Saturday November 11, 2006
i first heard about my first guest, love artist Kathe Izzo, during the Intimacy show, when Michelle Tea mentioned experincing intimacy when she was being loved by Kathy at a tremedous distance, across the country. "It just made me feel so good to know that three was someone out there loving me," she said.
That seemed fascinating to me at the time, in an anthropological way. I didn't understand that on a visceral level until I was injured just weeks before the Receiving show, and experienced asking for and receiving love at a distance from many people while recovering from my elbow surgery (I broke my funny bone. Comic karma).
Kathe takes love to new depths and certainly breadths. It is literally all she has done for years. She is a performance artist from the visual art tradition of installations. Her interest in the boundary between life and art drew her to the area of love and she had for years loved people, of every stripe in person at museum installations, at their homes for a day, or even at across the country while they are working at a bookstore, (as Michelle Tea was) sending them loving emails that come from a completely present place of loving acceptance.
While Kathe acknowledged that she is comfortable giving, the topic of Receiving was a challenge sh is working on. She has receintly been loaned a sum for career investment by a sweetie who wants to take care of her, a new adjustment she is making with her decision to value herself as she does everyone she will love (which is anyone)
Former San Francisco 49ers Tight End Dr. Jamie Williams gave a profound life and football receiving lesson. He picked a random woman out of the audience to teach who turned out to have quarterbacked her Nebraska high school team's powder puff team. (I love how the midwest tries to mix a cosmetic term in there to make it seem like the girls aren't really playing football).
Jamie had great chemistry with Kathe which I really enjoyed. I love it when the show brings together people who might not otherwise meet. Both Kathe and Jamie seemed to be coming at life questions in some similar ways, despite their very different pursuits in film and football (Jamie) and performance art (Kathe).
Shanan Carney, also known as the Voice of Tivo discussed her recuperation from her recent knee surgery. A neighbor kindly agreed to bring her ice every day to fill a special machine which cooled the swelling. This small act of kindness has prompted Shanan to soon launch a vlog called "Random Acts of Kindness" based on the premise that vrey small, meaningful acts can make a huge difference. Both of us, based on our injuries, agreed that receiving can make one feel compelled to give. Shanan called her doctor to find out who else had a surgery and needed ice. She later came over to my place, complete with elf costume, cohort and camera crew to loan me the ice machine and ice to cool my elbow, prepping for the vlog.
Audience regular Scott brought a fabulous Linzer tort. I will ask him for the recipe to post here.
Highlights and Links
- Even though Kathe has gone to the home of complete strangers in New York City to love them for the day, she has never felt unsafe. "If I am giving them everything they need,then what more can they want?" She has held her ground by clearly taking care of her own needs and letting those who are emotionally needy that her own aegis matters.
- Jamie Williams - "To catch the ball, you have to want to catch the ball."
- Kathe Izzo's True Love Project
- In order to truly receiv one has to not give back to the giver right away. This is something of a refusal of the kindness (and whatever else being given to you). If you feel compelled to give yourself, then as people say, "pay it forward."
