CASIMIRA

CASIMIRA
HERstory through ART
With words and images, I am telling my story.

Through art, I am remembering HERstory...

I've been blogging daily since 2007.

Follow me on HERE and HERE for daily posts...

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Updated Daily: January 2007 - February 2020

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Friday, February 29

H.D. Hilda Doolittle

2008 mixed media
The very form, the very scent,
not heavy, not sensuous,
but perilous perilous
of orchids, piled in a great sheath.

- H.D. Hilda Doolittle (1886-1961)


My life is a poem...
from which sculpture sprouts
made of silk and silver
pearl and dove...

I have begun to dream of new designs.

The 2009 collection has begun...

Thursday, February 28

Indira Gandhi

2008 mixed media

Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.

- Indira Gandhi (1917-1984)

Are you brave enough to forgive yourself?

Wednesday, February 27

Artemisia Gentileschi

2008 mixed media
As long as I live I will have control over my being.

- Artemisia Gentileschi
(1593-1651/53)


How does one achieve control over one's being?

Tuesday, February 26

Mary Wollstonecraft

2008 mixed media

Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.

- Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)


Growing up, I was often told I was beautiful – but more often than not, I was brought up believing I was intelligent. True beauty eminates from the inside out, from our spirits, not our bodies.

Women, let us not build gilt cages around our daughters – but set them free through example...

Monday, February 25

Hattie McDaniel

2008 mixed media
I did my best, and God did the rest.

- Hattie McDaniel (1895-1952)


I do believe God only asks for us to do our best and that She/He takes care of the rest. Our best may change from day to day, we are human, after all.

Sunday, February 24

Greer Garson

2008 mixed media


Starting out to make money is the greatest mistake in life. Do what you feel you have a flair for doing, and if you are good enough at it, the money will come.

- Greer Garson
(1904-1996)






I believe in doing what you love, what you are passionate about – and I do believe the money follows that bliss.

I know too many women and men, who complain about their jobs, dislike their careers yet continue to do it for the money and perhaps for the social status involved. Life is just too short for such insecurities. Life is too short not to follow your bliss.

Saturday, February 23

Jane Austen

2008 mixed media
From politics, it was an easy step to silence.

- Jane Austen (1775-1817)

How different would our world be if politicians meditated daily...

I do not mean “think” because I am certain (at least most) politicians think, as if playing a chess game. I mean meditate – sit in complete silence – clear the mind and get in touch with one’s soul...

Friday, February 22

Helena Blavatsky

2008 mixed media
Our greatest trouble is to teach pupils not to be befooled by appearances.

- Madame Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891)

Today the world seems more preoccupied with appearances than ever before.

She is only a teenager, but wears $400 shoes, uses a $600 phone and drives an over-priced vehicle she could never afford without her parents’ money...

She is a mature woman fighting to regain her youth, addicted to cosmetic surgery and exercising four hours a day in order to be thinner than her teenage daughters...

She is the perfect mother involved in every school event, baking healthy brownies, driving soccer carpools and ignoring a dream of one day becoming an author...

Thursday, February 21

Betty Friedan

2008 mixed media
A woman has got to be able to say, and not feel guilty, 'Who am I, and what do I want out of life?' She mustn't feel selfish and neurotic if she wants goals of her own, outside of husband and children.

- Betty Friedan (1921-2006)

Who are you?

What do you want out of life?

Woman, stop feeling guilty.
You have done the best you can.
No regrets.

Live your life today, this moment...dare to discover who you are...

Wednesday, February 20

Juana de Ibarbourou

2008 mixed media
Te doy mi alma desnuda,
como estatua a la cual ningĂşn cendal escuda.

Desnuda con el puro impudor
de un fruto, de una estrella o una flor;
de todas esas cosas que tienen la infinita
serenidad de Eva antes de ser maldita.

De todas esas cosas,
frutos, astros y rosas,
que no sienten vergĂĽenza del sexo sin celajes
y a quienes nadie osara fabricarles ropajes.

Sin velos, como el cuerpo de una diosa serena
¡que tuviera una intensa blancura de azucena!

Desnuda, y toda abierta de par en par
¡por el ansia del amar!

- Juana de Ibarbourou (1892(5) – 1979)


Te doy mi alma desnuda...

I give you my naked soul...

...have you ever bared your soul to another?

Juana is one of my favorite poets...I love to read her words to Luis, I often travel with her books...

Tuesday, February 19

George Sand

2008 mixed media
The world will know and understand me someday.
But if that day does not arrive, it does not greatly matter.
I shall have opened the way for other women.

- George Sand (1804-1897)

In order to open the way for other women, I must know and understand myself – something I strive for every single day.

I hope that in some small way, I am opening the way for my sisters, for my daughters...

Monday, February 18

Meret Oppenheim

2008 mixed media
Freedom is not something you are given,
but something you have to take.

- Meret Oppenheim (1913-1985)

I take the freedom of expressing myself every single day.

I take the freedom of not caring about what others think or say about me.

I take the freedom of freedom...glorious freedom...

Sunday, February 17

Barbara Hepworth

2008 mixed media
The sculptor must search with passionate intensity for the underlying principle of the organization of mass and tension – the meaning of gesture and the structure of rhythm.

- Barbara Hepworth (1903-1795)


Passionate intensity – what do you search for with passionate intensity?

What are you passionate about?

How do you express your passion?

I sculpt.

I write.

I dance and then I sculpt and write some more.

I am passionate about living in the moment and believing in my dreams...

Saturday, February 16

Julia Morgan

2008 mixed media
My buildings will be my legacy... they will speak for me long after I'm gone.

- Julia Morgan (1872 – 1957)

What will be your legacy?

What will speak for you long after you are gone?

Friday, February 15

Virginia Woolf

2008 mixed media
As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.

— Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)


I don't see borders - I only see a small planet in desperate need of uniting.

Thursday, February 14

Mae West

2008 mixed media
Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.

- Mae West (1892-1980)

Rushing through life...is it worth it?

Wednesday, February 13

Marie Curie

2008 mixed media
Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.

- Marie Curie (1867-1934)

This quote should be tattooed on the foreheads of certain individuals...

Tuesday, February 12

Colette

2008 mixed media
I love my past, I love my present. I am not ashamed of what I have had, and I am not sad because I no longer have it.

- Colette (1873-1954)

...I love this quote...it is one to live by, wouldn't you agree?

Monday, February 11

Joan Crawford

2008 mixed media
I need sex for a clear complexion, but I'd rather do it for love.

- Joan Crawford (1905-1977)

Sex is a natural and glorious part of being human. It is also something that needs to be treated with a sense of the sacred. Today, too many children are having sex too early in life, and most likely for all the wrong reasons. I have heard of 13-year-olds on birth control pills – and it is not for clear complexions.

Sex needs to be merged with a self-respect and self-esteem to truly be enjoyed to the fullest...

Sunday, February 10

Martha Graham

2008 mixed media
Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are not great because of their technique; they are great because of their passion.

- Martha Graham (1894 – 1991)


How do you express your PASSION ?

Saturday, February 9

Elsa Schiaparelli

2008 mixed media
In difficult times fashion is always outrageous.

- Elsa Schiaparelli (1890– 1973)


The return of leggings brings back memories of when I was becoming a teenager...in the 1980’s. I believe toddlers and Audrey Hepburn-body types look best in leggings.

I wore leggings once upon a time when I was a skinny girl with minimal curves trying to imitate Madonna...I also wore oversized t-shirts with rhinestones and very bright colors...teenage years classify as difficult times...outrageous...

Friday, February 8

Isadora Duncan

2008 mixed media
You were once wild here.

Don't let them tame you.

- Isadora Duncan
(1877 – 1927)

Thursday, February 7

Peggy Guggenheim

2008 mixed media
If Venice sinks, the collection should be preserved somewhere in the vicinity of Venice.

- Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979)

Peggy reminds me of my Mother.

Mama-Diva adores her art collection ... her “babies”...

Wednesday, February 6

Lucy Stone

2008 mixed media
I think, with never-ending gratitude, that the young women of today do not and can never know at what price their right to free speech and to speak at all in public has been earned.

- Lucy Stone (1818-1893)

I am grateful every single day...

Tuesday, February 5

Dorothy Dandridge

2008 mixed media
Prejudice is such a waste. It makes you logy and half-alive. It gives you nothing. It takes away.

- Dorothy Dandridge (1922-1965)

We are living in 2008...a time when there should be no prejudice on the planet...only celebration...

Is it not quite shameful (not to mention embarrassing) that it has taken this long to have a woman and an African-American man as presidential candidates in the United States of America...?

Monday, February 4

Bette Davis

2008 mixed media
The weak are the most treacherous of us all. They come to the strong and drain them. They are bottomless. They are insatiable. They are always parched and always bitter. They are everyone's concern and like vampires they suck our life's blood.

- Bette Davis (1908 – 1989)

Emotional vampires...they manipulate and they suck us dry.
I shield myself through meditation, prayer and visualization...

Sunday, February 3

Grandma Moses

2008 mixed media
If I hadn't started painting, I would have raised chickens.

- Grandma Moses (1860-1961)

If I hadn’t ______ (finish the sentence),
I would _______________ (finish the sentence)...

So, why not do it NOW ?

Women often use children as excuses for not following their dreams.
Is that a good example? No...I don’t think so.

I believe it is never too late to follow one’s dreams...
...and life is too short to have any regrets...

...although I doubt I would regret not having raised chickens....

Saturday, February 2

Agatha Christie

2008 mixed media
I enjoy writing when I am in the desert. There are no distractions such as telephones, theatres, operas, houses and gardens.

- Agatha Christie (1891-1976)


Life is full of distractions. Do we attract and welcome these distractions so that we don't have to go within...to feel...to think...? The older I get, the more I enjoy spending time alone, or rather, with My Self. I relish silence...it brings me peace.

Friday, February 1

Saint Catherine of Siena

2008 mixed media
By humble and faithful prayer, the soul acquires, with time and perseverance, every virtue.

- Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)

Do you believe in prayer?

Do you believe in humility?

Do you believe in virtues?

Do you BELIEVE?