Mercury Retrograde: Astrology on the Web

Mercury Retrograde: Astrology on the Web

P A Y A T T E N T I O N
the devil is in the details
An interesting read to ponder as the world turns

The Fountain of Youth

PHOTOGRAPHER A LONG LIVED PROFESSION

A photographers life is all suspect to the adventures that trickle in their lives daily! The phone rings and a job is on the table.

l. Can you go to Camden Maine, Greece, swim with dolphins, cruise to the islands....
2. Want to shoot Muhammad Alie, child prostitutes, homeless folk, twins, you name it?
3. Here's a huge ad Campaign can you handle it, Master Card, Allegra, button up and hang loose?
4. How about photographing all the elder surfers for Surfing for Life for the NY Times Magazine
Go on a week to HI for a surf story? Who wouldn't even if it did drown my gear at least my assistant survived that wave. (the list is endless and abundant)

One day your meeting scientist like Lynn Margulis and the next John Glenn, the Neville Brothers, whistle blowers,and design greats like Tibor Kalman and Phillip Stark. Children riddled with disease yet a smile on their face, soldiers heading to war along side family members or Julia Child's with a giant cooking whip.....one of those shots I wish she were wearing latex....but what memories and adventures into the lives of hundreds of interesting people. My list is ridiculously long and it continues still. Why wouldn't a photographer want to keep going on and on in their life career. A dream job that has benifit my family and friends all the time.
I love strangers, the stories behind the people. Rarely do I find anyone boring.
Boring to me is doing the same thing over and over to the point of insanity.
Your point of view must change all the time....360 degrees of view as my friend Sarah Davidson has said many a time....walk around it , get away from it and take a break from it to see a-fresh.
If you do what you've always done you will get what you've always got. If that works for you and some it does work...those who specialize in one type of light or way of seeing can bank on it. For me I need invention and energy to see anew, to co create for clients and my self with others. It's in this, that the adventure can come forth in true form. Here is where ones vision can be fresh instead of stagnant.

I live on a farm....I lived in NYC for 16 years....talk about abundance! That city is rich with a plethora of experiences to be had by all....Art and love and creative essence shared. I can't believe that I lived with in NYC for so long....absorbing all the information overload that cities have to offer. I found all the good stuff and I saw plenty less easy on the eyes and heart, however...always learning and applying for the that is my nature. If you seek the bad maybe you are just into negative energy....If you see the light...than God Speed. Creating isn't destroying. For me, creation flows not un-like a river. When its stuck we have to un-dam it to let it meander down at its own pace, or leave it in peace to stew and become any of many points of view...you choose. Well wishes always for the cycle of water is to evaporate and refill our mountains and streams...were all just a part of something bigger so make that time here full of love and laughter and real feelings...all feelings are good...just choose the ones that create health and wellness. Clinging on to what isn't working just becomes stale and old and boring. If your life is such than only you are truly to accountable...but that is key most are not accountable for there part in creating their conundrum's. I can't blame anyone nor do I want to for my life experiences good and bad I choose to find clarity and art and love in my personal fountain, hence this is many artist life styles....the youth is given back for daring to live beyond social barriers and status quo. For this I send love to all those whom suffer. I wish for safe passage to a health and happiness.
Now on a farm my senses are more attune to every sound, smell, taste and season , more than most and in an unusual way. Its sort of a poetic blessing and curse. A doctor friend of mine as repeatedly labeled me earth momma. Its true every sensation is felt to my core.
It's the feelings that make me aware that my life is more about messaging ....I get side tracked on other peoples projects....love and matters of the heart but always I have found a sanctuary of artful abundance in my work.

Two emotions rule human actions...Fear or Love. Which one do you operate on for your life? I have always surrendered to love. Its not always the right path but it is huge with imperfection and lessons to create a better path for living fully.

"It's all good when you choose to allow the truth of your life to exist."

We are just animals and biologically at best. Hopeless accounts of desiring love, usually the Universe gives us opportunity for lessons to learn.....never boring but at times grueling.
I wouldn' t trade a day of the love that has occurred in my life. I have been blessed with the best lessons of love. Sacred are the Souls of others and when they one day awaken to your soul as sacred the lessons are learned and mirrored.

We stumble along the path and make new friends and always when your Spirit is bright the others whom see it ....attach to what they so need and want....Protect yourselves and give accordingly but don't loose your essence for a drowning souls need to be saved. You will sink and so will your art. Your heart and the energy brought forth must be cycled for that is real.
Find the good and clarity comes in clean water. Clarity is in the calm of being true to your self.
To show up for yourself. In your heart, your art and your life. One week left how do you want to spend it and who and where to do you want to have that life? For me I see a circle and a fire of love and life with all my family and friends....in water we surf, on land we love and eat and in private I love the lover who can surf a real wave of life and have my back with grace and ease of a warrior.

My fountain of youth is working as a photographer/ artist meeting people and wandering the world. This feeds my soul with love and gratitude in which I fully give back to all that are in my inner circle and those whom I break bread.

Hang Ten Namaste

The Four Agreements

Another One for the Library

The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz

Amber-Allen Publishing, San Rafael, CA (1997).

The Four Agreements can be summed up as follows:

(1) Be Impeccable With Your Word. The broad scope of this concept is to avoid sin against yourself by what you think. Sinning against the self takes many forms: such as, putting yourself down, gossiping, or putting anybody else down because you don't agree with what they think. Actions and words need to be consistent as part of being impeccable with yourself. The other side of the coin is the smoky mirror concept. Ruiz makes the point that our perceptions of others are merely reflections of ourselves. Therefore, to put another down or project negative words or energy towards another person, is to lash out at the other person because of our own insecurities.

(2) Don't Take Anything Personally. There is an awful lot of negative energy out there and some of it is directed at us by other people. If you take it personally and take on the poison of another's words, it becomes a very negative agreement you have with yourself. What anybody thinks about you, or says about you, is really about them. Not taking it personally allows you to be in relationship with anyone and not get trapped in their stuff. This agreement can also pertain to things that we take personally that cause us to go into upset.

(3) Don't Make Assumptions. What we think we understand about what someone says, how someone looks at us, what someone means by what they do, etc, may often not reflect reality at all, and more often than not lead us to think badly of ourselves or of others, and reinforce not being impeccable with our word.

(4) Always Do Your Best. Your "best" is a variable thing from moment to moment. "When you do your best, you don't give the Judge the opportunity to find you guilty or to blame you.� You can always say, �I did my best." There are no regrets. (p.80) The other key to doing your best revolves about being in action. "Action is about living fully. Inaction is the way that we deny life. Inaction is sitting in front of the television every day for years because you are afraid to be alive and to take the risk of expressing what you are. Expressing what you are is taking action. You can have many great ideas in your head, but what makes the difference is the action. Without action upon an idea, there will be no manifestation, no results, and no reward." (p.82)

“Make the most of yourself, because that’s all there is of you.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

National Portrait Gallery

David M Kennedy and Nicholas Herrera

I AM INSPIRED

Two of my favorite artist pals slipped out of New Mexico to present many of Davids images to the curator of this establishment. I am so proud of him as my friend first. He grumbles with life and love issues like many of us and still like the turtle he will win the race.
He's work is breath taking. When the going gets rough I look to him and see inspiration.
He is steady moving toward what matters.
One minute you think its love and the next its the lesson and than the artist in his own way translates life observations in space, time and light onto papers that you want to dive into and swim with the image that is resonating with your heart.
David has spent many years working in America, documenting Indian dances and celebs and just plain ole country folk. Always authentic and down to earth.
He is my brother Spirit and dear friend ....he draws a line in the sand for me all the time
This side loves you and this side is bullshit.
Always he is right.
I don't always listen but when I see his processes for his art it all makes sense to me.
I realize my work is not in my personal life but in my messages in art.
I have to exercise all my gifts and make a difference.
David at the portrait gallery this Thanksgiving is my inspiration for my art to manifest.
To move my energy and stay clear of those whom don't care or value my passage in this lifetime.
Artist need patrons often unless they are trust funder's.
Help your friends and the love that comes back to you in art is beyond a bank of bills that can't love you. Help our artist friends this year...pick one and support some aspect of their work.
Buy a print. When is the last time you supported an artist pal, by purchasing a print?
Step up if you can.

I am inspired and I think I will do that next time I see David.

Hasta

Women of Influence

Women of Influence

Deadline: December 03, 2011

Submit Nomination

The New Mexico Business Weekly is seeking nominations of New Mexico's most dynamic women for our 2012 Women of Influence publication. We're looking for leaders in the state's industries and organizations. A candidate may be of any age or professional background, as long as she stands out as a model for her peers and is leaving a lasting and positive mark on New Mexico.

Nominees will be evaluated on their professional achievements, contributions to the community and leadership skills. The Business Weekly assembles a panel of community leaders to judge the awards.

Please note that we've changed our nomination process for 2012. To nominate someone, you need only fill out the information on the form below. The Business Weekly will notify the person that they've been nominated and ask them to fill out a form with information about themselves in order to be considered for the award. Nominees will be judged on submitted nomination materials alone. Those selected as honorees will be celebrated at an event and in a Business Weekly special publication in February.

Previous Women of Influence honorees are not eligible.

Deadline for nominations is 5 p.m. Dec. 2, 2011.

For more information, contact Associate Editor Rachel Sams at (505) 348-8322 or rsams@bizjournals.com.

http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/nomination/8231#submit

The JOY IN MY LIFE

http://www.joyharjo.com

A Question

—Preface or Introduction to She Had Some Horses WW Norton Edition December 2008

"What do the horses mean is the question I’ve been asked most since the first publication of the book She Had Some Horses in 1984.

I usually say, “it’s not the poet’s work to reduce the poem from poetry to logic sense”. Or “it’s not about what the poem means, it’s “how” the poem means.” Then I ask: “So what do the horses mean to you?”

Like most poets, I don’t really know what my poems or the stuff of my poetry means exactly. That’s not the point. It never was the point. I am aware of stepping into a force field or dream field of language, of sound. Each journey is different, just as the ocean or the sky is never the same from one day to another. I am engaged by the music, by the deep. And I go until the poem and I find each other. Sometimes I go by horseback.

No, that’s not it at all.

The horses are horses. My father’s side of the family is inextricably linked with horses. We aren’t a Plains horse culture, though we came to know horses. I understand there was some exchange of power between the horse people and my relatives from seven generations or more back. I am the seventh generation from Monahwee (sometimes spelled as “Menawa”) who is still a beloved person to the Mvskoke people, my tribal nation. I was told how he had a way with horses. He could speak with them. And he also knew how to bend time. He could leave for a destination by horseback at the same time as his cohorts, then, arrive at his destination long before it was physically possible to arrive. He had a little black dog that followed him everywhere.

My cousin Donna Jo Harjo was a champion barrel racer, and knew how to speak with horses. She had to live close to horses, or not live at all. They were her people as much as any of the rest of us.

And there was the horse who came to see me once in the middle of a long drive north from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Albuquerque. I perceived him first by an ancient and familiar smell. Then I was broken open by memory when he nudged me, in that space that is always around and through us, a space not defined or bound by linear time or perception. He brought the spirit of the collection of poems that was to become She Had Some Horses.

Later was my horse Casey. The last time I ever drank too much was in a “proletariat bar” in Krakow, Poland because I was happy to meet and play music with some Bolivian Indian musicians and a Hawaiian, and we were all so far from home. In the grey of the early morning, when I was whirling around sick in my hotel room, my horse Casey came to me with a worried look. He was concerned because his last “owner” had died of complications from alcoholism. I assured him that this would not happen between us. And it didn’t.

Horses, like the rest of us can transform and be transformed. A horse could be a streak of sunrise, a body of sand, a moment of ecstasy. A horse could be all of this at the same time. Or a horse might be nothing at all, but the imagination of the wind. Or a herd of horses galloping from one song to the next could become a book of poetry.

I follow in the tracks of gratitude. I thank the horses, my ancestors who loved them, and those who grew to love their cars and trucks instead. I thank my mother and her family. They are the ones who brought me songwriting, guitar players and singing. I thank Simon Ortiz for singing original and old horse songs. I thank the shaman/healer I saw perform a poem and become what he was singing. It was then I began to comprehend the true power of the word: the dangers, the beauty and all the healing elements. This was when I began to write poetry. I thank those who continue to believe in the horses, in poetry."

What a journey.

Joy Harjo May 28, 2008 Honolulu, HI

BRAGGING RIGHTS

http://www.susangoldmanphoto.com/

MY BEST FRIEND

While getting my photography education at Art Center School of Design I was introduced to Susan Goldman, an upper term photographer embracing still life. She wasn't the ordinary shooter, she was brilliant with her mindful ways. Concepting shots came easy to her and I found her work intriguing as it was always sort of WOW and mysterious in the same breath.
Still she gets me every time, I ponder her website....years of experience that no new be can have for she is so finessed in her skills and point of view that moving some item just a hair this way or that can make a nuance of feeling for the view more hungry or craving just more.
Susan Goldman is not just one of my best friends, she is living her life artfully and daily inspires me by everything she is and has become. For me its not a tribute but a deeply heart felt love and adoration I have for my friend, an artist , Goddess and one of the most beautiful souls I know.
She has been my shoulder, my sage, my rock as a gal pal.
We seldom see each other the past few years but I feel her presence in my heart daily.
I miss her and am grateful for her love.
There is nothing boring or stale about my friend.
Always an adventure she moves with grace in this lifetime, gentle and her vision is precise to the point with soft and silken eyes....Everything feels cozy and pretty and makes me smile.
I love this woman with all my soul and she is the bomb in Epicurean Capture.
Check her out. Better yet hire her.

http://www.susangoldmanphoto.com/

SIR LAWRENCE ALMA-TADEMA

A Favorite Custom
Oil on canvas, 1909 17 5/8 x 26 inches (45 x 66.1 cm) Tate Gallery, London

Spring
Oil on canvas, 1894 70 1/2 x 31 3/8 inches (179.1 x 80 cm) J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

SHIRLEY BURDEN MENTOR, FOUNDER OF APERTURE

A warm fall day and a tour bus pulls up to the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena California. My class of maybe 15 students board to go to Santa Barbara for a museum tour and the first stop was the Getty Museum. Shirley Burden was my teacher and a generous patron of the arts.
A true philanthropist.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0120934/bio
I was probably about 22 years of age and while viewing the exhibits at the Getty I found my self in a trance in front of this painting called Springtime.
It grabbed my soul and I felt the light and intensity of every painted stroke as if it were alive like cinema before my eyes.I fell in love.
This was the first of several images that have inspired love in my life.
I purchased a poster that hung pretty much on all my walls as a student and Park Ranger doing my tour of duty. I don't know exactly where this image stopped being present in my home however, one day I will return to feel the essence again at the Getty in Malibu CA.
The actual painting is breath taking like a Thomas Hart Benton even thou smaller in size.
The details are mesmerizing. A must see.
I believe Allen Funt of Candid Camera purchased most of Alma Tadema s works over the years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Funt
A fact that I always found of interest for such a light hearted man to collect this seriously huge body of work by Alma-Tadema
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Alma-Tadema
As an artist for those seeking inspiration I think you have to follow your intuition and just stop and feel. Let nature and images just talk to you ...sit with life and allow your imagination to think about how it came to be.
Once in France at the Picasso Museum in Antibes.
This museum houses one of the world's greatest Picasso collections: 24 paintings, 44 drawings, 32 lithographs, 11 oils on paper, 80 pieces of ceramics, 2 sculptures and 5 tapestries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Alma-Tadema
I felt a sculpture and it was so energizing to thing his hands made that exact piece of art and everyone could embrace it unguarded.
What a privileged society we live in as Americans

ON THE FENCE

by Gil Elvgren 1959

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Elvgren

by Alberto Vargas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Vargas

How to Take Great Portraits | Portrait Photographer's Tips for Taking Great Portraits

How to Take Great Portraits | Portrait Photographer's Tips for Taking Great Portraits