Dreams...

May all your dreams come true in the coming year!

Poolside dining...

When we got back to Baja we stopped for lunch at a place by the sea. This was the welcoming committee next to our table while we had lunch. Hola iguana bonita!

October in New York City...

As Harry Konick Jr. sings... "I love New York in June, how about you?... but October ain't bad. Specially if you get to visit good friends and celebrate the one and only's birthday.

Couch anyone...

While walking around Easton, MD, we cam upon a Free Zone. Couches for free!! Not one but two, three, four...

What is Life?

"What is Life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."

Last words of Crow foot, orator of the Blackfoot Confederation, April 1980

Note: These words were read at Helen Ruenitz's Memorial Service in November 2011.
The poem was selected by Helen.
'

Summer outside Baja...

Getting away from the heat and humidity for a couple of months allowed us to explore the lifestyle of Easton, M.D. a small town about 60 miles south east of Washington, D.C. with about 13,000 residents. Easton is the Talbot county seat and has a mild, conservative but charming disposition.

Rain, how lovely it is...

It is rare for us to receive much rain here in Baja. But one day this fall I had hung my sheets to dry early int he morning. The sheets absorb this fresh incredible smell that feeds your senses. However around 2pm I heard thunder, while I was deep into page 283 of my book, and suddenly I remembered the sheets. I quickly jumped, took them down and brought them into the house. Then the rain really came down and it was lovely.

Death... the ultimate good bye.

We said goodbye to several people this year, but the dearest one to us was Helen Ruenitz.
I learned from her to see, even though she was losing her sight to a Macula degeneration disease. She was kind and she was fair.

The skies are magnificent...

The skies are magnificent here in Baja. A masterpiece of clouds forming feather like arrangements as they dance through the sky. The sun almost everyday lights our skies, and like a fire ball at the end of the day descends sometimes to surrender a green flash as it dips into the ocean, or simply descends as its swallowed by the endless mass of water we call ocean.

Mexico City, my city of birth...

A brief fly by to Mexico City, my city of birth. Mexico City, cosmopolitan, complicated, intense city, my city of birth; I still love you; Although you scare me, I still love you; Even with your agression, I still love you; As I drive by the hospital were our daughter was born, I still love you; Even with your dense pollution, the constant honking of the cars and the muscling from lane to lane in he busy "glorietas", I still love you; With your lovely "panaderías, el pan dulce de la merienda, el afilador, el pepenador, el ruido de las ambulancias, I still love you after all these years; I smile when I see the beautiful flowers in the street corners everywhere. When I think of you my beautiful city of birth, I still love you.

The 5 languages of love by Gary Chapman...

Read and interesting book in the summer "The 5 languages of love by Gary Chapman". In the book it basically says we all respond to one of these languages:

1. Words of affirmation
2. Gifts
3. Quality time
4. Service
5. Physical contact

Beach walks...

There was mist in the air. The water was green. There were clouds in the sky. Blessed I am to be able to take those sandy path walks every day to the beach... it feels my heart with joy to walk down to the beach every day.

Things I would like to write about...

The blue hour; Children are the center of their parents life but the opposite does not hold true;tv/sitting on that chair and letting the world move you; looking in the same direction as your partner;like the movie "I Am Love" ...I can't live without love.

Things I thought about on May 10th...

It was Mother's Day in Mexico, May 10th, 2011. The things I was thinking about on this day were: My mother, my daughter, my sister, the blue hour, being held in his arms in the morning when I wake up, India, dancing, my artwork, my purpose...

Es un regalo de la vida ser madre, gracias a la vida.

Photo courtesy of Lucero García.

What happens at 3am...

What happens at 3am when my brain is on fire? I often have to look for ways to meditate or for images of something cooling to calm my brain. The restlessness comes and goes, as well as a pang for nostalgia and an ache for love.

I wrote on January 1st...

Life is a gift and I intend to live it fully.

A year in the life... in parts...

As usual in the past few years Christmas rolls over me (...like a big máquina) and I get to crawl from under it about New Year's Day. It happened again this year, the Christmas yearly letter never got out, the tree barely got up, (but it did with it's magical blue lights) thanks to my sweet and loving husband, the family picture which we don't take any more also did not get out... and the sense of incomplete "completion" lies heavily in my heart. So this is my intent to share with you some observations from the past 365 days.

Abstract Humanity... the continuum

In the summer months and noticing that I had an awful lot of found metal in different shapes and forms, I set out to try and use them. Luckily around the same time I had been invited to participate in a show titled "Four Points of View" with three other contemporary artists. So my point of view got focused on "global humanity today".

The humanity theme continues to dance constantly inside mi mind in its ever changing context. The found metal objects used within helped me emphasize the movement or the concept I was after, such as the small staircase to heaven, or the bent rewire making a perfect symbol of birth, growth and path into the outside world. The swimmers used in a couple of the pieces address the the fluidity inside our bodies and yet how difficult traversing our path is sometimes, wishing it would be as fluid as fish swimming across the oceans of the world.

The show will be exhibited at the Carlos Olachea Gallery, next to the Teatro de la Ciudad in La Paz, B.C.S., starting with a reception on August 19th, at 7:30pm and continuing until September 20th, 2011.

To view the series go to: http://glorita.smugmug.com/Art/Global-Humanity/18583346_4NrGPW#1435504044_rGCmgKS

Composition...

It is always a delight to find beauty where beauty is, but that is easy. However to spot a rusty door, with bottle caps on it or a broken stone, or anything else for that matter that depending on how it's seen can be a piece of art on its own. A great composition.
A perfect harmony between the elements.

It's that time again...

The creative cycle comes and goes. The intensity grows as one gets deeper and deeper lost in that space that only an artist can find.

Summer...

Summer is officially here in Baja. The thickness of the air carries the sweet smell of mangoes; it takes concentration to take a big long breath and fill your lungs; festering mosquitoes and pesky flies search for a spot on our sweaty bodies to land on; swimming in the ocean water at a beautiful body temperature is a delight; the plumerias are in full bloom; days are long and sunsets offer flaming reds and blue purple continuous shows; as the night falls the frogs creep from their sandy habitats looking for water cheering us with their croaking; and, when the neighborhood quiets down and the lights are out the most magnificent skies shelter our dreams. Summer is sweet.

Soul

I recently read "Empire of the Soul" by Paul William Roberts about his journeys in India. One of my favorite passages of the book includes this writing.

I am the Eternal Spirit,
I am sunrise over the Primeval Ocean.
My soul is called God, I created the Word.
I abhor evil, and thus I do not see it.
I created the perfect harmony in which I dwell,
I am the deathless Word,
Which lives forever in my name of "Soul."
-- From Coffin texts, spell 307, Book of the Dead (eleventh dynasty, C. 2,000 B.C.)

Why trees?

Trees stand metaphorically as humans... they stand in the middle of life, and the spirit of many things lie in them. They are busy all day, giving shade, support, shelter and food to all. Only when night falls can they find rest for themselves, and then under the dark quiet skies, the spirits that live in them are revealed. (... from the Life of Trees)... perhaps we should imitate trees.
The whole tree series can be previewed at http://glorita.smugmug.com/Art/Tree-Series/18550996_hgqq4j#1432405968_Pfh97Jf

Working with trees...

I have started a new series working with trees. Working in a series allows me to explore and discover things in my pieces while I repeat the process. I like to work on several pieces at a time, sometimes it seems as if they were able to talk to each other. It feels as if each of them affects each other as they take a life of their own.

This tree was shot on the transpeninsular highway to Cabo San Lucas.

The Blue Hour...

The blue hour represents that time of the late afternoon almost night, after the sun goes down and the sky turns slowly dark. At some point in between there is the most beautiful rich blue. It's there for a brief period of time and then it's gone. Like everything else in life it's just temporary.

Quién eres...

Acaso eres aquel que va marcando el piso por el que caminas... dejando una marca en el vaso en el que bebes.. tocando el corazón de aquel a quien tu amas... quien eres?..

La Vírgen Decapitada...

Se encuentran imágenes de la Vírgen de Guadalupe en muchos materiales, incluyendo piedra o concreto. Recientemente encontré ésta sobre un muro fuera de una casa...

El Mercado...

What can you find in a Mexican market... everything... however it struck my curiosity to find these two items next to each other "a color wheel of bras and aprons". Is this a statement of what we think a Mexican woman represents?

AMOR... love...

Amor... with a palm trunk stuck on the way... but isn't it that love has it's obstacles too...

27 Artists in Todos Santos...

The highlight of the month of March in Todos Santos was the Open Studio Tour of 27 artists using a variety of mediums. Each artist had a visit of 75 to 100 art lovers.

Learning from Louise Bourgeois...

I bought the book that Rizzoli published about Louise Bourgeois and I am finding so much to learn... To start she says "Art is a privilege, a blessing, a relief...the privilege of having access to the unconscious."

Opening in La Paz...

Saturday night was the fantastic opening for La Galería Encantada in La Paz, BCS Mexico. The owner is sculptor Lila Magallón, who perviously owned Gato Negro Gallery in La Paz. The new gallery will not only have incredible artwork but a beautiful patio restaurant serving imported wines, cheeses and prosciuttos di parma. My artwork shines on their walls. Auguri!!

New Year's Eve...

Pure joy.