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Paige Tighe's residency is moving along nicely. Right now I'm envious because she actually left here to do a 10-day silent meditation retreat in Northern California. Oh to escape all the silliness of the holidays right now to be totally silent! It is a beautiful way. However, I might have some trouble with not being able to journal or draw. Maybe I could give up the writing, but not drawing might kill me. Perhaps that is the point of the meditation.
Since September 13th when she arrived, Paige has been doing walks with strangers - mostly along the bluffs between Poplar City Beach and the State Beach at Kelly. We've had amazingly nice weather but she's from Minnesota so even our bad weather probably feels balmy to her.
Paige's goal was to walk with 20 strangers during this residency. She's at 11 now. I was #10. She has a couple more weeks right after the holidays and then we all get to walk with strangers as her community project portion of the residency. That event will be on January 4th starting at my home on Poplar and walking wherever each couple wants to go and for whatever length of time.
Paige documents each walk by having the person she walks with do a drawing/writing She also does her own account of the experience with a drawing and writing. She also writes about the walks on her blog and takes photos. I love how most of the photos have some great shots of people wearing their sunglasses because it has been so bright and sunny here.
I forgot to take a photo of my drawing and writing about the walk, but what I remember is that I got to pick Paige's brain about some ideas I have for social practice art projects and I liked the safety of walking in a big rectangle for some reason. Also, it didn't bother me at all to hold hands with Paige on the walk, and I thought it was amusing that of course I ran into someone I knew. They didn't mind that we were holding hands. Holding someone's hand while walking had me feel more grounded too. I couldn't do my usual hand-waving.
I hope if you are reading this, you will consider coming down to the beach on January 4th to walk in the new year. I really hope you might walk with a total stranger and hold their hand, noticing what it is like to be with someone this way.
J A N U A R Y 4th 2 0 1 4
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