More focus

I become more focused every day.  Fewer disparate things attract my attention as significant.  Concentrating very hard these days, still failing miserably.








 

  Bread and Puppets Museum: Glover, VT
This place lies in the northeast kingdom, almost 3 hours away. The man who started the phenomenon, Peter Schumann, came from France to New York in the early 60s, started building puppets and making bread. His shamanic vision: "Art should be as basic to life as bread". He would serve the bread to friends and they would eat while he put on puppet shows for them. He continued to build puppets which became more infamous, taking part in anti-war protests and putting on large street performances. By 1974 he moved himself and his puppets to Vermont.

The tone of the farm changed to commune, the performers lived and worked in a closed community, and performed to any who would watch. A yearly, weeklong pageant became the habit of the puppets drawing more and more people every year. By the 1990s, these pageants drew tens of thousands of people to camp near the museum. Increasingly dissipated in focus, the event drew more people until it reached a critical mass in 1998, becoming unmanageable. A fight which resulted in the death of one participant signaled the end of these pageants. Now they put on a weekly sunday show in their "Papier Mache Cathedral" for onlookers, but no one camps there anymore. People attracted by the power of the thing. 

 How could something like that remain pure?

 







Declaration of Intent

The first page, glaring mistakes and all. The thing forms and manifests itself. Ideas continue to seep into my mind from some other place faster than I can pen them down and keep track of them. Whatever is going on is both wonderful and terrifying. Fruits of just a few months hard practice. 

Page 2 sits on my drawing table, almost complete. Page 3 has a refined sketch, waiting for page 2 to be finished. Page 4-10 are rough sketches and outlines of words. 

 How can I just do this? I need more time.

The knight of swords.  I experience great difficulty and discomfort currently, an uncomfortable alchemical experience.  Sir sword wants me to persist, and he will cut through opposition while I plug away and suffer some transformation or the other.