pintando mi alma - painting my soul

- 2013 mixed media on canvas from a new series
exploring painting as poetry and meditation -

detrás de una hoja azul

se encuentra la mujer 

vestida de blanco 

pintando su alma 

detrás de una hoja azul

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