CHAKRA NESTING AND CHICKEN DANCE

 CHAKRAS NESTING/CHICKEN DANCE

WHAT. TWO 7 HOUR SILENT RESTING. NESTINGS AT 11 JANE RESIDENCY.  YOU CREATE A SIMPLE RESTING SPACE.. AFTER 7 HOURS OF NESTING WE WILL GROUP CHICKEN DANCE FOR 15 MINUTES. FRIDAY NIGHT ONE HOUR  REHEARSAL. SATURDAY AND SUNDAY.  12 NOON - 7 PM    CONTACT 11JANE IF INTERESTED. 6 PEOPLE

 

DEMENTIA & ALZHEIMERS :  FEARLESS APPROACH  Linda Mary Montano  2022

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT have Dementia. I occasionally forget words and names. Who doesn’t at 80? This essay is an invitation to embrace/transform/let go of Dementia fear because maybe it’s a good thing to have a Demented empty mind?  Who wants to sit for centuries on a hard cushion in a meditation center to obtain coveted spaciousness when the mind itself can produce the Big Emptying all by itself? So fear begone! If Alzheimers is to be my fate, I dance the fearless dance of BRING IT ON!!!  

    
.THOUGHTS ON DEMENTIA/ ALZHEIMERS. Linda Mary Montano May 2022.               After over 100 performers sang, danced and magically performed art about life at my incredibly ecstatic 80th 21 HOUR BIRTHDAYARAM ZOOM party, organized by loving curator friends and now archived at Franklin Furnace, I realized that it was probably time for me to begin thinking about my personal ENDGAME and so for months at the 3 and 4am insomnia hours I heard myself ask myself, “Oh no, how will I die”!!! Convincing myself that this thinking was appropriate for my new age, I went down the shopping list of possibilities and wondered if it would be the big C? an accident? Heart? or Taa Daah the scariest for me: DEMENTIA/ALZHEIMERS?
Always the art fixer, the aesthetic medicine applier, the self taught art therapist, the one who thrived on creatively addressing her shadow, the one who could video the pain away( thanks to Tobe Carey&Jim Barbaro), the one who could write a beginners Haiku and feel better once it was saved in her Haiku Book, the one who sang the monsters away, I wondered if I could address this possible new challenge of “Oh no, I’m losing my mind”!!! Every forgotten name, address, phone number egged me onto my new project which is to make dementia not such a bad thing. My task was fixing it using the only skill I have which is ART. Having begun my research after taking care of Dad for three years, I made myself livable with the idea of mind-losing by making a video thanks to Tobe, Jim, Laura Kopczak and Josepha Gutelius which was dedicated to CNA’s and as a difficult forgetting person in the video, I posited that an Angelic Divineness could appear and rescue difficult, performer me from making the CNA’s life Hell. See PRAY FOR MY CNA. YouTube.
That was then, this is now and i’m 80. And I’m thinking about not the overworked/underpaid nursing home CNA this time, instead i’m considering my fear and trembling at the embarrassment of possibly running nude down John Street in Saugerties, the possibility of my addled dementiaed-self driving to Woodstock and forgetting how to get back home, the possibility of sending in my Central Hudson bill and inserting a blank check in the return envelope. And i’m thinking worse than these possibilities and in good self therapy fashion, warning myself that I’m actually planting some real interesting internal disaster,  screenplay possibilities for the time when friends text each other and agree that, “Wow, Linda has really lost it. There’s zilch life in her eyes and she is not only zig zag walking, but did you notice when she.......” Fill in the blank. There are tons of options. You’ve got the picture, right? And we haven’t even mentioned diapers yet.
So here is my current DEUS EX MACHINA, my HAPPY PLACE when I consider, think about, terrorize myself with ghoulish thoughts about my newest fear, early onset Alzheimers. It goes like this. I say to myself:
1. Linda, how many years have you been involved in the “spiritual” game, path, community, practice. I answer myself with, “Many.”
2. Linda, you are devoted to the possibility of your changing/adjusting/expanding/understanding/forgiving/enlightening this mind via all of the 8654 practices you impose on it, right? I answer myself with, “I guess maybe you are right.”
3. Linda,so let’s suppose that if you do “catch” Alzheimers, you will be on the fast track to an EMPTY, CLEAR, UNIMPEDED MIND.  Isn’t that a good thing? That’s what you have wanted all along: to become ONE with the Mystical Body of Christ, to finally be judgment free and expansive, to graduate to Nondual awareness, to be ENLIGHTENED! I answer this with, “ I guess you are right.”
.4. Linda, plus think of the practical pluses of no-mind: no more having to call the heater company when the furnace goes off in the winter, no more wondering who is right Johnny or Amber, no more so so much. I answer this with, “ You’re probably right.”
5. Linda, here is the clincher, I promise you if you de-fear Alzheimers, take the Monster out of it, if you courage up and face it/her/she whatever it is appropriate to call this mind taking condition, if you promise to laugh hard and loud with and at it, if you draw it, shout with it, DANCE with it then it will be just another luck of the draw. No matter what, you’re LEAVING DODGE. Why not go out dancing with and by yourself and hopefully with anyone else in the NURSING HOME willing to join. I answer with, “ Why do you think I practice daily Chicken Dances.”

FRANKLIN FURNACE VIMEO: 21 HOUR DOCUMENT OF LINDA MARY MONTANO BIRTHDAY : JANUARY 18, 2022

 FRANKLIN FURNACE VIMEO:   21 HOUR DOCUMENT OF LINDA MARY MONTANO'S BIRTHDAY : JANUARY 18, 2022

https://vimeo.com/673325421

FOR BONNIE SHERK...... MEMORIAL

FOR  BONNIE SHERK...... MEMORIAL

BONNIE SHERK: PERFORMANCE ARTIST/ECOLOGIST/HUMANIST:  by LINDA MARY MONTANO

 

1.THANK YOU BONNIE FOR YOUR WONDERFULLY PERFORMATIVE STYLE AND COSTUMING IN CLOTHES/MAKE UP/BRACELETS/HATS AND SCARVES: YOU INSPIRE ME

 

2.THANK YOU BONNIE FOR WORKING BEHIND THE COUNTER IN A S.F DONUT SHOP BACK IN THE 70'S AND CALLING THAT ART:  YOU INSPIRE ME

 

3.THANK YOU BONNIE FOR INTRODUCING ME TO YOUR PET PIG, (WAS SHE/HE CALLED  PIGLET?) WHO LIVED WITH YOU IN YOUR S.F. STUDIO  WHICH  WAS FILLED WITH PLANTS AND OTHER ANIMALS AND YOU CALLED THAT STUDIO  EITHER A FARM OR THE FARM: YOU INSPIRE ME

 

4. THANK YOU BONNIE FOR ALWAYS BEING TOTALLY CHARMING, FOR CHOOSING THE CORRECT BRIGHT RED LIPSTICK TO GO WITH YOUR GENEROUS SMILE,  FOR CREATING INTRICATE AND MIND-BENDING WORD-PLAY, FOR BEING FILLED WITH LIFE-JOY,  AND FOR SHOWERING ALL WITH HOPE IN NATURE: YOU INSPIRE ME

 

5.THANK YOU BONNIE FOR ACTING LIMITLESSLY AND  FEARLESSLY WHEN IT CAME TO YOU GATHERING SUPPORTERS/BACKERS/FUNDERS/GRANTERS/BIG BUCKS  FOR YOUR PROJECTS WHICH TAUGHT ECOLOGY/FOOD/GARDENING/SAFE NOURISHMENT/RESPECT FOR ANIMALS TO CHILDREN, YOUNG AND OLD: YOU INSPIRE ME

 

6.THANK YOU BONNIE FOR ASKING ME TO SPEAK WELL OF YOU FOR A JOB YOU WANTED TEACHING ENVIRONMENTAL ART EVENTHOUGH YOU WERE VERY ILL AT THE TIME: YOUR LIMITLESSNESS AND UNSTOPPABLE VISION INSPIRE ME

 

7.THANK YOU BONNIE FOR CARRYING AND WEARING ILLNESS AS A  FACT NOT A SENTENCE.  BECAUSE OF THIS ATTITUDE YOU NEVER STOPPED YOURSELF FROM APPEARING ON ZOOM LECTURES EVEN WHEN OBVIOUSLY ILL, YOU NEVER STOPPED YOURSELF  FROM DREAMING YOUR VISION PUBLICALLY, NEVER STOPPED YOURSELF FROM CONTINUING YOUR PRACTICE, EVEN TO THE END: YOU INSPIRE ME.

 

WE CONTINE BONNIE, TO ALWAYS REMEMBER YOUR SMILE OF HOPE AND  WE PROMISE TO  BREATHE COURAGE TO OTHERS, COURAGE WHICH WE REMEMBER YOU GENEROUSLY SHARED WITH US. 

 

 BONNIE SHERK, YOUR PERFORMATIVE LIFE-JOY-ART IS A BLESSING.

 

LINDA

FEBRUARY 2022 

 

 

 

 

 LATEST  UPDATE  OF  21 HOUR  BIRTHDAYARAMA

https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/.../04/manifesto_spn-2-1.pdf

21 HOURS BIRTHDAYARAMA VIA FRANKLIN FURNACE JANUARY 18, 2022

 21  HOURS  BIRTHDAYARAMA   VIA  FRANKLIN FURNACE  JANUARY 18, 2022

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Mg2jnsG2qgh03YNcPrgqZIiD40NfjiDX?usp=sharing

THANK YOU LETTER TO PERFORMERS OF 21 HOUR BIRTHDAYARAMA FOR LINDA MARY MONTANO

 THANK YOU LETTER TO PERFORMERS OF  21 HOUR  BIRTHDAYARAMA FOR LINDA MARY MONTANO

FROM: LINDA MARY  MONTANO:

DEAR ALL BIRTHDAY PERFORMERS,

I will type this in small letters but please see it as  allllll caps!!!!

How can I put into words my gratitude and applause  and smiles  and bows for the heart filled  BEAUTY that each of you offered during the 21 hours of celebration of life, celebration of art, celebration of PERFORMANCE ART?

YOU ALL revealed  PERFORMANCE ART'S abilities during those 21 hours:  

it's ability to clear the aire, 

its ability to clean the heart of the performer and viewer,

its ability to treat karma with a free MEDICINE; the medicine of  truth, the medicine of shock, the medicine of timeless transformation.....

its ability to remind us that intuitive play, as art, is our true birthright

its ability to allow each of us to pray in our own way, to communicate in our own way, to heal in our own way, to save therapy money by doing it ourselves performatively in our own way, to dig into our shadow and SAFELY see the messages in our own way, to  speak to unmet needs so we can walk through our lives in a sweet, kind new way....cleaned  hearts.....

During the 21 hours I moved through the 87,653  emotions allowed us at  birth and thank you for the healings.  Each of you.

And all of this was made possible by the generous: CONCEIVERS OF THE IDEA/CURATORS OF THE PARTAYYYYYYYY/LOVE LETTER GATHERERS/TECHNICAL STAFF & OFFICE STAFF at:

FRANKLIN FURNACE ARCHIVE

GRACE EXHIBITION SPACE

STREAMSIDE 7

THREE PHASE CENTER

THE INTERIOR BEAUTY SALON

E.A.R.T.H. LAB SF

UNISON ARTS

As you all saw from the SEAMLESS way that the 21 hours  FLOWED, their dedication to timing and process and technology was impeccable. Also, their dedication to presenting each person perfectly was a true selfless gift for all of us to remember. 

May we all continue loving not only ourselves  but truly practice the love of art in our lives and the love of life in our art! And may we support others to experience the healing joys of art.

bawkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

Chicken Linda

cc. Arantxa Araujo, Franklin Furnace, Program Director

PS - There have been over 100 performance/offerings. Video Documentation of the 21-hour event will be available on Franklin Furnace's website starting February 1st. Please visit or website to view the recording: https://franklinfurnaceloft.org/linda-mary-montano-bday/

A PERFORMANCE ART SAINT OF LIFE AND ART CERTIFICATE

                      

I __Name:_______________________ HEREBY DECLARE THAT I AM A BONAFIDE PERFORMANCE ARTIST

                              

AND THAT I MAKE AN ART OF MY LIFE AND MY LIFE IS A WORK OF ART.
                      

MY DWELLING IS A WORK OF ART, MY JOB IS A WORK OF ART, MY RELATIONSHIPS ARE WORKS OF ART,

                           

MY FEELINGS ARE WORKS OF ART AND I OFTEN DO NOT NEED TO DOCUMENT THESE PRACTICES

                                                            

BUT SIMPLY LIVE THEM AS LIFE/ART. I AM AN  ART SAINT.

LINDA MARY MONTANO HAS WITNESSED MY DEDICATION TO ART AND LIFE AND HAS DECLARED THAT

                            

I AM WORTHY OF THIS PRETIGIOUS TITLE: SAINT. I WILL NEVER DOUBT MY TITLE AND I WILL CONTINUE

                                                                       

TO ACT SAINTLY IN MY LIFE AND ART.

        

THIS CERTIFICATE IS BESTOWED ON ME BY: LINDA MARY MONTANO

                                                    

FOUNDER OF THE ART/LIFE INSTITUTE & TRANSFIGURATION HOSPITAL  
 
                                                                                    

LINDA MARY MONTANO