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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Sunday, May 31

gentle sting between us


"I'm a fool for that shake in your thighs. 

I'm a fool for that sound in your sighs.

I'm a fool for your barely,

I'm a fool for your...

...caught in this pool held in your eyes,

caught like a fool without a line.

we're in a natural spring, 

with this gentle sting between us...

but stay, don't close your hands...

stay open..."

- M. Milosh & R. Braun

snapshot: detail from mixed media on canvas in a private collection




Saturday, May 30

meeting Donald Robertson








"I went to art school for, like, 10 minutes, and I got asked to leave..." 
- Donald Robertson

snapshots of New York City window art installations by the talented Donald Robertson


Friday, May 29

estas perdiendo el tiempo pensando


"Siempre que te pregunto,
Que cuando como y donde,
Tu siempre me respondes;
Quizas, quizas, quizas.

Y asi pasan los dias,
Y yo desesperando,
Y tu, tu contestando;
Quizas, quizas, quizas.

Estas perdiendo el tiempo,
Pensando, pensando,
Por lo que mas tu quieras,
Hasta cuando, hasta cuando?

Y asi pasan los dias,
Y yo desesperando,
Y tu, tu contestando;
Quizas, quizas, quizas."
- Osvaldo Farres

snapshot: Cleopatra marble carving by William Wetmore Story (1819-1895)

Thursday, May 28

yes, Yes, YES...

- mixed media from a series -

"You'll learn, as you get older, that rules are made to be broken. Be bold enough to live life on your terms, and never, ever apologize for it. Go against the grain, refuse to conform, take the road less traveled instead of the well-beaten path. Laugh in the face of adversity, and leap before you look. Dance as though EVERYONE is watching. March to the beat of your own drummer. And stubbornly refuse to fit in." - Mandy Hale



Wednesday, May 27

no tengo tiempo...no me tientes


"Paso que pasa,
rostro que pasabas,
que más quieres,
te miro,
después me olvidare,
después y sólo,
sólo y después,
seguro que me olvido.

Paso que pasas,
rostro que pasabas,
que más quieres,
te quiero,
te quiero sólo dos,
o tres minutos,
para conocerte más,
no tengo tiempo.

Paso que pasas,
rostro que pasabas,
que más quieres,
ay no,
ay no me tientes,
que sí nos tentamos,
no nos podremos olvidar,
adiós."
- Mario Benedetti 



Tuesday, May 26

the way he loves


"How nice, I remember thinking. It will be so much fun to have Barry as a friend. I certainly didn't think we were going to fall in love...

Our relationship was unique from day one and quite unexplainable...I was overwhelmed by the way he loved me...gave into me, trusted me blindly, and loved me unconditionally...Never, ever, even for a second, under any circumstances, has he not been there for me. And that's pretty amazing. 

There was passion between us; love, support, honesty. There was never anything forced between us...the way he loves me is true and unique."
- Diane Von Furstenberg

mixed media on paper 


Monday, May 25

save us


"To save us from them, we must separate  ourselves. And to be different, we must question everything that makes us who we are." - R.M.Drake

yes, yet another recent self-portrait, now popularly known as a selfie


Sunday, May 24

loneliness


"Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly. Let it cut more deep. Let it ferment and season you as few human or even divine ingredients can. Something missing in my heart tonight has made my eyes so soft, my voice so tender, my need of God absolutely clear."
- my beloved HAFIZ


snapshots of sky messages...



Saturday, May 23

rage


Wisdom found me this morning during sunrise meditation and yoga:

"Under the tutelage of Wild Woman we reclaim the ancient, the intuitive, and the passionate. When our lives reflect hers, we act cohesively. We carry through, or learn to if we don't already know how. We take the steps to make our ideas manifest in the world. We regain focus when we lose it, attend to personal rhythms, draw closer to friends and mates who are in accord with wildish and integral rhythms. We choose relationships that nurture our creative and instinctive lives. We reach our to nurture others. And we are willing to teach receptive mates about wildish rhythms if need be.

But there is another aspect to mastery, and that is dealing with what can only be called women's rage. The release of that rage is required. Once women remember the origins of their rage, they feel they may never stop grinding their teeth. Ironically, we also feel very anxious to disperse our rage, for it feels distressing and noxious. We wish to hurry up and do away with it.

But repressing it will not work. It is like trying to put fire into a burlap bag. Neither is it good to scald ourselves or someone else with it. So there we are holding a powerful emotion that we feel came upon us unbidden. It is a little like toxic waste; there it is, no one wants it, but there are few disposal areas for it. One has to travel far in order to find a burial ground...

...All emotion, even rage, carries knowledge, insight, what some call enlightenment. Our rage can, for a time, become teacher...a thing not to be rid of so fast, but rather something to climb the mountain for, something to personify via various images in order to learn from, deal with internally, then shape into something useful in the world as a result, or else let it go back down to dust. In a cohesive life, rage is not a stand-alone item. It is a substance waiting for our transformative efforts. The cycle of rage is like any other cycle; it rises, falls, dies and is released as new energy. Attention to the matter of rage begins the process of transformation.

Allowing oneself to be taught by one's rage, thereby transforming it, disperses it. One's energy returns to use in other areas, especially the area of creativity. Although some people claim they can create out of their chronic rage, the problem is that rage confines access to the collective unconscious - that infinite reservoir of imaginal images and thoughts - so that a person creating out of rage tends to create the same thing over and over again, with nothing new coming through. Untransformed rage can become a constant mantra about how oppressed, hurt and tortured we were...

...Rage corrodes our trust that anything good can occur. Something has happened to hope. And behind the loss of hope is usually anger; behind anger, pain; behind pain, usually torture of one sort or another, sometimes recent, but more often from long ago.

In physical post-trauma work, we know that the sooner injury is dealt with, the less its effect spread or worsen. Also the more quickly a trauma is contained and dealt with, the faster the recovery time. This is true for psychological trauma as well. What condition would we be in if we'd broken a leg as a child, and thirty years later it still had not been properly set?

...There is a life beyond thoughtless rage...it takes a conscious practice to contain and heal such. But we can do it. It truly takes only climbing through one step at a time.

So rather than trying to "behave" and not feel our rage or rather than using it to burn down every living thing in a hundred-mile radius, it is better to first ask rage to take a seat with us, have some tea, talk a while so we can find out what summoned this visitor. At first rage...it doesn't want to talk, it doesn't want to eat, just wants to sit there and stare, or rail, or be left alone. It is this critical point that we call the healer, our wisest self, our best resources for seeing beyond ego irritation and aggravation. The healer is always the "far-seer." She is the one who can tell us what good can come from exploring this emotive surge."
- Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D



Friday, May 22

la fragancia de la fruta más dulce


"Woman is like a fruit which will only yield its fragrance when rubbed by the hands. Take for example the basil: unless it be warmed by the fingers, it emits no perfume. And do you know that unless amber is warmed and manipulated it retains it's aroma within? The same with women: if you do not animate her with frolics and kisses, with nibbling of her thighs and close embraces, you will not obtain what you desire: you will experience no pleasure when she shares your couch and she will feel no affection for you." - Sir Richard Burton, circa 1886

excerpt from a delicious book my Latin Lover gifted me many moons ago

snapshot: watermelon, from a series of fruit 

Thursday, May 21

red and black lace


almost two decades ago,

I wore lace,

layers of red and black lace,

red lips,

flowers in my hair...

         

snapshots: about 20 years ago and about a week ago...




Wednesday, May 20

como el cuerpo de una diosa

- mixed media from journals -

" Te doy mi alma desnuda,
como estatua a la cual ningún 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 vergüenza 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 – 1929)

Tuesday, May 19

I'm slipping out of reach, I'm done with it

 
"I’m a princess cut from marble, smoother than a storm.

And the scars that mark my body, they’re silver and gold.

My blood is a flood of rubies, precious stones.

It keeps my veins hot, the fire's found a home in me.

I move through town, I’m quiet like a fight.

And my necklace is of rope, I tie it and untie.

And now people talk to me, but nothing ever hits home.

People talk to me, and all the voices just burn holes.

I’m done with it.

This is the start of how it all ends.

They used to shout my name, now they whisper it.

I’m speeding up and this is the red, orange, yellow flicker beat sparking up my heart.

We're at the start, the colors disappear.

I never watch the stars, there’s so much down here.

So I just try to keep up with the red, orange, yellow flicker beat sparking up my heart.

I dream all year, but they’re not the sweet kinds.

And the shivers move down my shoulder blades in double time.

And now people talk to me, I’m slipping out of reach now.

People talk to me, and all their faces blur.

But I got my fingers laced together and I made a little prison, and I’m locking up everyone who ever laid a finger on me.

I’m done with it." - LORDE

 

Monday, May 18

humble and noble

 
Be humble for you are made of earth.
Be noble for you are made of stars.
- SERBIAN PROVERB



Sunday, May 17

irresistible pull of gravity


 
- mixed media on paper -

"She was so extraordinarily beautiful that I nearly laughed out loud...I fell in love with her at once.  She was like a mirage of beauty of the ages, irresistible, like a pull of gravity.  She has everything I want in a woman." - Richard Burton (1925-1984)

Saturday, May 16

still kissing me

- 2013 mixed media on canvas -


"Nothing can shatter this love.

For even if you took another

into your arms,

the truth is,

my sweetheart,

you would

still be kissing me." 

- my beloved HAFIZ (who else?)



Friday, May 15

y un toro la esta mirando escondido


una noche en Granada...



La Gigantona y El Enano Cabezón...



bailarines en la calle...



El Tercer Ojo...



música en vivo...



ese toro enamorado de la luna, que abandona por las noches la manada, y es pintado de amapola y aseituna...


Thursday, May 14

acupuncture and moxibustion


"Where there is no movement, there is pain. Where there is movement, there is no pain." - Chinese proverb

snapshot from my acupuncture and moxibustion healing session today 

Wednesday, May 13

feeling carefree


"You know what's really, powerfully sexy?  A sense of humor. A taste for adventure. A healthy glow. Hips to grab on to. Openness. Confidence. Humility. Appetite. Intuition. Smart-ass comebacks. Presence. A quick wit. Dirty jokes told by an innocent looking lady...A woman who realizes how beautiful she is." - Courtney E. Martin

snapshot - a recent selfie


Tuesday, May 12

el rayo quemado en tu hermosura


"I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.
I hunger for your sleek laugh, your hands the color of a savage harvest, hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails, I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.
I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body, the sovereign nose of your arrogant face, I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes, and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight, hunting for you, for your hot heart, like a puma in the barrens of Quitratúe."
- Pablo Neruda translated by Stephen Tapscott

"Tengo hambre de tu boca, de tu voz, de tu pelo y por las calles voy sin nutrirme, callado, no me sostiene el pan, el alba me desquicia, busco el sonido líquido de tus pies en el día.
Estoy hambriento de tu risa resbalada,
de tus manos color de furioso granero,
tengo hambre de la pálida piedra de tus uñas, quiero comer tu piel como una intacta almendra.
Quiero comer el rayo quemado en tu hermosura, la nariz soberana del arrogante rostro, quiero comer la sombra fugaz de tus pestañas y hambriento vengo y voy olfateando el crepúsculo buscándote, buscando tu corazón caliente como un puma en la soledad de Quitratúe."
- Pablo Neruda

Monday, May 11

purifying heat


"Nobody ever drowned in her own sweat." - Ann Landers

snapshot of my shoulder after an exercise class


Sunday, May 10

mama


"The natural state of motherhood is unselfishness. When you become a mother, you are no longer the center of your own universe. You relinquish that position to your children." 
- Jessica Lange

snapshot of my son


Saturday, May 9

my saturday night


red lips...

red nails...

and my handsome date...


Friday, May 8

much deeper

- mixed media on canvas in a private collection -
"You finally understand the message you communicate with another human being has nothing to do with what you say. It has nothing to do with the look on the musculature of your face. It's much deeper than that - MUCH DEEPER!

It's the vibrations that emanate from you!"  - Ram Dass

2013 mixed media on canvas...from a series exploring painting as meditation


Thursday, May 7

aventura peligrosa


"Si piensas que la aventura es peligrosa, prueba la rutina. Es mortal." 

"If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It's lethal."

- Paulo Coelho


Wednesday, May 6

sacred sweat


el sudor me sabe a besos salados...

el calor me sofoca como un amante cansado, me provoca...

"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea." 
- Isak Dinesen

sacred, healing sweat...

intense, purifying heat...



Tuesday, May 5

cinco de mayo en granada


en caballo -
una yegua sin nombre -
en carreta -
con un ángel -
tres monos y muchos mangos -
verdes y maduros -
zancudos atrevidos -
un hermano -
una hermana -
rizas -
yo pinto muertos -
yo no pinto hombres -
yo no te pinto, me da miedo -
luna llena -
más rizas -
bailando en la calle -
chelas casi conjeladas, más sudadas -
hermosa? muy hermosa?
gracias, pero porque?
viejo verde y morado aguado -
lo perdono -
pelo pintado o no -
viuda santa -
me hacia falta Granada...
ciudad de mis sueños

Monday, May 4

universo de universos

- 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)





Sunday, May 3

mi Mimi...


she taught me to stand tall and respect myself...


she taught me to trust my gut...


she taught me to clean, cook, sew and iron, but not because of my gender (she taught her sons and grandsons similar chores)...


she taught me to be loyal and truthful, especially with myself...


she taught me that motherhood is a privilege, a lifelong commitment and a selfless sacrifice...


she taught me how to hula dance, gracefully moving to the rhythms of nature while telling my story...


she taught me to always help another in need, especially another woman...


excerpts from my journals


Happy Birthday Beloved Mimi...truly a Grand Mother...




Saturday, May 2

mi Nicaragua...

- mixed media on paper -
"Si bien fue muy provechosa mi estancia en NY, sentía la nostalgia de mi Nicaragua. Me hacían falta desde las brisas del lago hasta el sonido de sus campanas."- Edith Grön (1917-1990)

mi Nicaragua...


Friday, May 1

consciousness


"Spiritual awakening is awakening from the dream of thought.

The realm of consciousness is much vaster than thought can grasp. When you no longer believe everything you think, you step out of thought and see clearly that the thinker is not who you are."

- Eckhart Tolle