On Thursday, 22 Jan 2004 Linda Montano sent out a call for a collaborator on the Franklin Furnace mailing list:

Linda Montano seeks collaborator.

Do you want to collaborate with Linda M. Montano? Linda M. Montano is looking for someone who would like to perform the Second 7 years of 21 years of Living Art. After completing 14 years of Living Art, Montano gave the next seven years to Betsea Caygill and this Term will finish December 8, 2005. The next person will begin December 8, 2005 and complete the performance December 8, 2012.

What to do: research on the seven sacraments, seven chakras, seven sins, the Kaballah, seven colors of the rainbow or any other intimate interest should be researched before the performance.

Look at www.bobsart.org to see some images of the ways I lived the 14 Years of my performance. You, of course, will do things your way.

Design a safe, nurturing, helpful to self and others vow that you will take for those seven years that will help your art/life.

What is expected: at the end of the performance, December 8, 2012, you will send me/email also, a seven page paper which consists of one page year end reports from each of the seven years.

What you get: a Performance Art Saint Certificate at the end of the Performance.

I already had a Performance Art Saint Certificate from past collaborations with Linda. This gave me the courage to visit her and tell her I wanted to collaborate again. I had been experimenting with duration art (The Flag Project, for example) and I was familiar with extended states of sexual trance. Could I combine the discipline of an 8-year art project with my continual quest for ecstasy? Most importantly, I wanted an extended period of time to practice conscious awareness of pleasure and change and time.

My vow:

On December 8, 2004, I---Barbara Carrellas---will begin an eight year art/life project: The Eight New/Ancient Sacraments of Pleasure and Change. I will create chakra-based rituals to be celebrated on the eight natural holidays(solstices, equinoxes, etc.) that explore and celebrate the paradoxes between the fixed commitments/initiations of the seven sacraments of the Catholic church and the ever-changing, fluid realms of intuition, pleasure and nature. Beginning with yule, Extreme Unction, crown chakra, and white, I will spend the first year in meditation and preparation for the next seven, developing and refining rules, rituals and parameters. At the end of the eighth year, I will present what I have discovered in a project which may be drawn, written, photographed, or performed live or on the internet.

Here are the performance-rituals I have performed so far in this first of Eight Years of Living Art:

Candlemas/2 February 2005

Spring/Autumn Equinox/20 March 2005

Beltane/1 May 2005

Summer Solstice/21 June 2005

Lammas/1 August 2005