happy new year to me!

My tattoo: I create with thread and always with my Spirit Guide Red tail hawk watching. I sew together this passion filled flaming Chicana heart, patched with a design adapted from the ancestors Aztec body art patterns. tlazocamatiI

I see my birthday as a new beginning to my personal new year. An anniversary of my arrival this go around. On your birthday the sun returns to the exact position in the sky as it was the day you were born, its called the solar return and this can give you a great deal of insight on the upcoming year. Its a time to reexamine, evaluate, celebrate, and plan for growth and goals for the new year.

For me this one has been difficult getting to, lots of shedding in the physical, mental, and emotional landscape to unearth the new me. I feel raw and venerable but somehow ready to walk through this new path on my journey in this earth school and see what life holds for me next.

Like the raw materials in my studio I am going to pull out what feels right, put together the best fit, and work at it until I am pleased. I choose to no longer create what others expect, or think best for me, now as the artist I make the final decision and I have to please no one but myself. Its more process and less product for me but the creation for this new year is going to be one that I am happy to call mine. No matter what challenges or obstacles I know that the harder I work at my art the more connected to my Spirit I become. The more I like the end product and often fall in love with the my latest creation. So here I go with wings of hope. Here's to new beginnings!

new eyes

Each year I make heart shaped work to donate for Center for Artistic Revolution Inc., CAR's silent auction fundraiser. This year I was pressed for time and decided to revisit an old work that was, well it just was. I had previously done surgery on it to make a panel for another donation and what was left just called to be reinvented. One part of it had an image that appeared in the fabric, I just stitched around it so others could see what I see and so it found a home on one of the wooden heart bases. The second one had a section of layers of thread and shiny stuff covered in netting that I quilted down as flowing energy so that one was also born. I try to re purpose fabric from clothing or thrift stores so this time I gave an old work new life. Sometimes the work just doesn't end up the way you thought it should or could be and it has to marinate for awhile. Then going back to look at it in a different way lends itself to new possibilities.

Sometimes in life we toss out something or someone that appears to be no longer of interest, use or meaning in our life. Maybe the lesson here is to stop and take a second look, to see it with new eyes and how it might fit in our life without any of the past intentions or expectations. New beginnings and fresh starts, that's what spring is all about right? Hope you had a good Vernal (Spring) Equinox and that you find new beginnings and see through new eyes. After all isn't that what growing looks like?

spring...new beginnings...again

seasons change, people change, change means you have to change

life begins again...

Beautiful and cold ice water rushing down toward Cedar falls, Mt. Petite Jean AR