I lived in Vienna, Austria from September 2013 to June 2014 to study at the Vienna Academy of Visionary Arts.

Reflections on War & Peace: Visas & Vienna’s Augarten

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IMG_4262During the holidays, my father lent me James A. Michener’s non-fiction novel “The Bridge at Andau” about the the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and Austria’s crucial role in helping the 180,000 refugees who escaped by crossing over the tiny footbridge and swamps at the border.  It certainly wasn’t very cheerful reading, but it gave me a much deeper appreciation of human nature and of this region’s history.  It was also a great reminder of how truly lucky I am to live a life of freedom – always being able to decide what I want to do and where I want to live, as long as I am willing to take the necessary steps to make it happen.  Considering I was born in Canada in this era, these steps have always been relatively easy – certainly never life-threatening.  Still, some cause me stress..

This morning, I took one of these steps – I went to the Austrian Registry Office to make my official request for a residency permit that will allow me to study here until June. I could only apply once my school received its certification, which only happened late in December.  I was nervous. I’m sure my holiday reading didn’t help – stories of abuse by authorities who wielded the power of life and death behind the iron curtain.  Truth be told, though, I’m usually nervous in such situations (“Is there a document missing in this 1-inch thick envelope of paperwork?  Did I fill-out the 9-page German application accurately? Will they accept my renewed criminal record check if it hasn’t been notarized? Can my future really be determined by a yes/no from officials even if I’m a good girl?)” You get the picture.  Part of me has a very spiritual take on events – nothing is good or bad, it just is, and a decision either way will be a sign of what I’m meant to do next – but part of me gets all uptight around anything to do with authority and bureaucracy.  Luckily, Florence, our school’s administrator, was kind enough to accompany me, the first student to go through this process. Better still, the officer who greeted me was very nice and even complimented me on my German.  She double-checked all of my paperwork and, after a few minutes, so did her colleague, who then sent me to the cash to pay my 100 Euro fee.  I’ll find out the results in a few weeks.  Wish me luck!

Since it was sunny and above zero (although not yesterday’s 10°C), I then decided to explore a nearby park that seemed huge on the map.  The Augarten, I discovered, is actually a 52 hectare walled-in park with tree-lined avenues, flower gardens (no blooms now), sports fields, playgrounds, dog parks, an outdoor swimming pool (still full, but covered in ice), a retirement residence, a palace, a contemporary art gallery, a porcelain factory & shop, restaurants, home of the Vienna Boy’s Choir, and more.  It’s the oldest Baroque garden in Vienna. Even though the grass is still green, it wasn’t nearly as impressive as it will be in the spring (I will definitely return if I get my visa).  Walking amongst thousands of bare trees, however, added to the ominousness of the two huge anti-aircraft gun blockhouses that loom over this public park.  What a strange sight! I wasn’t sure what they were at first, although I felt uneasy around them, so I looked it up on Google while sitting on a park bench and found out that these flak towers also served as air-raid shelters during WWII.  I’m surprised they weren’t in the movie “The Third Man” with Orson Welles, which showed a lot of Vienna post-war.  Standing here, at the foot of these foreboding structures,  I recalled how uncomfortable I also felt when I heard the anti-raid sirens being tested in Vienna and when I learned how they test them weekly in towns and villages across Austria.  (I just checked and found out that they are now used as fire sirens instead).  All in all, the juxtaposition of war and peace – concrete bunkers and baroque gardens – was thought-provoking. The cold war only ended in 1991 and the last world war only 68 years ago.  Although monuments and stories remind us of this in Canada, it is so much more evident here in Europe – at least for me.  I smiled though, as I was nearing the end of my walk, when two white doves flew in front of me and landed in a tree  (OK, they could have been pigeons).  I also smiled when I followed my nose into the palace restaurant for a delicious daily special – rainbow trout on a bed of risotto for 7.90EU ($11.50 Cdn) – although I was surprised that it came without any vegetables.  Still, it was excellent energy for my 2-hour walk home along streets I had yet to explore.

May 2014 be a year of peace and freedom all around the world, and may we all learn to choose love over fear.

P.S.  After writing this post, I found 2 films on the Hungarian Revolution online:  “Revolution’s Orphans“, a Canadian short film (click to view) and “Children of Glory” – which I watched in German (click to view) because the English version wasn’t available on YouTube.

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Transitioning Into a New Year

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It’s long been a tradition to set New Year’s Resolutions.  I believe that how we choose to spend the transition from one year to another is, in itself, the creation of intention.  So here’s how I spent the last day of 2013 and the beginning of 2014.

New Year’s Eve:

  1. After hugging my family goodbye in Ottawa, I spent the day traveling from one continent to another – reading, watching movies, chatting with my neighbour, thinking, and sleeping.  When New Year’s Eve hit both Canada and Austria, I was flying high in the skies, aimed towards education, adventure, mystery, discovery, creativity, and so much more.
  2. After doing the laundry (I didn’t want to start off the New Year with dirty laundry – bad Feng Shui), washing up, and getting dressed, I relaxed for an hour with a great book friends gave me, “Merle’s Door – Lessons from a Freethinking Dog”.
  3. I did the groceries – filling my fridge and cupboards with an abundance of healthy organic foods – good Feng Shui.
  4. I then decided that although part of me wanted to stay home and relax by myself (that ever so strong introvert self), a stronger part of me would have regretted not playing tourist by exploring the free activities along Vienna’s New Year’s Path – the whole downtown core was filled with hundreds of thousands of people, several stages, outdoor screens at the Opera House and  St. Stephen’s Cathedral, an abundance of stands selling food, champagne, punch, mulled wine, and paraphernalia of the swine variety (pigs are a traditional Austrian symbol of good luck for the incoming year),and waltzing lessons.  So I pushed through my resistance and headed out, walking around the historic part of town from 4:30pm to 6:45pm – plenty of time to reaffirm that I’m not into crowds, especially when a good number of folks are drunk and setting off loud firecrackers and fireworks (websites warned to bring along ear plugs to avoid permanent hearing damage).  I’m sure extroverts had a great time until the wee hours of the morning, but I was quite content with my explorations.  Glad I did it! My most interesting moment was when I was heading towards the stage at City Hall for my final stop (where I eventually caught a few songs by the Abbariginals. I got a really good vibe from a street in the opposite direction.  There, I found a whole series of booths that offered spiritual guidance for the New Year – shamanism, astrology, numerology, angel card readings, etc.  Nice!
  5. At 7pm, I joined 2 other classmates at our Director’s/Administrator’s apartment.  Florence & Laurence had just returned from their home in France and had invited us for appetizers and a champagne toast before shairng a meal and several hours of conversation.  It was really good to connect with them – to bring in the New Year with friends.  At midnight, we were on the roof watching fireworks lighting up the sky in all directions.  We set intentions for the New Year and sealed them with hugs.  Although the 3 major official fireworks shows were over by 12:15am, unofficial ones and sidewalk firecracker parties were  still happening by the time I got to my place at 1:15am.
  6. I fell asleep listing all the things I was grateful for on this day and in 2013 and praying for everyone I know and those they know, and so on (basically, all of humanity).

New Year’s Day:

After 10 hours of sleep (catching up for my short night on the plane),

  • I woke up and lit a Tibetan Dharma beeswax candle I received from my mother (which will burn until I go to bed).
  • I smudged / purified myself and my room with Peruvian palo santo wood smoke.
  • I showered, imagining all that no longer served me going down the drain to be transformed into something useful.
  • I pulled 5 of my Spirit Calling Cards, asking for guidance on what I need to focus on in the next year.
    New Year's Reading
  • I did 3 pages of stream-of-consciousness writing related to my card reading, finding a deeper understanding in its meaning.
  • I did my monthly financial tabulations for December as well as my yearly summary –  seeing where my money came from and where it went all the while evaluating if these categories / amounts were in line with my values and priorities (a great system I learned years ago in the book “Your Money or Your Life”).
  • I moved $5,500 into my Tax Free Savings Account – the yearly allocation for Canadians.
  • I read my January astrological forecast,  which actually predicted “The full moon of January 15 will be very helpful if you need to hear back about a passport, green card, or visa” – I will be applying for my residency visa on Friday…
  • I connected with all of you by writing this blog and sent Happy New Year emails.
  • I reached out to a friend to make plans for this weekend.

and before the day is over, I plan to:

  • make a healthy organic brown rice & lentil soup;
  • make a digital vision board – intuitive style;
  • watch another inspiring film on youtube on the life of Nelson Mandala, featuring Sydney Poitier (I really enjoyed the one I saw at the Bytowne Cinema in Ottawa last week, “Mandela: Long Road to Freedom“, which is based on his autobiography and is nominated for 9 awards.  Mandela died during its London premier.
  • get a good night’s sleep before getting back to business & art tomorrow.

This is how I’ve chosen to end one year and begin another:  a couple of days filled heart-connections, travel & tourism, stretching comfort zones, spiritual rituals, relaxation, inspiration, and other priorities.  I hope you’ve also had a great transition into 2014, in line with how you like to spend your time – being true to ourselves is indeed a great gift to all those around us.

May 2014 be filled with love, peace, joy, health, wealth, and happiness to all of you, dear readers (from 30 countries in December alone! – baffling!) and all those you know and those they know, and so on, and so on, etc.

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Intuitive Walking Game – Fun!

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pigeonThis was fun, so I thought I’d share – especially during this holiday season when it’s so easy to add on the extra pounds.  Dress accordingly…

I’m a walker.  I’ve never owned a car (although I love to drive) and always find a place to live within an hour’s walk to school or work.  It’s about the only exercise I get apart from some restorative yoga.  I love walking – I get to see lots, think lots, listen to audio-courses, etc.  We all know the benefits.

I also have no problem sitting on my butt all day.  On Friday, I spent all day at school where I hired one of my classmates to tutor me on some Photoshop techniques he had wowed me with.  On Saturday, I watched 6 movies in a row (I recently discovered that you can see full movies for free on YouTube, so I’m catching up…).  On Monday, I spent 13 hours on the computer writing an article for a great inspirational website (my first draft was 2,000 words and the limit was 1,000 – I can be wordy at times… have you noticed?).

So on Sunday, when the sun came out (a rare occurrence during Vienna winters), I just had to get out.  Usually, when I don’t have a destination, I like to play an intuitive game that goes like this:  at every intersection, check which direction feels better and follow through. It’s a great way to explore the world and develop your intuition.

Sunday, however, that didn’t appeal to me.  As I was putting on my boots, three numbers kept popping up in my mind: 6, 8, and 2.  So I tried something new. I walked 6 blocks in a direction I had never walked before, 8 blocks to the left, and 2 blocks to the right.  Perfect!  My intuition brought me to a neighbourhood park where I spent a while sharing a bench with a pigeon and soaking in some Vitamin D.  I felt honoured that he didn’t fly away.  I was sure there would be something at the end for me, no matter what it was.  As a bonus, I got to see all new things along the way, including a farmer’s market.  When I lost my count, I just checked on my smart phone’s map app and got back on track.  As a reward, after my total of 32 blocks (I discovered some blocks in Vienna are super long), I found a store that actually had Lays potato chips – Paprika (to go with another couple of movies on YouTube).

I usually go walking on my own, but I’m sure you could play this with friends – get each one to subsequently tune in and come up with a number and a direction and trust that there will be something there for you at the end, even if it’s a bird on a bench.

 

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Now That’s a Market! +

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Wow!  OK, so if you have time to only go to one Christmas Market in Vienna, definitely go to the one in Karlplatz, in front of St. Charles Church.  There are over 80 booths/cabins filled with the handcrafted wares of juried artists and artisans.  Nothing junkie here.  Plus I’m told the organic mulled wine and the children’s activities here are better than anywhere else.  Again, I didn’t buy anything, but enjoyed immersing myself in the creative beauty.

I came across this market when our class exited from the subway after a fantastic afternoon in the studio of Micheal Fuchs (one of Ernst Fuchs’ sons, who is also a successful artist and teacher – as is Micheal’s son… talent runs in the family).  His studio is in a small historic town on the outskirts of Vienna.  I love field trips, plus I learned a lot about sight sizing portraits. Great stuff!

After a quick dinner, we all headed back to school for a painting party. Apart from the mulled wine, our party was just like class, but more chatty.  At about 11pm, it was finally my turn to get help putting my second glaze on my painting.  We opted for a magenta to keep it in the warm tones, but the colour that came out of the tube was much too red, and so we added blues and rose to try and achieve what Laurence was used to from his higher quality oil paints. The glaze went on much darker than I would have liked, obscuring my whites more than it did for other students (but it didn’t melt them away this time! yay!).  It’s true, I initially felt disappointed, but also calmly resigned (Laurence might disagree with this description)- trying to reserve judgment. I’ll just see where this painting goes and learn a lot in the process.   I did get to see how Laurence lifted glaze with the palm of his hand – the artist’s karate chop technique… probably not recommended for your health, but interesting.  I got home at midnight and not sure what I’ll be doing this weekend.  I’m open to spontaneous ideas.  First, breakfast.

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Vienna’s Christmas Markets

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My walks home after school are taking much longer than usual now that the Christmas Market season has begun here in Vienna. In the last week, markets have sprung up all over town – series of wooden cabins selling arts & crafts, Christmas decorations, imported wares, and lots of food & drinks (especially gluhwein – mulled wine). There are 3 popular markets on my usual walk home, and I detoured a few blocks one evening to take in the one at City Hall.

The atmosphere at these is quite fun – the Viennese are very social people, and it seems that standing around in the cold chatting for hours holding a cigarette and a ceramic cup filled with mulled wine is as typical here as spending hours over a cup of coffee and pastry at a cafe during the day.

Each market has 20-60 cabins filled with colourful stuff.  I only saw one or two things that I thought would make nice gifts, but when I realized they were made in China and could be found in 2-4 cabins at each and every market, I was glad I hadn’t spent my money on them.  There aren’t actually a lot of artisans at these markets – mostly commercial and imported stuff except for all the cheese, meat, and other edibles. Still, if you’re into shopping, you could find some neat gifts here. I can’t imagine being one of the vendors, however.  These markets last all the way until Christmas and some until New Year – there may be little heaters in each of the cabins, but it’s not warm.  I shared a table the other day at my favourite Vietnamese restaurant with a girl who said she’d worked at one of those markets before and had been miserable.  We’re still a couple of degrees over freezing here, but the wind and humidity add to the cold for sure.  And it’s getting colder.

Here are some iPhone shots to give you an idea (sorry for the blurriness – I’m thinking of going back with my real camera, but just in case…)

Maria Theresa Square:

Once I leave school and the palace area, I cross the street and through the square between the twin Art History and Natural History museums with a monument to the empress Maria Theresa.

Museum Quarter:

Across the street from that is the famous Museum Quarter, with its dozen or so museums – a popular hangout space in any season.  There are no gift vendors here – simply several establishments selling mulled wine and punch and the occasional live music show. There’s also what I believe is a curling rink, but the stones look different.

Spittelberg:

This one covers a few of the cobblestone alleys off of Burgasse, the main street I walk on between my place and downtown.

 

City Hall:

This one looks most like Christmas with all their Christmas lights, a children’s village and impressive backdrop – all that’s missing is snow.

I’m sure I’ll be exploring more of these markets around town and maybe even outside of town (I just found notice for a boat trip to a castle near the Slovakia border for a few hours at a traditional market there… a tempting treat for 50 Euros including an on board buffet… part of my financial priorities is experiencing Austria while I’m here).  OK – time to head to school – have a great day!

 

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A Day Trip to Mödling

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This was definitely a touristy weekend – I’ve always taken advantage of being here to discover gems in and around town, but now that I know my stay here will be shorter, I feel even more compelled not to stay home on weekends.

My Saturday hiking plans with two of my classmates were cancelled when they were deterred by the threat of rain (they didn’t move here from Newfoundland!), so I took advantage of the 48-hour transit pass I had bought and spent the day in Vienna on the fast trains (S-bahns), underground (U-bahn), and trams, getting off wherever I felt compelled to. It’s so much fun exploring without a plan –  deciding at each moment whether to turn right or left, whether to hop on or off one form of transportation or another.  If you haven’t tried it, I recommend it. It’s a great way to tune into your intuition, embrace the mystery, and get to know an area.  Sure, there may be a huge wall around a public forest with the door locked, or a hissing wild swan blocking your way to a path that had called you to jump off the train.  To me, those were simply clear signs that I wasn’t meant to go there. I did take the next path to peek at the small garden homes along the water, right in the middle of the city.  Neat!  I also explored a beautiful huge park on the Old Danube and ended up having lunch/dinner in a luxurious Chinese restaurant filled with Chinese people (always a good sign).  Being my birthday week, I allowed myself the extra expense, listening to my stomach, which never fails to be heard one way or another 🙂

On Sunday, the weather was much better for my trip to Mödling with my classmate Donnalynne.  It’s only 14km out of Vienna so we were there really quickly thanks to the S-bahn.  We would have had to wait over 40 minutes for the bus from the station to either the Liechtenstein Castle or to the Seegrotte, so we hopped a taxi for 10 Euros – worth every penny as I tried understanding our driver’s questions and eventually was able to communicate that we wanted to be dropped off at the parking, not at the door of the castle, so that we could walk and take pictures on our way there. He was patient with my determination to understand him, and we succeeded.   Wow! What a walk… It’s quite a special feeling walking up to one of these majestic castles (especially when heavily influenced by Hollywood movies, novels, fairy tales, etc.)  The castle is owned by the same Liechtenstein family that owns the small European country of the same name – they came from here.  It was great walking around in the sunshine and we had a touching conversation with a man who grew up in the area during the Nazi occupation. His father had had to join the army to avoid prosecution for openly speaking out against the Nazis and then was taken prisoner of war in Italy.  Sharing in that way certainly enriched what could have been a superficial tourist experience.  We then took lots of pictures before taking the guided tour inside (no pictures allowed inside…).  You might recognize this castle from the movie The Three Musketers (1993- with Charlie Sheen and Keifer Sutherland), which I haven’t seen yet.  It was also used in Robin Hood (Kevin Costner) and for a small scene in Lord of the Rings.

We then walked about 15 minutes through the wide open fields, forest paths and village to the Seegrotte, the biggest underground lake in Europe, formed after a mining accident caused the water from above ground to flow inside.  They must pump the water out daily so that tourists can take the 8-minute boat ride at the end of a very informative tour.  The Nazis had totally pumped the water out and used it as both a concentration camp and factory for building parts of aircraft.  This place is seeped in history and being here so close to Remembrance Day seemed appropriate.  On a much lighter note, it was also used for the filming of a few scenes in the Three Musketeers and other movies.  We had wanted to ask the friendly lady at the cash (who had surprisingly given me the postcard I wanted to buy for free after I complimented her on her choice of music – Norah Jones) which restaurant she recommended, but the office was already closed.  So we wandered back up into the village (it seemed longer uphill after a day of walking around) and found a great place run by the same family for the past 100 years.  Donnalynne was in heaven with her venison stew and dumpling and I thoroughly enjoyed my grilled chicken with pumpkin risotto and my first sauerkraut since I arrived here.  We then rushed to the bus stop 2 minutes away to catch the only one in 1.5 hours back to town where we immediately caught the S-bahn back to Vienna.  What an awesome day!

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I ran out of time … at a museum!

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OK, so if you’ve been following my posts, you know that I’m not a big fan of museum, but that I still appreciate zooming through them, mostly to see the architecture and also just in case something catches my attention, either visually or energetically.  I am a curious being, but there’s something about museums that I find either stale or overstimulating – not quite sure how to describe it.  Anyhow, today after eating our bagged lunches in class, Donnalyne and I headed out to the Neue Burg – the big palace I walk by every day on my way to school, to visit the 4 museums there that we have free access to with our annual museum membership card.  And would you believe it? I ran out of time just going through the first one – the Arms and Armor Museum.  I totally didn’t expect to be interested much in this one, but something about all those knights in shining armor caught my fancy. Seriously though (although yes, I’m a hopeless romantic), the craftsmanship, details and designs were amazing! Leaving aside the fact that these very heavy uncomfortable metal suits were designed to protect men in times of war while killing the enemy, they were really cool.  I also enjoyed seeing all the fake horses wearing their own protective gear (check out the one with the tail coming out of a dragon’s mouth).

Perhaps I enjoyed this museum so much because it plunged me back into the Hollywood epic historic fiction movies I like, or perhaps I had a gratifying past life in the 15th or 16th century military (perhaps with or as a knight in shining armor?). Who knows?!  I certainly didn’t have this kind of a reaction to the modern military displays being set up in the plaza in front of the palace (including 6 helicopters – something the men in my family would enjoy) in preparation for Austria’s National Day on Saturday.  The tanks reminded me of my childhood on Canadian Armed Forces bases in Germany, when we had to stop classes because of the noise each time a long line of tanks went by on their way to an exercise.  But generally speaking, I’ve been avoiding walking through this plaza this week because looking at all that  – especially from within the palace, peering at it from the window behind the balcony where Hitler made his famous speech – felt quite eery.  Peace be to all!

With only 2 more days of long lunch hours, though, I’m debating whether I’ll be trekking to the pay-what-you-can Pakistani buffet tomorrow or going back to these museums to explore some more.  Now that says a lot!! Next time though, I hope to have my real camera, not just my iPhone.

Combining / Layering Elements of our Personal Mythologies

After lunch, our class headed out to the small park in front of the Votive Chuch,  where I had spotted a big stone table and chairs the day before.  The weather was great and yes, the idea of sitting around this table reinforced the whole Hogwarts or Knights of the Round Table (although this one wasn’t round) themes.  We spent a couple of hours drawing sketches that combined or layered various concepts from the personal mythologies we story-boarded yesterday.  I had fun doing this.  This sketch is but a first draft that combines my ideas of

  • God (one of many names I use) as a radiant, accepting, open, nurturing, gracious, loving source of energy and life
  • our being within God and God within us
  • soul families setting intentions and making agreements before incarnation
  • the ever-present spiral as symbol of evolution, holistic growth, release, awareness of the one within the context of the whole, connectivity and union with God and cosmic energies, direction, expansion, journeying, and development … amongst other things
  • chakra system
  • ripple effects of our beingness on this planet
  • the mirrors of life
  • the map/path and fruit of unconditional love – part of our journey into and out of our Selves and back to God

IMG_3273This is only the second drawing concept I work on since starting classes  – I got a great sense of how our personal mythologies can be an infinite source of imagery for paintings and  I’m definitely motivated again to improve my drawing skills.  This was gratifyingly deep work that I’d like to see evolve.

We then returned to class to work on various projects.

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What a Party!

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I surprised myself last night (or should I say this morning) by coming home at 6:30am from a great night at a sacred dance gathering by Avaloka. I don’t even think I snoozed during any of the meditation sessions, but I did get a wonderful vision of a multicoloured square spiral all lit up and floating in space feeding the roots of an equally tubular/lit up tree  – all that with a rolling ocean floating far underneath in space  (can you believe I’ve never even tried drugs?!).  It’s hard to describe, and I guess that’s one reason why visionary artists paint what they see (I’d have to learn more about perspective and 3D shaping before I could manage this one, but at least there would be no human figures to draw).  I was still energized when I got home, but fell asleep relatively quickly and got a short 5 hours in before waking up to noise in the apartment. What a role reversal – I’m usually the one making noise in the kitchen after my young university student roommates come home at 4-5am as I’m waking up for my day.  Now I know how it feels.

Recap:

IMG_3105Renate, a wonderful Austrian student in our special 2-week intensive, and her friend Bernhard came to pick me up and we headed to their friend Walter’s apartment for a few minutes before finding our way to the 23rd district on the outskirts of the city where the Avaloka event was being held.  The event started at 9pm and there were already a lot of people there when we arrived at 9:30pm- some enjoying a campfire outside, others sitting in the indoor stairwell with a gorgeous projected drawing in the style I’d like to make (that was also the smokers’ hangout), others having a drink in the room with a bar, others sitting quietly in the small meditation room, and others standing around chatting in the main room where the vegan food bar, DJ station and band stage were located.  I couldn’t believe that this was a temporary set up.  Every wall and floor were covered in felt and the whole decorated in a combination of Tibetan buddhist style and techno with projections on walls and ceilings.  These are the folks who put on our school’s opening party, but that didn’t prepare me for this night.  As an ex-events-planner, I could fully appreciate the organizational skill and talent that it took to put this together.

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We just had time to say hi to all our classmates before the opening meditation started, and I’m amazed I understood a lot of it, mostly because the leader used a lot of body language and talked about stuff I was familiar with. I had also used Google Translate to read the schedule ahead of time and knew he would be addressing inter-religious perspective and a Tibetan meditation that opens the brain and body to cosmic rays. This was followed by a solo dance performance that led to great dancing to an ethnic and tribal DJ music mix. It felt so good to just close my eyes and move to the music, focused on my own internal experience, just as everyone else was.  Being a barefoot event, however, my knees could only take so much, so I had to take frequent breaks.

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I liked the fact that there was a quiet meditation room I could go to when the noise and crowds were too much.  We could still hear and feel the vibrations of the music through the walls and floors, but it was still a very serene room.  I returned there at midnight for some Tibetan and Sanskrit chanting and when we came out, I could see that the crowd in the main room had doubled and that there was an awesome band, Airrapide (drummer and didgeridoo player) that really got the crowd going.  I’ve never seen a didgeridoo player go for so long – amazing!  At 2:30, I and most of my classmates returned to the meditation room for a session led by one of our Academy friends and models, Alexandra.  It was beautiful, accompanied by hoop drumming and chanting.  This was definitely my kind of party.

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More dancing, a plateful of roasted vegetables with couscous & hummus, more chatting, and just hanging around and then it was time to leave.  Renate & Bernhard were going to drop me off at the U6 end stop, which is in direct line to my place, but they accurately sensed that I was nervous about riding it alone at that late hour (although the world was waking up for Sunday in Vienna), so they kindly insisted on driving me all the way home.  They reassured me that Vienna is an extremely safe place, as I had heard before, but I’m just not used to being out at night anymore so I truly appreciated it – comfort zones stretch and shrink and stretch and shrink – such is life.

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I took it easy today and tomorrow starts the last week of our Intensive “In Quest of the Inner Image” workshop. I’m looking forward to it.

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So Many Gifts

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Warning: This is another long one…. so much happens here in a few days.

I smiled when I received the artist Flora Bowley‘s e-newsletter this week, with a theme of breakdowns leading to breakthroughs.  Appropriate.  My struggles earlier this week led not only to reminding me that I need to practice both self-love and drawing more, but also helped remind me of my true goals.  Because of the nature of my school and our exercises, I had set “drawing real 3-D” looking figures as my goal when indeed, my real goal is to eventually insert stylized drawing elements into my art.  Somehow, simply changing that verbalized and visualized goal during my paraliminal sessions has been of great value.  This doesn’t mean that I don’t need to learn to draw realistically first, but that I can let go of the need to do that perfectly or even really really well in order to achieve my goal.  My art is not meant to be like that of many visionary artists – and that’s OK.  Sure, I still have to work hard so that I can sketch a happy baby in a crib if I want to instead of a crushed baby in a cage, but that will come.  I don’t feel as much pressure (self-imposed) or discouragement as I did earlier this week – instead, I feel that the disheartening that led to questioning that led to clarifying has been very valuable. Indeed, I feel quite fulfilled and relieved (yes, I’ve been known to live life on an emotional roller coaster at times).

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“In Quest of the Inner Image” with Vera and Kuba (continued):

This has been an amazing week and the last two days of our intensive workshop with Vera and Kuba did a lot to bond us as a group and to bring me back to a very welcomed way of living / being that I had been blessed to experience on a regular basis back in Canada.  From opening chanting circles (that grew intuitively from our previously simple OM sessions), to creative visualization sessions (that brought each of us unique visions and experiences which we later shared in a circle), to lectures on higher consciousness, dreams, individual artists’ spiritual journeys (that facilitated making new connections between my spirituality, my art, and to visionary art in general), to entering an image through meditation and movement (that led to experiencing what it’s like to be the sun and the ocean, opening my heart and soul to their expansiveness and love)- what a week!  I’m sure I’m forgetting some of the highlights, and I didn’t take many pictures, but it’s very telling that by Friday’s art-making time, I voluntarily pulled out my sketch for my trimester painting, which I had worked on for weeks, and changed my approach to the two human figures in it.  I’ve let go of the need to include facial features (that may change again, but the letting go was freeing) and stylized their hair in a way that felt fun and much natural.  I enjoyed going back to my sketch and playing with the possibilities. Yay!  We finished the week with a last sharing circle and group hug – nice!

Two More Museums:

I really took advantage of our longer lunch hours this week – after finishing my packed lunches on Thursday and Friday, I headed out to visit some of the smaller neighbouring museums which are included on our annual membership card for the Arts History museum.  I didn’t spend much time in either the Treasury or Theater Museum, but I’m glad to know what’s there and a few pieces fit in with what I’m working on in class, so that’s always nice.

Treasury:

Theater Museum:

A Tribute to Vienna:

My tourism highlight of the week, however, was definitely the world premier of A Tribute to Vienna, a 70-minute show in the Spanish Riding School with musical performances by the Vienna Boys’ Choir (the most renowned boys’ choir in the world) and with highlights of the Ballet of the White Stallions (featuring the world famous Lipizzaner horses).  I remember the Lipizanner horses from a childhood trip here with my family and longed to see them dance again. My original idea was to stand in line several Saturdays in a row to see if I could get a reduced priced last-minute seat to one of their regular shows.  They usually sell-out though and the throngs of tourists in town don’t seem to be diminishing at all with the colder weather, so when I saw this special event performance advertised with standing room tickets at 23 Euros (about $33 Cdn … some of the seats go for up to 171 Euros), I jumped on the occasion (their next Tribute to Vienna performance isn’t until December). What a treat!  Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures, but I’ve just found this excellent 2-part documentary on these regal horses and the Spanish Riding School in Vienna (12 minutes each).

By the way, we didn’t have a dark stallion in our show and yes, I got quite nervous when the rider actually led the horse from the ground, standing immediately behind it – I wondered if any rider survived the many years of training bruise-free.

I respected the fact that we were asked twice before the show not to take pictures as the sound/flashes irritates the horses, but I do wish they would have also asked the audience not to clap as some horses reacted each time to the echoing fire-cracker sound of clapping in that big hall, taking away from the overall graceful effect of the ballet.  Still, it was well worth it – yay! one more thing off my Vienna bucket-list.

P.S. I walk between the school and the stables daily as they’re right beside the Palais Palffy where I have my classes. What a gift!

Saturday Morning Shopping

Today, after doing my laundry (never thought I’d meet another student at 7am in the laundry room on a Saturday, but I met 2!), I headed out to the Nach Markt for the first time, a famous 1.5 km outdoor farmer’s market 6 days a week that expands to include a flee market 4 rows deep on Saturdays.  Wow!  What crowds and so much to look at that I didn’t see much in the flea market part.  I thought I was safe in that part until I hit the many stands of 5 Euro cashmere silk scarves – I found a nice green one that called to me.  As for the rest, you really have to like this kind of thing to find what you’re looking for or never knew you needed until you saw it.  The food section, which some of my classmates go to regularly, even at lunch time on school days, is huge and includes many permanent stands and mini-shops (cheese, meat, organic goods, etc.) and rows of temporary stalls.  There’s also an alley full of restaurants with outdoor seating (blankets provided).  I can see why this place is such a tourist draw.  I came home with falaffel (15 for 3 Euros), 2 kinds of cheeses, a few vegetables, a mango (2 Euros instead of the 8 Euros I saw at the organic store next door – that’s $11.25 Cdn!) and a small piece of a 100% fruit/nut loaf (you’ll see a picture of it – gorgeous before you cut into it).  Also, make sure to notice the architecture in the background (grateful for my iPhone – with all the groceries, I left my real camera at home).

On the Way:

IMG_3082On my way to the Nach Markt, I found a Vegan grocery store that was quite impressive.  I found a few more healthy goodies there to add to my cupboards. I’m really quite impressed with the number or organic and vegan stores (not only food) around here.  I’m no longer vegan, but I don’t eat a lot of meat and having a variety of healthy foods to choose from is such a gift!  It’s not cheap though – I’m sure that if I calculated what I actually spend on my packed lunches, I probably spend more or the same than if I bought my lunches at the healthy take-out places near my school, including the all you can eat pay what you can Pakistani buffet.  Hmmm….

IMG_3083I also found a hair studio on the way that won some European Masters award in 2012 and that advertised organic / natural products – Happy Hair.  The place gave off a good vibe, so on my way back, feeling courageous, I stopped in for a delightful hair-cutting session. I had gone a month longer than usual, and it was time.  I enjoyed my time in Anita’s chair –  she speaks less English than my German, but body language is effective too. She’s also a painter.  If I wasn’t on a student budget, I would have considered her suggestion of adding colour to some of those back layers and perhaps some blonde highlights (I miss being blond, even if I feel like a dumb blond in class sometimes – sorry, couldn’t resist that one…).

Last, but not least, I’m so grateful to the tailor I found on the way to the market who gave me a needle and a few meters of thread for free – the washing machines and in-class yoga has been tough on my clothes, it seems.

A Night Out (Avaloka – Let’s Dance For the Good of All):

Now it’s time for another bite to eat before I head out to an all-night meditation / dance event (I don’t know if I’ll last all night) on the outskirts of town. Most of my class (and a segment of Vienna’s spiritual/artistic/new age crowd) will be there.   It starts at 9pm, so that in itself is a stretch of my comfort zones – but I’ve been psychologically preparing myself for it all week – getting there, late hour, hundreds of people, etc.  When we stretch our comfort zones, we grow.  Stay tuned for the next blog post…

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So Much to Share

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I’m not sure if you’re keeping up with my blog … there’s so much I want to share that I hardly have the time to do so.  Yesterday was another fantastic day for at least 4 reasons.

1- Walk to School
Do you walk to work/school?  Do you take a different route each time?  I recommend it! I usually arrange to live 30-60 minutes from where I need to go on a daily basis as I love walking  – I avoid the crowds, nausea, and expense of public transport, plus there’s always so much to see. Plus varying my route awakens the senses!  Since yesterday was surprisingly sunny and warm, I extended my walk past the Parliament and into the Volksgarten, and with my iPhone, I don’t need to lug my big/real camera when I’m not on a dedicated photo trip.  Nice!

2- Mana Prima

OK, this was totally cool and fun!  One of our teachers, David Heskin, has developed this technique of using powdered pigment and water to create abstract designs. It has since been taught to thousands. It’s a lot like what I was doing with airbrush colours, liquid acrylics and water, but with much more control and playing time. So I guess what I’m saying  is that it’s totally different, but similar in its intuitive creative play qualities and hand application as well as in its freeing spirit – anyone can do this.

Here are some pictures from today – we started with white pigment on black with a drop of blue/magenta (collaborative boards, and then individual black gesso-covered papers) and then colour on white. Then we went outside in the courtyard to spray them with acrylic varnish as there are no binders in this technique, so water re-activates the pigment. I’m so enjoying this intensive – I feel like Me again.  David then taught the class how to mirror images in Photoshop to create cool worlds – something I enjoy doing with my photography, but I’ve never done with my paintings.  The two mirrored images are of 2 of my pieces (not the best quality as shot on iPhone) – if you can see them close up, you’ll find lots of faces and creatures.

3- Pay What You Can Restaurant – Really?!

I love to eat – you probably already know that.  I enjoy delicious food about as much as I don’t enjoy cooking.  So an all-you-can-eat Pakistani buffet at whatever price you feel like paying sounded too good to be true.  But it was absolutely awesome!  Since our lunches this week are half an hour longer than usual, I initiated a group trek to Deewan to partake in an experience that some of the students had told me about.  Wow!  First, the food was absolutely delicious.  I had two plate-fulls and desert – healthy ingredients and lots of flavour and variety.  Second, the atmosphere was unique.  Yes, the place was absolutely packed – all three levels – mostly with young people.  All the tables were full, so we sat on a raised platform with cushions and low tables at the back of the 3rd level down. There was a definitely a higher consciousness feel to the place, yet I could see or sense no religious affiliation or agenda.  It simply seemed to be what it was – I’m definitely curious in learning more about it all as, after 7 years, they must be making a profit to survive while providing such a wonderful service.  Third, the price is right.  Drinks and take-out have set prices, but the buffet is truly a pay-what-you-can/want.  I even had to figure out where to pay on my way out, handing my money to a man on the phone who just dropped it in his cash without really looking/counting.  Interestingly, I chose to pay 4 Euros ( about $5.50 Cdn – more than some and less than I’ve ever paid for a meal out here).  I chose to do so because I could – a mix of both abundance and scarcity motives it seems…. very interesting.  I chose to do so, however, knowing that next time I will pay more, also simply because I can.  This payment system very much reminded me of how I run garage sales – I ask people to pay me whatever they want / can over $1 – some pay $1 and some ask me how much I originally paid for something and pay me that.  Very interesting indeed!  Again, I’ll have to go back and chat with them when they’re less busy or read up more online – I’m very curious –

4- German Conversation Meeting

This week, I returned to the Tunnel Club for the Couchsurfing German Conversation Meeting.  If you’ll remember, I went 2 weeks ago, but no one showed up for the first half hour, so I left.  This time, I went with Lizzy, one of my classmates, and we were soon joined by a man from Poland, 2 Austrians, another from Poland, one from Turkey, and so on.  By the time we left at 8:30pm, there were about 20 people around the table and I’m sure more showed up later as it goes until 11pm.  It was great!  We got to practice and to learn even if we were the most beginner students there. It was a very welcoming atmosphere. We’re going back next week.  Couchsurfing events in town (there are lots) are free, so that’s even better!  They’re everywhere around the world, so you might want to check it out for yourself.  A truly wonderful organization.

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