succulent soulfulness

- my artwork - my soul's expression -

"People discuss my art and pretend to understand as if it were necessary to understand, when it's simply necessary to love." - Claude Monet

I actually love when someone questions my creations.

I don't always have the answers.  

I create from a place of succulent soulfulness...  

...in complete freedom without the need to please anyone, without the need to explain...

It is the soul that speaks through my artwork and communicates with my collectors.

from my journals

finding Buddha in my dreams

- mixed media from journals -

Last night I dreamed I was traveling through strange and wonderful lands.  I fell in love with a clay Buddha holding a delicate lotus made of gold.

I followed the dirt road and discovered a field of beauty where another, much larger bronze Buddha sat in silent, peaceful bliss.  It was the Buddha he was looking for.  His Buddha...in my dreams...

from my dream journal

patience and impatience

- mixed media from an ongoing series -

"I will be waiting here

for your silence to break

for your soul to shake

for your love to wake." - RUMI

beautiful truth

- mixed media -

"I am Isis, mistress of the whole land...I am she who separated the heaven from the earth. I have instructed mankind in the mysteries...I have ordered the course of the sun and the moon. I am queen of the rivers and winds and sea...I have made justice more powerful than silver and gold. I have caused truth to be considered beautiful. I am she who is called the Goddess of women..."

- excerpt from the Inscription on The Temple of Isis at Sais

I dreamed with the ancient goddess of motherhood and fertility last night.  Isis, the Egyptian goddess visits my dreams with messages and inspiration for my next collection...

a few magic seconds

- 2013 mixed media on paper -

"Where does the real poetry

Come from?

From the amorous sighs

In this moist dark when making love

With form or

Spirit.

Where does poetry live?

In the eye that says, "Wow, wee,"

In the overpowering felt splendor

Every sane mind knows

When it realizes - our life dance

Is only for a few magic

Seconds,

From the heart saying,

Shouting,

"I am so damn

Alive."

- HAFIZ
(who else but my beloved Hafiz?)

so let us dance wildly and freely for a few magic seconds

hold infinity in the palm of your hand

- elements on my desk, ready to be incorporated into wearable pieces -

"To see a world in a grain of sand -
and a heaven in a wild flower,
hold infinity in the palm of your hand -
and eternity in an hour."
- William Blake

quince mil encantos

- 2013 mixed media from series -

"entre el cielo y el suelo hay algo,
con tendencia a quedarse calvo,
de tanto recordar,
y ese algo que soy yo mismo,
es un cuadro de bifrontismo,
que sólo da una faz,

la cara vista es un anuncio de signal,
la cara oculta es la resulta,
de mi idea genial de echarte,
me cuesta tanto olvidarte,
me cuesta tanto,

olvidar quince mil encantos es
mucha sensatez
y no sé si seré sensato
lo que sé es que me cuesta un rato
hacer las cosas sin querer

y aunque fui yo quien decidió
que ya no más
y no me cansé se jurarte
que no habrá segunda parte
me cuesta tanto olvidarte
me cuesta tanto..." - José M. Cano

staying open to joy

- 2013 watercolor meditation on paper -

"For a dervish every day feels like Friday, the beginning of a holiday, a fresh setting out that will not have an end. 

Dressed in the soul's handsomeness, you're a whole month of Fridays, sweet outside, sweet in.

Your mind and your deep being walk together as friends walk along inside their friendship.

Debris does not stay in one place on a fast-running creek.

Let grudges wash out into the sea.

Your soul's eye watches a spring-green branch moving, while these other eyes love the old stories."

- RUMI


...so my fellow dervishes-at-heart, let us welcome and celebrate this blessed MONDAY with all of the joy, excitement and gratitude of a holiday, staying OPEN 
and RECEPTIVE...

autumn equinox: longer nights and inner journeys

- mixed media from my journals -

AUTUMN EQUINOX: a time to celebrate & give thanks for the ABUNDANCE in our lives as a NEW YEAR BEGINS in NATURE...longer nights, inner journeys..

lovers

- mixed media on paper - ROMANCE series -

“The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They are in each other all along.” – RUMI

unexpectedly from friends to lovers to soul mates

- mixed media from ROMANCE series -

"I don't believe in rules.  I think it's the heart that should talk.  The first thing about love is that you have to love yourself.  No relationship will work unless you do...I wanted to be his friend.  I thought he would be a good friend to have.  But we were completely taken over by passion, and it was completely, utterly unexpected on both sides.  That made it more exciting, because it was so unexpected...Yes, I do believe in soul mates." - Diane von Fürstenberg (b. 1946)

harvest moon

- mixed media circa 2007 -

mother moon guides, in all her fullness...let us harvest our dreams under moonlight tonight...

whispering kisses of grace

- self-portrait from a series -

"Life is a classroom.

We are both student and teacher.

Each day is a test.

And each day we receive a passing or failing grade in one particular subject: GRACE. Grace is compassion, gratitude, surrender, faith, forgiveness, good manners, reverence and the list goes on.

It's something money can't buy and credentials rarely produce.

Being the smartest, the prettiest, the most talented, the richest or even the poorest can't help.

Being a humble person can, and being a helpful person can guide you through your days with grace and gratitude." - Philosophy Gel Douche & Bain, Corps & Cheveux

wisdom from a shower gel?  why not...plus it leaves the most heavenly fragrance that lingers upon the skin, whispering kisses of grace...

secure in my wildness

every woman has a WILD woman within
she dances with complete freedom
she does not care who stares, who judges
she is secure in her wildness

every woman is a WILD woman
there is RAW beauty in our wildness
there is SACRED light in our wildness

"You were WILD once. Don't let them TAME you."
- Isadora Duncan

photographs are self-portraits

the eternal feminine

- 2013 mixed media on paper from MUSAS series -

"I belong to no race nor time. I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads."
- Zora Neale Hurston (1903-1960)

every single miracle

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."
- Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

today, let us celebrate every single moment

today, let us be grateful for every single miracle


PHOTOGRAPH: from a series taken at the nursing home in Rivas during dance lessons organized through Future of Nicaragua Foundation's cultural programs

Nicaragua

- 2003 mixed media on canvas -

Con lagrimas te sueño,

Con lagrimas te extraño,

Con lagrimas te baño,

Bautizada amada NICARAGUA.


Con lagrimas te siento nacer de mi vientre,

Con sangre y orgullo,

Con grito de guerra y fuego del mar,

NICARAGUA ….Con dolor hoy te pinto...


for my noble Father and his Motherland
Julia Casimira Sacasa de Checa

from my morning journals

- mixed media -

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."

- Carl Jung (1875-1961)

We are on this planet to stretch, grow and learn about ourselves.

Through our dance, we fall in love with our essence.  

Let us be curious and ask ourselves, "What is it about that person that makes me cringe?"  More often than not, that other person is mirroring back aspects of our own self.  At the very least that other person is giving us an opportunity to practice patience, compassion, non-judgement and forgiveness.

awakening

- 2013 mixed media on paper -

"When we reached the place for goodnight I could not let him go as he had always done before, but put my hands round his head and drew it down to mine and kissed his mouth and looked into his eyes.  And...he caught me in his arms and pressed me to him and kissed my mouth and my eyes and my neck; blindly and fiercely he kissed me...When I was in bed, I could not sleep, but lay trembling half with fear, half with wonder, at what I had awakened in him."
- Helen Thomas

love's continuity

- mixed media, circa 2010 -

September 11th would have been my grandfather's 105th birthday.  What would this brilliant diplomat think of the world we currently inhabit?  How does one begin to explain 9-11 to one's child?  

"The soul is a traveler through the realm of matter.  Our bodies are beloved vehicles housing our souls.  The soul is eternal and moves on when it is finished here.  The death we see as final is just a door.  Faced with the death of one I love, I offer my loving witness of their passage.  Grounded in the spiritual truth that life endures, I offer comfort and companionship as my beloved faces the great unknown.  Rather than surrender to my own feelings of loss and bereavement, I assure my beloved of love's continuity.  Our physical parting does not sever our spiritual ties.  Love is the affirmation of life in the face of death.  Love is life expanding, living on ever after." - Julia Cameron

remembering and honoring

praying and loving

morning rituals

- 2013 mixed media on paper -

I awoke up feeling rested and refreshed, before 6 AM.
After my daily yoga and meditation, I enjoyed a majestic sunrise with a cup of my favorite hot tea.

..and now a little soul searching dance with Bob Marley...

morning rituals...

in search of Buddha

- 14th Century Tibetan Buddha - detail from a photo taken with my phone yesterday -

a Sunday in search of Buddha

bacon dreams and sandwiches

happy chicken conversation

magic mirrors on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?

a tiny snake and dog as pets

an officer out of paper, let us not forget

a maze of elevators

lost, found, going round and round

a mango tree

a taste of guava

sunset through a stained glass window

Om Mani Padme Hum

- from my journals

in the most unlikely places

- 2013 mixed media on paper -

"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.  Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."

- Roald Dahl

abstinence and gratification

- 2013 mixed media on paper -

"Abstinence sows sand all over

The ruddy limbs and flaming hair,

But Desire Gratified

Plants fruits of life and beauty there."

- William Blake (1757-1827)

what do I most desire out of life?

what do I abstain from in life?

some of my Saturday morning questions...

definition of love

- 2013 mixed media on paper -

Early this morning I woke up wanting to define all the various forms of love...and then stumbled upon this poem by my beloved Hafiz:

"Love is grabbing hold of the Great Lion's mane

And wrestling and rolling deep into Existence

While the Beloved gets rough

And begins to maul you alive.

True Love, my dear,

Is putting an ironclad grip upon

The sore, swollen balls

Of a Divine Rogue Elephant

And

Not having the good fortune to Die!"

- HAFIZ (c.1320-1389)

new moon new year new beginnings

- self-portrait -

Rosh Hashanah on this New Moon...new beginnings...

I've just begun a new series of paintings on canvas...

What is beginning in your life?

discipline to be a free spirit

-2013 mixed media on paper -

"Each of us is a moving center, a space of divine mystery.  And though we spend most of our time on the surface in the daily details of ordinary existence, most of us hunger to connect to this space within, to break through to bliss, to be swept away into something bigger than us...Do you have the discipline to be a free spirit?  Can we be free of all that binds and bends us into a shape of consciousness that has nothing to do with who we are from moment to moment, from breath to breath?" 
- Gabrielle Roth

somewhere somehow someone's gonna be kissed

- 2013 mixed media -

When an irresistible force such as you
Meets and old immovable object like me
You can bet as sure as you live

Something's gotta give
Something's gotta give
Something's gotta give

When an irrepressible smile such as yours
Warms an old implacable heart such as mine
Don't say no because I insist

Somewhere, somehow
Someone's gonna be kissed

So En Garde who knows what the fates have in store
From their vast mysterious sky?
I'll try hard ignoring those lips I adore
But how long can anyone try?

Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight it with all of our might
Chances are some heavenly star spangled night
We'll find out as sure as we live

Something's gotta give
Something's gotta give
Something's gotta give

-  original music and lyrics by Johnny Mercer, sung by Ella Fitzgerald

I woke up with this song in my heart...and lots of colors in my soul...

un encuentró que pueda alimentar

- 2013 mixed media on paper -

"Cuanto tengo, cuanto tuve, 
cuanto tengo para dar, 
cuanto riesgo hay en los besos
que en la calle te encontras, 
y que pasan por tus manos
y te inquietas y te vas,
y te vas en lo profundo del respiro
porque sabes que estas bien
y que al despertar mañana
tomaremos un café.

Que hermosura es el delirio de tu boca
cuando da demás, demás, demás,
cuando depositas en mis labios
tu verdad y tu dolor
tu mirada y la emoción,
y te vas en lo profundo del respiro
porque sabes que estas bien
y que la despertar mañana
miraremos el reloj.

Después te iras y el día de lo mas normal,
vos con tus fotografías, yo fumando,
sacudiendo una canción,
para establecer en un lugar mi corazón,
tu ausencia da envidia,
da palabras que escribir
y sacude como el mar al caracol,
al caracol.

Cuando buscas un encuentró
que te pueda alimentar,
nunca sabes de su fuerza
o si llevas un antifaz,
si te espanta amores viejos
o te inquieta y te lanzas,
Y te vas en lo profundo del respiro
porque sabes que estas bien,
y que el despertar mañana
miraremos el reloj.

Después te iras y el día de lo mas normal.
Vos con tus fotografías…" - Perrozompopo

september sunday

- 2013 mixed media on paper -

"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." 
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe