2014: lunar year of the wood horse

- 2012 mixed media on paper in a private collection -

a new moon yesterday

the lunar new year today

a year of the wood horse

entre sueños y suspiros

Me desperté antes del sól, pensando en el...

Nuestras almas se comunican entre sueños y suspiros...

destiny, fate and karma

- mixed media on paper from ROMANCE series -

“Since I was a little girl, I believed I was a child of destiny, and if that is true, Richard Burton was surely my fate.” 
- Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011)

do you believe in destiny?

do you believe in fate?

do you believe in karma?


** limited edition photographic prints are available for purchase at CASIMIRA **

Pete Seegar

where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?

where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?

where have all the flowers gone?

...oh, when will they ever learn?

oh, when will they ever learn?

- Pete Seegar (1919-2014)

lovers: words made flesh

- detail from a limited edition of notecards featuring famous lovers -
- 2014 mixed media on paper -

"Children show scars like medals.  Lovers use them as secrets to reveal.  A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh."
- Leonard Cohen

someone

"How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something, but someone." - Coco Chanel

mixed media on paper in a private collection

he still thinks of her

blue petals remind him of her
she wore flowers in her hair
the first time

blue orchids
painted with passion
painted with breath

he still thinks of her
and she knows it
his attempts to forget her are failing

she brought him back to life
a goddess dressed in blue petals
blue petals painted with memories

- excerpt from my dream journals

a blessed day of almost

almost forgot -

almost believed it impossible -

almost turned back -

almost gave up -

almost gave in -

almost slipped -

almost felt guilty -

almost froze -

almost missed a soulful encounter -

almost...but I didn't...

how many times do I resist listening and giving in to the whispers of my soul and end up missing magical moments?

acting like a beggar for any kind of attention

- snapshot from a corner of my desk -

last night, as I was organizing one of the many mountains of books, this wonderful piece of wisdom from my beloved Hafiz found me...

your eyes your breath

"Why did you let your eyes so rest on me and hold your breath between? In all the ages this can never be as if it had not been."

- Mary Coleridge (1861-1907)

the breath holds secrets

the eyes tell the truth

the soul remembers

imagined superiority & reactive relationships

- mixed media from a series -

"What a miserable day.

He didn't even have the decency to return my call.

She let me down.

Little stories we tell ourselves and others, often in the form of complaints.  They are unconsciously designed to enhance our always deficient sense of self through being "right" and making something or someone "wrong."  Being "right" places us in a position of IMAGINED SUPERIORITY and so strengthens our false sense of self, the ego.  This also creates some kind of enemy: yes, the ego needs enemies to define its boundary, and even the weather can serve that function.

Through habitual mental judgement and emotional contraction, you have a personalized, reactive relationship to people and events in your life.  These are all forms of self-created suffering, but they are not recognized as such because to the ego they are satisfying.  The ego enhances itself through reactivity and conflict.

How simple life would be without those stories.

It is raining.

He did not call.

I was there.  She was not."
- Eckhart Tolle 

practicing non-attachment

“We are like children building a sand castle. We embellish it with beautiful shells, bits of driftwood, and pieces of colored glass. The castle is ours, off limits to others. We’re willing to attack if others threaten to hurt it. Yet despite all our attachment, we know that the tide will inevitably come in and sweep the sand castle away. The trick is to enjoy it fully but without clinging, and when the time comes, let it dissolve back into the sea.”  
- Pema Chodron 

I woke up suddenly, jolted with worries about someone.
I sat in silence, focusing on my breath.
I enjoyed the most marvelous purple and red sunrise.

...the tide inevitably comes in and sweeps our sand castles away, back into essence...

¡Feliz cumpleaños Rubén Darío!

- 2011 mixed media on paper -

"Ama tu ritmo y ritma tus acciones,

bajo su ley, asi como tus versos;
eres un universo de universos,
y tu alma una fuente de canciones." - Ruben Dario (1867-1916)

I completely forgot Ruben's birthday yesterday.
So, he visited my dreams last night...and we had the most marvelous conversations overflowing with imagery, color and fantasy...poetic dreams indeed...

wisdom through stillness

"Do you need more knowledge?

Is more information going to save the world, or faster computers, more scientific or intellectual analysis?

Is it not WISDOM that humanity needs most at this time?

But what is wisdom and where is it to be found?

Wisdom comes with the ability to be still.  

Just look and just listen.

No more is needed.

Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you.

Let stillness direct your words and actions."

-Eckhart Tolle

I can't take my mind off of you

I woke up with this song on my mind, 

from my dreams perhaps?

"And so it is just like you said it would be
life goes easy on me
most of the time

and so it is the shorter story
no love, no glory
no hero in her sky

I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off of you...

and so it is just like you said it should be
we'll both forget the breeze
most of the time

and so it is the colder water
the blower's daughter
the pupil in denial

I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off of you
I can't take my eyes off of you...

ooh - did I say that I loathe you?
did I say that I want to leave it all behind?

I can't take my mind off of you
I can't take my mind off of you
I can't take my mind off of you
I can't take my mind off of you...

my mind...my mind...
till I find somebody new."

- Damien Rice

treasures

"I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world."
- Lao Tzu

what are you doing for others?

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?"
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

kisses on canvas

- mixed media on canvas -

pinto mis besos

con aroma de puesta de sol

pinto mis besos

en movimientos lánguidos

pinto mis besos

con baile de alientos

besos resbalosos

mojados de sueños silenciosos

...mis besos

painting my kisses

the scent of sunset skies

painting my kisses

in languid movements

painting my kisses

with dancing breaths

slippery kisses

soaked in silent dreams

...my kisses

exquisite misery

This little sketch is a mixed media from 2011; I found it this morning within the pages of one of my books.

"My love has made me selfish. I cannot exist without you. I am forgetful of everything but seeing you again - my life seems to stop there - I see no further. You have absorbed me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I was disolving - I should be exquisitely miserable without the hope of soon seeing you...I have no limit now to my love...Love is my religion. I could die for that, I could die for you."

- John Keats

exquisite misery...an interesting concept 

high priestess

"Inside the temple are lovely priestesses, chosen for their elegance and grace, who spend their lives serving the goddess, singing and dancing to her glory..." 

- Mary  Olson Kelly

women, have you accessed your inner priestess today? have you honored your inner goddess?

image: detail from a mixed media circa 2007 featuring beloved Tia Melba

my beloved sister

Once upon a time, a beautiful and brilliant little girl with wise wide eyes and an ancient soul captured my heart...my sister, my goddaughter and my beloved friend, happy birthday...

falling in love again

I fall in love a lot.

I fall in love with ideas, colors, textures, scents, sounds, tastes...

I fall in love with a smile or glance from a complete stranger whom I may never  see again.

My mad love affair with trees, feathers, skies and rocks continues...

I fall in love with fleeting, fragile moments.

I fall in love with words.

I fall in love, over and over again...

the shadow of joy

- my shadow is long and lean -

"We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think.  When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves." - Buddha

There are infinite ways to purify one's mind.

I sit in silence, focusing on my breath...

I paint with absolute abandon...

I practice yoga...

I focus on the sacredness of the present moment...

I dance the wild dance of a woman taken over by ecstasy...

wisdom from a rubber snake?

who knew a rubber snake, shoes and books could weigh so much...and I have strong arms and shoulders....

"It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it." - Lena Horne

I am finding the humor and playfulness moment by moment...

un beso

"...Sin llevarle más nada que un beso friolento, travieso, amargo y dulzón." 

- Agustín Lara

What a kiss that must be...

I love kissing. 

No two kisses are ever truly alike...

a significant moment

"A moment of stopping, turning inside, checking yourself out, noticing how you feel, and observing your thoughts without buying into them is a profoundly significant moment. It will give you the power to act from a resourceful, skillful place." - S.Kempton

moments of freedom

My first piece of the year, a little watercolor and pencil abstract on paper from a series where I continue exploring fluidity and surrender through color and movement.

So tell me, what do you see?

What do you feel?

I won't ask what you think because my artwork invites moments of freedom from analytical, mental clutter and chatter. Let the thoughts rest for an instant...let them go...

siempre de azul

...y me convertí en sirena para lograr llegar a las profundidades de tu alma...

...y me pinte de mares y cielos, siempre de azul...siempre de azul...

...and I became a mermaid in order to reach the depths of your soul...

...and I painted myself with oceans and skies, always blue...always blue...

sacred silent communication

"Your body is away from me, but there is a window open from my heart to yours." - my beloved RUMI

your dreams fly through the window of my soul...I know your heart...

a true friend remembers

"A friendship can weather most things and survive in thin soil; but it needs a little mulch of letters and phone calls and small, silly presents every so often - just to save it from drying out completely."

- Pam Brown

can true friendship dry out, whither and die?

a new year with a new moon

let us greet 2014 with curiosity and playfulness...

let us sit in sacred silences in between our songs and dances of celebration and liberation...

a new year with a new moon...blessings