This week I focused on the transformation within myself, I thought alot about the whole, what did I learn from this quarter as a whole?

I taught myself to throw pottery, which is a really amazingly embodied and fun thing to do!  Within doing this I witnessed many metaphors for transformation from within, which i talk alot about in my paper, which I worked alot on this week, being my main focus.

I Also finished Neuro!

I glazed many bowls and pots and thought about what I wanted from them.

I worked with Herbal First -Aid

and I started my self/teacher evals.

This week I worked for 37 Hours

I believe what helene cixous was getting at with her own exponential need to write and with expressing the dire need for all women to write, was that we need to allow space for the sensual, for the right brained, for the image driven culture to find their voice in this typically male-driven, left brained culture of writing.  You can see it in her writing, the expressive, incredibly image-filled words all strung together.  She is writing the goddess, writing the simplicity that was first inscribed on clay.  Rememberance being the point. She even states, once something is written, it is in the past, you now longer live it. Here I believe she is taping into the ideas behind cuniform, when cultures would write things down to remember, like what time of year they sowed seeds or how many cows they had.  It wasn’t necessarily to capture anything and convey it but a simple way to place mind onto matter, a place to return to, a representation of image, imprinted.   Its interesting how in remembering, in a sense we have become prone to forgetting..

Cixous beautifully conveys the tragedy of the male-driven culture that sprung from writing, in her own words she firmly states that, “Logos opens its great maw, and swallows us whole.” (Cixous, coming to writing, 46)

She asks the question, “What is the body for?”

This is fascinating to me, how can we see the part the body plays in a world where things are extracted from the body and written down on paper, removing the body from the equation?  Can we write the body into writing? Will this remove the body from writing?  Is it possible for the body to come into writing? Spoken word comes to mind, creating images and seeing words spill from the body.  But I believe the written language has boundaries, a full point, and that point of overflowing comes when we think of the body.  The body and writing can simply not survive together. Once you’ve written down the body you’ve lost the body.  I believe what needs to happen is the gratitude for the body, for without the body, there can be no writing.

May 20th

paper

neuro

2 hours

May 21st

Paper

Neuro reverie

6 hours

May 22nd

Class (Eirick)

pottery

haikus

paper

3.5

May 23rd

Paper

pottery

“women who runs with the wolves”

“The vegetative soul”

6 hours

May 24th

Rose harvesting/medicine and lore

“Women who run with the Wolves”

6 hours

May 26th

Paper

reading response

reading women who run with the wolves

reading neuro

7 hours

Total hours: 30.5

Week 7:

– A week full of difficulty.  Questions pondered: How does the body appear in writing? Why do we Write? Can you write the body, or are words woven to remind of the body? A look at Cixous and Pinkola Estes, searching for the feminine body in writing.   As we experience a sense of failure in the body, how do we empty the vessel? (body) Coming home to the body, coming home to writing.  recognizing the fluidness that lies in pottery and in the body, cycle after cycle coming home into the heart.  Goddess’ bringing light to the darkness, motherless, wordless, images getting cut away, and yet laughter provides release to the body.  Words containing vessels of continuously shifting meaning, vessels continuously shifting form, empty, full, overflowing and emptied again.  The mind works in similar ways, shifting and changing patterns and form, creating space for new meaning by emptying out old memories, a vessel of the mind being flushed by constant morphing, holding on and releasing, the mind working on both sides.  Both sides creating harmony, using word and image. Body and Word. Word and Clay. Empty and Full. –

May 14th

class, perloff and neuro

searching for sources on somatic experiences of feminine body

writing outline for final paper

reverie and reading neuro

8 hours

May 15th

writing outline of paper

testing glazes on plant plaques

throwing vessels, watching process

6 hours

May 16th

Class (Justin Gere) speaking on plant spirit medicine of Peru.

2 hours

pottery, shaping, focused and intent.

1 hour

May 17th

Herbal apprenticeship, doug fir tips, speak of grandmothers and the need for women to take secrets to the grave, themes from women who run with the wolves this week.

each week i am finding syncronicitys throughout my readings, life and understandings of my female body.

6 hours

May 18th

reading shlain

writing paper

2 hours

May 19th

Pottery studio

writing/collecting quotes for final paper

reading “Neuro”

7 hours

30 hours