List of seven, one made

I made a list of affirmations, which are all grouped generally under prosperity/success, that I wanted to incorporate onto figures, there are seven of them and they are:

Mental: Powerful strong mind
Inner: Soul well attended to
Physical: Healthy robust body

Freedom and Creativity

Joy, Laughter, happiness

Love and productive relationships

Wealth and abundance

I feel that asking for these in the order they are above is the way to go since you want to set the foundation to use your head with a sound mind, and your soul must be fed before you move onto the physical realm. Once here in the physical, it is integral to have a healthy body (not just fit but an overall health of all tissues and systems of the body) and the most basic of needs must be met before being able to express oneself. Joy, laughter, and happiness are just states of being which are positive, love and relationships come almost last, they may even come after success which I didn't list since it is not a sort of thing we just end up with. We must first be unwounded beings before we can have truly prosperous/productive relationships, we have to heal ourselves from past hurt and pain and to recognize our failings and turn them around. That said, for some reason the first figure I made was the love and relationships one! I don't know why I made it first, but it exists! I must say, it was nice to create the male form again... even with both figures being quite tiny and fitting into the palm of my hand.

I have created couples In the past, holding each other, grasping each other, so intertwined that you could not tell whose hand was whose or which foot belonged to the other, but this couple, though merely sitting side by side with arms on each others backs are so very conjoined, and together, they exude more companionship than any other work I have done which is odd since they are not really even looking at each other. That is the point, they are both looking off into the future together at the same time, in the same direction, the focus is not on each other, but on the journey ahead. On the red cloth (red represents passion/love), is written relationships & love. An important part (though best a late one in my opinion) of our quest for prosperity.

Break The Ice

Union Square Park - A Success!

Today I broke the 2009 season's… well the Spring/Summer season’s (I already went on January 28th of this year) virginity by setting up at Union Square park! It was fantastic and I was even able to sell some pieces! The folks who stopped by to chat were nice, the passer by’s had nice things to say, the other vendors were friendly, and I saw some familiar faces. One lady even had seen my ceramic work at the City College show and recognized my work… small world! I had my tall ceramic statue with me as well and really felt at home. I hope to have just as good a time if not better on Thursday the 21st, which I plan to set up from 11am-6pm again.
Check out the picture below, it shows some of the new designs for cases im using including domes, jars, and even candle holders.

universal theme

I was looking at my work and realized that the affirmation figures have only words in the English language on them and may not be appealing to people from around the world so to compensate, I made these two girls who have only black design on them, symbolizing the same messages of prosperity and abundance as the other figures but abstracted. I look forward to meeting folks all over the world this season at Union Square. The next days at Union Square will be the 19th and 21st of this month.

Plant-Human

A synthesis of plant and human type. Mythological allusions to Daphne and Apollo. Lush growth, heralding in spring. Growth, health and vitality. Ideas about being one with nature. Breasts become pendulous fruits like in Wifredo Lam’s The Jungle. Red like tropical fruits such as mangoes. Rooted in the land, earth-based. Aspiration/reaching ever upward and outward like a strong tree. Dramatic stance, leaning far back, theatrical. Pre-Columbian face on her right - ancestry. Flower - transformation; blossoming of potential.

Nymph of Spring!

Its time for a spring blog, better late than never! Last years blog was chock full of flower pics, but this time I decided to focus on a cool little nymph and her story. Today on my way to school (writing about art class), I spontaneously decided to walk through the park instead of up the hill like I usually do from school. Well, I was inspired to make a quick butterfly girl on the spot and take pics of her in the scenery which was lush green and beautiful. Her clothes were totally made out of the material at hand (yes even the chain was out there!), and shes amazing! She fell apart due to being soft and bent around too much, but the pics will last longer than she would have anyway! I imagined she was a woodland spirit in charge of making sure the buds blossomed. She really blends in well with the surroundings in some of the pictures. Enjoy the pics, click to see them in detail.

So what do you think? HERE is a link to last years blog on the same subject, but the figure was baked and not really relating to the scene, I like this years harbinger of spring much more appealing!

New section on website

I have added a new (actually old) section to my website, its called undertakings, it has links to a page with all of my little activities that I have done which pertain to my work somewhat, but on a deeper level. The undertakings I have done in the past were pretty much unofficial, sociology-based missions I sent myself on for enlightenment/understanding/experience. Others were just a fun way to explore NYC and all of the projects have utilized the butterfly people as a means to either lure people in or just make them curious and inspired.

I feel strongly about all of my projects and am happy to be taking them up again, hopefully I can break my one per year trend.

Get Ready, The Lotus Flowers are Coming

I have been really, REALLY inspired by the lotus flower lately. I will blog more on the subject a little later, but this simple object has had so much influence on art and religion through symbolism. I think its addition to my work would provide another dimension of subtle ideals. I am also reading more about confucian philosophy so it is all related.