Some days ... ideas, creative triggers, crazy thoughts and impulses, fragments from a dream, mental images, a particular word and many other sources of inspiration come to my mind so, I quickly try to jot them down - on a whiteboard I have by my desk or wherever else I can find - before the get replaced by another thought or idea. While some of these notes correspond to impulses or thoughts already mentioned on The Virtual Laboratory section of this page, I wanted to keep this permanent section separate as a quick reminder - both for you and for myself - of what’s going on not only on The Virtual Laboratory but on the portfolio areas of this website.

This morning, looking at old photographs, I felt a bit “nostalgic” about working with models and actors. After mentioning this to a former “muse”, her comments unchained a great number of “thoughts” about not only the difference between working with others - models, actors - and being “my own muse” but also, about how sometimes “necessity” is an artist best guide to our creative journey.

Thinking about the whole “gods and monsters” concept and how this might have been shaped by my catholic upbringing. In the original play (Becoming a Rose), a reference to “Incubus” was made in the “Dreams and Fantasies” scenes and, although the concept of how these - dreams and fantasies - are part of the “illusory world of theater”, I would like to explore further into how these “characters” are just “masks” that allow us to free ourselves in the theater.

Becoming a Rose was without a doubt an intimate and honest exposé of my personal and creative worlds. Every day since this virtual theater piece was streamed live a little over two years ago, I keep going back creatively or emotionally to a scene from the play. Revisiting this crucial moment in my personal and creative journey seems not only inevitable but also necessary.

After my sun-energy recharging session this morning, it became clear to me that I’ve been running on empty for the past several days … that the “muse” I seem to be missing is not a person but my ultimate musing energy to which I’ve been recognizing lately as The Silver Wolf.

Creative Energy Workouts are sensory-somatic explorations of a “sensory trigger” with the purpose of awakening the sexual energy and transmuting it into creative energy. The trigger might be a thought, a feeling, a scent, an image or anything that sparks the energy or simply “triggers” our “itch” to explore. Although the objective of these workouts is not to create but to “train the body to awaken and transmute the sexual energy”, there are times when the creative process is complete and the experience is recorded in some form of creative work.

Following the flow of the energy is essential to the creative process. I have found trough my personal work that forcing the energy into a preconceived path or workflow only leads to blockage of its free flow and that of the creative process.

Revisiting the original Rainbows at Sunset … I remembered the idea behind the story - a photograph in the play - about the human-wolf. At that time … I tried to put into words a feeling that … in all honesty … I had not felt, an experience I had not had so … instead of writing from my “entrails”, I pretty much just “fantasied” about this - what I now know to be - an energy transmutation process.

Today, I understand that this human-wolf is not other than the embodiment of my unrestrained creative energy and that my “transformation” into this beautiful creature has always been both my inspiration and purpose as an artist.

Last night I had a dream about Rainbows at Sunset. In this dream … the character of the “colorful punk girl” was played by a younger … or rather … ageless version of myself. I remember thinking … how was I ever so blind to not see that this was always the case? Even though at the time, I did write this character for an actress friend and … it was inspired by a real-life girl … they were always the “hosts” of my “unrestrained” creative energy and, the character of the artist was a personification of my own struggle trying to prevent this energy from burst into the world.

A while back in NYC, I started a project I called The Bare Character Studies videos. After several sessions of training on the Sensory-Somatic approach to acting and an introduction to The Bare Character concept, a group of actors experimented with the connection between their instinctual impulses and their rational approach to acting.

I will now revisit this experiment virtually on the Luciani’s Absolute Theater Digital Space.

The technological aspect of creating a Virtual Creative Space - finding the right tools to not only setup the physical space but also be able to virtually connect with our audience - is very important but, it is the Energetic Aspect of conceiving the space what will determine how successful we'll be at creating and establishing a connection not only with the audience but with ourselves.

Working on DIS-SCENT, the first of my NYC STORIES … I was reminded of the difference between “devising” a story using the Sensory-Somatic Approach and just “writing” it using a more conventional mind-oriented method. I believe that unless you write the story based on your “Sensory-Somatic Memories” of the events - rather than your brain recollections of them - you risk having to say “You Had To Be There”.

Today … I reminded myself that this website is not a portfolio of past work but a blank canvas for new work instead. Rather than using old photos in posts and other pages - with the exception of the photography portfolios - I will shoot new works for them. I’m already linking all my work on different disciplines to whatever projects I’m working on at the moment so, I will use the images from those projects on the entire website to tie it all up visually.

There is nothing like a little “collective energy” to recharge your creativity. I’m very excited about “The Streets Where I Walk on” a virtual street photography workshop which I hope will inspire my fellow artists. To my photographers and photography-lovers friends out there … this world needs you.

Back to Basics was sort of The Absolute Theater’s “motto” when I first envisioned it. The idea of going back to the tenets of theater and especially, to the concept of the bare stage, is something I’m currently revisiting and repurposing as I develop the idea of the virtual stage for upcoming virtual theater, videos and cross-disciplinary productions for LAT Digital Space.

A fellow photographer once told me this about my work … “while we - other photographers - all strive to capture movement, you have somehow managed to unleash it instead”. Today … feeling not only my own physical limitations but those related to the harsh winter weather in the place I now live, I need to remind myself of his words.

PHOTOS TO ILLUSTRATE THIS NOTES TO MYSELF SECTION AND THE CASTING NOTES VIDEOS

I need to take some self-portraits to illustrate this new section of my website and … at the same time … test different clothing I could wear for the first CASTING STORIES video shoot.

I have always been a people photographer. There was a time - and this is always the case when I move to a new city where I don’t know anyone - when I had to “steal” glances and public moments of perfect strangers to satisfy my need to “set free” - never capture - those aspects of humanity I find colorful, inspiring, curious or simply put: worth sharing.