How I know it's all going to be ok...

Gromit is a barn cat at the local farm near my home.  Whenever I visit the hundreds of acres of land at the farm, he always manages to find me.  Lost amidst the brush and the silent forest I can hear his quiet "meow" as he runs down the dirt path in my direction, his collar jingling.  I've been going to this farm for years and while the baby piglets, the wild horses and spotted chickens all acknowledge me, Gromit always finds a way to connect to my heart.  I have grown to love this cat so much so that some days I visit him just to keep company.
Somehow my connection with this compassionate feline has taught me to trust that it's all going to be ok.  I can't tell you exactly how I know this, but I know that there is a calm when I am in Gromit's presence that is unmatched.  Our energy together just makes sense as it is a mutual admiration bond that we have formed over time.
These weekly visits to the farm got me thinking about bonds, connections and the matches that we make.  On a daily basis we make choices about the energy we let into our lives - good or bad, happy or entangled, calm or chaotic.  The way that we choose to feed our life force can be seen in the people we surround ourselves with and the compassion we show towards others.  No matter how my week is going - if work is stressing me out, if school is overwhelming, if I find that I can't control everything in my immediate environment, it really does not matter.  What matters is that I can always count on this wild barn cat to be waiting on the bench in the garden at the farm.  Such a simple and basic connection yet he is there to greet me, to connect to me, to ensure that my heart is happy and light and most importantly, that it remains open.

Such Wisdom Ms. Erdrich

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.” 

-- Louise Erdrich  

                            

Happy Harvest Moon :)

1. "With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?" - Oscar Wilde

2. 
   

In Ruins... a color study

One of the reasons that I love to go looking for old ruins is because there is always a story behind them.

Like everything else that once was, ruins are really no different although ghost stories and teenage graffiti might have you assume otherwise.

Alas, it's the mundane and the classic stories of everyday lives lived that keep me interested in finding old buildings and restoring them in my mind's eye.

Here is a view from inside the building at Letchworth Village -

There is beauty amidst even the most ruined

xo,
Erica

- - What Once Was - -

I have a profound love for old things.           Lost things with a story.           Things that have been found with a purpose.
 
With this in mind I have the ongoing goal to have a photography show entitled, "What Once Was."  This theme doesn't just have to do with past centuries, broken down homes engulfed in filigree, it has to do with the many lifetimes that we live in our single existence here on earth.  Even as I turned thirty-two this past week I thought about how 'fourteen years old' seemed like another lifetime ago altogether.  Sure, I can still access most of my fourteen year old memories if need be, but my perception of things has greatly altered so how accurate is any of it in accordance with how I felt at that age?  The way that I experience the world is totally different and the things that used to upset me are now my curiosities.  These incredible shifts occur daily in nature.  Just look outside your window as in a single day the snow melts only to reveal a crocus.

What once was is not only about decade leaps in age, it's about how in a moment things can shift.  One moment life is bland, there is nothing better than the cream in your coffee and the next you meet someone and find love, discover the clouds have more shimmer, the birds have a seamless song.  Moment by moment we are shedding skins and changing shells and altering words and thoughts. If you are anything like me and resist change then I can't help but point out that there is nothing but change occurring moment to moment.  Impermanence is simply a gift - if I happen to portray the intricacies of impermanence in my future photography show "What Once Was." then it may just be what photographer's term a "happy accident."

Richard Avedon - Capturing the light

Great photographs stay with you over time.  Images that move us become engrained in our mind's eye like memories that we cannot own.  If they are especially profound they will tap into the senses and not only will time and place be associated with these images but smells, light and sound will be easily referenced.  

Living in a house in downtown Newmarket, New Hampshire I remember visiting one of my neighbor's apartments to borrow butter to make homemade brownies.  The girl who occupied the apartment upstairs was very mellow and didn't say a lot, when she did it was always profound.  A true introvert, she offered me an old bowl of butter and just smiled as I slowly ducked out from her apartment and made my way back down the creaky old stairs.  I barely remember the butter or the color on the walls but I do remember that she had a bulletin of famous photographs hanging in her kitchen.  

On the bulletin was a postcard sized image of Marian Anderson - the photo taken by the late Richard Avedon.  How this image has stayed with me I don't think I can fully explain in writing... but it has.  

Years later after I left New Hampshire and the old factory town of Newmarket, this image became one of my memories.  One of my whispers.  Unable to forget it I painted many portraits in the years to come with this single photograph in mind.

Thank you Marian Anderson for making sounds to the wind, thank you neighbor for lending me a hand and indirectly opening me up to an entire conversation with brilliant photography...

most importantly thank you Richard Avedon for knowing how to capture the light. 

A miracle is simply a shift in perception....

I recently saw Gabrielle Bernstein speak with Kris Carr at the Ridgefield Playhouse in Connecticut and she was absolutely inspiring. Her work is based mostly around the spiritual text A Course in Miracles but I think it is applicable to anyone who is open minded and ready to receive some wonderful advice. Check out her video - I couldn't agree more with what she shares about friendly romance. In the past few years especially, I feel so grateful to have nurtured and harvested my friendly romances with others. I have been lucky enough to build more intimate bonds with friends, nature, my artistic journey, animals, plants, spirituality, myself....I feel so blessed.

xoxo, Erica

Spinning Glitter into Gold...

These 8x10 gems are painted with acrylic paints on canvas and each one is personally signed and has a special inscription on the back. They will be for sale starting this weekend at Awakenings in Katonah, NY! I'm so happy to be spreading the love with my spirit art once again! Have a great weekend and Thanks for all of the positive feedback! xoxoxo, Erica

A Critical Step in a Spiritual Practice.... "No"

Remembering to say "No" with grace and with ease is an essential part of having boundaries and maintaining healthy, honest relationships with others. Check out this video and have a great day!!!

xoxoxo,
Erica

...and she's so busy being free....

Antler Widow Dress

I consider myself a fairly normal person. Well I suppose that's up for debate but I can tell you with complete assurance that it hasn't been very normal that night after night I've been having dreams about a particular Alexander McQueen dress. "Antler Widow Dress" as it is called is from the spring/summer 2006-7 collection and has somehow weaseled it's way into each and every one of my nighttime escapes. While it makes for quite the visual, it seems that none of these dreams have been particularly easy to navigate. In one dream I'm living in an old victorian home and it is summertime; as I am standing in a dark hallway the sconces on the wall burst and start to catch fire. The hallway of this home is adorned with peeling damask wallpaper and when I look down there is a flood on the wooden planks below and my bare feet are wading with heavy lace through even heavier waters. This is quite the diversion from the reoccurring dream where I'm at center stage only to recognize that I've suddenly forgotten my lines, the later being one I now regrettably miss. I'm not complaining about being adorned from head to toe in the genius of the late McQueen but I will say that night after night it's started to become shall we say, mildly overwhelming. Like all great art "Antler Widow Dress" adds drama to my dreams, gives them direct storyline, flair, emotional heartache and even a little unprecedented mischief. While I am grateful for my vivid dreamtime and the influence it has had on my art I am not wearing the dress without repercussions of the widow herself. Like all great art the clothes of a designer such as McQueen are no different as they carry a story, an essence. While he was able to breathe life into all of his work (in my opinion in a way that has yet to be matched), I think that true art never rests. True art haunts, is alive and has a pulse in a way that it becomes part of who you are. I awoke this morning with relief only to find that I had not been haunted by the ruffles of lace and the lucite antlers yet in retrospect I recognize that a dream is only part of the day.


“I get my ideas out of my dreams… if you’re lucky enough to use something you see in a dream, it is purely original. It’s not in the world — it’s in your head. I think that is amazing.”
― Alexander McQueen

Do you like the sound?

Some more art...


oh, and a true classic in the spirit of the holiday...

Have you forgotten?

...the sound of The Cranberries

I came up with some new art last night while listening to them.

Just sit back, relax and let their sound move across the room...

*Happy Thursday*

Sing it Patti Griffin!!! No bad news today!
Sending you all love and blessings and don't forget that there is light at the end of every tunnel...hold your head up high and keep on trucking!
xoxoxoxo,
Erica

Mom and Dad, Welcome Home!!!!

There is nothing like seeing the two of you again...

xoxoxo

A Halloween Poem...

All Hallows
By Louise Glück

Even now this landscape is assembling.
The hills darken. The oxen
sleep in their blue yoke,
the fields having been
picked clean, the sheaves
bound evenly and piled at the roadside
among cinquefoil, as the toothed moon rises:

This is the barrenness
of harvest or pestilence.
And the wife leaning out the window
with her hand extended, as in payment,
and the seeds
distinct, gold, calling
Come here
Come here, little one

And the soul creeps out of the tree.

With socks of lace...

Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock
by Wallace Stevens

The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures.
People are not going
To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
Drunk and asleep in his boots,
Catches Tigers
In red weather.

Sweet Music for you my Sweet Friend!

Sending prayers, love and trust to you my friends... "

What a wonderful world...

xoxoxox
Erica

I believe in second chances...

I love this song by The Eagles, "No More Cloudy Days" - listen to the words, kick back and enjoy a mellow friday morning..

xoxoxo,
Erica

The Full Moon in Aries -

Happy Full Moon in Aries...




In honor of this fiery and wild moon I have posted the empowering Stevie Nicks singing Rhiannon. Soak it in! As a result of this full moon over the next few days you will likely have a new motivation for how to go forward on your path. Aries is great at paving the way by inspiring and helping you to start any creative ventures, travel or exciting new projects that you have been putting off.

May the seeds that you planted in the spring now be fully harvested with this incredible full moon and may your thoughts and prayers be in alignment with the universe. I am sending you great health, true love, an abundance of happiness and I continue to applaud your awesome integrity to stay true to your heart!!!

xoxoxo,
Erica