ORIGINAL BLISS

Finding the Flow. Catching the Drift.

Long... long... work week for me...8 days, (minus a 12 hour rest and refit). A total of 88 hours. That's 11 days for the "normal" working world, without any weekend in between.

I realized that I prepare for work like someone preparing for battle. Or an NFL player preps for the Super Bowl:
I gotta make sure I plan my gas stops for my commute in advance.
I have to make sure I have all my food and healthy snacks lined up to avoid the last minute running into Chevron for a gas station sandwich.
I have to make sure I take daily fiber and senna tea so my body keeps working.
I have to make sure I at least tell my family members that I love them somewhere in the day.
I have to remember that my family loves me and also has to prepare themselves for these types of work weeks. It's definitely a team effort.
And I keep my eye on the calendar -- January 6th --- a day off -- -January 7th --- my massage and pedicure are scheduled.

A life in Public Safety. Busting Ours. Saving Yours.

Namaste,

C H E Z

Making My List and Checking It Twice

KOI - In Progress

I have always been a list person. Lists for groceries... lists for baby names... Lists of to-dos for my day off... Lists for my budget... Lists of pros and cons for keeping or breaking up with boys...

Who doesn't love the simplicity of the list?

I have been preparing my list for my Burning Bowl Ceremony on New Year's Eve.
I am in special need of this powerful outlet of letting go of the old and making room for the new in my life.

I have been writing down the old, defunct patterns, issues, and energies that I want to release. Things that I am DONE with and never want to recreate in my life again. Like spring cleaning a closet, this list is for cleaning out the skeletons in your spirit. The little ghosts that keep poking their destructive heads into our life and wrecking havoc. I have been writing down those things.

Part of writing them down is a process of taking accountability for your part in them. How do I need these things? How have they actually worked or benefited me that I have chosen to keep enabling that aspect in my life? Am I really ready to let it go so I can create something new? Am I ready to say good bye to them forever?

This list of what I am ready to release is folded. Jeff and I get a metal bowl, and somewhere safe we light a candle, some incense, play some music, and we set our lists on fire, burning it to ashes, releasing it to the Universe to transmute into light.

Once cleansed, we take a second piece of paper and write down the things we want to create, to attract in to our lives in the new year. I call them "mock ups", not wishes, not miracles... Mock Ups are something that you are envisioning into reality. Like an architect sketches, drafts, then builds, your spirit envisions, energizes and manifests.

I keep my mock up list in my art journal. I energize it, and check in with it throughout the year - marveling as the things I intended appear in my life, validating that I am indeed co-creating my reality.

Namaste,

C H E Z

5 Minute Collages

 
 



Keeping it quick is the point. It is about playing with composition and shape and images that draw me in for whatever reason. After they are done I look at them and see what they tell me.
I can't wait until the holidays are over and I have time to REALLY spend time!

Namaste,

C H E Z

Visions of Angels Dance in My Head

Maybe it's the holidays, but I am feeling a lot of angelic presence the past couple of weeks. Especially the past few days.

I have also heard from many friends about their loved ones being ill and close to transitioning.

And at work more citizens have been choosing to leave this world by their own hand, as is normal for this time of year.

And people are driving like they are distracted and are having serious accidents.

And people are depressed about the economy and personal factors.

But I feel angels near. They dance.

Namaste,

C H E Z

Dragging Our Love Through the Mundane

The day is fast approaching and gifts are sitting in the closet half-hidden waiting for wrapping. It really is a Christmas miracle that I actually did any shopping. Getting them wrapped will be another. And I did finally get the tree up - so there is a third. How many miracles does one have to perform to be canonized??  Saint Chez has a nice ring to it, but I think you have to perform miracles after you are dead for it to count.

Speaking of the HOLY-DAZE... Can someone tell me why people can't think and drive after Thanksgiving? What happens? Do they wrap their head in their butt until Christmas morning??? I must have seen 3 fender benders on the way home from dropping my daughter off at rehearsals. THINK and Drive, people!

Jeff and I got 2 nights ---- TWO NIGHTS --- alone!! Yes, our children were all off to their respective babies' mama's and daddy's house and we were able to sleep in, and go for a mini road trip, and go out to dinner, and... and... and... ;-)

I realized that it has been months since we've been alone together. It really does a couple good, reconnecting as a couple without the nuts and bolts of life dragging our love through the mundane. I have to remember to bring the Creative into my relationship space, to keep it artistic and magical too!!! We got our glow back!

I'm still working on my latest mixed media collage, and I'm still working the inspiration on my BIG BLANK CANVAS. The BBC isn't feeling as intimidating now. I may be close to laying down paint!

Lisa has bestowed a Butterfly Award upon my little blog - a nice surprise indeed.

Most of the blogs I love have been adorned with butterflies, so I'd like to share some FLICKR FRIENDS who inspire the hell out of me...

May you be amazed!

DOEKI - Amazing zentangle images and journal pages.
LAUREVOLUMNE - Not only her bright and detailed ink drawings but her Children's Book photography is incredible as well.
VIVI-MARI - Stunning and intricate collages with vintage images.
VORFAS - Her nude photography is surreal and spellbinding. Be advised before you click, there are naked women here.
PUNTO6  - Vintage paper and paint and illustration. Even more abstract and loose than mine.

Namaste,

C H E Z

Blows & Sighs

I consider myself an open, liberal person. I allow people freedom of expression that I personally am uncomfortable with. I am often surprised by the "diversity of perversity" I hear about and see on late night HBO "documentaries". It intrigues me though...

Chapter 7 of the Kama Sutra...

"Sexual expression can be conceived of as a kind of combat, and eroticism as a contest and perverse behavior."

"This apparent conflict is in reality a struggle, since in order to assert themselves and overcome each other, both man and woman violently oppose one another. For successful intercourse, a show of cruelty is essential. Aggression with nail and feet, embraces, kisses, cruel bites are acts leading to much greater enjoyment than loving behavior."

If you say so... ???

I started my next mixed media collage on Thursday. I peeled the watercolor and acrylic from a previous unfinished painting that I was not happy with. It was painted on YUPO paper. I thought I could shred it to use as collage pieces but discover the paint peels off whole!!!!! Tripped me out. They were transparent where the watercolor was and opaque were the acrylic was.

I semi-randomly collaged these strips onto new Yupo paper. Added some Kama Sutra headers and gesso. Now it awaits a second visit.  I see my girl in there already. She is naked. Profile. Her arms are back and her head is proud. Her hair is blowing in the wind. But there is a secret ghost of herself with her. Her head is thrown back and chest pushed forward in rapture.

Do you see her yet???
It's like looking for shapes in the clouds.

To Be Continued....

Namaste,
C H E Z

Bah Humbug!

I was really hoping that this was the year we could cancel Christmas.
It has always felt so FORCED upon me.
I have to put up decorations.
I have to shop for too many gifts for every extended family member because they are getting me something.
I have to participate in the office gift exchange...
and sign 100 Christmas cards...
and make a dish for 3 pot lucks...
and adopt a family in need...
and gather up canned goods for the food tree...
and dig up change for every red bucket every time I go get a gallon of milk.

It doesn't inspire the CHRIST in me when it is a HAVE to.
It should be renamed.
Instead of Christmas, it should be called COMM-Mas.
A worship of all things Commercial - the big push for Commerce.

In Shannan's world, CHRISTmas would be celebrated in March - Jesus' likely birth time being Spring.
No gifts are exchanged, unless it is gold, frankincense or myrrh. I'll give a little bit on this and expand it to one gift to each of the most immediate family members as long as you meditate on the meaning of Christ prior to gift giving.
And if you aren't Christian, you don't celebrate it.

Is that too much to ask?

Yeah... I put up the tree...
I'm such a rebel.

Namaste,

C H E Z

Glitter, Glisten, Glow!

Mistlin Gallery has all the art up for the show. Jeff took some photos of my paintings because I haven't made it downtown yet. Very cool!



Please bless them with the golden energy of "SOLD!"

Namaste,

C H E Z

Uninspired

I am suffering from the equivalent of writer's block today.
I have a beautiful blank canvas and Yupo watercolor paper taped to my board and I am at a loss for color, texture and subject.

Well, not really true.
I do have an idea and some images floating around in my head. I am just reluctant to put paint on it today.

The blank space can be so intimidating.

My play space keeps calling to me...

Saying, "Get in here and play!"

But the Christmas tree is sitting in the shed...
and the clean sheets need put on the bed...
And I don't want to do that either.
I am immobilized.
Drinking coffee instead.
Still sitting in my new pajamas.

It's 1:38 in the afternoon.

I did go outside.
Barefoot.
And I found the tiniest feather ever!

It told me a story about little wings not being able to fly yet.

Namaste,

C H E Z

All the Good Intentions...

I really wanted to paint today. I wanted to spend the morning setting up my paper and acrylics and inspirations, put on some good tunes and drink coffee while I got my fingers gooey.

Unfortunately, my JOB takes up so much time on my work days, that my time off gets spent running kids to school, cleaning house, doing laundry, and the dreaded GROCERY SHOPPING. Nothing is worse than WINCO when you'd rather be creating art.

Well, grocery shopping is done at least. Now I have to clean up the house and get ready to pick up kids - so I can go to work tonight.

Maybe those Mounds Cookie Bars will cheer me up. They look like a masterpiece don't they?

Namaste,

C H E Z