YEAR: 2020-2021
START DATE: December 2, 2020
END DATE: February 24, 2021

Alchemy. Handmade blank journal was made by Terri Lenoir at Paper Arts in Dallas. I didthe art for covers. How do we/I find or create gold out of so many layers of darkness. Covid-19 deaths in the USA and world. Donald Trump and his election lies and cruelty. Illness of loved ones. Aging pets, preparing to say goodbye to those we love. Transcend to a higher wisdom? Descend into darkness and depression? Escape the whole catastrophe? How to distill gold from lead? Meaning of transcend. My vehicles of transcendence and escape. Christmas in the neighborhood. Teaching the Great Peacemakers Lesson. 69th birthday. Kelly’s birthday card to me. 29 Pieces holiday messaging. The future predicts the present and the past. Love Knows No Distance. Quiet holiday week with Kelly and cats. Kabir poems, Shakespeare bio. To be or not to be, that is the question. Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol in DC. Transcend THAT. 383,000 dead from Covid-19 in USA. Looking for magic. Be the magician. 29 Pieces messaging for MLK’s birthday. My essay and art on MLK from 2003 DMN. Jan. 28, 2021. Covid-19 deaths at near 439,000. Saturday Night Live cold open - What works in America? Lead to gold and gold to lead collages. Kabir’s poetic road maps to wisdom/ transcendence. Considering an American LOVE Project. Weighing the possibilities. Poppy Sundeen wrote blurbs for the project. The American LOVE Project checks all the boxes. THRIVE messaging and Valentine’s Day messaging for 29 Pieces. Super Power of love. Disastrous Arctic freeze/nuclear winter in Texas. 4 million without heat. 9 days below freezing. My friend Randy Twaddle’s observations on the freeze - at the garden he manages near Houston. Photos of freeze in our yard. We’re all on our own. Lea Marshall passed away. Longtime partner of Kelly’s mom - Janelle Nash. Tomas Ledin. The leaf, the twig, the branch, the tree of life. Beauty that remains. How to meet calamities, sadness, trials. Transcend, descend, or escape? 10 years of journals in the living room. 2021 memes. $125,000 gift from the M.R. & Evelyn Hudson Foundation for the American LOVE Project. Kabir - Weaving Your Name.

Constantly growing number of Covid-19 deaths. More than both world wars and Vietnam combined. Trump impeachment Round 2 and acquittal. Lea Marshall’s death. Grant from Hudson Foundation for American LOVE Project. The Arctic freeze in Texas. People without heat, water. Deaths from the cold. Holidays. Destroyed gardens.

The world felt layered by tragedies, inability to solve any major issues, corruption and moral bankruptcy in the Trump administration, violence, illness and death from Covid-19. I sought strategies to not just function, but to transform the experiences. Life is a shitstorm. Art is the umbrella.

Trainings in 29 Pieces’ Artists Making a Kinder World curriculum through Region 10 Education Service Center. Include images of Trust for Public Land murals at six schools. Installation of 3 of the murals. Discernment whether to do the American LOVE Project. Presentation at National Art Educators Conference on the American LOVE Project. Decision to move forward with TALP.