correspondence

postcard from ~J, arrived 5/11/10   click for larger view

We correspond, ~J~ and I.  In many ways.  Especially the in the arena of postcards.  We've delighted in sending postcards to each other for almost as long as we've been pals.  In 1997 I traveled Mexico a bit and ~J, post graduation, went on a world tour, traveling the globe solo (what a badass).  Our postcard correspondence did thus commence.  Each postcard from ~J's global pilgrimage was a story, each image a visual treat, each arrival a quiet thrill.  For 10 years, as ~J~ and I went on to live in different places, the postcards continued.  And even after I moved to Los Angeles in 2006, and now see each other with joyful frequency , our exchange via post has never ceased.  Our on going postcard collection is as thick or thicker than ZBOOK, and certainly an extension of it.  Or more like, our books and postcards are an extension of US.  

"life"     click for larger view

Behold the postcard I got in the mail this week! Thank you ~J~   It is dated "Four, Twenty, Two Thousand and Ten" which was our ZBOOK 4EVER launch date a month ago.  Sometimes a card does like to hang out for a while before actually getting into that bluebox portal, I know how that is ~J  :)  And always the timing of arrival reveals itself to be perfect!  Just look at this image of underwater life!  Speaks directly to our ZBOOK page of THIS week, yet was chosen and written 4 weeks ago; only this week did it finally make it's way into the post.  Love it.  You know, life.  O yeah, and "life"!  This postcard's image playfully puts into perspective my sense of a subterranean realm as being a bottomless abyss.  I am seeing that it is also just fishbowl, whether ocean or any vast unknown darkness, making it manageable after all.  Instead of feeling tiny and insignificant, dive in and feel your immense divinity, bigger than life!  And then BAM! the world is in your hands.

∞ ceci
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red ink

If you could smell this page, you might detect the faint lingering of a soul satisfying scent; like the memory of inhaling the rich perfume of a full bloomin red rose in the spring.  As Ceci brought forth her study of neurons in her last post, I call attention now to my devotion to color with all its glorious sacrifices and offerings.  Noted in Cec's post, the red ink which came in to the being of this neuron pregnated page dripped from my hand.  In fact, it flowed down the glass point of an old fashioned plume I purchased one fateful day on the westside of Melrose.  Not only was the implement an object of lust, the ink too was sultry; a small potent pot of scarlet, tinged with an olfactory hallucinagen.  That ink inspired me to great love letters as well as devoted entries in zbook and other manuscripts.  Here in "life", the glass pen was so smooth following the lines of Cec's neuron, I remember feeling intoxicated by the process. 

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 Often in these and other collaborations, each line stroke is felt with such sensuallness, the work of art becomes a means to explore the gifts of touch and sight.  The consuming lusciousness of working with the dip and flow of this pen and ink on this spread, led me to touching each image surface with the red color.  As previously mentioned, the red came in to existence years later than some of the imagery; I could guess it was in 1999 because that is when I was living with my grandmother for a spell in WestHollywood, and I was exploring the surrounding regions.  By that time in our collaboration, Cec and I had begun to really trust our give and take, trust subtlety and boldness so that we were really interacting in the artistic spaces, rather than just existing side by side.  Remnant from the early days is exposed on the left of "life" where the butterfly (Cec's drawing) and the shark (my totem) remain separate in their own corners.

Though i'd like to delve into the blues of the watercolor, my son has just awoken from deep sleep and I must bid adieu for tonight.  Bon Voyage fellow travelers.  Send a postcard.

-J.

I heart neurons

my first drawings of neurons straight from Histology textbook
click these for larger view

When I was living in Gudalajara, Mexico in 1999 I fell in love with neurons.  Those microscopic nerve cells that transmit information in our bodies, or in other words communicate.  Vinh, my then partner (and dear friend today) was studying medicine at the time and had given me his Histology texts because the images of the microscopic cells and tissues reminded him so much of my drawings, which at the time were made of super intricate lines with ink.  I was fascinated by these books and by the  incredible correlation between my art and the images the books revealed on the structure of our micro inner landscape.  One night I came upon the nervous system chapter and encountered neurons.  I was gripped at once; they appeared to be liitle entities, life forms with individual attitudes, identities, characters.  The nucleus of each neuron seems like an eyeball.  And that alone gives these little dudes personality.  And the fact that these cells do in fact serve as individual communicators in the body, well they might as well be their own life forms living in the galaxies inside the universe of our bodies.  I began to draw these lil' dudes of connectivity at once and incorporate them into my drawings of macro/micro worlds.  And on this page of ZBOOK, during this same time in Guad, I drew one here on the left, in purple fine point sharpie.  Years later ~J~ came in with blood red ink that set it off, connecting it with all the other life forms on the spread.

The Observer, acrylic on found wood, March 2010   click for larger view

To this day you will find neurons appear in my paintings.  What if the intelligent "life" we wonder about is not only "out there" but in here.  As we've been breaking down cells into atoms into protons and electrons into quarks and beyond we discover only more and more expanded space.  I'm fascinated by the life forms on all levels of being, inner and outer space, and what we all may have to communicate to each other. To reflect for one another in the learning about what is possible in ourselves.



∞ ceci
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week four >> "life"

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Along the veins we travel now to "life".  Life painted in shades of blue and gray, life drawn in lines of black and red.  Sink into this spread as it draws you underwater to the silent sea bottom, where life is unfolding and bubbling.  As I become absorbed in the images here, I am drawn into the dance of the multi armed gymnast.  Her gesture lifts my own swerving chest and shoulders into the breadth of a wave.  Like kelp swaying endlessly underwater to the pulse of the current, my thoughts enter this world where sound is lit by an everpresent static.  My internal images float with this spreads suggestion to memories of existing in this undersea gallery. 

Particularly present in this moment is the feeling I still conjure up from a night dive with the UCSB scubadiving club.  Having entered the water off campus point at dusk, then swimming along a seaweed strewn pipeline to an anchored buoy; my partner and I raised to the surface to find the night had enveloped the sky.  Taking our courage, we lowered back into the dark water, with our flashlights on, following lobsters and an octopus and a pink spanish dancer... then, together, we signaled and turned out our lights.  The viscosity seemed to change in that instant.  I lost awareness of my bodies differentiation from the body of  the sea.  In that moment, life was one within and without of me.. it remains one of the most spiritually enlivening experiences of my life.  Everything was alive with pulsing light; where I thought it would be dark, it was electric.  The serenity of that experience lives with me and is pulled into being as I reflect on this weeks spread - knowing that it was surely influenced by that and other moments of tapping into the great silence of life.

One of our aims in sharing ZBOOK is pasted on this spread in the blurb at the top right (upside down from a time when we were experimenting with flipping zbook in all directions)
"Spiritual services with an enlightened touch" ...
we open this call by offering witness to your stories.

Feel free to take a moment now to pull into your presence one of your own moments of enlightenment.  Hear the silence, embrace the connectedness and see the vividness.  Then, please share a comment - share an image or a clarity of that moment in your life.  Share your healing story.

Be well and Blessings,
Jennifer

happy Mama day!

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dearest ~J~ happy mama day!

~J~ is a mother of 2 beautiful children, ~h~ is 8 and ~j~ is 3 in a couple days! ~J~ is truly the divine mama -it has been an honor and joy to witness J's opulent grace through her Being mother. The patient and ever present quality of her nurturing, the nurturing of her children's imaginations, creativity, & reverence for beauty, her devotion and earnest love for her family... ~J~ is an inspiration. Thank you ~J~ for the love you foster in your family is a gift to our planet. happy day! love u, cec

J & all~ Have you heard of StoryCorps? It's a nonproft group who has set up recording booths in public places all over the U.S. for people to freely enter in pairs to share a conversation, sharing their voices, their story.  A copy of every story is stored at Library of Congress and StoryCorps has become, since 2003, one of the largest oral history projects in U.S. history.  The project has produced a couple books, one of which just came out, called "Mom: A Celebration of Mothers from StoryCorps"   It shares the conversations btwn mothers & their children.  Here is an excerpt from last friday's Democracy Now! where Amy Goodman interviews the founder of StoryCorps, Dave Isay, about the book and how prevalent and endearing the voices & stories of mothers have been during this amazing adventure in the gleaning of stories.

In the celebration of storytelling and of mamas everywhere, please enjoy... Happy mama day to all!

link to this

 Happy mama day to mama Gladys and mama Lucky! We love you, we are so grateful for you!

∞ ceci

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