happy new year Hemphill!

Today we celebrate the life and love of Jennifer! 

happy birthday Hemphill... happy new year... 

I love you!

Sketchbook Exhibit at Brooklyn Art Library, NYC

And to make it even sweeter... today is the opening date of the Art-House Sketckbook Project touring exhibition, launching where it will full circle back to for permanent exhibit, at the Brooklyn Art Library, NYC.  Our S.BOOK, along with thousands of fellows sketckbooks, will be in Brooklyn through 2/27 and then off to Austin, TX in March. See all cities and dates here. There is some wonderful system in place where each book is bar coded and so every time our book is selected for viewing, we will receive a notification. How rad is that?

                       see our previous posts about S.BOOK here!

∞ ceci

6

week forty four >> "amor (love dub)"

"amor (love dub)"       clik to view

This week of valentines brings forth Z page "amor," our most lovey duby spread which I affectionately call the "love-dub" spread. We definitely let ourselves go super girly here, which is my style really, not Jennifer's either, but still undeniably part of our ethos growing up as girls... an ethos I highly resisted I must say, as I never felt akin to the frills and pinks of "what girls like."  I shunned the color pink my entire childhood all the way until I was almost 30... when I realize that my rebellion had only given power to the mass perceived linkage to gender and that the color pink was independently quite innocent and its energetic properties were actually quite aligned with being.... in love.  And so I reclaimed it for my own, on my own terms, in my own truth... and every now and then you may even find me wearing it.

Setting myself free in Z pages of Z book from the ages of 22 to 36, definitely included a lot of reclaiming of old loved things that had been forgotten and these old territories previously subverted.  This page~spread became the place where stickers and images of hearts and romance came to BE, in all there lovey dubbiness.  Where it's okay to be smooshy and kissy and sweet.  And although this indeed is not the whole embodiment of being a girl, why deny this sweet open hearted facet all together.  The world could benefit from allowing more the expression of it's tolerance, kindness, and love... and recognize vulnerability as the strength and vital force that it is.

In this TEDtalk, acclaimed playwright Eve Ensler speaks about how "that there is a girl cell in us all -- a cell that we have all been taught to suppress." That this girl cell in us ALL, women and men,  is compassion, empathy, vulnerability, openness, intensity, relationship and intuition. And how "this particular grouping of cells is central to the evolution of our species and the continuation of the human race."  I invite you to check this out, this is compelling stuff:

I wish someone would have reminded me when I was little that I didn't have to suppress my girly side in order to embrace my masculine energy and that in fact my intuition and ability to connect and relate were strengths and assets vital to my life and our world.  I'm grateful for this awareness now, and my experience through ZBOOK has helped me realize this for myself beyond measure.  This is a huge reason of why we want to share ZBOOK with the world now, starting with a focus on young girls, to help ALL recognize and revere the POWER of all of our open hearted sensibilities.  

∞ ceci

6