Frugality gives birth to the aftershock gallery

I am into the fifth week of my morality board commitment inspired by my friend Benjamin Franklin. Just for a recap, week one was temperance, two was silence, the third week I had the misfortune of contemplating order during the February 22, 2011 earthquake that hit Christchurch, New Zealand, the fourth week was resolution wherein I had to decide to flee or stay, and now that I have decided to stay in devastated Christchurch City and create the aftershock gallery, the virtue for this week is frugality, and as you may begin to see as I have, Ben was a bit of a visionary when it comes to practicalities.


Frugality, what does it mean, what does it mean?!?!

It means “in the context of certain belief systems, [it] is a philosophy in which one does not trust (or is deeply wary of) “expert” knowledge, often from commercial markets or corporate cultures, claiming to know what is in the best economic, material, or spiritual interests of the individual” (robbed freely from the Wikipedia which some people snub, and I find as readily available inspiration to begin a search for understanding when all the libraries have been knocked down).

At this moment, nothing could better describe my frustration in being knocked down (and locked out) after the major shakeup to await “expert” knowledge on how to recuperate. Since the aftermath of the very first Christchurch Quake on September 4th, 2010 which was thought fortuitous, but possibly gave all of us a false sense of optimism (something Gramsci warns us about), that has since February 22nd’s ruthless reminder that no “expert” can prepare us for what nature may deliver, I now find myself deeply embedded in the need for frugal philosophical contemplation, as well as an assessment of frugality as practice...

“Frugality is the practice of acquiring goods and services in a restrained manner, and resourcefully using already owned economic good and services, to achieve a longer term goal” (and again, I rob the Wikipedia).

What does this mean for me, what does this mean?!?

I am an artist. I am not a rescue worker or an engineer or a strong enough person to clear rubble. But, what I can do is provide a safe space (relatively speaking) and an environment that I believe to be one of the healthiest ones that people can become whole again through artistic endeavours.

I use to break up old plates and glue them on pieces of furniture and sell them for thousands of dollars in Oklahoma, USA, which is my homeland. However, now that I am a Cantabrian, I have refuse all around me begging to be turned into something constructive, creative, and beautiful with no need to break a thing, everything is broken. I know how to make lemons into lemonade and dress mutton into lamb. This is what I consider my goods and services that can be freely given to all my Cantabrian earthquake victims.

Today, I decided to open my home (which has not one crack in it, running water and electricity, located in one of the safest parts of Christchurch) as the aftershock gallery. Herein, anyone can come and paint, draw, sculpt, sing, read and write their way back to a beautiful way of living. There are two friends who have agreed to donate their artistic souls to the project and with no money, only talent and vision, we shall frugally go forth and provide an environment that can help the hurting psyches for those who feel locked out of the equation for recovery. Since the first quake, I have found solace only when painting and writing, I think many folk are built this way, and I intend to provide a place for them to do it in.

Herein, is my first port of call:

the aftershock gallery of friends

...is a space to create in, a gallery of different folks with different interests, but with the same situation of living with sudden change. Art is a healer for anyone and everyone is welcome here. We will try to accommodate projects for painting, mosaic, sculpting, drawing, reading, writing, and just about anything else our other artistic friends would like to donate their own time with.

...tuition is free or by appropriate donation...if you have no funds, no problem, if you have some, please share them, your funds will go back into the community by providing paint, tiles, brushes, mortar, pencils, paper, books and whatever other supplies are needed to help us continue to offer our services to the whole of Christchurch earthquake victims, which ahem, means everyone... with the place and the time to rebuild lives through artistic endeavours.

As much as possible, we will be using recycled materials, left over from building projects, demolition, broken china, pieces of family heritage restored through artistic recreation in honour of our passage as victims to victors. We will reclaim parts of our heritage, bit by bit, moment by moment, while focusing our attention on nothing but the moment in which we are creating in.

Let’s face it; everyone needs to come out of the desert occasionally. After a dry run, let’s get creative!

Bring your damaged goods and your damaged psyches to the aftershock gallery of friends and find out what can happen. There is no cost, but trying, we aim to supply everyone with some way to express in a positive way, all that has been happening to them through the vehicle of art as healing.

And, herein is my first attempt of formulating the beginning curriculum...

Formulas from Friends

of

the aftershock gallery

• Painting is not as mysterious as the brotherhood of secrets would have you believe. Painting is for everyone! All styles and mediums taught, but for now we will stick with acrylics because the paint dries fast and you never know how quickly we might have to finish it. Just kidding, oil painting and watercolour, also. (Any age)


• Drawing on all your instincts with a little help from one of our University of Canterbury Art Majors will marshal in memories of better days. Life drawing, still life drawing as well as a few people locked outside with no clothes on if you like, these classes will be designed especially to your own tastes. (Adult audiences and budding geniuses)


• Sculpting in stones that resonate with you will put you in focus with many dimensions of internal reflection, mending holes in the frontal lobe and putting yourself geopolitically locatable onto surfaces that take some rocking. (Ages 10 and upwards)


•Mosaic a pot, table top, shelf, picture frame, mirror frame, cabinet or any other thing you can think of with all your broken bits and pieces that you don’t want to throw away, because they mean something or remind you of someone, put them to use all in one place and create your own ART. (Ages 5 – senility, in fact, it stabilizes all ages, putting little pieces of the puzzle together again)


• Faux paint a surface of any kind, jewellery boxes, table tops, mirror frames, make a statement just by overlaying a few of your favourite colours that bring you joy, there are many ways to texture our life even when life does it to us it is ART. (All ages)


• Reading a book with a committed group of people can be a huge stabilizing as well as expansive for those hungering to hear something besides the media gone mad. The group can make magic by meeting once a week for the duration of reading and digesting any book the group suggests. (All ages, separated by choice and content)


• Writing your stories can be the defining moment toward healing any process, completing an era and making new meaning from rubble. Come write with us and read your story, pass it around, hear it out loud or simply take it home and lock it up, but write it, write it, write it.(All ages...for those who don’t write, they can tell it and we will write it for them)


• Singing needs no lesson other than the ability to make joyful noise. Our music majors will donate their understandings to the charitable controlled chaos we hope to exude.


And in conclusion:

the aftershock gallery is a concept that has arisen from people who have something to give, but nowhere to give it. Because many places are closed and deemed unsafe or hazardous, we still would like to provide some form of stability to all our lives. The aftershock gallery is in a home that has been through both earthquakes and does not have a crack in it. It is located close to the University of Canterbury and the Teachers College. It is fenced, gated and easily accessible with the safe parking around the corner.

Parents, these classes are designed to be able to drop your child off for a couple of hours, while you do your shopping or other necessary tasks, we will steep your child into an art project that will bring them stability, creativity and something to look forward to each week while we all get on with putting our lives back into order.  We will put your telephone number into a quick group call to instantly message you of our status should further aftershocks occur.

Everyone, this is for you, too, with an environment of positive searching for new and exciting ways to express ourselves no matter what. the aftershock gallery and friends have decided that they would like to share their talents at this time with the larger public to promote healing and restoration for all of Christchurch.

We would like to keep our groups limited to no more than five, as two teachers will be available for each class, making seven people in one space an adequate amount for stimulation and a small enough group for safety during this time that proves to have ongoing aftershocks.

We are offering our services for free with the understanding that those capable of providing donations will be very much appreciated for the sustainability of this community project with no other purpose than to help the wider community move toward mending their lives through the natural functions of Art and its powers of beauty and restoration.

To express an interest for one of the formulas from friends attached, please contact us as follows:

theaftershockgallery@gmail.com

Donations for materials, letters of support and ongoing morale boasters will be greatly appreciated. Think frugally, but give resourcefully to the longer term goal of restoring the community of Christchurch through artistic endeavours. Art is life.

Crying for Creativity

Today, eleven days after the aftershock/earthquake that hit Christchurch on the 22nd of February, 2011, I finally sit and grieve. It took awhile, but it hit me today. I cried in what felt like a healthy way, understanding my part in all this, what it is and what it isn’t, and how deeply affected each Cantabrian is, and all the others who just happened to be in Christchurch to come and play with us, or do business with us in this part of New Zealand. And I should mention as well, the impact for those who could merely watch from a distance, hands gripping whatever medium they could find for certain information.


Collectively we have experienced something that few people experience in their lifetimes, a devastating earthquake on September 4th that left not one person dead and then, less than five months later, another earthquake that defied all the reserves we each had left within us while robbing us of our loved ones and the spaces we loved to occupy.

Today, I was very sad for us, but in a healthy way, because I know that what can come from this, can and should be better than what came before these events if all of us just pay close attention to how we collectively create our progress and how considerate we are for our individual, as well as our collective, need to grieve and regroup without making decisions (or resolutions) too quickly.

It is important that we consciously slow things down and remember that recovery means making decisions that cannot be prudently made on the backside of a collective experience that left no one unchanged, no one unaffected. In our own unique ways, we all changed immediately, without growing into it, suddenly, staring our own mortalities in the face for those of us who survived, and negotiating the void of missing relatives, friends, and spaces to occupy, that will never be again. This is a collective devastation which rearranges all of our priorities while realizing the maxim, ‘nobody and nothing is perfect’ in the perfectly controlled chaos we all now live in. So, how should I approach my recovery?

Creatively, I am sure. If nothing else, I am sure of the need for creativity in the space of utter uniqueness.

In the immediate phase of recovery I shall take enough time off to consciously watch my thoughts before making too many grand and over-arching decisions. This is not the time for certain resolutions just yet, that time is coming, but first, I must reflect fully...and that, takes more time than rescue could allow. Those who performed the rites of rescue have been what they always live for...heroic in their capacity to perform immediate and affective relief. That time is now over for Christchurch, now, comes the hard slog that needs much contemplation by everyone left affected. Let’s not be too quick to cast in concrete that which could surely fall upon our heads once again. Let’s allow ourselves to grieve, regroup and then, cry out with creative ways to rebuild each of our lives.

I cannot remember where I first heard this...but, it has been something my creative side has always understood...

”Do not worry when you see me doing nothing, for that is when I am doing everything at once”...

RESOLUTION comes after ORDER

RESOLUTION is the virtue for this week. Interestingly, my friend Ben had the foresight to situate his virtues in an ORDER that would work through an earthquake. Many people will now have to resolve the primary order of their lives, to stay in Christchurch, or to leave.


My thoughts are all over the place on this one, as will be those for many others. I have entertained all kinds of scenarios half-baked, protruding into my consciousness from some deep seated unconscious fear for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, showing my roots and re-establishing the fact that I have gone from immigrant to refugee in the blink of a one minute event that will forever alter how I view things from the arrangement of my books to the space which I may or may not occupy.

Right now I am in Clyde, a safe enough distance to think outside the shake, rattle and roll that my fellow Cantabrians are still forced to live through.

And, while I am here, I have been deploying what I learned many years ago as the Benjamin Franklin process for making a decision, to create a RESOLUTION to which I might adhere (My good friend CW taught me this one). Take a blank piece of paper and put Christchurch at the top and two columns, one for why, one for why not. Write down all the reasons for one, as opposed to the other and see how the numbers stack up. Try as I might to make Christchurch a negative place, it still stacks up for me at this moment, even after all the devastation. The Garden City still blooms deep for me inside my conscious and unconscious soil.

The important thing is to write it down. Trying to keep track of all the things inside one’s head is too difficult and seeing the list in black and white will bring things up from the unconscious and puts them squarely in the frontal lobe. The thing is, is to be honest with one’s self...write down what you really feel to be an asset and a detriment for each space you plan to occupy, do the numbers as many times as you need and then intend to resolve yourself to one space over another with the clear understanding of what will be positive and negative issues, of which there are always both, to live and work through.

In the past few days I have resolved to go back to Christchurch for now, though a few days ago I was searching property advertisements in other parts of the world, I did the Benjamin Franklin process on paper and found, my heart, my head and my life still clings to Christchurch in some pretty stable ways that no earthquake can shake out of me.

I think you will all understand if I don’t bother trying to resolve any other issues at just this moment in time. For now, it is enough for Cantabrians simply to decide, do I stay or do I go....

Order in the Midst of Chaos

Okay, so I am contemplating ORDER in the midst of so much chaos. I mean really, how much more chaos can there be than to have your entire community nearly wiped out and everyone deeply affected by the backlash of an aftershock (seemingly an earthquake) that levies death, mass destruction and irrevocable psychological damage?


The first orderly thing I felt, was the hugs given to me by strangers. I cannot recall ever being held so securely for so long. They just held me and did not let go. In that moment, I began to feel some ORDER coming back. Of course I cried, but that felt exactly what was in ORDER to give me the impetus for the next event.

There was a nudging toward ORDER when I went into a store in Cromwell and the lady making copies for me of an essay written by Laura Mulvey that I was giving to my German friend overheard that I was from Christchurch. Yep, I had updated my status from immigrant to refugee by a natural cycle that had not been around for say 16,000 or 17,000 years, but then, some forms of ORDER take a long time to come through. I went to pay for my copies and she said no charge for that. My sense of ORDER began to come through, there is something to be said for being on the lamb from a heaving piece of earth you once called home. People often give you stuff, not because they have to, but because they want to let you know, there is still some ORDER left. Money is not high priority for the lady whose shop sign said “Going Out of Business”. She could relate entirely. I found ORDER in that, too.

Right now, I am well past ORDER and supposed to be into RESOLUTION, remembering I have allocated only one week per virtue, those weeks go by pretty fast in Christchurch, New Zealand in the midst of an earthquake/aftershock that requires some instantaneous thinking, like Malcolm Gladwell's Blink supersliced can mean the difference between 'being' or 'leaving' in the aftermath of chaos by a snap judgment that might lead to permanent resolution, might not...we shall see after at least a week's reflection...

Two Days After An Aftershock

(Published out of sequence...lost this post for a few days, it was written on February 24, 2011)

I've heard it said that three days after surgery is the worse pain.  Only a dented brain would contemplate having the worse day ever!

In order to undent this brain, it's time to vacate the premises.  Not because of fear of day three, but because it is a good enough time to take a few traumatized folk out of the fold and fling them into an environment that does not rock and roll, so they can all return and feel right about it.

We're going south...south to Cromwell and Clyde to stay at a friend's bach and listen to silence, not statistics that cannot be changed by us, the three fleeing for a few days.  Clark, Clive and Kathy are going south together to get ready for the storm of reality that everyone in Christchurch, New Zealand will be feeling for a long time after day three and the pain of the surgery they have received.

The aftershock on February 22, 2011 right before 1:00 PM was the aftershock that felt like an earthquake, no, an atomic bomb, that other aftershocks are yet to come when we all realize that we live somewhere permanently unstable.  I am not silly enough to believe that only Cantabrians feel this. 

Let's face it, since September 4th, 2010 there have been 4,000 aftershocks to the original quake, to which this one last tuesday was the grim reaper of the pristine record Christchurch had for five months and then, POW, take that, take that and really THINK about it.

Bodies all over the place, in a state of permanent rest or testimony to the natural acts of violence the world can project anytime, any place, anywhere instantaneously, there is no defense other than I didn't do it, it did it to me, aftershocked us throroughly just in case we didn't get it the first time. 

When we return, we hope that we can bring our special talents to the forefront that will enable all who will choose to remain in Christchurch no matter what and rebuild a world where residents and visitors alike will feel at home again.  How can this happen after the sudden eviction of life, liberty and happiness that 4,000 plus one really mean aftershock can herald?

We feel like people without power over anything in their lives anymore, no, just for the moment, I am sure of this.  As Cantabrians, we will rise up like the phoenixes I knew they were when first I met them eight years ago. Kiwi's cannot fly away, they have to stay and make it better.

Meanwhile, Clark, Clive and Kathy are going walk about, just for a little time, and since a little time is nothing compared to a long time to come, we will return and do our part in the clean-up, but for now, when there is nothing we can do but make our own selves better, this is what we must do to reclaim a homecoming that will surely be a testimony of will and reserve that one can always find from Central Otago and bring back to Canterbury.

This Week Was Supposed to be Order

Not sure if my friend Ben ever experienced an earthquake (aftershock for those who adhere to political correctness) during the week he was contemplating ORDER.  But, this week I have been doing both. The outstanding irony is that my book for this contemplation project is still lying in a heap after the aftershock that felt more like an atomic bomb, hit Christchurch, New Zealand on February 22, 2011.  I gave up on some types of order that day, but there are certainly others I have been embracing wholeheartedly.

Interestingly, my first memory of the word ORDER is as a small child mimicking what must be some metaphysical rrhythmic sound bit to stick in my childish head to provoke me to yell on the school playground, "Order, order, order in the court!"  I was never sure what ORDER the court was seeking, or what the court was, I simply knew that silence followed and silence was the contemplation for last week.  So, does this mean I am going backwards?  Don't we all wish we could go backwards on some days?

Sadly, we can't.

For those of us living through these past five months in Christchurch, New Zealand...ORDER means trying to find meaning in our lives on the backside of a major earthquake on September 4th, 2010 with not one death, 4,000 aftershocks later with one more event on February 22, 2011 that appears to remove permanently, any semblance of ORDER for Christchurch.  Many people are dead and much of the iconic landscape is gone forever.  But ORDER...ORDER is still here and ever more necessary to contemplate and that is why Clark, Clive and I are leaving for a few days to collect ourselves, contemplate what needs to be done and then... come back and help rebuild Christchurch one brick at a time.

I think my friend Ben would approve of us taking a few days off to contemplate ORDER before we begin.

Shhhh.....

In my silence, I can see more.  Much more than I do while speaking.  Hence, my friend Ben's practise to  consciously refrain from participating in trifling conversation.  For years I have been trying to do this very same thing, only say that which benefits others or myself, and even with my practise, I seldom achieve the results I hope to see.  However, I am convinced that the effort makes a significant difference and though I often fail to word my conversations to be as beneficial as I would like, I wonder how much worse it might be without the effort applied to speak beneficially and with certain control.  With that thought, I often give myself some credit so that I do not give up the effort, when others write me off as a 'no-hoper', I recognize they cannot see me trying internally.  There is no spyware for that, though often, people say to me...

'I know what you are thinking...'

Yesterday, in my silence, I wrote the things that go into places no one sees.  Unless they use spyware or live inside of me, and last time I checked, there was only one of me in there.  Many facets of that oneness, but one me, always.  This is the meaning of the 'one god', I believe.  I believe I am responsible and the only source of control for all that I might say, but how often I hear others say to me...

'You made me...'

You cannot deny responsibility for others' actions that they believe you responsible for.  You can only remain silent and wait for them to seek their own participation in silence.

Shhhh...you can not tell this to anyone that doesn't already know it. 

My Morality Board inspired by Ben Franklin