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Yoga with Sarah Jane

– September 22, 2012Posted in: lifestyle

Here’s a great interview with Sarah Jane Shangraw about the thriving practice of yoga and how it can help you lead a more creative lifestyle. Enjoy!

Boston yoga with Sarah Jane

Art Life: People everywhere seem to be carrying around yoga mats with them! Why are they turning to yoga?

SJ: Yoga has exploded in popularity in the last decade; an estimated 20 million Americans practice yoga of some sort! I think this is part of the reason: In the States these days, life moves fast. Too fast. Both business and personal communications have increased in amounts and speed, with ever-evolving technological devices and networks competing for our attention and encouraging us to check-out and live virtually. People suffer from isolation, thoughtless acquisitiveness, financial insecurity, you name it. I think more and more people are seeking relief from the deleterious effects of modern living, an antidote to overwork and chronic stress. They are finding it in the contemplative practices of yoga and meditation.

Boston yoga with Sarah Jane

Art Life: What is the importance behind breathing and poses in yoga? What links them together?

SJ: Bring your attention to your breath and you are connecting the mind (the agent of attention) to the body (where the physical phenomena of breathing happens). Put simply, the breath is a vehicle for mind-body connection. Dwelling in this connection through mindful breathing generates a great sense of calm and ease. Practiced often, it is revolutionary! Adding deliberate manipulation of the breath — changing the rate and proportion of our inhales and exhales, as in pranayama (breathwork) — we can reset the nervous system and metabolic rates. Indeed, we can use our breath to change our mind states — from agitated to calm, sluggish to alert, depressed to invigorated. Using lengthened and steadied breath in asana (poses) helps you to pace and control your movements (say, in vinyasa yoga or viniyoga) and create the steadiness of mind to stay put for longer static (held) poses. In fact, when you breath mindfully and deliberately, a whole lot seems possible that wouldn’t otherwise seem so.

Art Life: How is yoga different from just stretching or strengthening exercises?
SJ: Stretching is great. So is body-building. We do them both in yoga. And we add mental self-inquiry and awareness to boot. You actually get to know yourself when you practice yoga and meditation. One of my yoga asana teachers, Natasha Rizopoulos, said that who you are on the mat is who you are in the world. It is so true, and I in turn tell that to my students. Your shifting attitude in a given class or session — the boredom, frustration, fear, or pride that arise when doing certain poses — and how you allow your feelings play out, or not, mimics how you operate in boring, frustrating, scary, or ambitious situations in daily life. It’s quite fascinating. And informative. My yoga practice is like a mirror, and seeing myself more clearly helps me grow, psychologically, emotionally, creatively.

Boston yoga with Sarah Jane

Art Life: You provide private classes to students at your studio. What are some of the benefits of private classes over group ones?

SJ: No two people are alike — we don’t all wear size 8 shoe and like broccoli — and we don’t all benefit from the same yoga practice. People who are tight in particular areas of the body will become more facile by doing particular stretches. On the other end of the spectrum, people who are extremely flexible can gain more stability by developing strength. Even with pose modifications, a typical group class accommodates a limited range of people. For a truly transformative practice, you need a sequence customized to you, with your history, injuries, vulnerabilities, capacities, and goals. When people come to see me individually, we do some experimenting and find their yoga. I provide them with a sequence they can practice at home, and for long-term students, I adjust it as their capacities change. Make a tailored yoga practice part of your routine and beware: increased health, well-being, productivity, creativity, and happiness result! I’ve seen people change their bodies, attitudes, and lives through yoga.

Boston yoga with Sarah Jane

Art Life: How can yoga assist someone who has a creative lifestyle and/or is in the field of the arts?

SJ: Yoga is vast and varied and includes all sorts of techniques — including physical poses, pranayama, and meditation. It teaches you how to deal with obstacles such as distraction, boredom, and frustration. (Believe me, these things come up routinely on the mat.) And it cultivates focus, concentration, self-awareness, and discipline. It sets you up to bring your best self to your work and life. Some people use yoga as a way to tap into something larger than themselves, but I think just from living awake we acquire within a rich universe of ideas with which to play. Unfortunately, so much of ourselves remains pushed down, hidden, and covered over by habit, conditioning, and societal expectations. Yoga is a process of uncovering what’s there, and that’s a journey that rewards along the way. Approach your art and your life with open awareness and courageous maturity, and the possibilities are limitless.

Art Life: Describe how yoga has helped you live the art life.

SJ: Several years ago, when my father was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, which can be inherited, I got scared. I was working at a desk job for too many hours a week, I didn’t exercise much, and my body was getting stiff and my mind chronically anxious. I had to make some changes, I realized, or my life would remain uncomfortable. And I might not have as many fully conscious years left as I thought! From dabbling, I knew that yoga could help bring me some balance and improve my health, and so I threw myself into it.

One day, during a period when I was constantly bound up in frustration with my family — and often fantasizing about escaping to the New Mexico desert, changing my name, and tending bar the rest of my life! — I was lying in savasana (the final, resting pose of a class), and from within the stillness came the feeling, no, the knowledge that I am free and limitless, right here, right now, and that I am always so. I had already heard and read this, from Buddhist teachers in particular, but that experience changed everything. I realized I didn’t need to play roles out of habit, and I started switching off my autopilot as often as I could. Instead, I let my behavior be fluid, based on reality in a given moment. I started taking better care of myself. I took a good hard look at my my relationships, my work, and how I spent my time and energy, and I re-aligned, so I could live more fully in the present. I eventually became a teacher who plays with the tools of yoga to create practices for people who are also seeking change. One student tells me “it’s like poetry in the body!” Sweet! Also, I picked up the guitar after 15 years and started singing and writing lyrics again. Now I surround myself with like-minded people — many of whom are musicians and artists — who also want to tap into the creativity that is available when living life in the present moment. Remaining curious as things unfold, being quiet, listening, responding authentically rather than automatically, accommodating rather than fighting inevitable change, opening to possibility, enjoying the ride — I could go on. Basically, living as fully and freely as possible in the moments available to me — that is how I live the art life.

Boston yoga with Sarah Jane

For more information visit Yoga with Sarah Jane.

Photographs by Robert Castagna

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Looking at life…

– July 30, 2012Posted in: lifestyle

The Intro:

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is considered the best rock album by Rolling Stone Magazine. And “A Day in the Life”, the LP’s last song, might possibly be the Beatle’s best. Why that is in a moment. For starters I’d like to recommend a book by Geoff Emerick entitled HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE. I recently read this book and loved it! Mr. Emerick is the Grammy Award winning audio engineer from the Pepper album and his insight and contribution to making it, makes for a great read.

Now the Song:

“A Day in the Life” is the ne plus ultra of Lennon/McCartney songwriting. It not only highlights their disparate characters and divergent looks on life, but also showcases their unique ability to collaborate and make music. Opposites attract they say…

John, dreamy and aloof, speaks about universal themes, subjective narratives, a barrage of news media events and background noise. Think of his later songs “Imagine” and “Watching the Wheels”. He has a way of remaining exterior to the whole that is existence, providing us with that “Lucy in the Sky” point of view.

But then a crescendo of orchestral tunings fills the void transporting us from that universal platform of god and all-knowingness to the alarm clock of the daily routine. It is here where Paul resides to take us on a ride. He reminds us that no matter how lofty our thoughts, how universal our themes, we must wake up to the ordinary. That life in its mundane can be artful too. Think “When I’m 64″ and “Eleanor Rigby”. Everywhere around us is a song. Paul is the perfect antidote to John’s imagination, setting both our feet on firm ground.

The Dream:

But as all days must come to an end and return to night, in that darkness we again move to dream. It’s inevitable as the song suggests. Once again it is the purview of John Lennon, a dreamscape to awaken us from our usual slumber.

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Focused Freedom: The Artist Studio

– May 21, 2012Posted in: lifestyle

artist studio

Space within which an artist creates is called a studio. The word “studio” derives from root words that mean study, zeal, care, devotion and diligence. In a studio one is free to concentrate undistracted, often set apart from the rest of the world. It is a focused freedom. It is different from an “office” where one is busy with the workaday world. In a studio there is a degree of isolation and in that isolation your ideas flow. Later you may share those ideas and creations, or not. It is the studio where the physical space and the mental space collide, or more gently, overlap.

Experimentations occurs here and the experiment is key to art and the final art form. Often the experimental turns final, as in it lies the beauty of creation. To see a masterpiece painting is stunning. But to see the sketches and studies that went before is sublime – the evolution of creativity lies before you.

All artists need a studio and each studio is as unique and personal as the various eccentricities and novelties of the art and the artist.

To view lots of examples of artist studios go to A Peek Inside Artist Studios!

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Authenticity

– May 17, 2012Posted in: lifestyle

T Model Ford in Clarksdale MI

There are a lot of elements that go into art and one of them happens to be authenticity. Being true to who you are. I ran into authenticity while at the crossroads of the blues in Clarksdale MI recently. Heading over the tracks to check out a juke joint I was stopped by a man sitting on a bench on the side of the road.

“You know me!” he exerted.

I stared back and said, “Sorry but I don’t think so.”

“You know me!” he again emphatically stated. Leaving no doubt that I did.

Deciding to play along I said, “Oh yeah right, remind me of your name?”

“T-Model Ford!”

That was my introduction to 92 year old T-Model Ford who was slated to play the juke joint called Reds on the other side of the tracks in Clarksdale Mississippi.

 

T Model Ford in Clarksdale MI

T Model Ford in Clarksdale MI

When I returned a couple hours later it was with my wife and mother, both of which were traveling along on a southern road trip which included Gettysburg, Nashville, Graceland and now Clarksdale as we headed south on the Blues Highway.

Reds is basically a shack. Ramshackle and pasted together with sheet metal and glue. I would have never thought to enter but for the recommendation of a few locals. Entering was transporting. Red glowing and lurid stringed lights were the only illumination. Cigarettes, large bottles of beer and a local crowd enjoyed the scene. With a smattering of out-of-towners coming in, wide eyed and gaping with smiles of gratitude. The gratitude was due to the “authenticity” of the joint – juke joint. And the realness of the player behind the guitar – T-Model Ford.

It was real. And the playing was real too. It wasn’t the best playing, but one became transfixed, mesmerized by the scene, the smells and the sounds. Looking up T-Model Ford on the internet one finds that he has about 26 children from various women, was sentenced to prison for murder, and when he was asked how many times he has been to jail he responded, “Every Saturday night there for a while.” Hailing from Greenville I realized I was looking at blues dead straight in the eyes.

So back to authenticity. You are who you are. If you’re a bluesman, you’re a bluesman. There’s something special about embracing that which makes you, you.

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finding your groove

– February 16, 2012Posted in: lifestyle

guitar grooves

While photographing Ksenia’s guitar I came to the realization as to why digital cameras and digital photography have a bad name. It’s longevity. Ksenia’s guitar is worn but alive. It’s become an integral component to her music and style. It’s reminiscent of a Willie Nelson guitar in that her rapid strumming has left a physical “groove”, embedded in its wood. When she plays it, it is an extension of her and her music. It sways, vibrates, lives and continues to do so after years of use.

guitar scratch

Contrast this with a digital camera, which like a computer, falls out of fashion and use every three years. It has a limit of actuations (or shutter clicks). The rapid pace of technology makes the camera, not antique, but obsolete. Of course there are those lenses and this is the closest it comes. Your lens does have longevity, it does contribute to your style. A good lens of sharp focus and narrow depth can produce a breathtaking image. But still…

guitar geometry

Older film cameras were more like the guitar. Those machines had character. They played a more intimate role in the outcome and the identity of the photographer. Instead of identifying with the rapid pace of advancement, one identified with art and the process. If I was to look back I’d say the closest to this for me, would be my Mamiya RB67 (note: RB stood for “revolving back” and one would simply revolve the back to take either a portrait or landscape format picture – great for use on your tripod!). I would lug this box around with tripod and shoot the streets, especially Harvard Square. I was forced to confront my subject and the subject back at me. The image too was alive, fixated on paper, with character.

lowden guitar

In the end it might be time to revert. To take the slow approach again. To get off the rapid express train of technology and to drag out that hulking medium format camera and tripod. To become one with your instrument of art.

But then again, these pictures were taken with a digital camera.

Technical information:

Lowden Guitar

Canon 24 mm f/1.4 lens

Canon 20D

Mamiya RB67

 

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Imagining the New Year

– December 26, 2011Posted in: lifestyle

Florence Carousel by Robert Castagna

Florence Carousel by Robert Castagna

At this time of year the imagination becomes vitally important to the artist, not to mention the world at large, yet somehow it is often overlooked. The imagination is the fountain from which our ideas and New Year’s resolutions spring. Instead of simply making decisions devoid of life, vitality, drive and joy (which resolutions have become), the imagination is a playground in which we can propel our ideas into the future. An imaginary space that will soon coincide with the year 2012 and beyond!

Not only does the imagination allow you to create art, but goals too. I think of the imagination as that subjective space where creativity starts. A tool which aides the imagination is the journal – that imperfect notebook where ideas flow in various forms: words, pictures, collage, musical notes, etc. This is the beginning of translating subjective space to objective space. I highly recommend acquiring a journal of your liking and pens, pencils or whatever – that make you want to use them. A $3 pen and $15 notebook is little expense for a future of accomplishment. My favorite are Moleskine and uni-ball. The classic simple notebook and the fast-flowing ink work wonders for me. But maybe a crayon and stapled paper work for you?

Florence Carousel by Robert Castagna

Florence Carousel by Robert Castagna

Now start to use your imagination and create an ideal scene for your future as an artist. No matter how unreal and absurd it may be it is an exercise of stretching your imagination, working the muscle for your soon-to-come New Year’s resolutions. Although the imagination is not like a muscle in physical form it is similar in that it needs to be worked in order for it to work. “Use it or lose it,” is a common maxim which truly applies. So use it to make your ideal scene (for more information on “ideal scene” see Administrative Scale).

Now start to work out some resolutions for this year and beyond. Use your imagination to include those artistic ideas that you hold dear. And never fall into the trap of invalidating your own thoughts. Remember experimentation can lead to a masterpiece and that New Year’s resolutions can be fun!

Florence Carousel by Robert Castagna

Note: Photographs by Robert Castagna taken in Florence Italy, November 2011.

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an idea salon

– October 7, 2011Posted in: lifestyle

idea artidea art, collaboration no. 1

I’ve come to believe that art salons are more for the sharing of ideas than art – as art is often created alone but ideas, being more fluid, can be shared and created together. However in our most recent art salon we combined art and idea to create a mixed media piece of text, photography, painting and more. It was a collaborative effort with artists from all mediums putting in.

I wish to thank all of the artists, both new and regulars for sharing your ideas and making our intimate salon a successful one.

Here are some of the words from the collaboration:

“Create visual art in reaction to music. A concert of musicians with a concert of visual artists reacting to the music.”

“My experience is that art and aesthetics surround us all. We only have to observe it and realize it is in nature, created by all.”

“Know no boundaries, know no criticism, know your goals, follow your vision, chase your dreams.”

 

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The Art of Space

– September 1, 2011Posted in: lifestyle

Essay by David Newey, photography by Robert Castagna

Recently, I visited the town where I graduated from High School. While driving over old familiar roads I noticed a location where a building once stood and now there was nothing save the grass, weeds and low lying bushes. This caught my attention especially because I had been in that building a number of times and now the spaces I had occupied were no longer there. Or were they?

 

present time nostalgia no. 1

present time nostalgia no. 2

In my youth I was fortunate enough to grow up on a 350 acre farm in Plymouth, MA, which contained a myriad of opportunities for a young boy to create adventure. There were pastures and forests and dirt roads; cranberry bogs and sand pits, ponds, channels and streams. There were large gardens with hedge rows and hayfields and old stone walls. The giant old oak trees towered over the Cape Cod scrub pine. And filling the view from our farm-yard was an expansive marsh backing up a small harbor and emptying into Cape Cod Bay when the tide was low.

The spaces these landmarks created were obvious to anyone who stopped for even a moment to observe, but more important to me were the spaces that I discovered and made my own during the evolution of my childhood.  The double bushes on the front corner of the house hid the lady slipper that bloomed every Spring.  The flat clearing at the bottom of the hill, hidden from the road, somehow carried a mysterious history with it (and so it has been lately discovered).  There was a huge clump of bush with a path right through it, with the middle looking as if a large beast had sat and spread a clearing to sleep.  Pine tree groves with needle floors and huge rocks juxtaposed against their surroundings and many others,  made for spaces I advantaged.

present time nostalgia no. 3

Of late I have been contemplating these spaces of my early days. I owned these spaces and created them. I put things into these spaces, sometimes physically, but mostly mentally, spiritually, emotionally. Someone else could pass through one of these spaces and see no difference between them  and the neighboring landscape, yet these spaces were real to me and I gave to them and they gave to me.

Having grown into an artistic lifestyle, I have become very aware of how much my observance and manipulation of spaces has contributed to the art that I now put forth. In all forms of art I see the relevance of space, and have newly become aware of that relationship.  But the importance of a space is what the artist does with the space.  A graphic artist will observe a space and render it unlike any other, giving it a unique meaning to the painting or sketch which then becomes visible to and usable by the observer.  A photographer sees a space as no one else has, and in capturing that view gives it that observation. and in presenting it to the world creates a new viewpoint that can be applied to other spaces.

Music takes the space of pitch and timbre and impact and constricts or expands in variations or contorts or organizes the sounds into musical spaces that can define the physical universe, life and other universes.  Dance plays with space and gives it its own motion that can literally counterpoint the dance itself, lending unlimited calm or unmitigated frenzy or any variation of motion in between.

present time nostalgia no. 6

I have come to believe that artists create space and therefore create a place for us to be, just as I created my spaces to be, in my youth.  And the building I found missing? The space remained, not as before, but created differently; maybe not as artistically as I might have desired, but nonetheless created, and so my occupying of that space was not washed away, as I almost imagined, by the disappearance of a physical structure, but persists, as long as I desire.  And I can create into it as I have already done here.

It is up to the artist in each of us to observe those spaces that have been created in the many media, and their surrounds, and take from them or give to them the variations on a theme that each may wont to employ or may enhance to enjoy.

David Newey is a Boston based singer, song-writer and member of the new folk group, Trail Mix. He can be reached at denewey@gmail.com.

For more information on the photography in this article visit Castagna Studio .

 

 

 

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Trip to Nowhere

– August 24, 2011Posted in: lifestyle

“… shackles of necessity were cast free.”


road to nowhere railroad cars

road to nowhere railroad sign

So much of life is planned and we are taught by professional planners, organizers and the many systems of “getting-things-done” that agendas lead to a hassle free existence. Thus when it comes to travel we mimic our habits and systematically work to plan our days and our every move. Yet, peeling back the derivation for the word “vacation” we find that it comes from Latin “vacare” which means to be empty or free.

road to nowhere

The Road to Nowhere became the byword for our most recent road trip. Having traveled all the States we felt that we could “let go” and virtually drive with no destination in sight and no advanced planning. And this, for the most part, is what we did. This carefree attitude was not easy, but once settled into allowed us to better experience the road at the moment – not a future joy but an immediate, “Here it is!”  Anticipation and expectation gave way to free observation. The moment it really began, on the road in Minnesota, a liberation occurred, as if shackles of necessity were cast free.

“… the best part of travel is between here and there.”

road to nowhere cars

As an artist one can always say that an agenda lies beneath. That agenda is not mandated by time or place, but by inspiration and ideas. Being more ethereal such an “agenda” floats along the road and allows closer inspection and keener looks. The Road to Nowhere is really a state of mind. It’s letting go of preconceptions and prejudices and enjoying the experience. As my friend Katie Walther said, “the best part of travel is between here and there.”

Between here and there lies the road.

road to nowhere art life

Recommended websites:

Katie Walther is a graphic designer. For more information visit Calico Design.

The Great American Roadside is an essay by James Agee written for Fortune in 1934. Originally it was printed alongside photographs by Walker Evans.

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The Road Journal

– August 8, 2011Posted in: lifestyle

Since life is in fact a journey, the road journal is pertinent to all living and adventure, but on the road it becomes that quintessential document of art and idea.

Artist journals reveal the processes of inspiration and creation while acting as art in themselves. They are a time-track memory of the artist’s life and can be a very fun way of sharing your art. On our recent road trip we utilized the instant camera as a tool to document and create colorful journal entries. As polaroids are available only secondhand and its film can be quite costly I chose the Fujifilm instax 210. As I often make mistakes and waste lots of this film, this was the right choice. Now, in addition to the wise words entered within our pages, we fill it with pictures of the moment, taped in at the instant of capture, and commented upon. Instant gratification of the more personal kind. Not facebook but something more nostalgic and close.

road journal

artist journal

Our road journal was a joint venture, shared by us both. Here are some excerpts:

“History is to those who write it. Evelyn Cameron was an English woman who came to Montana to honeymoon with her husband. They had romantic ideas to “stay” and raise polo ponies (much like the novel My Friend Flicka). Well, the ponies died, but Evelyn persuaded her husband to stay. She took photos, was an accomplished professional photographer,  and from the pictures we’ve seen, she was quite the hoot. She and her friend Janet had baby coyotes, hawks and just seemed so full of “it”.

“Her diaries which record meticulous slow change, day after day, show culture change. Here’s the point: now there’s a museum, a PBS Special and rooms full of her pictures and binders full of diaries transcribed meticulously by a 90 year old woman. Hundreds of people come to Montana, live and die, who’s famous? The one who writes it down.”   (Ksenia journal entry)

Our road trip lasted a little over two weeks and traveled 5,500 miles. Having previously been to all the states we took the zen-approach and made decisions on the fly and sought to experience the moment. For fun we nick-named it the road to no where.

Terry Montana Stop Sign

Terry, Montana – just outside Evelyn Cameron Gallery

“Some people like to arrive at a perfect time, to a perfect place to get the perfect picture. I like to be where I am and see…”    (Robert Journal Entry)


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