Alchemy of Transformation

The original 240 sq ft. studio.

The western view with the grape arbor.

Building the wall for the bathroom.

The staircase to the loft going in.

The interior of Plum Blossom Cottage.

The transformed garden and privacy screen.

Painting a flower mural on the subfloor. 

The new garden pathways and first year plantings.

The images I've posted today are just a glimpse into the transformation of my art studio into a guest cottage. This process was undertaken partly to help us diversify our income in uncertain economic times, partly to invest in our future selves as our children grow up and leave home, and as a way to connect nationally and globally from our local rich resource: Portland, OR and the Pacific Northwest.

The first few images are what the studio looked like BEFORE the transformation. The building was built in the 1930's by the original owners of the house. It was a woodworking shop and has always been used as a studio/creative/workshop. We bought our house 14 years ago from another artist couple, one of whom is a stone sculptor (professor of art at Yavapi College) and the other a light artist (think: James Turell).

We hired a crack team of artists and craftspeople to help with this project (besides raising our children, maybe the biggest one we've ever undertaken!) I was the vision behind the project inspired by Arati and Kevin Von Behren (http://www.flyawakepdx.com/). Shannon Belthor was our main contractor, architectural drawing and carpentry whiz ( http://www.shannonbelthor.com/). Mema Greer was the tile magician and design consultant (http://www.villagemuse.org/). Angela Cooper Crow was our garden goddess (http://www.asthecrowfliespdx.com/)...and I stepped into a general contractor/project management role that was an entirely new challenge for me since I tend to be a soft-spoken, gentle mediator rather than a bossy, take-charge, get-it-done type person!

As an artist and longtime spiritual explorer, I have always been intrigued by the process of alchemy and transformation. As an artist, I take "raw" materials, fabric, paper, paint, inks, plants, words and through the use of my imagination and inspirtation I transform them into paintings, dolls, sculptures, site-specific installations, gardens, poems and blog posts! As a spiritual explorer I take the raw material of the body/mind/spirit and through meditation, yoga, Qi gong and dance practices, transform my experience of the world with its complexities and challenges. In both realms I'm less interested in changing the world per se, than I am in effecting change within my own experience and interface with the world-as-it-is. I've learned the hard way that the world itself is much less transformable than I care to admit. Life can be very hard, frequently troublesome. People are complex and confusing, sometimes selfish, cruel, greedy and angry. Institutions can be  rigid and toxic. Social systems are often labyrinthine, entrenched, and perplexing.

The one thing I have discovered that I can transform is always my own self, my own environment, my own mind and heart and body. When I make art or offer poetry classes or engage in meditation or Qi gong practice or drink tea with my friends or do make simple contributions to my own community, the world can go along it's merry or not-so merry way, but who I am, how I am, my resilience, happiness and flexibility increases, how my heart and mind perceive the world changes. In other words, taking the lead of life and turning it into gold. To paraphrase Ghandi, I AM the change I want to see in the world.

To book a stay at Plum Blossom Cottage:

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3383967

One step, two step, how many steps...

The front steps at Plum Blossom Studio with our poetry post.

Irving Park

Irving Park

Irving Park is the large, full service park next to the cottage and studio

Two Plum Park: the tiny "pocket" park nearby

Another view of Two Plum Park

The other day, just for a lark--and because I was avoiding going to a meeting--I counted how many steps there are from Plum Blossom Cottage to the park across the street from us. 73 steps from the front steps you see in the top photo to the edge of Irving Park in the second set of images. Counting steps appealed to both the childlike part of my mind as well as the meditative part. I decided to count how many steps there are from Plum Blossom Cottage to a lesser known park a few blocks down the street. I'll tell you at the end of the blog post how many steps I counted to Two Plum Park.

Portland is rightfully renowned for its beautiful parks. The Portland Parks and Recreation system has extensive outdoor parks, swimming pools, community centers, forested areas, biking and hiking trails, playgrounds, basketball and tennis courts, public fountains, soccer fields and off-leash dog areas. When the weather is fine, we Portlanders LOVE our parks! We lie on the grass, picnic, watch free movies, listen to concerts, take in Shakespeare plays, splash in the fountains, and play all kinds of games. When the weather turns....well, we're still in the parks and forests, hiking, biking, playing under the covered areas.

Depsite our reputation for grey, rain sodden Autumn and winter months, Portland is really lovely in all seasons. Yes there's rain and it's frequently chilly, but grab a pair of rubber boots, a decent waterproof jacket over your wool sweater, some warm gloves and a hat and you can have the time of your life just walking around, counting steps, splashing in puddles (even all the ones your mother never let you when you were a kid!), collecting colorful leaves, popping into coffee shops for a hot beverage. 

Portland is one of those places that brings out the kid in you no matter what the weather! Plus we have AWESOME cloud formations worthy of John Constable paintings!

By the way, there are 775 steps from Plum Blossom Cottage to Two Plum Park...

Autumn Sluice

This morning’s

tea drinking reverie

in the bright autumn

sun:                         

 watching

the red-gold leaves

twirl downwards, stem

skyward

until the leaves,

shaken loose by

crisp season turning

flutter through

the clear light

and rest, tenderly,

with smooth unevenness

on the dew frost loam

beneath the trees: maple, chestnut

oak, sweetgum.

And then scatter

their fire jewel hues

through the open

spaces where dogs

and children play.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3383967

https://www.portlandoregon.gov/parks/

Gates, Doors, Portals

The gate to the garden and cottage

The sliding door looking into the garden

The original 1932 studio doors

The entrance gate to FlyAwke Tea Garden

FlyAwake Tea Garden Little Free Library and Community Board

Gate: an opening in a wall or fence

Door: a hinged, sliding or revolving barrier at the entrance to a building, room, vehicle or cupboard

Portal: a means of entrance

What's intriguing to me about gates and doors and portals is that they aren't just a means to traverse from one side of a fence or wall to another side. Or even a barrier meant to keep people out....unless we live in a fortified castle...but I digress! That's only part of the story! 

There is the prosaic threshold of moving from a sidewalk or street into a building or garden, or reaching into the cupboard for something. But there is also a sense in which a doorway or gateway is an invitation to enter into a different mode of being or perception. Doors and gates are liminal space, neither here nor there. They are openings, invitations to possibilities, a physically manifested question mark or enticement to a different mode of perception or way of being. A doorway into your home invites you to shed the cares and concerns and masks of the outer world. A gateway into a garden invites you to refuge, respose and renewal. Perhaps into a place beyond what we already know. In my spiritual tradition we enter "the gateless gate" of spiritual inititation, transforming our fixed, habitual perceptions of ourselves and the world into unforseen potentials and gifts.

Let us step together,

you and I,

into that place beyond our knowing.

Let us shape our lives

into a gift for the world.

The garden gate at the top is what you step through into the magical realm of Plum Blossom Cottage and gardens. It's an invitation to the refuge of the cottage and the way of being that we enjoy here in Portland. The sliding glass door lets you enjoy the garden from the inside of the cottage, a concrete expample of "refuge and prospect" design theory. The last picture is our iconic Plum Blossom Cottage image: the original 1930's doors to the studio. More about the history of Plum Blossom Cottage coming up in a future post!

Below are images from one of our favorite neighborhood gathering spots, FlyAwake Tea Garden. Started by Kevin and Arati Von Behren in 2013, the garden and tea shop quickly became our "go to" spot for refuge, relaxation, friendship, inspiration, and a sense of the timeless. 

When you enter the gates of FlyAwake there is a palpable sense of crossing from the "ordinary" fast-paced 21st century world of sound bites and attention deficets to a timeless, ancient world where life is lived more slowly, conversations unfold over several hours, spiritual wisdom is shared in a gentle dance of mutuality. And of course, there is tea. Fine tea. Rare Chinese teas. Herbal tisanes. Indian chai. Chocolates...and so much more!

Come...and enter the gate and doorways at Plum Blossom Cottage!

Here are some links: 

http://www.flyawakepdx.com/

https://www.facebook.com/FLYAWAKEPDX

To make a reservation at Plum Blossom Cottage:

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3383967

http://www.vrbo.com/646878

A rose by any other name...

When I was pondering what to call my studio and then our guest cottage I pondered many different names. Moonflower Cottage, Burning House Studio were among some of the options. Every name has a particular morphic resonance in the world. Every name has sets of meanings to it, definitions that are passed down through language, culture, family lineages, spiritual lineages, craft lineages and so on. In one sense any name will do, anything or anyone that is named will have its True Face and simply because it IS, it will be special and ordinary at the same time. But naming something or someone is also an activity that we should undertake with great care, precisely because the field of resonance with a name also brings forward very particular associations, interfaces, spiritual residues, attractions and distortions.

I chose Plum Blossom Studio first because we practice meditaiton with the Zen Community of Oregon and our teachers' lineage is the White Plum Asanga started by Maezumi Roshi. At the time we also had a row of early spring blooming pink blossomed flowering plums (these have since been cut down due to age and disease). Plum Blossom Cottage evolved out of a deepening engagement with both Zen practice and my work as an artist and poet. It was only later that I realized that one of the original names for the I-Ching is The Plum Blossom Oracle. Plum blossoms are prized in the spiritual traditions I'm a part of because of their delicate, transitory, unassuming beauty. They symbolize hope and elegance in the face of adversity, flowering as they do at the end of winter and right before spring.

Just as we were finishing the studio-to-cottage conversion I painted a plum blossom branch on our garage door. Now when people ask for directions to the cottage or studio I can say "we're the house with the plum blossom mural". It's hard to miss! I think Plum Blossom Cottage is an apt name for our guest house. People come and go, transitory, yet beautiful meetings of guests and hosts. We created a lovely, nurturing place for others as they enter the limnial space of travel and adventure. Although our guests come throughout the year, the ephemeral nature of travel has a morphic, spiritual resonance with plum blossoms that bloom so briefly, inspire us with their beauty and scent our hearts with delicate, ephemeral memories of our travels.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3383967

Pathways

I'm always intrigued by paths and pathways. As an avid hiker and walker, I'm always searching for new paths and also returning to old paths. The new paths satisfy my desire for discovery, adventure, mystery and wonder, even when the newly found path is relatively close to home. The old paths are like putting on that old, worn, homey, humble, yet cozy sweater you've owned since college but just can't seem to part with. The interesting thing is, that there are often just as many possibilites, adventures, mysteries and wonder on the old familiar paths, the ones we see everyday. I think the "old paths" sometimes get us to look deeper into our lives, our neighborhoods, our relationships with friends and family and matters of the spirit precisely because they are so familiar. We aren't always quite as smitten with the old worn paths as we are with the shiny new paths and yet there is a reason we keep returning to them, just as the leaves fall in the Autumn and the new leaves emerge in the Spring.

Today I've posted two images of paths. The first is from Plum Blossom Cottage. This is a new path, created this past summer from 2 tons of Montana Bluestone that we found for a bargain! The path leads from the back gate to the cottage, a gently wending to this "new" adventure in AirBnB hosting. The second photo is from the top of one of the "secret" stairs in our hilly neighborhood. Although the stairs aren't really all that "secret" and in fact are vey public, I find the stairs a magical part of living here in this extraordinarily pedestrian friendly city. Several of these public access stairs are in easy walking distance to Plum Blossom Cottage! (here's some links to more information: http://portland.daveknows.org/2012/02/28/the-public-staircases-of-portland/,  http://www.amazon.com/Portland-Stairs-Book-Laura-Foster/dp/1604690690) 

The Art of Hospitality

This is the front door of our guest cottage! Converted into a guest house from a 1930's artist's studio, the cottage is located in Portland, OR right in the heart of the vibrant arts, music, spritual practice, and fine food scene. I am always searching out interesting, quirky, off-the-beaten track experiences which I'll post here, with photographs! Check out our booking link:  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3383967