Author: Grand Providentia United

Firmly rooted in the moment. Consciously aware. I practice Authenticity.
Cosmic Overview

The Grand Providentia Projection – Where We Now Stand… United.

Grand Providentia United

Journal Entry #1

When I retitled the American Dream Catcher bronze as Providentia, I arrived at the choice intuitively. I made an intuitive choice based on the limited knowledge I had at the time. I was looking for a title that was synonymous with English definitions of providence. Having lived in the village of Hope, in the state of Rhode Island for many years during my young life, I’ve always taken comfort in the fact that the state capital was named Providence, therefore I’m sure, at least subliminally, that I favored providence for nostalgic reasons. But the conscious choice was ultimately made because of the high ideals that the word conjures in my heart and mind. In truth, I almost used Providence as is, due to a particular definition that I found as soon as I started searching – “timely preparation for future eventualities.” ~ Oxford Languages. I then searched for the Latin origins of the word providence and found what I thought to be an eloquent alternative in Providentia. Three quarters of a decade later, spellcheck is still underlining the word in red, whenever, and wherever, I am writing about the work of art digitally. Since the application of a new patina and the retitling of the piece in 2015, I’ve learned more about the name I had chosen so long ago. Providentia Augusta was the Roman Goddess of forethought, foresight, and a maker of provisions for the eventualities She alone foresaw. The spirit of the Grand Providentia Projection is all about looking ahead collectively, and adjusting some of our lifestyle choices now, to make wise and ample provision for a promising future.

Adding the adjective “Grand” to Providentia in all discussions about the enlarged version of the sculpture may seem obvious, or even juvenile to some, but I considered other qualifiers for a good while and kept coming back to grand. From conception, the 42″ bronze sculpture was intended as a working model for a much larger piece. A monumental bronze, envisioned at 16′ tall, it would include all of the natural elemental forces of our environment – earth, air, fire and water – with the added elemental force of collective human consciousness. Spectacular was another word that I remember considering as a replacement for grand in the title, but I thought it sounded forced. I stayed with grand.

In recent months, I’ve turned away from the idea of the Grand Providentia being described, even in passing, as an art project. It has become so much more than that. To call it a “projection” instead, was also an intuitive decision – just like the name Providentia, except this time it was arrived at during a series of transcendental meditations wherein I envisioned the Grand Providentia projected onto the face of the Earth by the collective conscious intentions of a multitude of like-minded human beings. Consciousness acting as a celestial slide-projector. Just as it is believed in many contemporary spiritual traditions, we would collectively attract light energy from on high, beckoning Universal consciousness down to us, while we were simultaneously performing the groundwork of physical manifestation. The projections would be materialized objectively, of course, with the hard work and creative persistence of many courageous individuals, but they would also be manifested metaphysically through the power of positive intentions. The Grand Providentia Projection is currently experiencing a growth spurt unlike any other it’s had since the inception of the American Dream Catcher project in 2008. The materialization of this dream is imminent.

“Providentia”

I’ll keep the focus of this overview set on the physical end-product of the Grand Providentia Projections in order to afford you all a better description of how these Grand Providentia will be presented to the whole of humanity. It is likely that the first one will need to be produced in the United States on the mainland. Funding will need to be in place before the site is chosen, but already I’m sensing that it would be well received in Colorado. The Projections will be more than just sculptures placed on pedestals. Part of the broader vision is that they would be encircled by meditative gardens with water features and plantings of native vegetation. Local stone would be used for any structures or paved walkways within the footprint of the Projection. I would also want to incorporate a modest learning center where people would find more information about the scope of the projections once they are being manifested globally.

The sculptures themselves will need to include stainless steel support armatures for strength, and the reflective orb in the lower portion of the piece will also probably be produced in stainless steel (high polished and custom cast at 30″ in diameter). While the main structure is likely to be cast in bronze, it is just as likely that much of it will be fashioned with other materials such as stone or glass. I am not attached to the design of Providentia, or even its basic shape, those considerations are open to change by the creative crew that will be assembled to produce the artwork for each location. I’m sure there will be ten or twelve professional artists and architects involved in the planning and producing of each projection. Beyond that, there will be a support crew – technicians, administrators, patrons and any other ancillary help as needed. I firmly believe that once the intentions are set and the resources are in place, each projection will be raised up and promoted by the positive energy being attracted to the enthusiasm of the group. We’ll be relying heavily on positive vibrations. Not only the vibrations of active participants, but also the high vibrations of people from all over the world who are interested and invested in our success. Yes, I’m sure there will also be those who are trying to impede our progress, in fact I am fully expecting formidable resistance, but let’s not get into that here. You can trust that I’ve already been practicing counter-resistance techniques for more than a decade in my own life, so I don’t expect there will be much negative impact on our efforts in the long run. The Grand Providentia Projection will be made manifest. The time is now, the place is here, on the surface of our one and only planet – Earth.

I’ll return within the coming days to make an account of how I will proceed from here. All is well. In fact, it is exactly what it is meant to be, so how could it be anything other than well. Thank you for reading here! I truly appreciate your time and attention.

Film Journey in the Now

Curve Talk About Art

Grand Providentia United

If straight talk is what you’re looking for, you may, or may not, find it here. Art takes many forms. In some cases, it is formless, as it is with conceptual art when the concept is as yet unrealized. Ideas are immaterial things, and concepts are sometimes abstract, along with algebraic formulas. But an abstract acrylic on canvas can have solid appeal. Touch it with your fingertips and let your vision follow its pathways until your senses are absorbed in the two-dimensional realm of optical illusion. Eye candy is delicious, but too much of it, and you run the risk of rounding an eye tooth. Straight lines can stabilize your composition with economy. Straight lines can also derail an art critic’s ability to look straight at your art. Contemporary architecture often bends the strict rules of structural integrity in an effort to add in a curved or crooked line, an arch or a floating stairway. A stairway that theoretically leads us to a horizontal heaven, and it gets us there vertically, on a diagonal. In my own practice of art, I’ve heard the square folks lamenting in my ear about the inability to even draw a straight line. My reply, usually non-verbal, is ‘Why would you want to?’.

“Midlife Crisis” Drawn in pastel during my midlife crisis.

Bear with me, I promise to get to the pointillism. Then again, who wants to talk about a million polychrome dots giving the impression of three-dimensionality anyway. Nobody does. Everybody does want to talk about Leonardo DaVinci though. He was an exemplary master of all dimensions, proportions and abstract scientific concepts. Leonardo and Michelangelo often behaved like oil and water when in close proximity, but being the art giants they were, they were rarely in close proximity. There wasn’t enough space in all of Europe for that.

“Inside Outside”

Then there is sculpture. As big as David or as small as Venus of Willendorf, the contours comparable. Just this morning, I loaded a ridiculously heavy bronze sculpture on a truck and offloaded it in the studio that is now my temporary home. I’m very tired, so I’ll write about sculpture the next time I am inspired to talk curves about art.

“Salvador Seahorse” Bronze bench by sculptor Mike Elwell. Me, stranded in Saint Petersburg, Florida, for the moment.
Adventure and Discovery, Film Journey

Do You Call It Blazing or Bushwacking? – It All Depends How You Prefer to Create New Pathways

Grand Providentia United

When a tree falls in the forest, sometimes it will block a well-trodden path. When the next person comes along, hoping to tread further through the forest, they’ll be faced with the choice of backtracking or bushwacking. If they don’t have the proper tools for bushwacking (e.g., a machete or a hatchet), and they still opt for making their way around the fallen tree, they may find themselves hopelessly hung up in a thicket. Or even worse, in my opinion, they may blunder face first through a heavily occupied spider web. But what if there is no path, and no one had passed this way before you to know whether a tree did or did not fall?

“Penetrable”

Since the moment I began to plan the “Cross-Country Road Trip to Gather Film Content”, my intuition has been reaffirming those evolving plans every step of the way. Regularly occurring synchronicities have been playfully inviting me to make the next move, without fear, and with trust in God and the Universe. All along I’ve stayed calm. All along I’ve remained focused on the higher purpose motivating me to take this journey. Even since the accident, the one that permanently disabled the only gas-powered transportation I own, I’ve still only had one or two moments of self-doubt, and they took place in waking moments past midnight, when these weaknesses can, and often do, get a foothold. I am presently confident that I should carry on. Continue making plans for the road trip.

From one person’s perspective, it may appear that I am hung up in a circumstantial thicket with spider webs covering my entire body, from another, the accident might be perceived as beneficial, an ironic blessing of sorts. More and more, I’m perceiving the accident as an occurrence of the latter type, and less and less I see it as the former.

“Beneficial Fire”

On my drive out of Savannah last Monday, I took a detour to the Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge. When I first saw these flames, I was alarmed. How could anyone leave this fire unattended in the middle of all this pristine wilderness? What about all the beautiful plants trees and animals that would surely be burned alive? I almost had the urge to start stomping the closest flames and yelling for help. Then I came to my senses, remembering the process referred to as the prescribed burn. The forestry service now knows the benefits of allowing fire to burn through the underbrush and leaf litter to lessen the potential of a wildfire which could cause catastrophic damage to old growth forests and the wildlife living there. They know the proper time of year to allow this to happen, and in this case, they also know that the refuge is almost completely surrounded by swamp lands and brackish water. Instead of calling in the bucket brigade, I photographed the unattended, but presumably prescribed fire, and continued to make my way through the forest.

“Charred Floor”

Further along the trail I snapped this shot. It was evident that the fire had burned hot through this area, probably because there was a buildup of underbrush here, so the flames had fuel enough to clear all the lower-level vegetation from the forest floor.

As I am writing this journal entry, I’m recognizing all of the apparent parallels to be made between the story of prescribed burns, and the way I’m beginning to think about the car accident that landed, and stranded, me in Saint Petersburg, Florida for the past week. If the accident hadn’t happened, neither would all the wonderful interactions I’m having here, nor the quality time spent with Victoria and Chris (my adult children). Gratitude grows, day by day, moment by moment, when I stay focused on all of the positive circumstances and potential opportunities for growth that have sprouted up since the car crash on the first of March.

“Young Blades”

Personal growth has its own seasons and cycles. It is sometimes hard to see it in ourselves because we are distracted by past failures and badgered by our own self-deprecating habitual behaviors. When accidents happen, plans change, but there is no point in focusing on an event that is now in the past. Instead, we can strive to remain flexible, being kind to ourselves and others, all through the process of perpetual change.

Thank you for reading here! Your presence is greatly appreciated.

A True Story, as Yet Unfolding..., Film Journey

Eventful Embarkation

Grand Providentia United

In the fog, all things are uncertain and precarious. Forms lose their edginess, while people gain it. In our efforts to extract meaningful images from a white-on-white canvas, we strain our eyes and whiten our knuckles if we’re sitting behind a wheel, and if we’re on foot, our imaginations can misconstrue a hellscape as safe passage and a clear pathway as brambles. I was feeling alert, alive and present on the morning of March 1, at 6:00 AM, as I drove warily through the dense fog blanketing Okeechobee County well before the sun could burn its way through. The interior of Florida is notorious for dangerous highways that slice across the state from the west coast to the east at regular intervals up and down the American mega-peninsula. I had nearly completed the turn-off from one of those highways when disaster struck. A nano-second of horn blare, screeching tires and the crashing sounds of metal and glass reconstructing each other, and then I was spinning. I became a moving part on the inside of a much larger moving part (the Honda Accord). A three-quarter turn and then a complete stop. Car still running, lights still slashing at the fog, I unbuckled and disembarked. The dazed walk I took to the other side of the vehicle gave me all the visual information I needed to conclude that my road trip was over, at least for today. After hurling a couple of profanities at the passive whiteness, I came to my senses and walked away from the crippled hulk. My next thought was for the occupant(s) of the other vehicle. With prayers and fears overflowing, I approached the driver’s door. And that was when extreme gratitude made its reappearance on the scene. One occupant, and although she wasn’t speaking, I could see that she wasn’t critically injured or unconscious. Cars are disposable, people are not.

According to fond memories, I enjoyed driving this Accord.

Two days earlier, on Monday afternoon, I left Savannah for the second time during the month of February. I had decided days before to consider the first trip a trial run; a learning experience for the real “Cross Country Expedition to Gather Film Content”. I’d also decided to scale back the distance covered. Instead of driving from Mile Marker 0 on Key West to the farthest reaches of Alaska, I opted for the farthest northwest point in the contiguous USA, which is Cape Flattery, WA. By the time I finished sorting through and selectively packing everything I could think of for the trip and recording the following video, it was already past 2:00 PM. I drove away from storage locker 88 and headed south.

The official start of the “Grand Providentia Projection” is now! Join us for “A True Story, as Yet Unfolding…”

I left the storage locker and Savannah late in the day. I couldn’t imagine hurrying toward Sanford, Florida and the American Bronze Foundry because that was 5 hours away and would be closed by the time I arrived. I decided to head south and take an easterly detour to the Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge. It’s a coastal preserve and it is where I had previously filmed a few scenes for “Return to Hope”. I was not disappointed by my intuitive side trip. It was wonderful afternoon weatherwise, and the refuge was nearly deserted. I ate dinner by the water as the sun set and then I set forth. Spirit untethered.

“Speak to Us” Live Oak, living in the Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge. Remember – all photos are available as gifts for a $20 donation to the cause. I will email a high-quality image, which you can then print to your specs.
“Infrastructure Undone” The Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge was established by the U.S. Fish and Game Commission on an abandoned military airfield in McIntosh County, GA. Apparently, when we’re all done with the fighting, we sometimes go fishing.
“Thistle” One of the most beautiful weeds I’ve ever seen… or heard.

By the time I hit the onramp for I-95 South it was getting dark. I drove for a couple of hours before turning in to a rest stop for a dinner out-of-the-trunk and a pre-bedtime brush and splash out-of-the-sink. As uncomfortable as the passenger seat was for sleeping, I was feeling extraordinarily blessed by the freedom to make my own choices and set my own pace. In the morning, I drove off as the sun was revealed by a horizon in perpetual motion. Next stop, American Bronze Foundry in Sanford, Florida. But along the way, off of historic Route1, I followed signs to a town named Lincolnville. That is where I captured the last good photo of my home away from no-home, the cranberry Honda I choose to call Accord.

“Cutting the Accord” Take note of the signage.
“American Bronze Foundry” My foundry of choice since leaving Bronzart (Sarasota) in 2008.

After a short meeting with Charlie (Charles Wambold III) to drop off the model and discuss a bare-bones version of my hopes and dreams concerning the “Grand Providentia Projection”, I drove off in the direction of Key West. Timing is everything when you are preparing to drive through Miami, so I fully expected to stop and sleep again before getting to the keys. Another sidetrack to Mullet Lake Park in Seminole County and then I would dine, and squirm through the night in the cramped bucket seat of Accord.

“Mullet Lake Park”

I didn’t see any mullets, in the water or on people’s heads, but I did enjoy a nice lunch by the water, while being entertained by an airboat pilot showing off his fancy fan skills.

I’ve never been skilled at predicting the future, even when the future is as close as the following morning, but if I had that skillset, I’m sure I would have lingered longer at the rest stop waiting for the fog to lift before resuming the drive south. In a single moment, all things can change. I love change, though, because it enhances our flexibility and expands our ability to accept the way things are in the now.

Return tomorrow for a report on where I’m at and where I’m planning to go from here. Thank you for reading this Grand Providentia United journal entry! Please feel free to stay awhile, scroll down, scroll back up, and read until you yawn. Good night, good people!

A True Story, as Yet Unfolding..., Film Journey

Higher Purpose

Grand Providentia United

There is Infinite Intelligence at play within the systems of nature here on Earth. The same Infinite Intelligence that imagined the whole of the Universe into being. We commonly refer to this Infinite Intelligence as God, the Source, or the Creator. When we were imagined by God and given our earthly forms, the Omnipotent Creator must have been pleased beyond all our understanding, with the results. These bodies our spirits animate are incredibly complex, to the point that the greatest minds in human history have only begun to unfold the mystery of why life exists. Why us? Why here on the planet Earth? Why now? Our human bodies are forms extracted from the stuff of stars, planets and galaxies, and in their complexity, they mimic the infinite and forever-expanding Universe. These words are merely words. My intentions are merely hopes and dreams given life by the Spirit of God’s Creation. Yet, my higher purpose is something that I cannot deny no matter what becomes of my physical body. The God of my understanding created me with this higher purpose, this spiritual quest, embedded in the soft flesh of my soul, at birth. And when it is time for me to return home to the Heart of Source, I will go willingly, leaving only the memories and energies I’ve left behind through the work of my higher purpose. Some will surely remember me as a misguided person, or someone who was too sensitive, or maybe even as a man who had gone mad. Others will smile and remember me for the love I shared. But all these potential memories will never be manifested if I don’t follow my higher purpose. And all of the foregoing should explain just how important this creative journey is for me. Everything that I do, every decision I make will flow naturally from my higher purpose in life. From this moment forward, that is simply the way it IS for me.

“The Path”

I’m out on the road again, heading toward Key West and Mile Marker 0. I’m asking for your support, morally and spiritually, but also financially. There are certain things that I’ll require for this trip, and I’ll be making those specific things known over the coming days and weeks. For now, I’m merely asking you to give only what you can afford with a glad and generous heart. Every dollar will help! You can donate through this blog (on the Donate*Contact page), or you can visit my GoFundMe campaign page at – https://www.gofundme.com/f/crosscountry-expedition-to-gather-film-content

I know that it is difficult for many people to let go of money, especially when the economy is so volatile, but I promise you that the path that I intend to take to achieve my higher purpose, will bring healing to our human family and restoration to our earthly environment.

Thank you for visiting the “Grand Providentia United” blog! I’ll be journaling here more often now that I’m living on the road. Please, stop in for regular updates.