glimpse.

Yesterday someone showed me a photograph. And not just any photograph, but that of another symbolic skin in the making! She wanted to reassure me that things will come to this project. So I hope now that soon, soon, I will be able to present to you this marvelous work of art.

I can tell you that it also connects to nature. I have really been thinking about my relationship to nature on a daily basis for a while now. And am also working on deepening my connection to her. I am waiting for an opportunity to lend a sewing machine, and when I have, I will post what my next artpiece on this subject turned out to be =).

Love to all of you!

a quiet project but still alive.

I am so happy to see that there are still those among you who pop in here. Even though it sure is quiet around here. I have been focusing on other things while trying to figure out how to blow life into this fire again. I think I will try to make some sort of a "relaunch". I have at least found a couple of magazines and websites that I am going to write to and see if they are willing to write the project. I also have two networks I now can write about it in. And I plan on sending out emails to everybody I know to see if they can help spread the word.

I am waiting for two reasons:
It needs to be a synchronised sendout, not one that goes on for a year... So I need to be able to work on sendoutmessage, welcomepost etcetera without getting interrupted by boy or girl every ten minutes (at least ten minutes, it's true!).
I'm waiting for a skin that I know is coming my way, because I thought it would be nice to have a freshly joined participant if a lot of people start to come by.

So those of you who read this and are interested: hang on! It aint over yet, hurra!

Love!
/Robin

new year.

I set a goal for this year. I set many. About 100, actually. One of them is completed, 99 to go :)!

I want 100 participants in Symbolic Skin. Easy peasy. No? We'll see how it goes. The first thing I'm about to do as soon as hollidays are over and I have at least a tiny chance to some time for my projects is to write a list of everybody, every organisation, every magazine, every hompage that might reach a possible participant. So, if you have dropped by here and feel an incling to give me a tip, I would be so grateful indeed! If this is the first time you dropped by you can find info on the project at the project background page for example. Short version : collaborative global art project on the theme of vulnerability (and also strength as it turns out).

Much love!

It begins with a p.

Procrastination.

I still haven't tried to contact possible people and contexts that might like to join this project. Still! I cannot believe how frightened I must be to make it so difficult for me. I still feel so sure that it is a good idea, and I am convinced the end result will absoutely fantastic.

And yet, when I imagine talking about it with people I feel shame. Like somehow if I ask people to actually join and try to speak up for this idea, then they will just stare at me and frown and maybe even laugh behind my back, and I will realize that of course it's ridiculous and how could I ever havecthought...

And I am also beginning to suspect that an old friend of mine is showing it's ugly face: the troll that destroys things that are good. Away with you! Maybe if I lovebomb it it will shatter, like trolls shatter when exposed to the sun? I read in an other blog about a project in which you try to write 50.000 words in a month. Maybe in a while when my daughter is a bit bigger I will set up a similar goal related to "marketing" this project and see where that takes me. Anybody else in need of such a challenge who would like to join me for company and encouragement?

Love to all of you!

Words for skin number two.

The woman who sent me her symbolic skin a while ago, now completed her contribution with some words describing her thoughts behind the piece of art. Her skin can be seen here:

http://symbolicskin.blogspot.com/2011/05/number-two.html

And so the words:

"Since I was young I have loved to experiment and play up colours and shapes with fabric and
yarn. For several years I had a business where I created clothes which purpose was not solely to protect against cold but were also supposed to offer a second skin. An extra skin that in the correct and unique guise in colour, shape and material could work as some sort of soul shield – a symbolic skin to protect and give inner balance to the person wearing them.

This, my symbolic skin is a soft and strong shield made through dying in my pot in the
garden and through matting and uniting different sorts of wool fibers as well as old and new pieces of fabric.
Violetblue and redorange are my favorite colours at the moment
- blue for the deep ocean and orange for the life-giving fire."

Especially this life-giving fire is something I really also would like to wrap around myself now that november is turning colder and colder with every day here in Sweden.

Love to all of you!

Vi möts i en värld. We meet in a world.

I proudly present to you the latest contribution to this slowly forming cobweb of art a beutiful poem sent to me (translated into english at the end):

Vi möts i en värld
”Under långa dagar, långa nätter sover vi inte
Under långa armar, långa ben, långa kroppar håller vi oss varma
Under lång tortyr, under lång vilja, under lång samarbete håller vi oss
förenade
Var är du? När kommer du hit?
Väntar du på min rop?
Vill du komma och överraska mig?
Jag är inte en människa, jag är hundra, tusen och miljoner människor
samtidigt. Vi har varit här lång tid men du ser inte oss, trots att vi är
många.
Mitt land, vårt land ligger i världens hjärta.
Se du nu på oss?
Snart ska vi mötas i en värld.”

We meet in a world

"During long days, long nights we don't sleep

Under long arms, long legs, long bodies we keep ourselves warm

During long torture, long will, long collaboration we keep

united

Where are you? When are you coming here?

Are you waiting for my cry?

Will you come and surprise me?

I am not one human, I am one hundred, one thousand, one million humans

at once. We have been here for a long time but you don't see us, even though we are

many.

My country, our country is in the heart of the world.

Are you looking at us now?

Soon we shall meet in a world."

All my love and thanks to the lovely person/poet!

challenging challenge number 3

After writing my last entry here I just felt like it was time to change direction. From procrastrination to inspiration. And since, obviously, inspiration doesn't just appear at your doorstep because you feel it should I decided to help it a bit.

How to do that, I wondered, and then it struck me:

I have been so good at getting things done that I feel no inspiration about that has nothing to do with art or what I want. How did I manage that? And can I use that experience in this project somehow? The answer to that is a loud yes. Because what I do then, is just simply do. Step by step, day by day. Sometimes minute by minute. Just be in the present, don't agonize about the future or cry over the past. Just do, and when this is done you can do something else. That's what I've told myself. So today I started gently:

I've been asked to write something about this project for another blog (will let you know more when all is ready), and I have agonised about not doing this, about how I ought to do it, about how terribly bad what I eventually do will probably be etcetera in all eternity.

But now: stop.

Just do.

Sentence by sentence.

Word by word.

And then it will be done, and I can do the next thing.

And do you know what the best thing about this is? Once I start doing, no matter how small the action, I do get inspired, and I do feel close to the project again, hope starts to shine and after a while I know I am going to feel it again:

This could be such a great art project! It really could be! Oh, what the heck, it is!