1st week of Lent, Thursday – This may sound weird but try it….smell your pillow. Every person has their own personal smell, like animals. This is your smell. Become familiar with your own smell, if possible. It is unique, like you are.

1st week of Lent, Wednesday – Find something soft to touch. Fell its comfort on you face. Enjoy the softness.

1st week of Lent, Tuesday – Find something easy to eat, a piece of fruit, a carrot, etc. Notice its taste and crunchiness. Celebrate this sensation and enjoy it. This is designed for pleasure.

1st week of Lent, Monday – With eyes closed, listen to the world for five minutes. Allow yourself to notice the subtleties of noises and the quiet in between. Think of the ebb and flow of life through sound only.

Saturday after Ash Wednesday – With eyes closed, use your hands to hold your face. Run your hands over your features. This is the face given to you by generations of those who went before you. They live in this world because of you and your face. It is a God given face. This face bravely turns to the world in hope for good in the future. With eyes still closed, smile and feel this smile. Think of drawing the smile inside – to smile at yourself. YOU are worth your lovely face and its smile.

Friday after Ash Wednesday – Wrapping your arms around your own shoulders, give yourself a sustained, solid hug. Lean into this hug and hold yourself up. The person you are hugging has been given to you by God. Like God, you know everything about you and still hold yourself dear. Be God’s voice. Be there for you. Keep yourself in touch so you can be that needed friend.

Thursday after Ash Wednesday – With eyes closed, hold your own hands. Lightly draw each hand over the other, gently massaging every part. The stop and just hold your hand, feeling its warmth and life. Notice that you are a live gift to yourself. These are the hands your parents cuddled so admiringly. These are the hands that touch the ones you love, touch your future. Stay holding your hands for this session.

ASH WEDNESDAY – Use the well burnt match to make the sign of a cross on the back of your hand. Say ‘Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.’ These words are used at funerals to remind us that we are all part of the earth and will return to the earth in time. Close your eyes and breathe slowly, in and out. Think about the miraculous way you are alive now, able to realize the renewal of your blood oxygen with each breath. Continue noticing your breathing for this session.

This performance art piece looks to bring the world into the Gallery and vice versa. I love how technology and art collide.

By Flossie Peitsch

LENTEN OVERVIEW: There are 40 days in Lent. (Sundays in this period are not counted as Lent.) The term Lent is derived from the word ‘lengthen’ as in ‘the days are getting longer’ in the Northern Hemisphere. Lent, a time of penitence, starts on Ash Wednesday and ends on Maundy Thursday of holy week. The original Lutherans wanted Lent abolished as it is not a Biblical concept. Luther, however, said it was a good time to tell the passion story of Christ. It is traditional to give up something for Lent but it can also follow four (4)

Repentance – self-examination
Prayer – Pray about life issues, including listening to God’s word
Fasting – Limiting or eliminating something you enjoy, as you feel you are led to do
Service – Giving up personal time for others’ benefit

PREPARE: Pick a time when you will not be interrupted. Have beside you your Bible and light a candle. The purpose of the Devos is to momentarily simplify your spirituality in time by focusing on one thought or action. It is meant to bring a new awareness through some of our God-given attributes.

General Daily Outline

[Light the candle]

Say Out-loud
Show me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.

[Daily Focus]

Say Out-loud
May the blessing of the Holy One who gives us life, the blessing of the Human One who heals our lives, the blessing of the Spirit who enriches our lives, be with us all during this sacred time.

[Extinguish the candle]

Excellent! You are here! This QR code has brought you to a site where you can interact with my installation art in MATERIAL WORLD: extraordinary environments made from ordinary things at ANCA Gallery in Canberra, Australia.

Historically, the gallery space is a place where creativity and culture both mesh and clash. If only the walls could speak their stories…and we could listen. What has been said there and what will be said in the future? Maybe you can actually hear the words pulse and roll to the surface.

Pick ‘G’ words from the list that seem important to you – artists or themes – or think of your own ‘G’ words…

Gaudí             Guggenheim Gender            Globalization            Gluttony      Gauguin            Garbage        Gibberish                    Geiger Counter             Greater Good               Géricault              Grave              Graze             Giacometti                Generate       Generous                 Giggawatts               Give Place     Gilbert and George           Goal               Google           Giotto             Vincent van Gogh               Goya              GST      El Greco           Grosz

Then, please add your ‘G’ words below.

Your chosen words will be composed into a new audio form and reintroduced to the gallery space at this exhibition’s close…..moving  from written words to spoken words to sounded words to sensational soundscape!…..  Come be a part of it!

G is for Gallery Soundscape (3.4mb)

This QR Code is being used both as a practical web-link and actual art, in the pop art mode.

Used as it is, it is the main tool of ENCODE, performance art which toys with inside/outside gallery space and inclusion/exclusion in the art ‘lingo’.  ENCODE reflexively plays with one’s idea of ‘real art’. It links canvas with technology with alternative space with active place with altered time. This is a blurring of preconceived art ideas and gallery conventions such as word versus image,  system versus sign, sound versus sight, public versus private, to name only a few.

Interestingly, ENCODE, art which could solidly promote the idea that the gallery is a place of important current cultural exchange, has NOT officially been allowed to be performed at certain important galleries in the ACT. When I initially wrote to gain permission, it was denied ‘due to short notice of intent or not supporting the exhibitions currently showing or taking attention away from other artists’ work, etc.’ I accept these decisions, but it does add another sticky layer to the discourse doesn’t it? What fun!

Hi Janet,  I applied for work in Wollongong but my qualifications…and being an artist may disadvantage me! They think it will take away from me being a teacher…Education Officer at my local gallery! Humph! Too few advantages

for gaining this much education!

Hi, Flossie,  I agree with them. It will take away from your work and your incentive to work. It’s a hard one, juggling art and work. And dealing with other people’s perceptions of what is good for you or indeed, how long you will stay in the job is what employers see when they realize that you are an artist.

Anyway, something will come along that will be just perfect. Have you tried artists in schools programs or grants for community programs?

Flossie to self: A pathetic excuse! This is like saying to a musician, she can’t sell musical instruments because she plays herself. Being how ‘good’ an artist disqualifies one from being an art teacher? !!!@#%&+

Staircase to nowhere and I’ve already fallen off it