unconditional openness

"When we sit down to meditate, we can connect with something unconditional - a state of mind, a basic enviornment that does not grasp or reject anything. Meditation is probably the only activity that doesn't add anything to the picture. Everything is allowed to come and go without further embellishment. Meditation is a totally nonviolent, nonaggressive occupation. Not filling the space, allowing for the possibility of connecting with unconditional openness - this provides the basis for real change." 

- Pema Chodron 

self-knowledge

- a favorite painting at the MoMa -

"I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best."
- Frida Kahlo

how well do we know ourselves?

I believe self-knowledge is a continuous path...one which I've embarked on with a sense of humor, compassion and curiosity.  We are always growing, learning and stretching...evolving.

"I used to think I was the strangest person in the world, but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do.  I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too.  Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it's true I'm here, and I'm just as strange as you."
- Frida Kahlo

Miami

with each breath...

gratitude...gratitude...gratitude

moment without judgement

"Do you think peace requires an end to war? Or tigers eating only vegetables? Does peace require an absence from your boss, your spouse, yourself? Do you think peace will come from some other place than here? Some other time than Now? In some other heart than yours?

Peace is this moment without judgement. That is all. This moment in the heart-space where everything that is is welcome. Peace is this moment without thinking that it should be some other way, that you should feel some other thing, that your life should unfold according to your plans. 

Peace is this moment without judgement, this moment in the heart-space, where everything that is is welcome."

- Dorothy Hunt

healing

"Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy." - Pema Chodron 

beach story

snakes and sharks hanging out...

los cielos

dancing clouds and blue skies begin to blush...

a copper moon goddess purifies the darkness...

Lauren Bacall

Words of wisdom from one of my favorite women:

"Men need to feel important. They feel better when they are with younger girls or unknown ones." 

"I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that."

"Imagination is the highest kite one can fly."

- Lauren Bacall (1924-2014)

just heard about Robin Williams

"When I die I shall soar with angels, and when I die to the angels, what I shall become you cannot imagine." - RUMI

madre luna llena

Mother Moon illuminates in all her fullness tonight. What secrets will you whisper? What mysteries will she reveal? Will you allow yourself to dance?

"Tell me what you feel in your room when the full moon is shining upon you and your lamp is dying out, and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall know if you are happy." - Henri Frederic Amiel 

lessons and disguised blessings

"If my world were to cave in tomorrow, I would look back on all the pleasures, excitements and worthwhilenesses I have been lucky enough to have had. Not the sadness, not my miscarriages or my father leaving home, but the joy of everything else. It will have been enough." - Audrey Hepburn 

I believe life's trials and sorrows are sacred opportunities for evolution. I look for the lessons and disguised blessings...breath by breath...

Bill Murray - The Murray Affair

 

TONIGHT:

Friday, August 8th 2014 -

8pm -

Public Works - 

161 Erie Street - 

San Francisco, California -

"He crashed my dreams with blue smiles, so I painted him with touches of golden stardust and red silk..." - CASIMIRA 

2014 mixed media on paper:

"Blue Bill Dreams" forms part of the group art exhibition tonight...

remembering my grandmother

She would have fallen madly in love with my son. He has her purity and sweetness. He has her sense of wonder and contagious joy.

Uca, I feel your love and guidance...mi Estrella Maruca...

Andy Warhol and I...exciting

- mixed media on paper -

Andy Warhol and I are friends...I call him Andres.  He wears CASIMIRA and likes to photograph me when I dance...

"Everyone must have a fantasy...Fantasy love is much better than reality love.  Never doing it is very exciting.  The most exciting attractions are between two opposites that never meet."
- Andy Warhol (1928 – 1987)

what is one of your fantasies?
do you agree with Andres?
he would have been 86-years-old today...

the answer better be yes

- 2013 mixed media on paper -

"Do I move you?  Are you willing?
Do I groove you?  Is it thrilling?
Do I soothe you?  Tell the truth now,
Do I move you?  Are you loose now?
The answer better be - YES, yes...it pleases me.

Are you ready for this action?
Does it give you satisfaction?
Are you hip to what I'm saying?
If are then let's start swaying.
The answer better be - YES, yes...it pleases me.

When I touch you, do you quiver?
From your head down to your liver?
If you like it let me know it...
Don't be psychic or you'll blow it...
The answer better be - YES, yes...that pleases me."
- Nina Simone

musa maga del reino de magonia

"Amor, amándote como en otro amor,

Yo ignoraba que el amor es oro,

es elixir de la Fragante Belleza...

Cuanto amor perdiste corazón mío,

Ay, cuanto amor!

Y hoy que de tantos amores

ya no tengo amor...

Cuanto más añoro la inicua dicha

de perderte amor,

crucificado por la ignominia

del tenebroso enigma de nuestro sino

que una vez nos concedió

el deleitable éxtasis a ti y a mi

de amarnos, amor incapturable!"

- Omar d'Leon

I love receiving mail from dear friends...

you know the way I can't resist you

"We bide our time, though the time is fine.
Oh to be there.
I could be there.
Say you'll be there.

You know the way I can't resist you,
I say to myself, I'd try.
Why do we waste time hiding it inside?
I want you to be mine.

Now it's been and gone.
You say what yo would have done.
You would have been there.
I wished you'd been there.
I needed you there.

And if we try once more, would you give me it all?
I won't believe it, till I can feel it.
Can you feel it?

You know the way I can't resist you,
I said to myself, I'd try..."
- Oliver Sim and Romy Madley Croft

besos inventados

- my unedited lips on paper -

"...hay besos que se dan con la mirada, hay besos que se dan con la memoria.

...hay besos que se dan sólo las almas,

hay besos por prohibidos, verdaderos.

...yo te enseñe a besar con besos míos,

inventados por mi, para tu boca." 

- G. Mistral 

excerpt from a favorite poem about kisses 

grateful beyond words

six years...six wonderful, wild years of surrendering to the divine dance of motherhood...