So Many Gifts

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).

“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:

On 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….

I 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…