"Attention is Devotion" Opens This Thursday

My new show opens this week. The work is already in Jackson and hanging on the walls at Gallery Wild. The official party happens on Thursday, but if you’re one to pre-game, by all means, please head in sooner and peruse. Or contact the gallery (info@gallerywild.com) and have them send you the images. They can even assist photoshopping a painting into your space to see if it fits. It’s part of the service.

See the work at Gallery Wild

With all this attention on paying attention, it occurred to me that I hadn’t actually taken an honest account of where I spent mine. If attention is currency, I needed to know - am I spending it wisely, or perhaps a better question, am I spending it on what I actually want? So last week, I did an audit and wrote a long list of what was actually taking my precious time. As you might expect, there were a number of lines spent on things completely outside my control, line items of outrage and anger, bullet points that denoted spiraling, and obviously a lot of time reading the news.

I would rather spend my time on other things, and also [gesticulates wildly] we are bombing a country because the president is having a tantrum. There is never a need for war, so how could we not be horrified and deeply sad? I too wish I could look away, and forget about it all. I wish I could just spend my time dreaming up blissful paintings and writing magical stories for everyone’s entertainment and pleasure. How will it ever stop if we just ignore the atrocities?

Speaking of which, please call you reps right now to demand they stop the senseless killing. Bombing a girl’s school and hospitals? Horrific. Taking out desalination plants? Unconscionable. The whole thing. Senseless.

Call now, you can come back to this. I’ll wait.

Back to my time audit. There were ways I spent my time that I liked, that felt good for me, where I felt like I was contributing or making connections. It was not all doom or gloom, but I want to feel better in between the moments of horror, if I can. I only learned in my 40s that you can experience joy even while in the depths of despair. And so, I’ve been practicing imagining my older self (and also my child self) and how they would want to spend their time.

Cloud watching certainly deserves its own line item.

The list for how I want to (not how I should) spend my time included exactly what you might expect - reading books (and less news), making art and things, being outside, spending time with the people I care about. What also came up, was wanting to celebrate more - both people and events. I’ve never been good at celebrating and honoring people, but I want to cultivate that.

And to do that, I think it also means celebrating myself, which I have historically been really bad at. So I’m learning, practicing, allowing. Baby steps of course, but if I’m going to love on other people, it begins with myself. The less judgment I have on myself, the less I will direct at others, because isn’t judgement simply a mirror?

This may seem like an awful time to celebrate, but I would like to challenge that notion. Musicians kept playing on the deck of the Titanic after all. Plus, it was my birthday last week - 46 now, which I can hardly believe. Also, I’m sure you know a Pisces and they could use some love right now - it’s hard being this sensitive in a sometimes cruel world.

This week is also my show, another good reason for me to celebrate. And what is a celebration after all, but a chance for connection? That has also been popping up in my mind lately - that we are all just searching for connection - with each other, with ourselves. How can we honor that more?

So this week, in honor my birthday and my show, would you find something in your own life to celebrate? Do it just because. And because you deserve it. And your people deserve it. If you can’t find cause/thing in your own life to celebrate, find someone you love to celebrate (especially a Pisces).

It’s actually pretty easy to celebrate the people you love if you’re paying attention.

Please join us for the opening of

“Attention is Devotion”

at Gallery Wild in Jackson, WY

on Thursday, March 12th from 5-8pm.

The Parnas Perspective Newsletter

Aaron Parnas writes one of the best newsletters out there, multiple times a day even, with the most up to date news coverage. His newsletters are free, but they are one of the few that I pay for because I feel like his work is so important. Independent media is where it’s at now and the fastest way to find out what is actually going on. It is harder to trust traditional news sources because many are owned by billionaires who control the coverage.

“Paying Attention Makes Me Feel Alive” - Anna Brones Nails It Again

Last week Anna wrote about attention and it made me feel like we had tuned into the same broadcast. I like it when everyone hits upon the same idea at the same time. Makes me feel like we’re all in a very special after school club. Also her post from this week on Artist Intelligence and casting out AI slop had me literally cheering.

“Pablo Neruda on How To Hold Time” - The Marginalian

Time and attention are inextricably linked and both are precious. I think my new goal going forward is simply to see how I can make it feel like I have more of both. I want life to slow down so I can really experience it all, and I feel pretty certain the formula for how to slow time is just to pay more attention.

Take a Dance Class

Last week I made a few friends go take a Country Swing Dance lesson with me and we had a blast. The first 20 minutes were just as awkward as your first middle school dance, but then we were having fun, it ended too quickly, and we all wanted more. We took the lesson at a dance studio for adults and the place was packed, especially for the latin dance lesson. Go dance. Go take a lesson. Go be with people, have fun, and celebrate