LINDA MARY MONTANO: December 2012

MILDRED'S DEATH

In 1988 my mother died. It was a five week hospital death. I was with her much of that time.
These are some of the things that I learned.

1. Ask the dying person quesitons and wait for verbal/nonverbal responses, i.e. " Should we stop this medicine?
What do you need? " (I didn't always ask my mother's opinion and now wish thst I had.)

2. LISTEN. LISTEN. LISTEN.

3. See if they have unfinished business that they want to work with, i.e. unexpressed thoughts, feelings
wishes, etc. ( My mother said, "I wish I had written a book,' knowing that U would hear her and do it for her.
I have.)

4. If they prefer, let them leave consciously, alertly, with awareness. ( Because one medicine was
stopped, she became comotose. I didn't know that would happen and missed saying goodbye because of that.)

5. If they agree, play nature tapes in the hospital room. It creates a no panic atmosphere. ( I played one
and the nurses used to come in the room because it felt, "good in here.")

6 .Help the way they need to be helped, not the way you need. ( ONce I was chanting, praying, laying my hands
on her abdomenm teaching her to breathe and my mother, always the comedienne, opened her dying eyes,
looked at me with an Imogene Coco look and said, " Linda, PLEASE!")

7. Confess by their bedside. (Clear your heart but do it telepathically. Tell everything you need to tell. Do
unfinished business without their hearing. Sotto voce.)

8. If the person is on heavy pain meds, they might change their behavior toward you, positively or
negatively. Be ready! ( My mother became a hippie on morphine. She pulled me close to her, tried
to show me my aura, touched the peach fuzz on my hceeks. We re-bonded.)

9. Get counseling yourself from either friends, 24 hour telephone hotlines, Hospice volunteers, etc.
I talked with a Hospice volunteer for 4 years on the phone while my mother was dying. ( Hurray
for Hospice! )

10. Know what patients rights means and use the information appropirately. ( I asked on nurse
" If this were your mother would you allow a nurse to take blood and do "vitals" while
your mother was comatose and had only a little time left? The nurse said, " No." I said, "Then
please do not take blood and stop all orders at the desk.")

11. Be prepared for each family member and close friend of the dying person to take a
completely different response to everything. Emotions are close to the surface; everyone's
death anxiety button is being pushed.

12. Use TV, VCR's, Cd's, DVD's as teaching toolds. ( When my mother wanted TV on I turned to
cartoons. The flying image from MY LITTLE PONY did wonders for her attitude and actually
distracted her from her pain.

13. Inconspicuously breathe together. ( Match your breathing pattern to theirs.) Gently sound
the exhalation. ( Steven levine teaches this technique. It's Tibetan and comforting for
both the patient and caregiver.

14. Whisper messages near an ear. Keep messages positive and in words they need to hear.
(When I said, " Relax Ma, Mitchell and Karl will take good care of you," she responded positively
because these were friends who were dead and whose company she loved.

15. Go as far as you can with the process in the end. ( Those last 15 hours she was comatose, I felt
a need to meditate, give her space, not touch her as much. Check out yoru own situation, it will be different.

16. After the death, participate in the process as much as you can given place, circumstances etc.
Help wash the body, close the eyes, etc. ( I didn't see the spirit or soul leave. Some people do.)

17. Never , ever judge how you or anyone else mourns or deals wiht death.
(I demolished and rebuilt an abandoned building for two years after she died. I told Ma, "I don't know
how to cry but I know how to sweat."

18. Be watchful for messages, dreams, synbolic visits. (She comes as a butterfly or sometimes as a wave of
feeling. I continue a dialogue with her. )

19. Daily, prepare for your death in your own way.

20. Your comments:

Dear Reader,

BACKSTORY 1:
With all due respect to time and memory, I will regress to 1984 and tell you some things about 14 YEARS OF LIVING ART, my chakra endurance. Let's begin at the beginning.
I was raised very strict Roman Catholic and became enamoured of transformation via spiritual rituals/visions/incense/chanting and intense mysteries. I even entered a convent to continue this research but left after 2 years to become a full fledged hippie artist and wild tantrica.

BACKSTORY 2:
In 1971 I met my husband to be, photographer Mitchell Payne and my spiritual guru, Dr. RS Mishra. The ecstasy of knowing that I was loved by my husband and spiritually nourished by both of these beauties, opened my creative flood-gates and I began an intense yoga practice which infused/inspired my performances. I am forever grateful to both of these heart teachers/friends.

BACKSTORY 3:
During my 5 years daily association with Dr Mishra's ashram, I was learning Hindu theology and Gurugi told us that there are 7 powerful and mystical centers inside the body and each had a color, sound association, bija mantra and I became so intoxicated with this knowledge that I wanted to understand it more deeply.

BACKSTORY 4:
Mitchell and I divorced, and a year and a half later he was murdered. I moved to a Zen center for two years and then came out in the early 80's to make art that would engulf me in it's passion. The healing that I was receiving from Eastern theologies, and the martial arts( karate high green belt) catapulted me into wanting to hide and heal inside the monastery of my own art/life.
This is what I created:

7 YEARS OF LIVING ART 12/8/84-12/8/91

AN EXPERIENCE BASED ON THE 7 ENERGY CENTERS OF THE BODY

PART A. INNER: ART/LIFE INSTITUTE

Daily for 7 years I will:
1. Stay in a colored space ( minimum 3 hours)
2. Listen to one pitch (minimum 7 hours)
3. Speak in an accent(except with family)
4. Wear one color clothes associated with the color of the chakra

PART B: OUTER: THE NEW MUSEUM

1. Once a month for 7 years, I will sit in a window installation at the New Museum and talk about art/life with individuals who join me,.

PART C: OTHERS: INTERNATIONAL

1. Once a year for 16 days, a collaborator will live with me.
2. Others can collaborate in their own way wherever they are.

THE CHAKRAS, QUALITIES AND PARTICULAR DISCIPLINES OUTLINED:1984-1991

FIRST CENTER: sex, red, B pitch, tip of coccyx,1084-85

SECOND CENTER: security, orange, C pitch, pelvis, nun accent, 1985-86

THIRD CENTER : courage, yellow, G pitch, navel, jazz accent, 1986-87

FOURTH CENTER: compassion, green, D pitch, heart, country western accent, 1987-88

FIFTH CENTER: communication, blue, A pitch, throat, British accent, 1988-89

SIXTH CENTER: intuition, purple, E pitch, third eye, slavic center, 1989-90

SEVENTH CENTER: peace, white. F pitch, top of head, normal accent, 1990-91

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FROM 1991-1998, I CONTINUED THIS PROCESS BUT WENT FROM WHITE TO RED

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Reader,

This is the outline and format and now I will now share a few journal entries from each year.
You can also go to my webpage, www.lindamontano.com, for images from this endurance.
Look for the entry: CHAKRA STORY and ART/LIFE STORY.

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JOURNAL; RED YEAR: 1984-85

"The sex chakra is eliciting sex! I am drawing people but more important am feeling "sex" myself. I want it, they want it. It's inevitable. That's what this chakra is about. I need protection and hope that I wont be pushed in the wrong way.

The piece is portable. I string my red cloth like a tent (vow to stay in a red room 3 hours a day) duplicating my upstate red room which I painted.The sound (from a hand held oscillator which I listen to 7 hours a day) especially travels well (it is small and portable). I wear earphones in the city and walk jubilantly down the streets listening to B, watching trucks drown it out, and listening to it return, wondering what everyone else is listening to?

My clothes get dirty and there are just so many red things in my repertoire. I have not broken the dress code yet and always wear red even if I am cold (and dont have a red winter coat).

I felt last night that if I didnt get up, out of bed immediately, that i would get so overstimulated and sick from the red room, red clothes, sound, that I would fall aprt. I considered calling FAMILY(phone counseling hotline)! I am beginning to worry about the consequences (of this piece). Will I go crazy?

Red attracts bulls. It is vitality, roots, chinese weddings. It is passion, energy. I wear a uniform again like a nun. Red socks, underwear. Third world people respond positively to me and red. They smile and understand!"

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JOURNAL: ORANGE YEAR: 1985-86

"Eleanor (my aunt) lived and died half way through the second chakra. I did the sex center(death) and security with her...thought that I had actually "created" a lump on my uterus and breast that year...realizing that when you work on the chakras, you attract many things and symptoms as you clean out the body/mind debris, conditioning and belief systems. Taking care of E. for 9 months during this performance has been a trip! Caregiver Chakra Art!

So Eleanor was a good guide for me also, someone who had worked all of her life (physical security), had a house (financial security), and was dying (lack of security).

.....the piece is about forgiveness and about my inabilty to keep committments. .....it is a psychological ploy that I had unconsciously set up to cure myself of guilt that I had let the church(self) impose on me as a child.

I danced mightily to Celia Cruz records, made believe that i was Latin and guilt free and in general lost my breath at the beauty of the orange."

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JOURNAL: YELLOW YEAR: 1986-87

"Physically I resemble Doris Day in drag, Dinah Shore after a chicken commercial, or Cory Aquino giving a tour of Manila. Dressed entirely in yellow, both I and all viewers are forced to smile, respond, see me, comment. I am clean cut looking ( nobody wearing all yellow can be that bad). I am the sun, I am radiance, I am summer days."

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JOURNAL: GREEN YEAR: 1987-88

"I and my heart are opened by default. Everything shifted in 1988 and because I intended to "open the heart", I asked life to send me everything I needed in order to do just that. I stripped down the piece to those basic elements of intentionality (open the heart) and I reminded myself of the intention by keeping my vows ( green clothes, colored room, ART/LIFE COUNSELING, listening to one pitch, speaking in an accent).

My brother in law, my dog and my mother died in the green year. My heart opened."

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JOURNAL: BLUE YEAR: 1988-89

"I am beginning to gain a perspective on the project and see it all as a giant experiment in re-programming and re-parenting. ...that I am giving myself time and a structure and a chance and an invitation to fill in the blanks and iron out the wrinkles of my past.

I asked how else I can open the throat and communicate when the idea to go to the Newman Center(Catholic center on university campuses) and talk to a priest about how I felt betrayed by the Catholic Church came into my mind and I did it and opened my throat center....
And when I felt it was a perfect time for singing lessons, I took them and opened my throat center...
And when I thought that I should have a doctor look at my throat, I did that....

At the ashram (Ananda Ashram, Monroe NY) I start blossoming creatively and Guruji (DrMishra) has me read alot (spiritual hubris) and my voice comes from the earth and I find that I can call the spiritual authors into myself, beceome them (usually) and channel the information as them even though i'm reading. A trick I call, getting out of my own way.

DREAM: I'm in front of Guruji (meditaion teacher) and a big wad of phlem comes out of my nose and mouth. I am healed and scream in the dream."

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JOURNAL: PURPLE YEAR: 1989-90

"Severe headache as if some vein or artery or nerve is damaged. It travels from in back of my eye to the top of my head on the left side. I am alarmed, go to an internist who counsels me on my personal life and says that I am in need of right living.

I see that the body is impermanent and changes: menopause, physical changes, wrinkles, cellulite, fibroids are alarming.

I see that I need communal life for awhile, that living alone is detrimental so I invest in lving at the ashram for 2 years so that I can come and go.

I see that I can receive and need nurturing and reparent with an Indicna couple, 2 ayruvedic doctors living at the ashram during the summer."

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JOURNAL: WHITE YEAR: 1990-91

no entry.......about 10 years ago I burned 70 journals. All records lost.

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ANOTHER 7 YEARS OF LIVING ART: 1991-1998

Reader,

After the first seven years was completed, I could hardly stop the process. I kept going and did it again with the same colors but starting from the head (white) and going down to the first center (red).

This time, I appeared once a month ASTRALLY OR REALLY at the United Nations Chagall Chapel and let myself be, let myself feel and was taught by the chakras. I stopped pushing for success, I stopped wanting to do, DO DO!

My will was broken. My need for superwoman actions was depleted. My art was becoming more life- like and human. I taught for 7 years at UT, Austin.

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Reader,

When that growth spurt of loyalty and vow to the 7 chakras was over and I didnt get tenure, I was concurrently hearing a voice inside saying: GO AND BE WITH YOUR FATHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That meant that I would leave Texas and come back to upstate NY to take care of my father for 7 years. That was reality and life but it became so incredibly intense and complicated emotionally (he had a stroke and needed 24/7 care) that I called it DAD ART, hiding behind my video camera because the fire of intensity, watching my Dad dissolve, was too much for life.
Art became my veil once again.

I was also back in the real world, wanted to "teach" so I created my own UNIVERSITY, SCHOOL, ASHRAM under the auspices of THE ART/LIFE INSTITUTE. It is free of rules, regulations, grades, faculty meetings and salaries.
In 2019, ANOTHER 21 YEARS OF LIVING ART will complete a 35 year cycle of paying attention to art as life via the chakras (now translated as glands).

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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, the 7 glands,
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: From December 8, 2012-2019, my project will be:
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.

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