Street Fair in Magdelena

Call me krazy...just about 2 weeks ago I decided to join my friends Raine and Regina in their trek down to the lovely little town of Magdalena (here in New Mexico). We are setting up a vendor booth to sell our art at the Arts and Crafts Street Fair. Being the obsessive compulsive that I am, I decided that I needed to offer some jewelry to sell. So, in the past few days, I've been putting these together. Lots of big learner's curve in the process, but I'm pretty happy with these concoctions. I just hope that others think so too! Here's the link for Magdalena: http://www.magdalena-nm.com/ Stop by this Saturday if you can! ; )

Glass Negatives

Latest acquisition in the glass negative collection. I will start to scan the collection I have gotten my hands on (one of many post-graduation projects). I wonder who these people are and if any of them are alive? Those of us who are buying these negatives and doing art with them are hoping that a show will be curated from the work. It will be very interesting to see what different people do with these mysterious images...

Graduation: Hawaiian Style!

This is my neice, Catherine who just graduated from Sacred Hearts Academy in Honolulu this past Saturday (Sacred Hearts was our arch-rival school for us St. Francis girls). That's my dad with her. Anyway, I just wanted you mainland folks to see how serious we are about our leis! AND, this stack of leis may have been higher as she probably had to remove some so that she could see and breathe! Congratulations, Catherine! Way to go, girl!

Mt. Carmel Cemetery

"We shape the clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want."

(Lao-Tzu). *

This is a cemetery that I pass by on my way in to work. I've spoken of this drive many times. I take the road less traveled to get to work; the speed limit is 25 mph on some parts, and on Edith, it is 40 mph. I prefer that to the insanity of trying to get on the freeway where eveyone else is doing the "me first" thing. The cemetery's name is the same as the church it is associated with, Mt. Carmel. It is a satellite church that belongs to our parish, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 4th and Alameda. Thanks to our parishoners and donations from the Knights of Columbus, it is cleaned up and much more presentable than it had been for many years.

I stopped by the other week for the express purpose of taking pictures; I had never wandered into that cemetery. I got to feeling the sorrow that seems to come with this cemetery; there seems to be a lot of young people buried there. Too many of them didn't even seem to have made it to age 25 and they are young men. Oh, yes, there are the usual grandpas and grandpas, moms and dads. But, I was struck by how many young ones there were. It put me into a very contemplative mood. I always wonder about the life stories that go with theses loved ones; whether they parted too soon, or at their time.

*The quote is from "Meditations From the Mat" by Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison. It contains daily reflections for each day of the year. This one was selected for the content of the quote (day 182). In this reflection, Mr. Gates talks about how "Aparigraha reminds us to always let go and never hold on. This letting go is the cultivation of emptiness in our lives. Into this emptiness, grace will come."

So true, so true...

"Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment" -Rumi

I'm grateful for the people who have translated Rumi's writings for us. Such an ancient, wise person, this Rumi!

What a beautiful morning it was today! Instead of heading off to my 8:15 a.m. yoga class, I opted to use the time to work in the yard pulling up weeds and doing just general cleanup.

I remembered that we had spotted nests in our trees; the apple tree has a Turtle Dove sitting on two eggs. Out in the side yard in the black honey locust tree up high is a Robin diligent in her egg sitting watch. Robin's build their nests up pretty high. This makes photography of them nearly impossible. This one was in ladder range, so out came the ladder. Mrs. Robin did a lot of yelling at me, but I was was sure not to touch anything lest she not come back to tend the egg. I had never seen a Robin's egg and I was surprised at the color. Although, I have seen paints and pencils named, "Robin's Egg". Now I know why.

The middle photo is a close up of my graduation lei that my sister sent me. Many, many dendrobium orchids are in this lei; the flower is split in two and the petals are sewn together to get this neat pattern.

The last one is of a blue Chevy that I drive by on my way in to work on Edith Street. I wish I knew what year it was. Love, love, love those old trucks!

Yesterday, I was in pursuit of a yellow swallowtail butterfly in my garden. I'll post him soon.

So, I am constanly mortgaging what little cleverness I have to buy bewilderment. Every day. I don't have all the answers. I have a lot of questions. The more I learn, it seems, comes the realization that I know very little.

The Graduate 2007

ALWAYS with a camera in hand!

High five from Deanna and marching in with Charlie

congrats line

Yea, I'm marching!

Charlie and Helen

One of my mentors, Lydia Madrid

(The Scott's 3) So, there you have it. The big ceremony of pomp and circumstance. I was soooo surprised to see my friend, Charlie (that's her name) there; she dropped out of a class we were both in last Spring 2006 and I thought she had given up when she was only a few classes from completion. We were both in Modern Art History too in Fall 2005.

Helen just completed her Master's; we had been in several printmaking classes a few years back; after Intaglio II, I think she decided to go for it and applied to grad school and got in. No easy feat in the Fine Arts Department here. It's pretty cool that we both finished up in the same semster. A long haul for both of us!

The first photo of me with the camera tells it all. Yep, I took that puppy with me into the ceremony and took pictures. Have camera, will travel. Raine took the first one, the rest are courtesy of proud husband, Mark.

For more of Raine's images, go to: http://iconolatrie.photoblog.com

May ATCs

These are a couple of the ATCs I did for our May trade. The theme was "Pre-Raphealite" or any art movement. I figure these fell into the category of abstract, even though that is a style, not a movement.

Close enough!

I didn't even think I would have time to make anything for the trade since I was finishing up a grueling semester and graduation on the same day as our trade!

But, I found some monoprints that I had sitting around and remembering my resolution from Feburary (use what I have), I put more paint on it and sumi ink and streaks of gold, and tore them up into 2 1/2" X 3 1/2" pieces.

One of my printmaking teachers said to take everything you make seriously. What she meant by this is what I've done here. I didn't like they way these were and took it in a different direction instead of discarding them forever.

Mudder's Day

Wow

Talk about a time warp, huh? First one is a 'self portrait' that I did; got myself ready, made sure the boy was napped and fed so he'd be in a good mood, cleared off the bed, opened the window for nice natural light, set the camera up on the tripod and took a few self-timed photos. Mark was in Saudi at that time, so I had to solo it. I know I took this one right around Mother's Day and the year was 1992. That boy just loved to chew on that finger!

Fast forward fifteen years and we have the next one. Tried to do an inverse realtionship in the composition, but co-operation isn't something that teenagres are known for! Also had to direct the hubby to take this one, and even though I had the original photo handy, I couldn't get him to get the camera angle I was looking for. Ah well, so be it. This is as good as it gets, which is what life is all about.

Life is about learning to enjoy the detours along the way and realizing that you need to embrace the, "this is as good as it gets" before you can be at peace with it. And know that, it is indeed good.

Happy Mother's Day to all of my fellow madres!

Second Time Around

Hold it! These are images from the FIRST time around! Circa 1978 at SDSU (San Diego State University). A warm, sunny Saturday morning in the football stadium with about 2,000 or more other students. Didn't really have family there except for my previous husband and his parents who came down from Portuguese Bend. Coming from Hawaii, that would count as "no one came"! First degree was in Psychology and I really enjoyed the program. But second time around, it seems all the more sweeter...pursuing something that I was terrified to pursue, yet something that I am passionate about.

So, it's about to become a reality. I think it's been eight loooong years of doing one class a semester (with a break here and there) and balancing it out with life, family and work.

My name is in the program. I've bought my cap and gown and honor chord.

My sister is sending flower leis from Hawaii.

Friends and family will be there to hoot and holler at me (I think).

Wow...butterflies in the stomach. I thought I was all done with getting butterflies in the stomach! Here's the part where time starts to feel a bit surreal and lving in the present moment feels off-centered.

One Fine Day in Algadones...

I made reference to this trip a couple of weeks ago; several of us went on a quick road trip to go see a sellor of epherma (kinda like an antiuque broker, but specifically, epherma that artists would be inerested for art assemblages, etc.)

On the way back, I realized that a couple of my passengers had never seen Algadones (just north of Bernalillo). Quaint little town. It has many rural elements that remind me of home and of Mexico, yet it is neither! And, of course, we had to stop and get out to take pictures. Again, think "many bodies, one mind" kind of thing and that's what we are. There's no hope for us!

The local parish there was having their Fiesta that day and some of the guys had their cars out on display.

It was one of those "picutre perfect" days (sigh...really bad pun, I know, I know...).