January 10, 2004
Hello, and Happy New Year!
I hope your new year is off to a great start! It's great to connect with you, again. I hope you'll take a moment to read through the news and such, below. There's lots going on in ArtellaLand, and I'm looking forward to another great year with you!
This week's Articulation is called Once Upon a New Year, and is a brief meditation on empty spaces and new beginnings.
To view Once Upon a New Year, click here!
If the above link doesn't work, simply cut and paste this URL in your browser:http://www.artellawordsandart.com/artic57.html
My Special Skills: A Funny Story
This is a funny, true story that happened to me a few days ago, when I came back from my trip to Dallas, and I thought it might give you a chuckle.
At the very end of a long day of layovers and cancelled flights, we had finally landed in our home airport. I was sitting in the airport gate, waiting for my husband to come out of the men's room, and the pilot came off the plane and started chatting with me.
We talked about weather, and layovers, and other stuff, and then he said, "Well, I'm glad that we had one of you on board."
Not knowing what to think, I said, "Really?"
He said, "Oh yes. It's always nice to know that someone with your skills is available, should we have needed it."
And then his co-pilot came out, and he left.
Well, I was baffled. My SKILLS? How does he know about my skills? And what the heck does he mean - that I could put out a quick anti-terroism zine if need be? That I could offer a quickie Accounting Your Blessings workshop, if the cabin suddenly lost pressure? What in the WORLD????!!!!????
I sat there in utter confusion until I looked at one of my carry-on bags, which was a duffle borrowed from a friend that has "Emergency Room Nurses Association of New Jersey" printed on it.
Oh... ah ha. He thought I was an ER nurse.
:-)
Artella News!
1. Artella 5 mailed on Monday! Well, you probably noticed that I didn't send Artella 5 out from Dallas, after all. Once I was there, I got a healthy dose of perspective and realized that being with my family and friends was more important than rushing to get the issue out. But don't despair -- the shipment arrived yesterday and we'll be assembling all weekend so that this issue, called Winter Magic & Muse, will be mailed out on Monday and Tuesday!
Thanks to my husband, mother-in-law, and friends Alicia Forest and Melissa Chapin for help with assembling. Also thanks to Arthiss Kliever and Bobby Miller for making hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of lovely paper ornaments that are included in the issue, and to Violette for designing the funky New Year's play-cards included in your envelope of goodies. Also thanks to Deb Silva for her angelic administrative assistance that helped make this issue happen.
Finally, a big thank you to the 39 contributors whose work dances in the pages, and to EVERYONE who has purchased this issue!
To order your copy of Artella 5, click here!
2. Listen to Holiday Stories! I'm keeping the links up for the Holiday Story Days until January 15, so if you haven't listened to this series of 12 audio recordings, be sure to check them out in the next few days. You can hear everything from Winter Solstice meditations, to Hanukkah stories, to Bible readings, to children's stories, to classical poetry. It's a lot of fun, so be sure to listen before I retire the page.
3. New e-courses and workshops! There are lots of new offerings on the Workshops page ! To summarize:
- There's a new free teleworkshop scheduled for February, WordJazz Poetry!
- A new session of Goalar Energy starts on January 19, just in time to help you make your New Year's resolutions come true! I've added some new features to continue to expand this popular course, including making ALL lessons available in audio format, as well as in text! To hear a recording of a sample lesson, visit
http://www.ArtellaWordsAndArt.com/workshops.html.
and click the Play button that's at the beginning of the Goalar Energy section. There's also still time to sign up for the complimentary 4-day trial, to test out the course!
- There's a brand new e-course that begins February 23 called Creating Your Own YOUniversity. This 16-week course provides you with EVERYTHING you need to know to develop, write, facilitate, and market your own teleworkshops, e-courses, and eBooks. Enroll by February 15 and save $100.00 (that's not a typo!) The course is limited to 14 participants and the spaces are already filling up, so be sure to sign up soon. All the info is at
http://www.ArtellaWordsAndArt.com/workshops.html.
- Don't forget that registration is ongoing for the e-courses, Accounting Your Blessings and Writes and Passages - both courses can really make a difference in your new year!
4. New format for ArtellaVision online community! We're trying out a new format for the ArtellaVision discussion group - a message board, hosted by WorldCrossing, instead of a Yahoo list. If you'd like to check it out, we'd LOVE to have you join our community of 150+ creative, supportive, dynamic individuals!
Gloria Page, author of "Holy Moly Mackeroly: Reflections on the Business of Art and the Art of Life described the group in this way:
"ArtellaVision goes beyond info/technique sharing. Bring a creative group of artists together, artists dedicated to the passion of living 'the art life' on many levels, artists willing to bare their souls and be there for each other's stumbles and victories, and you begin to touch the reality of the ArtellaVision experience - it is called friendship."
To check out the new message board, go to http://worldcrossing.com/WebX?14@@.1dde77f2 and click the link to become a new member.
You also might be interested in checking out our other two communities, EvocativeWords and Creative bARTering. Info on both groups can be found at this link.
Artful Links
1. While working on Artella 5, I became a bit obsessed with making snowflakes, and Dodo, an ArtellaVision member, introduced me to http://snowflakebentley.com/index.htm. It's a really cool site about the man who was the first to study and photograph snowflakes, and many of his original photos are included on the site. It's awesomely enchanting!
2. Eric Maisel is the author of lots of books on creativity, and he is known for striking a precise and effective balance between fearless creating and practicality. His Web site is http://www.ericmaisel.com. Be sure to sign up for his newsletter, full of tips and advice for creative folks. (Thanks, Kathy, for this link!)
Wishing you elegance in the emptiness of what is to be in 2004...
~in my Fairy Tale castle,
Marney
Artella Editor
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