what the Helen of Troy was that about?
letter to New Orleans musician Trombone Shorty
aka Troy Andrews.
hello Troy,
I read about you in some of my recent research for coming to New Orleans.
I am coming to make some new walking works as part of an art residency with Tulane University. I read your walking piece/article in a newspaper -- would you be interested in taking a walk and showing me some of your neighborhoods?
Sorry I will miss your upcoming SF performance dates but I hope to see you in New Orleans. I am a San Francisco artist & I work with many musicians on the project Rock & Roar.
Well I cannot seem to get your email address from your band website (was up the other week but not tonight).
If you want to talk or take a walk as part of my new art project with Tulane Univ, please give me a call or email.
Happy New Year!
Anne Devine
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Labels: connecting, letter, rock and roar, walk
that's suitcase not baggage
01:20 AM 01 Jan 09
2009
Happy New Year Mom
I wheeled my suitcase full of art goodies out the door at 11:59 PM so we were walking with suitcase from 2008-into-2009 this year; emphasis on art + communication, with walking as a given now.
See you in New Orleans!!
Happy New Year to US
Love
Anne
Labels: connecting, letter, night, seed, seeding behavior, spell, spontaneous, transformation, walk
the journey of a letter (two)
Dear Peter,
I know that you are very very tired now. Maybe too tired to read, so you & Sally are together and she is reading this aloud to you. You know how much I love you two, my dear friends, and I wish I could be there right now to spend time with you – to be present, with compassion and love, to keep you company & to be together. You are always in my heart Peter. That may sound corny but it is true! Maybe because I live so far away I always carry this lifetime of experiences, moments, memories with me – so for us it is folk mass (long ago), catching up in the driveway, sitting at the kitchen table, walking our dogs, the hole in the hedge between our houses --- the little moments, the Big moments. I kept the wrapper from the Stollen cake you brought me last Christmas – here – wrapping your letter- because it makes me smile – you make me smile Peter! Thank you for being my friend – I cherish our friendship always.
I found something recently while walking the dog at Half Moon Bay – the beach we walked when you came to visit – yes in August I was walking and when I came up from the beach I stopped with the dog to take my shoe off & dump the sand out. When I leaned on the fence post to stabilize myself, I saw this stone cross inside the fence post – someone left it there.
I don’t always know why I find things but I
CAN recognize their significance – things stick out to me and sometimes they really do
STICK OUT, as in this case! I thought you might like to have it now you know the story and how it reminds me of you, of us, of our walk there – our day together. The stone – I forget what kind it is – it as a nice feel to it and a little weight, feels good in the hand, if you hold it.
I have enclosed some photos from my
Florida walk in April – when I jumped out of a plane & walked 24 miles by myself in the dark on the Canaveral
National Seashore. It was grueling, exhausting, difficult, and at the same time, enlightening. When I was really really tired and maybe a bit concerned about being washed away to sea or stopping and not getting up all by myself, I
found a
letter on the small strip of beach, at my feet while walking, it was tied to a balloon and the wind carried it hundreds of miles then it washed up on the shore at my feet, and I found it in the dark! It made me so happy to know there was communication from a stranger, that this synchronicity happened. I was so tired I could not break the plastic string to open the letter while I was walking in the night but I tied the balloon to my backpack and it knocked around keeping my company. Also, the moon was near full and cast my shadow ahead of me in the sand as I walked. I could now see the shadow of the balloon cast in front of me as well – it really cheered me up and I didn’t feel so alone on my exhausting journey.
I hope this letter cheers you up like the one I found on the beach – and like the balloon I may not be in your direct line of sight but you know I’m with you wherever your journey takes you.
I love you very much Peter – I know you know that!
I will be home Friday ----
Labels: death, fabulous, letter, love, mail, memory, moon, night, ocean, sea, walk
the journey of a letter (one)
2 letters remain unopened.... I have found they deserve travel, a long journey where they can be read and reread for pure delight. I soon head to Oaxaca by bus, 20 hours of bus-ride, for the Day of the Dead. I shall sit in some little cemetery, in some little pueblo, festooned with orange garlands, and sip a white mezcal--like those beneath the gravestones before me had-- and read the handwritten pages ...
gracias,
J.
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Labels: death, letter, mail, memory
i can't spell carriage. C-A-R-R-I-A-G-E.
hopping a flight
i'll be home Friday
THINKING OF YOU
Sally & Peter
WITH LOVE
ALWAYS
anne
kit kats
sugar daddys
candy corn
trick or treat
milk duds
butter fingers
whoH i ate too much candy
I WIN I WIN I WIN I WIN I WIN I WIN
is this a fight? no its a ritual
do you have something to say? i didn't hear you
don't forget to vote. oh, i won't forget to vote
once there were 4 BREAGYs
i met their dad in the 80s
we all went camping in the Catskills & slept in tents
however i haven't seen the BREAGYs since ...
- new hampshire
--- new hampshire
----- new hampshire
. . . . . is that like camping every night ?
are you guys soccer champs ruling the field from yr new roost up there in the NORTH. hey you can learn to drive in a field in a farm truck that's fun. How tall are you and what year in school are you? we went camping and Jack brought me espresso to my tent. wow. now you guys probably DRINK COFFEE because that was years ago. you liked my dog BLUE, she had one blue eye. i think we wore flannel shirts. and chopped wood? I hope you have lots of TREES now. i am going to live in a forest for 6 WKS. i walk a lot. i miss you BREAGYs.
i can't spell carriage. C-A-R-R-I-A-G-E.
love, anne
---
Labels: letter, mail, memory, spell, spontaneous
the beauty of today
The beauty of today, i cannot even lasso with words to put on this page. it has been an eye-opener, a reality, an un.reality, a hint of the future, something always hoped for, dreamed of, worked for all those things and so many more.
hard sweet hard is funded, locked in, going to happen. in a few short weeks i have written a new proposal and it has been funded by strangers who have never met me but love my work and are truly excited to have me come explore, make it, bring it to life there. – just as i am so amazed. there have been so many challenges, and it is not easy to keep a focus on making art when the other demands of life pull and claw. and I think sometimes, will I go under? where is my rent $ ? food? it always works out somehow in the end, and each new challenge brings an even brighter surprise on the other side.
I have learned so much this year, have found so many things to be happy for
TODAY: HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY.
dialed in, very aware, living in a state of heightened awareness, as if the magic is appearing, the formulas are unlocking and writing themselves in the air. acts of faith, belief i feel at times. like I am just trying so hard to think them into being, to realize the thoughts. in such close proximity to madness, i question myself at times. is it madness too? but I am reassured by fellow artists, as I too have reassured them at other times. i am ever.hopeful that this is the flow - that all the long years of hard work, collecting experience and skills, of proposing ideas, trying, risking, heading out into the unknown with the ideas and faith and however much preparedness one can “bring” … anyway I do feel that this is the beginning of a very productive time.
Labels: letter
