 |
|
|
|
|
|
. : About me : .
 Name::Sapphire Dakini From::Santa Fe, NM, United States "The secret of life is in art." - Oscar Wilde View My Profile . : Artist Statement : .
My art is an exploration of the importance of change and releasing the past, especially the people and situations
that hinder personal growth, empowerment and transformation. The utilization of mythic figures, archetypes, motifs
and themes allows me to explore letting go of the familiar, safe and secure in order to travel to the dark, often
frightening, places of the soul. In this way, I've learned to trust my inner voice and honor my soul's need for
expression and challenge. . : Recent Posts : .
Words of Wisdom from the Daily Om . : Archives : .
May 2005 . :Blog Rings : .
 |
. : Social Media : . . : Daily Om : .
. : Portfolio : .
www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from Sapphire_Dakini. Make your own badge here.
. : Printmaking : .
. : Masks : .
. : Memberships : .
Artists Foundation . : Yahoo Groups : .
Art Dollz . : Blogrolls : .
|
||||||||||||||||||
Friday, June 30, 2006Q2 Review & Q3 GoalsI really let the new job negatively impact my Q2 goals so I need to get things back on track here for Q3. Accomplishments...
I did get a fair amount of research & reading done though. Here's the list of art-related books that I finished in Q2.
Q3 Goals...
Labels: life 
Monday, June 26, 2006Addition to My Art Library The Red Rose Girls - Carter  "Three of the first American women artists to achieve fame & fortune in the Victorian era--Jessie Willcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green & Violet Oakley--lived unconventional lives marked by a remarkable degree of collaboration. In this fascinating but incomplete study, Carter explores the trio's internecine artistic & romantic relations, sparked during their studies at the renowned Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Smith's idyllic representations of children in her Child's Garden of Verses remain well known. Green's art-nouveau paintings graced the covers of most of the popular magazines of her day, including Collier's & Harper's. Oakley, the youngest of the group, was the first American woman granted serious commissions, including a series of murals for the Pennsylvania State Capitol in 1911. For 17 years, the 3 committed themselves to each other as "sympathetic companions" & artistic collaborators, sharing a studio in Philadelphia & then an estate, the Red Rose Inn, in Villanova, PA, where another companion, Henrietta Cozens, served as the "wife" of the household. As the women's fame grew, the press lauded their accomplished menage quatre (not considered a disgrace in the days when "Boston marriages" were presumed to be asexual). But when Green married at 39 after a seven-year engagement, Oakley's devastation created a scandal & severed the group's artistic partnership. " Labels: art books
Sunday, June 25, 2006Crazy Quilt Block #2 - Work in Progress Crazy Quilt Block Labels: crazy quilting
 Shadows, Fire, Snow: The Life of Tina Modotti - Albers "Born in 1896, Tina Modotti lived one of the most brilliant lives of her era. A first-generation modernist photographer, she created internationally renowned images of extraordinary formal clarity & profound soulfulness. But Modotti's artistic achievement is only one facet of her astonishing story. A legendary beauty, spirited & sensuous, she scripted for herself a series of remarkable roles - glamorous actress, jazz age bohemian, Communist agent, & lover, colleague, & muse to photographer Edward Weston & painter Diego Rivera. Her friends included the illustrious - Frida Kahlo, Pablo Neruda, John Dos Passos, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Dorothea Lange, Sergei Eisenstein, & La Pasionaria - as well as workers, peasants, & humble people everywhere. Filled with the rich details of Modotti's turbulent interior life & of her journey through the cultural & political upheavals of the 1920s & 1930s, Shadows, Fire, Snow: The Life of Tina Modotti is a provocative adventure. Labels: books
Saturday, June 24, 2006Goddess ResearchToday was spent researching imagery for the series of "Goddess" fiber collages that I will be starting on July 1st. Source materials include:  Women Who Run With the Wolves - Estes "Within every woman there lives a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, & ageless knowing. She is the Wild Woman, who represents the instinctual nature of women. But she is an endangered species. In Women Who Run With the Wolves, Dr. Estes unfolds rich intercultural myths, fairy tales, & stories, many from her own family, in order to help women reconnect with the fierce, healthy, visionary attributes of this instinctual nature. Through the stories & commentaries in this remarkable book, we retrieve, examine, love & understand the Wild Woman & hold her against our deep psyches as one who is both magic & medicine. Dr. Estes has created a new lexicon for describing the female psyche. Fertile & life-giving, it is a psychology of women in the truest sense, a knowing of the soul." I'm a huge fan of Clarissa Pinkola Estes. If you're not familiar with her work, Theatre of the Imagination is a great audio introduction. It's a 13 hour, 6-part live performance series covering:
 The Great Goddess - Markale "In ancient Babylon she was Anat, in Egypt, Isis & Hathor, Dana in Celtic Ireland, Rhea & Demeter in Greece, & in India, Anapurna the "Provider". She is the Great Goddess, the symbol of earth & the giver of life, the Vast Mother, who represented all the powers & mysteries of creation for our ancestors. In this comprehensive exploration of the Goddess figure, Jean Markale, one of today's foremost Celtic historians, examines how over time patriarchal societies tried to force the preeminent power of the feminine into an obscure & subservient position, shifting her solar association onto masculine deities & discrediting those of her symbols, like the serpent, that could not be easily assimilated. With its extensive investigation of all the myths, sites, & sanctuaries devoted to this influential figure, The Great Goddess provides us with abundant evidence of the extraordinary permanence of her worship -- even at the heart of those religions that tried to destroy her. Markale explains how the Goddess did not simply disappear when her position was usurped, but went underground, resurfacing time & again in altered but distinctly recognizable forms. The great solar goddess of Celtic culture reappears as the mythical Grainne & in the well-known legend of Tristan & Isolde. Features of the primordial Lilith, relegated to darkness in rabbinical tradition, can be discerned in the incomprehensible Black Virgins of Christian sanctuaries. And one of the key figures of modern Christianity, the Virgin Mary, possesses all the characteristics of the ancient Mother Goddess: wisdom, beneficence, nurturance, & sacred sexuality. Whether in Ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, Celtic Europe, or the present day, the goddess played, & continues to play, an integral part in society's need to connect with the source of all creation."  Goddess Knowledge Cards I'm going to take a different approach to this series. Starting on July 1, I will select a card each day from the Goddess Knowledge cards. The card chosen will be the focus of that day's guided meditation. I will then have 2 days to create the fiber collage based on the card & the imagery that surfaces during the guided meditation. I'm hoping that this process will help me to start digging a little deeper with my art. Labels: books
Wednesday, June 21, 2006For All of You Crazy Quilting Aficionados...Sharon over at In a Minute Ago has started a series of posts called "100 Details for 100 Days". Each day she will post the detail of a new stitch, seam treatment or embellishment along with a brief commentary. She's an absolutely amazing crazy quilt artist so this is an opportunity to learn from one of the best in the field. Although I took Sharon's Encrusted Crazy Quilting class at Joggles a few months ago, I haven't really had the time to devote to it. So, I'm going to dig out the piece that I started for the class & start working along with "100 Details for 100 Days". Labels: crazy quilting
Sunday, June 18, 2006And Suddenly It's Summer Here in Boston...We seem to have skipped Spring this year & jumped directly into Summer as it's been in the mid-90's this weekend. Yesterday was beautiful with crystal clear blue skies but today it's a different story altogether. The sky has that weird hazy look to it that tells you that you should just stay indoors because it's miserable outside. There's usually a storm headed our way when the sky looks like this. I love thunderstorms when I don't have to venture out in them. I didn't make it up to Salem after all on Saturday. I must have stretched at some point while I was sleeping Friday night & pulled the ligaments in my ankle because it was swollen & sore when I woke up Saturday morning. As a result, it's been a quiet weekend spent mostly reading, needleweaving & doing research on the Internet while drinking copious amounts of hazelnut coffee. Some of the ideas & themes that have been circling around in my head are starting to come together so maybe my creative block is breaking up. It was probably less a creative block than a matter of my managing to guilt myself into inertia. I have projects I know I need to work on & projects that I want to work on so as a result I wasn't feeling good about anything I was working on. Problem solved. The series of fiber collages based on the Major Arcana that I've been thinking about for quite awhile now will be the pieces that I submit for my portfolio review at the SMFA in October. So, in the spirit of turning lemons into lemonade, maybe the dislocated ankle wasn't such a bad thing afterall. It made me slow down, really think some things through & make some decisions. Labels: life
 The Starter Wife - Grazer "When her husband, Kenny, dumps her by cell phone mere months before their 10-year wedding anniversary, Gracie Pollack is dazed & confused. Though life as the wife of a semi-famous Hollywood studio executive often left her yawning, Gracie always believed she & Kenny were different from other Hollywood couples. She never thought she'd be a starter wife. But Kenny has upgraded, & with images of his new pop tartlet girlfriend everywhere Gracie turns, she seeks refuge at her best friend's Malibu mansion. Then a mysterious hunk saves her from drowning & suddenly drowning in her sorrows seems like a waste of time. And when she takes up with Kenny's boss, one of Hollywood's better-known Lotharios, she discovers that maybe life after divorce -- Hollywood-style -- isn't so bad after all!"  Out on a Limb - MacLaine "This book is about the experience of getting in touch with myself when I was in my early 40s. It's about the connection between mind, body, & spirit. And what I learned as a result has enabled me to get on with the rest of my life as an almost transformed human being. So this book is about a quest for myself -- a quest which took me on a long journey that was gradually revealing & at all times amazing. I tried to keep an open mind as I went because I found myself gently but firmly exposed to dimensions of time & space that heretofore, for me, belonged to science fiction or what I would describe as the occult. But it happened to me. It happened slowly. It happened at a pace that apparently was peculiarly my own, as I believe all people experience such events. People progress according to what they're ready for. I must have been ready for what I learned because it was the right time..." Labels: books
Saturday, June 17, 200610 Things You Might Not Know About MeDebR over at Red Shoe Ramblings always has the best things on her blog to steal... Hi Deb! TEN random things you might not know about me:
NINE places I've visited:
EIGHT ways to win my heart:
SEVEN things I want to do before I die:
SIX things I'm afraid of:
FIVE things I don't like:
FOUR ways to turn me off:
THREE things I do every day:
TWO things that make me happy:
ONE thing on my mind right now:
Labels: meme
Friday, June 16, 2006Here Comes the SunWait! Could it be? Yes! It's the sun! It's been a miserably cool & damp spring in Boston so far but it's starting to look like summer is almost here. I can finally open my windows & get some fresh air (Well, fresh air when you live in the city is a relative thing.) in the loft. The sun is out, green things are growing & the seagulls have taken up residence on the roof of the abandoned warehouse across the street from me. There's something very calming about their cries when they wake me up in the morning. Since the weather is supposed to be warm & sunny the entire weekend, I think I'll get up early tomorrow, hop on the train to Salem, & just spend the day wandering around checking out the New Age bookstores & Wiccan shops. My ankle is still a little sore & swollen from when I dislocated it last Monday so I'll just walk slowly, stop often for coffee & maybe even treat myself to an ice cream cone. Maybe some sandalwood & lotus incense, a couple of ritual candles & a new crystal while I'm there. I've been bouncing around the idea of a series of fiber collages on goddess figures so this will be a good time to do some research. I also want to see what new tarot decks are available. This would be a good time to get back to my daily tarot meditation. Labels: life
Thursday, June 15, 2006Creative FunkI'm still in a bit of a creative funk here. I made some changes in my life earlier this year & I'm now starting to question if I made the right decisions. So, before I get any further down the path I'm on, I'm going to take a week's vacation in July & really spend some concentrated time deciding what I want to be when I grow up & what steps I need to take to get there. Meanwhile, I've dusted off "Beads & Threads" & "Fiber & Bead Jewelry" by Helen Banes, 2 absolutely fabulous books on needleweaving, & started work on a new piece. It's been a couple of years since I've done any needleweaving but I'm feeling the urge to get back to it. You can see some of my pieces in my blog archives starting in May 2005. Labels: life
Tuesday, June 13, 2006What Color Are You?
Labels: quiz
Monday, June 12, 2006Addition to My Art Library Bead Creative Art Quilts - Eha It was the perfect Monday morning. First I overslept then I managed to fall off the curb getting into a cab & dislocated my left ankle. Its a lovely shade of blue & purple right now & approximately the size of a baseball. The throbbing pain has a nice beat to it though. Looks like I'm going to be working at home for the next couple of days until I can get shoes on again.
Sunday, June 11, 2006The ABCs of Me...I picked this up from Deb at Red Shoe Ramblings this morning & it looked like fun. Accent - I've been told by a number of people that I don't really have an accent. Maybe its because I've lived so many different places that I eventually just lost it. Booze - Yes, please! :-) Bloody Marys & Margaritas in the summer, Jack Daniels when its just been "one of those days at the office", & Irish Coffees in the winter. Chore I Hate - I absolutely hate doing laundry so I take it out to be done. Dog/Cat - I like both but don't have either. If I were going to have a pet it would be a Siamese cat or a pug. Essential Electronics - Coffee maker, laptop, digital camera, iPod nano, BlackBerry & cellphone. Favorite Perfume - Calvin Klein's Obsession & sandalwood oil are the 2 fragrances that I've been wearing for more years than I can count. Gold/Silver - I like both but wear silver because that's what my crystals are set in & I wear those 24/7. Hometown - I'm a child of the world. Insomnia - Sometimes for weeks at a time depending on my stress levels. It can be extremely frustrating because I'll be so totally exhausted that I can't focus on reading or doing anything constructive but as soon as I get in bed, I'm wide awake. Eventually I just crash & burn. Job title - Senior Marketing Manager by day, artist by night. Kid(s) - I'm sooooo not a breeder & avoid being around them whenever possible. Living Arrangements - Loft in a converted warehouse in the Fort Point area of Boston. Most Admirable Trait - I can be really, really, REALLY focused. Number of Countries Visited - Mexico, Canada, England, Belgium, Ireland so far & I'm planning a trip to Italy in 2007 & Greece in 2008. Overnight Hospital Stays - None. Phobias - The ocean. I must have drowned in a previous life because there's just something about deep water & not being able to see what's in it that totally creeps me out. Quote - "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power & magic in it." - Goethe Religion - After exploring Buddhism for a year, I've reverted back to my original religion of Wicca. Yes, ladies & gentlemen, boys & girls... I'm a witch. Siblings - 1 younger brother who is so completely & totally unlike me that I often wonder if I'm adopted. Time You Usually Wake - I usually wake up at 5am but don't get out of bed until 6am. This is my "daydream" time. Unusual Talent - I can be very "intuitive". Vegetable I Refuse to Eat - Well, other than a salad once in a while, I rarely eat vegetables unless they're in chinese food. But I would definitely not, under any circumstances, eat brussel sprouts. Why would anyone eat something that smells like dirty socks? Worst Habit - What! I'm not perfect?! I never drink water which is a bad, bad thing according to the entire world including my massage therapist. X-rays - None. Yummy Foods I Make - I don't cook unless you want to count microwaving bagels & leftover chinese / pizza. Zodiac - Double Aquarius, Gemini moon. Labels: meme
Saturday, June 10, 2006What I'm Reading Night Work - King "Kate & her partner, Al Hawkin, are called to a scene of carefully executed murder: the victim is a muscular man, handcuffed & strangled, a stun gun's faint burn on his chest & candy in his pocket. The likeliest person to want him dead, his often-abused wife, is meek & frail, -- & has an airtight alibi. Kate & Al are stumped, until a second body turns up -- also zapped, cuffed & strangled... & carrying a candy bar. This victim: a convicted rapist. As newspaper headlines speculate about vendetta killings, a third death draws Kate & Al into a network of pitiless destruction that reaches far beyond San Francisco, a modern-style hit list with shudderingly primal roots." Labels: books
Friday, June 09, 2006What's Your Dosha?
Labels: quiz
Wednesday, June 07, 2006Additions to My Art LibraryI've been feeling really tired & burnt out lately so I decided to take some steps to get myself back on track... made an appointment to get a haircut (& resisting the urge to dye everything but the white streak in the front teal blue), booked an appointment with my massage therapist for a deep tissue massage (need to open up the chakras, flush out the toxins & get the energy flowing), laid in a supply of cherry blossom bubblebath in preparation for the weekend, bought a whole new face at Sephora (peacock blue, teal blue & fuschia eyeshadow, cobalt blue & aqua eyeliner) & went on a book buying binge.  The Art of Embroidered Flowers - Baron  Colour Explorations - Beaney & Littlejohn "Focuses on 2 colors (yellow & purple) to present fresh ideas on how to use & incorporate color in your own work. You will be enticed by the seductive power of color through the structured exercises & the sharing of thought processes & color experiences."  Conversations with Constance - Littlejohn & Beaney "Few people in the field of visual arts could be unaware of Constance Howard's deserved reputation as the foremost pioneer of creative embroidery in Great Britain in the 20th century. This book does not seek to be an authoritative tome on her academic achievements, but a series of reflections on a life lived to the fullest by a most extraordinary woman."  Double Vision - Beaney & Littlejohn "Double Vision shows the personal approaches of Jan & Jean to their work with lots of examples & helpful suggestions. They talk about how they select a theme, the difficulties in starting a new piece of work, how they use diaries & notebooks & discuss methods & helpful hints."  Freeform Knitting & Crochet - Dowd "Using the freeform "scrumbling" technique, needleworkers can work unbound by patterns & yet still successfully knit or crochet a project. With just a range of simple stitches & only a few basic techniques, anyone can create lovely & eye-catching wearable art."  Handpainting Fabric - Newman & Allyson "Following an overview of basic materials & tools, readers will learn practical tips for composition & layout, along with invaluable advice for adapting visual references from nature, ethnic traditions, exotic locations, & ancient cultures. The technique chapters present step-by-step lessons in painting, dyeing , discharge, printing, using wax resists, & creating special effects on a variety of fabrics, including silks, velvets, & sheers, all with stunning results."  Making a Living in Crafts - Clark  Paintstiks on Fabric - Stokes  Transforming Fabric - Dahl "Early textile dyers signed oaths that they would not reveal any of the process. Fortunately, Carolyn Dahl openly shares the secrets of dyeing, painting & patterning beautiful cloth she has gleaned in art schools."  Transfer to Transform - Beaney & Littlejohn "Add the use of transfer paints to your repertoire by exploring the strategies for developing color sensitivity as well as awareness of fabric & surface qualities which may be enriched by transfer coloring in any of its many forms."
Sunday, June 04, 2006What I'm Reading The Position - Wolitzer "Sex, love, the 1970s & 1 extraordinary family that lived to tell the tale. In 1975, suburban parents Paul & Roz Mellow write a Joy of Sex-type book called Pleasuring: One Couple's Journey to Fulfillment, which becomes a surprise runaway bestseller. The Position opens with the 4 Mellow children, aged 6 to 15, at the moment when they see the mortifying book (& the graphic, pastel illustrations of their parents' creative, vigorous lovemaking) for the very first time -- an experience that will forever complicate their ideas about sex, parents, families, & themselves. The book brings a strange celebrity & small fortune ("sex money" the children call it) to the Mellows & ultimately changes the shape of the family forever. Thirty years later, as the now-dispersed family members argue about whether to reiusse the book, we follow the complicated lives of each of the grown children as they confront their own struggles with love, work, sex, death, & the indelible early specter of their erotically charged parents. " Labels: books
Saturday, June 03, 2006On Point 1 On Point 1 Here's the postcard that went out announcing the "On Point 1" show that is opening Friday, June 9th. The beaded piece (click on the image for a larger view) is my piece "Persephone Descending". The piece below "Flame Dancer" is the piece that's actually in the show. I had originally planned to show "Peacock" but for some reason it still just doesn't feel finished so it's back in the UFO bin.  Flame Dancer Labels: art show
Friday, June 02, 2006What Time of Day Are You?
Labels: quiz
Thursday, June 01, 2006Surface Design Project Surface Design Project Still experimenting with dying & painting on fabric. The base for this was a plain white muslin. I sprayed the fabric with water then used an eyedropper to drop Dyna-flo paints onto the fabric so that they would run together. I then used washable glue to create patterns before dropping on more Dyna-flo. The gold was stamped on after the piece was dry. I really love this teal, emerald, magenta, gold color palette. Labels: surface design
|
