplished more creatively during my 9 days there than I have for months in Spain. I cannot wait to be there full time!

We have begun researching chapter two of The Book of Journeys. We spent the last week in Lebanon and met with Imad Auon of the Danish Refugee Council there. They will help us gather narratives from refugees in the countryside in Lebanon and in Beirut. The Lebanese have not set up camps as they feel that they will become permanent, like those of the Palestine's who have been there decades. So they provide tents and temporary shelters but many, especially in Beirut, are homeless. In some ways the depth of this subject is overwhelming but it is also invigorating. The challenge is immense but we are embracing it. We choose Syrians because the crisis is very much front-and-center in the media but their experience is similar to all refugees wherever they are and the project encompasses them all. It is about displacement and being in limbo, which is why we are using the tale of The Seven Sleepers or The Cave as a framework. And thou wouldst have deemed them awake, though they were sleeping. Refugees are merely sleeping until they can go home...but home to what?

This week I seem to be finally breaking free of my inertia and chiseling my way out of my creative block. I have been working on applications for shows and residencies for next year and, although I have yet to hear anything back from any of them yet, I feel like I am beginning to write and think more fluidly and the ideas are starting to gel together properly.

The Book of Journeys has taken all my time these last few months and so I have been lax at keeping my website up to date. But, in this lull as I work on the book, prepare applications for next year, and start planning Chapter 2, I plan to be more proactive, and give this site a well-needed over haul so that it reflects my

The project can be most fully followed on the website - www.lelivredevoyages.org - but I will now be in residence at Color Elefante in Valencia in July and hopefully Halka Art Project in the first half of August.

We are now in Morocco and leaving for Senegal tomorrow night. I personally am full of apprehension and self doubt but also amazingly excited. So many months of planning and now we are here, ready to begin.

Making art is, alas, not an inexpensive business. The funding campaign can be found at:
https://www.usaprojects.org/project/book_of_journeys

It has been a while since I have updated this blog because I've been so busy working on The Book of Journeys. Along with Dan I will be an artist-in-residence at Waaw in Saint Louis Senegal in May/June and at Halka Art Project in Istanbul in July.

Also, our funding campaign on USA Projects is live as of yesterday. All contributions are tax deductable and will help us make this happen.

It's been a busy and productive week. Tomorrow I hang some of the paintings from Beginning & End (as well as one from Dissection) in the lobby of Knupp & Watson & Wallman at 5201 Old Middleton Rd, Madison. Technically my first solo show!!! :) Also, I have got my first private pupil who has his first lesson next week. Dan has been busy practicing branding leather for the Book of Journeys so the basement smells of burning flesh! It's amazing what working like a dog will get you!!

I also finally started painting again after a 3 month hiatus. It feels good to smell turpentine!

The Senegal project has a website which will be gradually expanded over the next few months and will become part of the basis for the process section of the book.
www.lelivresdevoyages.org

Yay! Validation at last! Dan & I's joint project "Book of Journeys" was accepted by Waaw in Senegal so off there in May/June and I was accepted by Inner Zone in Romania for a short residency in April. Plus a solo show at the gallery at East High in December! I feel like all the hard work is starting to pay off. A great feeling.