06/16/2024
There is this strange feeling
a burst of emotional rain
that comes in with the summer winds
you have been waiting for
after a season of cold.
When you have been on your path
a long long long time and you are weary.
And you are stronger than you have ever been.
You have been weathered by times fingers
braiding your aging hair.
The weary-strong feeling is curious indeed.
You are really ready for anything,
you are almost brawny in your capacity.
But you, I,
would prefer a long Summer's nap
rather than take on the world again
to make it bend to your vision.
The sun sure feels good on your face,
doesn't it?
This feeling, 'that something has changed'
in the terrain you usually tread
is uncomfortable and also welcome.
The ground of being you are used to
becomes unfamiliar to your feet.
It's the feet that tell you.
The moss between your toes
smells different.
The way you move your hands
to make what you have always made
changes and you try something
new and create different results.
Still unfamiliar to you,
where did THAT come from?
It's the hands that show you.
When you are doing
what you have always done
to say yes to your calling
and what used to be is no more
then it is time for a shape-shifting.
This is never fast, always slow
and at times, painful to watch.
The colorful flowers growing around
you take their time to show their faces.
You long for brightness, I know I do.
A red butterfly shows you the way
suggesting cocooning instead
of blooming just yet.
Rest in the cocoon.
You speak to a small bright orange bird
and she answers you.
The opalescent lizard on the succulent
seems to know where to look
for snacks and you follow him.
If you listen....real close to the day
If you lean in, instead of out
life will bloom through you
again, but different.
Instead of running uphill
in a dress soaked with sweat
You will be carried along.
But you don't get to choose
dates and times on calendars
You must wait for life to show you.
You can set a table for a love
that won't come just yet.
And still, you are embraced
And still, you are embraced
You are the embrace of life
living through you.
Rest now, there will be time
to shift the shapes of yesterday
into the materials of tomorrow.
The compost you created
will be good nourishment
for growing what rises up.
The prayer bowls are over-flowing
and so I will chant the words
until new ones arise.
You will see, can you hear me
chanting the prayers to the Summer moon?
Shifting Terrain
by Shiloh Sophia
Written just now
Red Thread Letter #964: Shapeshifting Personal + Professional
Dear Community of
MUSEA (Global Community)
and MUSETTE (Local gallery)
I am writing with news of big-good-challenging-exciting changes for us. We have completed our time with Musette Atelier on the Plaza in Sonoma, our retail gallery. We are relocating the gallery and wine bar to our larger location at the Ranch. At MUSEA, the ranch, we have our film studio, kitchens, wine bar, atelier, retail, outdoor gardens, classroom, healing arts collective space and so much more!
Our grand re-opening is scheduled for August 17 - plan to join us for an open house and tour. We can't wait to welcome you. Thank you to EVERYONE who has been a part of our local happening, at Musette on the Plaza and the party WILL CONTINUE!
This decision is challenging, but also welcome. Our energies were so divided between our two locations, so this allows us to focus on the blooming cultivation at MUSEA Ranch. We have been in this location since 2016 and continue to fall in love with being here and making the changes to reflect our future vision.
Thank you Sonoma Plaza. I am grateful for this time. As a child, I learned to walk on the plaza so it is a close and tender place for me.
I have been in retail since I was in my early twenties, and something has definitely changed. Maybe it is just me? And how I want to spend my time? I will share just a little because people ask me....but it is strange to give language to.
On the plaza, we sold more paintings than we have the previous 4 years. We had the most amazing events and made the most wonderful connections....but something was different. I would go in there and be all excited for the day, and often leave, almost depressed. I don't get depressed without great cause. What was it? For me, it was the quality and quantity of connections. I have been doing retail for a long long time....and I know my audience and my town and it just felt - strange. Again it could have just been me, lol!
The galleries before were all about relationships and connections and they would come almost daily. The paintings continued to sell, and I hope they will continue to - but it was a feeling that changed - plus an orientation to the work itself - and a different clientele. I might go a week or two without a real connection.....or someone who saw the work, really saw it.
I have things I can point at that come to mind....like how when AI art came to the plaza the very energy felt different to me. There is a favorite local restaurant that carried my friend Julie Higgins art for over twenty years, and then it went to AI with each room featuring a different style - just one of the walls would take one artist a lifetime to cultivate. I am not harshing on the artist, but still, there is this strange feeling. The first time we went in there after the change in art, Jonathan and I could barely eat and we wondered how it would impact things.....slowly but surely. Quickly and surely. Things were getting more and more slick and less and less authentic.
With AI, you need to get better at asking questions and proposing queries, and it isn't about brushwork at all. It isn't about time spent in a field getting to know the color of grass. It isn't about the years spent learning to hold a brush. It isn't about the vision that is in your heart finding self-expression. Instead, it is about commands and questions combined to formulate an image cultivated by tens of thousands of artists, including me. I get served ads for my own imagery from both AI stuff as well as foreign companies reselling my art. Really. But I am not here to debate AI, although this artist feels it - and it is strange.
Another thing I notice is how people are more distant since you-know-what-that starts with a C (but if I put it in here my email gets flagged as spam.) How people would walk in and see me painting and ask if I am the artist, I would say yes, and they would walk away, lol, saying nothing - but reach to touch the texture of thick white paint, not slick, but textured. Sometimes people would ask if it was real. In the past, seeing me paint would be the most exciting thing for people. There was almost a dullness, a distance, a distraction. People would come in and sit on the couches and look at their phones. Then there is the reaction to the images of the feminine - women would walk in and walk out. The men would stay and sit and ask questions. I am telling you, I think my art started scaring people. Really.
There were some worthwhile connections that I am so grateful for - and you know who you are because you come to circle, and you will lead the future of the Healing Arts Collective. Thank you to all the members and clients of the collective, you will hear from us soon! The Healing Arts Collective will continue, we will have a place for private sessions and bodywork and astrology and the hand-made products of Vicchi Oleski and Ali Stoddard and the teachings of Michelle Dench and Katy Atchinson, and more to come. Jonathan's herbal remedies continue to develop and will be shared along with his teas and serums and chocolates and wine. Musette continues on in a dedicated space with a separate entrance.
At Musette Atelier, the prayer bowl was overflowing. Sometimes people would walk in, say nothing, write a prayer, pull a Mother Mary card, and slip out again. I know the gallery was a welcome sanctuary for many, including children. The kids walking by would drag their parents in, pulled by the colors. The prayers from the gallery were brought safely to the ranch and ceremony will be done. Whatever it was, I was no longer called to open shop. Whatever it was, I finally felt like I wanted to use my life force in other ways.
Waking up and not having to go...and instead heading to my studio is a welcome change. I have a new studio and I am thriving there - mostly I sit there and just rest for now. Opening to new energies and worlds within me seeking expression.
This is a peek into my new/old studio at MUSEA.
The writing above came this morning as I began to write this letter to you - and is specifically for the long-time entrepreneurs who have had to weather so many changes over the past four years since the "c" era began, like watching a slow-motion series on economic weather that you have very little to do with and very little idea what to do next. You know it is time for change, but changing into what remains to be seen.
We need new models, as the old ones fall away but we don't know what actions to take, yet. Some of us lean towards AI and others of us lean out. Some of us lean into speeding up and efficiency and others don't want to play the game. The choices we are making seem monumental yet make very little impact in the shape of things. It can be hard to trust the terrain when you feel uncertain of their next steps.
My feet however are certain of their next steps. I just had to come and tell you all this so I can move towards my future. I know there is grief, at this change, and for me a feeling of loss, but also relief. The photo above that Jonathan took is right after we moved all the plants from Musette. I worked with them to make this little set when you first walk in the door at MUSEA. There are plants there we have had for over 25 years and that have been in every gallery. Plants that my mothers, Caron and Sue planted with their own hands. Plants from my last marriage.
Making altars everywhere is how I heal when the winds of change blow through... Those of us studying for Certification in Intentional Creativity are in the course Animystica, and this photo was on the first day of our curriculum. Endings and beginnings. The old chapters are complete and a new book is being born. Literally.
I am weary and strong and my face is in the sun....and my feet are steady and my hands know where to work. But first, I had to tell you.
Because you matter to me. So much more than I can ever even tell you.
With love from my heart to yours. I know this letter was ALLLLL about me and my process, but I just had to get it out here. Been holding my breath and now, I breathe.
XO
~ Shiloh Sophia
