After 1998, things stopped and began.
STOPPED: My seven year tenure trac job at the University of Texas Austin was terminated and tenure denied and after a year of struggle with lawyers, sobbing over hundreds of protest letters of support and an publically and proudly waving around an appeal from then Governor George W Bush (artist), saying: "Linda Montano should/can /must be hired by UT for Assistant Professor or is it Associate professor..." or something like that, I surrendered. Georgie's letter of support didn't make any difference and didn't sway the UT President so I was forced to follow my inner voices that for months had chanted, "Linda, go home and be with your father." My theory is that I was not brave enough to listen to my intuitive whispers so the university played the role of prod/deus ex machina and the deed was done FOR ME by them. My subconscious was let off the hook. Being fired left me kicking and screaming all the way back to upstate NY, isolating myself for two years in my beautiful ART/LIFE INSTITUTE studio/home in Kingston NY where I read and re-read my glowing student evaluations and let it really sink in that I was REALLY NOT an academic and that being exiled to the cold-gulogued northeast was actually a boon!
BEGAN: Dad and I began a video collaboration. It was as exciting as teaching actually because I was in the line of his attention, an attention that was not possible when he and Mom worked 6 and a half days a week to feed/clothe and shelter all 4 kids and themselves. So I basked in his wonderful presence and attention, chauffeured Dad and his classy "girlfriend" to restaurants but more importantly, teaching me skills that I would need soon after, that is, life how too's. How to start his lawn mower; how to really make good use of doctor visits by writing symptoms down before going and writing the doctor's comments while there; how to save water; how to go to church everyday; how to visit relatives as a sign of loyalty; how to forget betrayals of ex-friends; how to be silent and content; how to be gracious; how to let people who did carpentry and other home repairs for him do their job and pay a fair wage; how to never gossip about anyone; how to make linguine and clams; how to not want things; how to enjoy Wheel of Fortune and how to forgive.
STOPPED: An unspeakably horrendous and terrible mishap/mistake by a psychopathic therapist at his Physical Therapy visit resulted in his having a hemorrhagic stroke and three of those seven years I spent with dad were in his home, now a nursing home so to speak. I became a 24-7 caregiver and manager of the 94847 people who were hired to take care of him. Since Dad and I had already begun our video collaboration, I continued taping our life together and the camera, the humongous and original porta-pak, became my shield and hiding behind it alleviated my being present to the unspeakable sorrow of witnessing that Dad had STOPPED! My choice was to be a step removed or else die with him.
After his death in 2005, I edited the footage and performed along with the video as mourning and not art. This was truly life-art and life and not art and taught me about art that could not be sold or bought or written about or critiqued. Grief is unreviewable, unmuseumable, un Artforumable. VIDEO
STOPPED: Four years later my adopted "mother" Dr. Aruna Mehta died. And my art-life stopped as I took care of her in hospitals and rehabs and at her family's home. Observing her methodology and grace and ability to USE illness as a job, I felt privledged to be in her presence and learn theologically how to age and let go, even of life itself. Ba could have been a big-time GURU FROM INDIA but chose to love those lucky enough to either be born into her family or those who were included in her compassion. After her cremation, a few of us drove back to her family's home in her grandson's car and 15 feet from the crematorium, another car parked on the street to our right, burst into 40 foot flames as we passed it. Obviously a minor indication of her profound spiritual "power." The flame still burns.
STOPPED: My seven year tenure trac job at the University of Texas Austin was terminated and tenure denied and after a year of struggle with lawyers, sobbing over hundreds of protest letters of support and an publically and proudly waving around an appeal from then Governor George W Bush (artist), saying: "Linda Montano should/can /must be hired by UT for Assistant Professor or is it Associate professor..." or something like that, I surrendered. Georgie's letter of support didn't make any difference and didn't sway the UT President so I was forced to follow my inner voices that for months had chanted, "Linda, go home and be with your father." My theory is that I was not brave enough to listen to my intuitive whispers so the university played the role of prod/deus ex machina and the deed was done FOR ME by them. My subconscious was let off the hook. Being fired left me kicking and screaming all the way back to upstate NY, isolating myself for two years in my beautiful ART/LIFE INSTITUTE studio/home in Kingston NY where I read and re-read my glowing student evaluations and let it really sink in that I was REALLY NOT an academic and that being exiled to the cold-gulogued northeast was actually a boon!
BEGAN: Dad and I began a video collaboration. It was as exciting as teaching actually because I was in the line of his attention, an attention that was not possible when he and Mom worked 6 and a half days a week to feed/clothe and shelter all 4 kids and themselves. So I basked in his wonderful presence and attention, chauffeured Dad and his classy "girlfriend" to restaurants but more importantly, teaching me skills that I would need soon after, that is, life how too's. How to start his lawn mower; how to really make good use of doctor visits by writing symptoms down before going and writing the doctor's comments while there; how to save water; how to go to church everyday; how to visit relatives as a sign of loyalty; how to forget betrayals of ex-friends; how to be silent and content; how to be gracious; how to let people who did carpentry and other home repairs for him do their job and pay a fair wage; how to never gossip about anyone; how to make linguine and clams; how to not want things; how to enjoy Wheel of Fortune and how to forgive.
STOPPED: An unspeakably horrendous and terrible mishap/mistake by a psychopathic therapist at his Physical Therapy visit resulted in his having a hemorrhagic stroke and three of those seven years I spent with dad were in his home, now a nursing home so to speak. I became a 24-7 caregiver and manager of the 94847 people who were hired to take care of him. Since Dad and I had already begun our video collaboration, I continued taping our life together and the camera, the humongous and original porta-pak, became my shield and hiding behind it alleviated my being present to the unspeakable sorrow of witnessing that Dad had STOPPED! My choice was to be a step removed or else die with him.
After his death in 2005, I edited the footage and performed along with the video as mourning and not art. This was truly life-art and life and not art and taught me about art that could not be sold or bought or written about or critiqued. Grief is unreviewable, unmuseumable, un Artforumable. VIDEO
STOPPED: Four years later my adopted "mother" Dr. Aruna Mehta died. And my art-life stopped as I took care of her in hospitals and rehabs and at her family's home. Observing her methodology and grace and ability to USE illness as a job, I felt privledged to be in her presence and learn theologically how to age and let go, even of life itself. Ba could have been a big-time GURU FROM INDIA but chose to love those lucky enough to either be born into her family or those who were included in her compassion. After her cremation, a few of us drove back to her family's home in her grandson's car and 15 feet from the crematorium, another car parked on the street to our right, burst into 40 foot flames as we passed it. Obviously a minor indication of her profound spiritual "power." The flame still burns.
BEGAN: Dystonia is a neurological-parkinsonian-chronic condition that produces strange contortions and tremors and spasms and in my case, makes, literally makes my head squirm and twist and lock to the left without my permission. Mine appeared after my father died and of course I followed my art rule and not only made art with it but maybe even made money off of it because I was able to appear as Mother Theresa who I resembled in my crooked and bent over spinal contortions. The way that art event was born goes like this: one day I was experiencing a dystonical "storm"(seizure-like cramping) and my inner voice said to me, "Linda, you look just like Mother Theresa!" And so, I take seriously those voices and I said, if I look like her then I need to be her. Getting permission from her Bronx nuns to "play" Mother Theresa in my art, I appeared at the Empire State Building on her 100th birthday in protest because they wouldn't turn the lights to blue and white but DID turn the lights to yellow for Sponge Bob! Really!See the videos Dystonia and Mother Theresa (VIDEOS)
BEGAN: Although I had begun a "school" in 1998, as a way to reflect to others the intricacies and excitements of making a 7 year structured/conceptual frame to hang my content on, others were as excited as I was by the prospect and "studied" with me online via ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART, 1998-2019. They did exciting and engrossing and fabulous things and connected me to the art world in an exciting way as we emailed and skyped and encouraged each other's 7 year performances. The mission statement/participants/invitation:
THE PUBLIC INVITATION:
Linda Montano, FF Alumn, seeks a collaborator.
Do you want to collaborate with Linda M. Montano? Linda M. Montano is looking for someone who would like to perform the Second 7 years of 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART. After completing 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART, Montano gave the first seven years of 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART to Betsea Caygill and this Term will finish december 8, 2005. The next person will begin December 8,2005 and complete the performance December 8,2012.( Actually there were 12 participants in the second 7 years. Two people in the third seven years.)
What to do: you can do research on the seven sacraments, seven chakras, seven sins, the Kaballah, seven colors of the rainbow or any other intimate interest .It should be researched before the performance.
Look at www.bobsart.org to see some images of the ways I lived the 14 Years of my performance. You , of course, will do things your way. (this is now: www.lindamontano.com)
Design a safe, nurturing, helpfull to self and others vow that you will take for those seven years that will help your art/life.
What is expected: at the end of the performance, December 8, 2012, you will send me/email also, a seven page paper which consists of one page from a year-end report from each of the seven years.
What you get: A PERFORMANCE ART SAINT CERTIFICATE at the end of the Performance.
To apply:
Do you want to collaborate with Linda M. Montano? Linda M. Montano is looking for someone who would like to perform the Second 7 years of 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART. After completing 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART, Montano gave the first seven years of 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART to Betsea Caygill and this Term will finish december 8, 2005. The next person will begin December 8,2005 and complete the performance December 8,2012.( Actually there were 12 participants in the second 7 years. Two people in the third seven years.)
What to do: you can do research on the seven sacraments, seven chakras, seven sins, the Kaballah, seven colors of the rainbow or any other intimate interest .It should be researched before the performance.
Look at www.bobsart.org to see some images of the ways I lived the 14 Years of my performance. You , of course, will do things your way. (this is now: www.lindamontano.com)
Design a safe, nurturing, helpfull to self and others vow that you will take for those seven years that will help your art/life.
What is expected: at the end of the performance, December 8, 2012, you will send me/email also, a seven page paper which consists of one page from a year-end report from each of the seven years.
What you get: A PERFORMANCE ART SAINT CERTIFICATE at the end of the Performance.
To apply:
email Lindamontano@hotmail.com
_(End of announcement listed on Franklin Furnace, 2004 )___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART: LINDA MARY MONTANO 1998-2019
ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART (1998-2019): LINDA MARY MONTANO
MISSION STATEMENT: ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART (1998-2019) is art that compassionately practices an appreciation for life and is a durational continuation of my exploration of the art of consciousness. The artist/lifeists invited to this experience, ecumenically choose their own unique methodologies and explore their work while remaining in virtual/internet communication with each other throughout their practice of compassionately transforming their life, via art. It is based on Linda Mary Montano’s endurance: 7 YEARS OF LIVING ART + ANOTHER 7 YEARS OF LIVING ART = 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART, 12/8/1984—12/8/1998. www.lindamontano.com www.vdb.org http://lindamarymontano.blogspot.com
DESCRIPTION: “When I finished 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART, an art experience-endurance based on the 7 chakras, I became so enamored of working with time that I wanted to share that joy with others, and so I designed ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART. I felt that other artists could become virtual/internet art family and I would feel as if I were in good company, with like-minded friends, doing work based on time, endurance and with reference to my past work, but interpreted by each artist according to their discipline, practice and personal aesthetic.
I am proud and honored to be in the company of the following life-artists in this Scholl of ART/LIFE.” Linda Mary Montano
PARTICIPANT IN THE FIRST SEVEN YEARS OF ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART: 1998-2005: BETSEA CAYGILL: LIVING LIFE ARTFULLY.
PARTICIPANTS IN SECOND SEVEN YEARS OF ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART: 2005-2012
MICHELLE BUSH: SEVEN YEARS OF POSITIVE OBSESSIONS, 12/8/2005-12/8/2012. I obsess on one sentence/statement and colour in relation to the chakras producing collaborative or interventionist and performance pieces each year.
BARBARA CARRELLAS: EIGHT NEW/ANCIENT SACRAMENTS OF PLEASURE AND CHANGE, 12/8/2004-12/8/2011. I create chakra-based rituals which I celebrate on the eight natural holidays (solstices, equinoxes, etc.) that explore and celebrate the paradoxes between the fixed commitments/initiations of the seven sacraments of the Catholic church and the ever-changing, fluid realms of intuition, pleasure and nature. EIGHT YEARS OF LIVING ART, www.barbaracarrellas.com
SC DURKIN: SEVEN YEARS OF MUSIC, 12/8/2005-12/8/2012. I endeavor to learn one musical instrument a year for the next seven years. SEVEN YEARS OF MUSIC, www.scdurkin.com
KOOSIL-JA HWANG: 12/8/2004-12/8/2011. www.dancekk.com
VERNITA N'COGNITA: 7 MORE UNTITLED YEARS OF WHEREVER MY ART LEADS ME, 12/8/2004-12/8/2011. www.ncognita.com
ESTHER K. SMITH: THEIR HOUSE IS A MUSEUM, 12/8/2004-12/8/2011. Seven years in other people's houses. EK SMITH MUSEUM, www.purgatorypiepress.com
KRISTA KELLY WALSH: SEVEN MIRRORS, 2006-2012. My work is based on the Cabalist system of reading the will of the seven planetarty spirits in the seven mirrors that are made of seven metals and associated with the 7 days of the week, seven planets and cooresponding themes. Each year I will make a corresponding mirror and wear a bead of the same metal, make projects and performances based on the themes of that metal.
SATELLITE PROJECT:
The satellite project is an ongoing congruent program of artists/lifeists within ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART.
PARTICIPANTS IN THE SATALITE PROJECT:
STEVEN REIGNS: S(T)EVEN YEARS, 1/12007-1/1/20014. I intend to explore the connection between art, life, and spirituality through writing practice, public writing workshops, and publishing chapbooks. S(T)EVEN YEARS SANCTUARY, www.stevenreigns.com
VICTORIA SINGH & KURTIS CHAMPION: SON/ART—CHAKRA COLOR RITUALS, 7/7/04-7/7/11. Kurtis celebrates the chakra colors of each 'year' with art projects on the 7th day of each month.
ELIZABETH STEPHENS & ANNIE SPRINKLE: LOVE ART LABORATORY—7 YEARS EXPLORING LOVE AS ART, 12/8/2004-12/8/2011. We make art about love. LOVE ART LABORATORY, www.loveartlab.org
PARTICIPANTS IN THE THIRD SEVEN YEARS OF ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART: 2012-2019
EK SMITH;CLEANING/SINGING/DRAWING I will divide my living/working space into 7 sections. Each year, for 7 years, I will clean and organize my space, singing as I work, and documenting my experiences with an ongoing series of drawings.
NELLS FASTY:"Seven Years of Forgetting" is a 7 year performance, 2012-2019. I will choose a new number everyday based on trying to forget the previous day's number that had been chosen. Each year, the numerical results will be turned into a musical composition using computer software to interpret the data. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
BACKSTORY OF ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART 1998-2019
WHY I CREATED IT:
I was on a roll having completed 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART, 1984-1998; wearing one color clothes and experiencing thousands of disciplines/vows to keep me anchored in the 7 Chakras. I had also just finished a 7 year performance art teaching commitment at the University of Texas, Austin, 1992-1998, and as a cocky academeze, I believed that the next move in my process must be an imitation of my experience and so I developed what approximated a self-designed school based on my past 7 years as a "professor" and called the institution, ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART.
My motives were:
1. To extend my research to others.
2. To create an institution devoid of the stink of academia.
3. To allow others to be with me/near me virtually and online, not in the flesh.
4. To dissolve the teacher-student dyad and allow everyone to enjoy their own professorship.
5. To dislodge $ from the equation and offer the experience for free.
6. To make sure that nothing was demanded of the participants: no grades, no dissertations, no nothing if that was what they decided.
7. To make sure that it was fun.
WHAT HAPPENED:
As I write this, it is 2015, and the experience in non-teaching is almost over and as I look back, I am amazed at how organic it was . That is, it came into being, effulgently expanded and peacefully rescinded.
Here is how it happened; per usual, I put out a call for participants, advertising it, at Franklin Furnace. That had worked so perfectly when I had put out a call for THE SUMMER SAINT CAMP which I offered during 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART 1984-1998. Many, many came to be with me at THE ART LIFE INSTITUTE thanks to Franklin Furnace and Martha Wilson who let the art world know our needs, then communicated them to our tribe, inviting artists/lifeists to participate.
MISSION STATEMENT: ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART (1998-2019) is art that compassionately practices an appreciation for life and is a durational continuation of my exploration of the art of consciousness. The artist/lifeists invited to this experience, ecumenically choose their own unique methodologies and explore their work while remaining in virtual/internet communication with each other throughout their practice of compassionately transforming their life, via art. It is based on Linda Mary Montano’s endurance: 7 YEARS OF LIVING ART + ANOTHER 7 YEARS OF LIVING ART = 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART, 12/8/1984—12/8/1998. www.lindamontano.com www.vdb.org http://lindamarymontano.blogspot.com
DESCRIPTION: “When I finished 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART, an art experience-endurance based on the 7 chakras, I became so enamored of working with time that I wanted to share that joy with others, and so I designed ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART. I felt that other artists could become virtual/internet art family and I would feel as if I were in good company, with like-minded friends, doing work based on time, endurance and with reference to my past work, but interpreted by each artist according to their discipline, practice and personal aesthetic.
I am proud and honored to be in the company of the following life-artists in this Scholl of ART/LIFE.” Linda Mary Montano
PARTICIPANT IN THE FIRST SEVEN YEARS OF ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART: 1998-2005: BETSEA CAYGILL: LIVING LIFE ARTFULLY.
PARTICIPANTS IN SECOND SEVEN YEARS OF ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART: 2005-2012
MICHELLE BUSH: SEVEN YEARS OF POSITIVE OBSESSIONS, 12/8/2005-12/8/2012. I obsess on one sentence/statement and colour in relation to the chakras producing collaborative or interventionist and performance pieces each year.
BARBARA CARRELLAS: EIGHT NEW/ANCIENT SACRAMENTS OF PLEASURE AND CHANGE, 12/8/2004-12/8/2011. I create chakra-based rituals which I celebrate on the eight natural holidays (solstices, equinoxes, etc.) that explore and celebrate the paradoxes between the fixed commitments/initiations of the seven sacraments of the Catholic church and the ever-changing, fluid realms of intuition, pleasure and nature. EIGHT YEARS OF LIVING ART, www.barbaracarrellas.com
SC DURKIN: SEVEN YEARS OF MUSIC, 12/8/2005-12/8/2012. I endeavor to learn one musical instrument a year for the next seven years. SEVEN YEARS OF MUSIC, www.scdurkin.com
KOOSIL-JA HWANG: 12/8/2004-12/8/2011. www.dancekk.com
VERNITA N'COGNITA: 7 MORE UNTITLED YEARS OF WHEREVER MY ART LEADS ME, 12/8/2004-12/8/2011. www.ncognita.com
ESTHER K. SMITH: THEIR HOUSE IS A MUSEUM, 12/8/2004-12/8/2011. Seven years in other people's houses. EK SMITH MUSEUM, www.purgatorypiepress.com
KRISTA KELLY WALSH: SEVEN MIRRORS, 2006-2012. My work is based on the Cabalist system of reading the will of the seven planetarty spirits in the seven mirrors that are made of seven metals and associated with the 7 days of the week, seven planets and cooresponding themes. Each year I will make a corresponding mirror and wear a bead of the same metal, make projects and performances based on the themes of that metal.
SATELLITE PROJECT:
The satellite project is an ongoing congruent program of artists/lifeists within ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART.
PARTICIPANTS IN THE SATALITE PROJECT:
STEVEN REIGNS: S(T)EVEN YEARS, 1/12007-1/1/20014. I intend to explore the connection between art, life, and spirituality through writing practice, public writing workshops, and publishing chapbooks. S(T)EVEN YEARS SANCTUARY, www.stevenreigns.com
VICTORIA SINGH & KURTIS CHAMPION: SON/ART—CHAKRA COLOR RITUALS, 7/7/04-7/7/11. Kurtis celebrates the chakra colors of each 'year' with art projects on the 7th day of each month.
ELIZABETH STEPHENS & ANNIE SPRINKLE: LOVE ART LABORATORY—7 YEARS EXPLORING LOVE AS ART, 12/8/2004-12/8/2011. We make art about love. LOVE ART LABORATORY, www.loveartlab.org
PARTICIPANTS IN THE THIRD SEVEN YEARS OF ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART: 2012-2019
EK SMITH;CLEANING/SINGING/DRAWING I will divide my living/working space into 7 sections. Each year, for 7 years, I will clean and organize my space, singing as I work, and documenting my experiences with an ongoing series of drawings.
NELLS FASTY:"Seven Years of Forgetting" is a 7 year performance, 2012-2019. I will choose a new number everyday based on trying to forget the previous day's number that had been chosen. Each year, the numerical results will be turned into a musical composition using computer software to interpret the data. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
BACKSTORY OF ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART 1998-2019
WHY I CREATED IT:
I was on a roll having completed 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART, 1984-1998; wearing one color clothes and experiencing thousands of disciplines/vows to keep me anchored in the 7 Chakras. I had also just finished a 7 year performance art teaching commitment at the University of Texas, Austin, 1992-1998, and as a cocky academeze, I believed that the next move in my process must be an imitation of my experience and so I developed what approximated a self-designed school based on my past 7 years as a "professor" and called the institution, ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART.
My motives were:
1. To extend my research to others.
2. To create an institution devoid of the stink of academia.
3. To allow others to be with me/near me virtually and online, not in the flesh.
4. To dissolve the teacher-student dyad and allow everyone to enjoy their own professorship.
5. To dislodge $ from the equation and offer the experience for free.
6. To make sure that nothing was demanded of the participants: no grades, no dissertations, no nothing if that was what they decided.
7. To make sure that it was fun.
WHAT HAPPENED:
As I write this, it is 2015, and the experience in non-teaching is almost over and as I look back, I am amazed at how organic it was . That is, it came into being, effulgently expanded and peacefully rescinded.
Here is how it happened; per usual, I put out a call for participants, advertising it, at Franklin Furnace. That had worked so perfectly when I had put out a call for THE SUMMER SAINT CAMP which I offered during 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART 1984-1998. Many, many came to be with me at THE ART LIFE INSTITUTE thanks to Franklin Furnace and Martha Wilson who let the art world know our needs, then communicated them to our tribe, inviting artists/lifeists to participate.
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