FACE-IT.

Everyone is Tired. Stressed. Imperfect. Where is the new news? It’s Spring. If John and Yoko can wake up wide-eyed, prop themselves up in bed and announce a Love-In…so can you.

Note to The Spring in You…I rarely roll out my laundry list but in the mode of celebrating it vs.complaining….my typical day’s schedule begins like a marathon around the world…I am stressed…but I love it.

• 4-5 am. Up. Espresso, intense yoga, writing, music.
• 6-8 am. A mix of European business, my spa, bagno, shower.
• 8-9 am. Dress.
• 9 am. A TV segment shooting a client’s stem cell surgery.
• 12 pm. To the Downtown office.
• 4 pm. Uptown. A premiere of “Your Highness,” the new …movie.
• 7 pm. Downtown. A meeting for our im.material village in Haiti.
• 10 pm. LA calls.

Existing somewhere between an imperfect glamour giddy like Carrie Bradshaw, R. Crumb‘s yogi brother in the Terry Zwigoff/David Lynch movie “Crumb” and a visionary athlete like Yoko Ono …it’s no wonder I have dark-circle Bette Davis eyes. As one of my business partners in the entertainment industry says, concealer is her best friend. Concealing or Complaining is not my way.  Celebrating, yes.  One cannot ride two horses. Compost the Complain. Decide that your 20 hour, 2 days into one “day”schedule is your Art.

My Art this month took place between NYC and Milan, two high-paced cities, a weave of new “understandings” via a very New Moon Spring cleansing and a firm grounding in the Fullness of The Big Moon. This Time has been like a collective Shamanic moment between the Year of The Rabbit and 5 million planets in Aries to open the Spring.

I am loving the roundness of Time and seasons, the transformation of spaces through art and architecture co-mingling with the transformation of Self through symbols and actions ranging from shopping for shoes for grounding, plastic surgery, indulgent desserts or happy joy Spring symbols in golden yellow flowers everywhere. Everything we do is choice. To be embracing the juice of Paradox of either Exalted and Wretched States. Is your life a Mythical quest or same ole same ole? Are you awake yet?

Here are my top 11 ways to Wake Up, Feel Up this Spring and trade the same ole “stressed and tired” to “artful and energized.”

ONE  Value Imperfection or The Physical Impossibility of Imperfection in the mind of someone Perfect. (thanks Damien)

I happened to notice that the plastic surgeon’s office (of the above-mentioned TV segment) was a literal art gallery for Hirschfield portraits of women famed for large, expressive distinctive parts, from the stellar noses of Barbara Streisand and Bette Midler to the wide eyes of Bette Davis and Judy Garland. The full color, slick photos of generic and unknown “fixed” women were a crazy contrast to the business at hand…removal of such parts. For sure the value of distinctive parts was clear from the art and even its own intrinsic value, to be discovered in the future, weighs in on the side of befriending what we may see as wretched and turning it into Glory.

Trust me, when compelled by a force greater than me to weave plastic surgery, a comic movie, some desserts with art and a whirlwind Milan trip…it is a bit like a Holy Grail…a chaotic mix of life’s aspects…a seeming imperfect soup…how the hell will I get there? The little wonder of why the hell I write floats along the excitement throughout the process right until the end. And the quest for “it” is driving.

Just those moments that seem to be “not” are really where “is” is. When our “imperfections” result in beauty. When wretchedness inspires a fresh, glorious start. When a green shoot is tired of the dark and cracks the soil. A thought: art interwoven with life, expression for something other than shopping, acquiring, hustling and dragging through a busy day.  Just Because we Felt a Moment, is the Moment to savor.

In the movie, “Your Highness,” when the lazy, selfish Prince Thaddeus is faced with the opportunity to pull the sword from the stone, and all he wants is to go home and lay in his bed, that is just the moment of Truth, Change and Possibility. He Grabs It.

From lazy to inspired.  From weed to brilliance.  Another friend brilliantly has an answer for people complaining about “all the work” and their “busy lives” and “it’s just too much!” with…”This is not Work. This is Art.” We choose our tasks, our grails and our busy lives. Why complain?  From tiny discomforts to out and out anger and illness the disconnect from Joy is astounding. Can we commit to our Art, it’s tiny triumphs and no matter what?

I think the Earth requires that now.  A friendliness towards the hidden Love in all, even your Dark, your disconnected, your Fear. Circle it back. Find art and beauty everywhere, especially at the point of Power where you think it is Not. Allowing the Good, the basic friendliness to surface.

TWO. Crave Renewal and Cave Underground Like Persephone 

In the Galaxy’s Milky Way, on the Earth re-awakening, in the Spring beginning, in the Chinese Year of the Rabbit, in 2011, in NYC’s West Village, yellow flowers are popping up like gold. The energy is still asking to drop your cares and foibles, get grounded and follow the your stressed white rabbits into a cave where the roots and deep meanings must first be understood to birth treasure.

here, step into this tiny shop…

A Shoe store with an art gallery in the back?

Leffot at number 10 Christopher Street in NYC’s West Village has as their motto, “Nuquam Jactate” or “Never Boast,” which to me is like the Buddhist credo to not cherish the inauthentic small self, but celebrate the Authentic Self. On the day I visited, the confluence and interest of 3 very distinct and equally entranced men in the store was a precious NY moment. Like a Balanchine dance, an older conservative gent, a very corporate young fellow and a super stylish hipster rotated, stopped, contemplated and envisioned around an altar-like table of elegant shoes. This moment spoke volumes about style and actually the 3 top tenets of anything good: make it classic and timeless, pay attention to quality beyond and make space for intrigue and beauty.

THREE: The Art is Way Deep Inside.

Going deeper. Behind the elegant stepping possibilities of these shoes is artist Jarrod Beck‘s installation, Equivalence, in the backroom of the shop. Rody Douzoglou is the curator of Backroom NY, a project of her gallery without walls, Douz and Mille.  Yoko was a forerunner in this idea with bed-ins, we love art appearing exactly where we are to peak the moment, change the everyday into magical.

“Architectural, dingy and layrinthine,” says critic Andy Campbell of Jarrod’s work. (and it’s a compliment.) When the ultimately false God of Time has us strung out and nervous as The White Rabbit, do you remember to ground your emotions into the support of the Earth and rabbit fertility with newness, inspirations, creative pursuit, food, hugs and bigger pictures?

FOUR: Savor the Round and Earthy. The Round Grounding of Glorious Food.

When the heady becomes too much, we go for grounding in food. This month, so many round desserts appeared! So Feng Shui.

This coffee gelato in Zona Tortona was heavenly. Keep your eyes on the dessert please, my nails are a frightening sight (I was in Yoko Ono mode…just installed a green wall at the Railway Station…more about that later. We were in Zona Tortona to see our friend Frederico’s bathroom installation with expressive, detailed massive orgy illustrations and matching live fish in the sink created by his girlfriend who sports adorable golden lion ears.)

EIGHT: Life is a Labyrinth, Take the Minotaur Bull by the Horns.

When in the confusion and clamor of Life, start where you are.

Beginning with the power of design, a belief or a comfort always helps. Religion and shopping may be the opiate of the people according to Karl Marx, in Milan both are elevated to art.  The heart and invention of modern shopping can be felt in Giuseppe Mengoni‘s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, built in 1861. It was one of the first multi-use public buildings, today housing luxury shops, including the first Prada shop. The soaring space validates life with the same organized, centralized order of cathedral plans, with the dome above and below at the heart with trajectories like arms of the cross. It communicated then and now that everyday activities are sanctioned by the Heavens.

At the center, a mosaic of a bull surrounded by tourists. The tradition is to place your heel on the privates of the bull and spin around 3 times to grant your wish. How much did this remind me of Thaddeus’ trip through the Labyrinth and the meeting of the Minotaur? As we move into the astrological sign of Taurus the Bull, I can envision this Bull-stability and certainly the treasure token Thaddeus won from the Minotaur to take the bull by the horns and get your wishes granted. (see the movie to know the grail.)These photos of the 2008 installation by Minsuk Cho/Mass Studies and Abitare, presented by Storefront for Art and Architecture, the New York-based nonprofit art and architecture gallery are from one of my favorite design blogs, Dezeen. Another example of surprise art and beauty in the public space.

NINE: Imagine, Dance, Travel, Color Right Now.

For a dancing partner, men’s shoes at Valextra on via Manzoni, had the exact plum passion.My eye was drawn to this yellow girl on a magazine cover while in the offices of our Milan partner, Alcos Comunicazione, and I was not surprised to see the same work of the artist, Liselotte Watkins, all over the Valextra shop, one of my favorite brands, as I own a Valextra vibrant green wallet, which I love.

Liselotte Watkins‘ girls have the exact dose of wide-eyed innocence, strength and knowing that for me touches on a female perspective in the manner of Helmut Newton. A strong statement, but can you see it too?

Christie’s in New York has set up this 20-ton bronze teddy-bear sculpture before auctioning it off next month for what the auction house expects will bring in $10 million dollars. Urs Fischer, a Swiss artist, created the 23-foot-tall, yellow “Untitled (Lamp/Bear)” plush toy bear slumped against a drooping desk lamp. Have you too been staring at the computer too much and feel like 20 tons of bronze?

I am reminded of a story I heard at a Friday evening dinner Shabbat that my friend, the elegant Tracy Stern invited me to at The Kabbalah Center in New York. It was about a precious Pea.

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born,
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.

Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night. 
William Blake