Today was the 5th session of We will Dance With Mountains with Bayo Akomalafe online with over 500 people around the planet. I'm always very full, stretched, and sparkly after being with Bayo and his gorgeous and expansive language.

There was a presentation from a Bayo co-creator about spiders exhibiting REM in sleep, perhaps dreaming, while being observed with a reading from The Arachnean and Other Texts by Fernand Deligny. The films of the translucent, twitching, sleeping spiders were magical.

Wondrous musician Shahzad Ismaily taught us about syncopation in a heartbreakingly effective way through his vibe. I connected with his teaching even though I'm not a musician. He teaches something beyond music, something like what's rooted in the downbeat, what can be offered up through the upbeat, how it works together with others, like breathing peacefulness, tolerance, cooperation.

I brought some of the emanations of today in to the sculpture though I need to continue to process it with the yoga from this morning's class with Sondra Loring at Sadhana, Hudson. Embodiment, not only creativity, takes its own time. Force has a different meaning in embodiment and healing; force is life force, moving and transforming our bodies. It's not only the downbeat kind of force but perhaps mostly the upbeat, flowing through the cracks, with potential, moving up from earth. I'm exploring what the vertical forms are about, the emerging wands, the masculine references rising from the ground of the sculptures. That upward rising force began with my series Gnomes , 2018. Rising up from the downbeat, a manifestation of freedom.