With six hours to go and not quite half-way to the goal--even including all the pledgers who couldn't figure out how to use Kickstarter--unless a miracle happens, it looks like this project is not going to fly. I've been distracted the last while by the death of my father-in-love so didn't get around to doing the final support roundup effort I'd planned. C'est la vie.

I've got lots of other ideas cooking, so perhaps I'll give Kickstarter another try at a later date. So much appreciate the encouragement and support of each of you. You give me courage to keep trying and exploring new things. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

With gratitude, Pash

Hi all,

Thanks SO MUCH for all of your support and encouragement. I have almost the same number of backers offline--who are hesitant to deal with Amazon--as I do online. So, who knows, maybe this project will come to life!

A couple of people have seen the video and said they want me to help them make their own animal masks. So, if nothing else, maybe that is the direction the project goes in!

I need to start another round of promotion. However, because I don't know the next group of folks I'll approach as well, I've stalled a bit so far. Wish my marketing genes were even half the strength of my creative ones!

I'm giving my first solo mask performance coming up around the end of the month. I've been invited also to give a mask demo/talk/performance for a local discussion series. And I've got some mask making workshop possibilities in the wings, so more opportunities to spread the word await!

Thank you for helping fuel my Courage!! Having a cheering section is so darned important. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your being a part of it.

With gratitude, Pash

As per a Backer's suggestion, in addition the awards listed, every Backer will also be invited to a potluck gathering where I will perform with the finished masks. Such a performance could form the basis for a public show.

If anyone has other suggestions, please let me know!

Already, the process of putting this idea out there has been revelatory.

First, each pledge has brightened my day. I so appreciate your generosity and support. You give me confidence to keep trying, regardless of the outcome.

My dad has suggested that anyone viewing my Kickstarter promo video who didn't know me would think I was pathetic and/or crazy. I wish I had the time and inclination to make at least 5 promos each coming from a different voice or point of view as different starting points for reactions. As Kickstarter demonstrates, there are millions of ways to do it. And it makes me posit the challenge to possible naysayers or anyone, to try sitting alone in a room with a camera and ask for something. How would you do it?

Feeling less courageous than when I launched "Ten Animals" just a few days ago, yesterday I asked three friends to dance "Courage" for me. One of the most vivid spontaneous movement images that they offered was when one moved in such a way that it appeared she held a tiny seed in her hand. She blew this into a circle, that seemed like a container, which the second friend danced around. The third danced in an even larger circle around both of them, shaking a rattle and seeming to offer larger support and nourishment.

It reminded me of the way that any seed or idea or thing is first conceived by an impulse. With any luck, its held in some sort of embryonic container, which in turn is supported by an even larger world around it. Lots of seeds, ideas and lives never make it to birth. But they're all given a nonjudgemental opportunity in the universe to try.

"Ten Animals" is one tiny such seed. Kickstarter is the container. And the larger container is . . . . everything else--including you! Maybe the seed finds enough support to come to life or maybe not. So much is beyond controlling. All anyone can do is try.