rossana martinez

First of all, thank you all for the good wishes. We are getting so close to the due date! Our home is filled with a sparkling feeling of anticipation.

We all know that during tough times there is always space for positive thinking and change. But watching or reading the news lately, makes it a challenge to remember. Change doesn’t have to be huge. We can start making tiny changes in our homes, studios and work. A good place to begin is in our minds.

Here are some of my recent positive findings and highlights:

Down with the Cube!

by Jerry Saltz

“…But what’s on view isn’t really the point. “From the Archives” suggests that a gallery can be a white box but needn’t feel like a mausoleum or act like a museum. Too much purity, architectural or esthetic, is bad for art right now; that art needs to feel more connected to the world. In this way the show is a moment to remember that a gallery is foremost a test site, not a store…”

The Boom Is Over. Long Live the Art!

By Holland Cotter

“…This has happened more than once in the recent past. Art has changed as a result. And in every case it has been artists who have reshaped the game.”

“…At the same time, if the example of past crises holds true, artists can also take over the factory, make the art industry their own. Collectively and individually they can customize the machinery, alter the modes of distribution, adjust the rate of production to allow for organic growth, for shifts in purpose and direction. They can daydream and concentrate. They can make nothing for a while, or make something and make it wrong, and fail in peace, and start again.”

“…Why not build into your graduate program a work-study semester that takes students out of the art world entirely and places them in hospitals, schools and prisons, sometimes in-extremis environments, i.e. real life?”

“…Such changes would require new ways of thinking and writing about art…”

Growing Awareness

Seven simple acts to help you cultivate a happier, healthier life.

By Charity Ferreira from Yoga Journal

1. Shift your perspective

2. Waste not

3. Restore health and happiness

4. Experience silence

5. Be a creator

6. Make an offering

7. Love your body

My favorite is number 6 — Make an offering. Ferreira writes: “…Commit to one selfless act each week…These moments are a chance to share someone else’s experience of the world and see the richness of your own existence.”

5 Ways to Be Mindful and Achieve Optimal Health

By Deborah Kotz

1. Consider what’s right with you

2. Love yourself unconditionally

3. Live in the present moment

4. When life gets tough, don’t take it personally

5. Put the “being” back in human

My favorite is number 5 — Kotz writes: “If you fill every moment with frenetic activity—work, text messaging, household chores, computer games—you never give yourself a chance to simply be. Too many of us are human stuff, the sum of our actions, instead of human beings, points out Kabat-Zinn. As corny as it sounds, just sitting for a moment to contemplate the clouds, the smell of freshly brewed coffee, the pattern of stalled cars winding around the freeway, is what separates us from the nut-gathering squirrels. And science shows it’s a great stress reliever, to boot.”

Milk

Written by Dustin Lance Black; Directed by Gus Van Sant

After the movie, I left the theater with an incredible feeling of inspiration and hope. Sean Penn is fantastic. Two things Harvey Milk (Penn) repeated during the movie have stayed with me.

“It’s not about personal gain, not about ego, not about power — it’s about giving people out there, hope. You gotta give them hope.”

“I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living.”

Image:

Lygia Pape

O Ovo (The Egg), 1967

Performance