I printed up a snowstorm...
I. Advice from a Flamenco Teacher
My
friend Dee is a school counselor at a tough high school --lots of
her kids live below the poverty line, come from undocumented immigrant
families, have a hard time making it to graduation.
She'd put my print "NO TENGAS MIEDO/Don't Be Afraid" on her office door.
I'd carved it the night after DT won the presidential election, inspired by advice from a Spanish flamenco teacher,
but I thought it was too simplistic or preachy, and I'd only printed a few.
I’d forgotten I’d given Dee one—she must've and seen it at my place, because I didn't hand them out.
But ALSO... AS A PISCES, I always want to add to Gung-Ho Marines advice…
It's OK to sit in the corner and read a book;The other day Dee texted me a photo of her office door covered in signs and posters, and said,
It's okay to feel afraid with a teddy bear!!!
But... in your interactions with other people (and your self),
be cognizant that in whatever you do or feel or say,
you have POWER.
"Guess which sign gets the most comments?"
"Don't be Afraid"! and people sometimes ask her where they can get one too.
I didn't, and her inquiry spurred me to print again.
(I'd stopped after failing to create a print for the Swedish museum last fall. Like a knee injury--I'd over-stressed some interior structure of mine, and it had seized up! Frustrating.)
Another
friend had asked me for "Dept. of Do Your Damn Work", and that'd be
good for Ben at the gym too--a version of "ISYMFS" ("it's still your
mother-fucking set").
I also printed some Get Well cards--once you have them on hand, they're easy to use up--at least this winter they are.
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II. Advice from an Improv Teacher
Maybe I should have printed this slogan:
Fuck Your Fear.
Hm. No, that sounds like, "I want you and your fear to fuck off."
Maybe, FUCK FEAR?
Hm. Ambiguous...?
Fuck the Fear?
Anyway, "Fuck Your Fear" is Advice for Improv from Mick Napier's book Improvise: Scene from the Inside Out:
"Make strong choices.
Fuck your fear.
We want to see your power, not your fear. Nobody has time for your fear. ...
Take the powerful choices [you make] and utilize them in the show.
If... [you are] coming from a huge space of insecurity in the first place...that's the problem right there, not the idea or character or anything.
The more you approach a director or other actors in this needy manner, the more you will alienate yourself from the director's power and your own.
If you find yourself in a show and you are afraid, then fake it. ...
The best thing you could say to me in notes [on rehearsals] is,
"I'll make another choice and we'll see if it works."
______________________
"I'll try again and see how it goes".
Anyway, I was feeling down about my knee--I go to the PT in a week, and it's not significantly better after 5 weeks--
and I thought I'd better adopt an approach for the long haul.
I like this:
Or, try again later.
Maybe I will print that...
Here we go!
