Category Archives: Travel

Gallery 263: Massachusetts!

massgalleryOn Friday I left work early to go into Cambridge, MA for two receptions. The first one, at this year’s VSA competition (the one that accepted my works into the Smithsonian) from the Massachusetts chapter. I ran across the blog and am going to submit my story to it (when I have a chance to write it). I met the one of the members who connected me to this reception who happened to grow up in Longmeadow! Crazy. The reception was nice and the gallery was nice but small. Afterwords, I sent the executive director an email seeing if they’d let me do a solo show at the Open Doors Gallery (where it was held).

Then I went to the other side of the river for the reception at Gallery 263: Massachusetts! A former high school teacher of mine came to the reception as well as my uncle and my brother. As you can probably tell from my photos, it was PACKED. It was probably the most crowded reception I have been in! (This is the reception where I was mentioned in the press release). Overall fun night, despite battling Boston rush hour traffic. Ugh!

 

PS: If you click the photo about it’ll take you to the facebook photo gallery.

Groundings, LLC

1888605_773177482695557_1405506630_nA couple of weekends ago I took a drive up to Noho and met with Lauren, a new age gift shop owner in Florence, MA. On the way I noticed signs for an Orchid show sponsored by the Amherst Orchid Society. So grateful I brought my camera with me that day! I met Lauren to discuss a solo show that won’t be happening until July. I’m super excited about this! I need to figure out ideas for promotion, etc. and what to do in general. I’m excited to be possibly showing new work too. They do weekly meditations and I plan on being at the Sound Healing meditation this coming Friday. Can’t wait to check it out.

On the way back I stopped at the Orchid Show and glad I did. Got some really awesome abstract photos of Orchids. One of which I plan on putting in my bedroom here in Longmeadow. The red in one of the orchids (shown in above photo) goes really well with my walls in my bedroom.

The Empty Spaces Project

1599781_736229466389292_219763217_oBack in December I exhibited at a local gallery called The Boxcar Gallery. There I met a few more local artists and a gallery owner who owns a gallery in Putnam, CT. I learned that I was their first artist to be invited to their Tragic Love exhibit. Tonight I went out there to check out the space and have a few drinks. They were drawn to my ‘Smithsonian’ status (as it’s been lovingly called…) and it was the one of the many factors that went into inviting me to their show. A lot of work seems to have gone into the space and I guess this upcoming exhibition is like their “reopening”?! I don’t know!! But it has given me some thought as to how, where and the direction of my creative space will go. I’m intrigued by the idea of taking over empty store fronts for gallery and artist spaces (The Empty Spaces Project). There are some things that need to come to pass but for now I have to move out of my studio in Beverly and transition completely to Longmeadow.

Tragic Love Exhibition – The Empty Spaces Project

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So funny thing about this exhibition.

Back in December I exhibited my artwork in a new gallery called The Boxcar Gallery in Greenfield, MA. I drove up there one night to attend the reception. I began talking to a gallery owner in Putnam, CT. Which is about an hour from where I am stationed in Western, MA. The gallery owner wanted to fit me in their Tragic Love exhibition. The last I heard was they were going to put me into their November exhibition (perhaps they meant February)? Anyway, I saw these images on facebook this week and was like WHA! How am I in an exhibition I did not know that I was aware of that I am in!

The funny thing is… it is Venus retrograde now. It typically is a time when all kinds of relationships that are important to you and that are real go haywire (it’s like mercury retrograde but instead of communications and technology its love, friendships, relationships and romance). Venus retrograde ends this friday! (but takes a few weeks to settle down).

Monday night I’ll be driving out there to drop off my artwork that I’m going to be bringing back here to Western MA after the weekend.

 

 

The Boxcar Gallery Reception

575256_378481182297177_639000869_nFriday I drove back to Western Ma to attend The Boxcar Gallery’s Opening Reception. This gallery is literally in an old boxcar. The gallery is located in downtown Greenfield, Ma. It is also part of The Empty Space’s Project. Kim, the owner of The Boxcar Gallery, had the opportunity to also exhibit some of Joseph Mallord William Turner, a painter from the 1800s.  It was really nice to meet some of the artists in Western Massachusetts and Connecticut. I also met the owners of a gallery in Putnam, Connecticut and they were interested in showing my work as well. First venture out in Western Mass, a success I’d say.

Haymarket

  Tonight I drove out to Northampton, Ma and met Kim the owner of The Boxcar Gallery – (yes this gallery is really in an old boxcar) at the Haymarket Cafe! I had their hot chocolate and their Fried Egg and Mozzarella sandwich. The sandwich was a little too much food than I expected but I enjoyed it overall. Kim asked me about my photographic process and I asked her about the arts in western Massachusetts. She had also asked me for a tarot reading and I gave her one at the end. Never been to Northampton (or “Noho”) before and it reminded me of Bethlehem – but holy shit did I feel at home in Northampton! It’s definitely a city I’d like to explore more. The funny thing with meeting Kim is that she had seen my artwork in Pomfret before I submitted my work to her as she grew up in Pomfret. It was a cool moment for me because I was all, “WOAH! MY ART IS GETTING RECOGNIZED!” I seriously hope this job in Enfield continues because I’m falling in love with this area.

The Healing Center in Beverly

Photo (C) The Healing Center in Beverly

Today I visited Joanna at the Healing Center in Beverly and we talked about a future partnership with my Kirlian Process and my studio space at Cabot Street Studios. We talked about potentially getting my research into workshop format and using the Healing Center space as well as Studio 19’s space for workshops and presentations.

We also talked about literally working with the life force energy as well, since Joanna is a Reiki Master and knows how to work with the energy we thought about trying to capture and visually express the differences of a charged object with Reiki energy and a regular object. I also talked about some of the things I had been struggling with and we decided that Reiki should be the next stage in my healing process as well.

Artiste Marketplace and a New Calling

DSC_0115This weekend I participated in the Artiste Marketplace sponsored by Artiste Art and Craft Studio.  I didn’t sell anything but I gave away a lot of marketing material which is always a good thing. As usual, people were generally interested in my artwork and spent time asking questions and looking through the portfolio. I’m glad I had that experience. I even met someone who wants to do a trade – teaching her photo processing and her teaching me Reiki. In the past week that was the second time my artwork has attracted Reiki practitioners. I met the Owner of  ‘The Healing Center’ in Beverly at my reception last Tuesday who is also a Reiki practitioner. It makes sense that I’m attracting these type of people because Reiki is all about using the life force energy to heal people. The owner of ‘The Healing Center’ wants to do a collaboration with me and my process which I mentioned in my post about the Studio19 reception. I went on their website and I found a class about plants – too perfect for my usage! I’ve been wanting to use the medicinal properties of plants in my artwork some how. And I love that it’s only one Thursday a month. I signed up for the December class since next week is a little to soon for me. I’ll have to leave work early, but that shouldn’t be a problem. I’m excited to see where my artwork is taking my professionally and spiritually. 🙂

Studio19 – Opening Reception Recap

DSCN0201On Tuesday evening I drove over 70 miles to attend my reception on the Northshore coming from Enfield, Ct. During work that day I learned that both my photographer and production crew (Estrada Productions) that I had booked for the reception fell through! My parents ended up taking pictures. But the fact that I have never put on an event like this before I thought the reception went very well. Several new people showed up and showed interest in buying my artwork! Some of the artists from Cabot Street showed up as well which I was very thankful for. It started slow, but ended well. There was definitely more people than I expected, which is always nice. I was even publicized in the Wicked Local: Wellesley. And Beverly Main Streets did a social media blast and my landlord posted the reception on the Cabot Street website. I put posters up around town which seemed to be the most effective. I even got interest from a Healing Center located down the street to do a partnership with my process and capturing people’s energy with it because they do Reiki. I’m pretty excited about that. I have to do some more research on that, but that won’t happen until I finish my proposal for my artist residency. I think in the end I’d definitely do it all over again, but I may focus on promotion next time. But it was difficult to work on getting the studio setup and do self promotion and starting a new job all at once. Now I just have to make a whole new body of work and have another one!

Studio Updates

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My dad and I went to go work on my studio this past Tuesday. Things are finally coming together in the main room and now we’re shifting our focus on the darkroom. It’s been put on hold because we were painting the main room. I was going to do venetian plaster on the big wall, but since I just recently accepted a contract position at Minuteman Press, its going to be hard for me to find time to work on the walls and I like how it is coming together without the plaster. I just have some more things I’d like to put there, like picture lights to put above the frames and a few decor items like curtains, tapestries and a rug to put down. Otherwise it is almost done.

California Seventeen: Spiritualism and Mysticism

As mentioned in my Numerology Introduction, I planned this trip with a spiritual vibe to it which was why I chose Santa Cruz. I planned everything within 6 months time on an intuitive basis. I used my tarot cards, the help of another psychic and my visions and just gone with the flow. As a result, I had a very spiritual, and humbling trip to California. I just let go and was present. I think what helped set the mood for the trip was that I had a very stressful ride home from Washington DC. So by the time I was home and packing for California, I was very ready to soak my bones in a hot tub at Teahouse Spa when I arrived on Saturday! During my time at Teahouse Spa, I performed a water meditation. I focused on the movement of the jets and my emotions and the pain I was still carrying around at the time. I used the motion of the jets and visualized my pain ‘jetting’ out of my soul into the water of the hot tub (which then gets recycled)… I really think it jump started the healing process for the rest of the week. 🙂

I chose Airbnb because of the more humble feel and experience than staying at a hotel. I did end up staying at a hotel the first night in San Jose, mainly to get free transportation to and from the hotel to enterprise that night and the following day, but then drove down to Santa Cruz Saturday afternoon. I met my host, Caroline which I discovered that she and I had very similar experiences and interests – little did I know! But her cottage in her garden spoke to me while searching for a place to stay – I didn’t expect her to have the same interests that I did, nor have any interest in what I do professionally. I ended up giving her a reading and then she returned the favor. She did a cool spread that included the number of letters in your name and did a life – path spread. We decided to stay in-touch and I look forward to coming back to Caroline’s cottage in the future. 🙂

I planned the spiritualism part of the trip around my beliefs of the elements – air, fire, water, earth. The previous paragraph mentioned a little bit of my water experiences and how I incorporated that element into the trip. I also included going to the beach as my water element as well. For Air, I spent the day on a mountain in Big Sur. I really didn’t get a chance to work with that element as much as its’ difficult to work with, but the Big Sur trip really spoke to the element of air (as well as earth). I saw the redwoods at Big Sur and that included the earth element, as well as my trip to the Land of Medicine Buddha. I did an earth meditation in that I visualized the energy of the redwoods surging through me and grounding me. Really took my mind off things. 🙂 For fire, it was a bit tricky to find things to do that is associated to the element of fire. I think I would include the beach as part of the fire element – sitting under the fiery sun. I also included a creative project as well for the element of fire that included the fire element! Making candles. Glow Candle Lounge, was my creative project for the trip and totally satisfied that element. While at Glow Candle Lounge, the songs that I listened to while heartbroken happened to be on, and so now I think ironically, the energy of that situation is now molded into those candles. A co-worker of mine once told me that in order to really break free from someone is to use the fire element to visualize burning that bridge. I’ve been a bit wry to burn those candles now, not only because they are pretty, but because I’m not quite ready to let go.

As a closure for my trip, I thought I would go to a public ritual. I chose the Sacred Grove Full Moon and Mabon Ritual that they do. Unfortunately it ran a bit longer and I had made one last Teahouse Spa appointment before I left, so I had to leave early – which I kind of regret doing. But they were the most friendliest witches and pagans, I had ever met! They also set me to work setting up the altar which was a cool experience. Totally felt a nice vibe with them, and it was a strange feeling being amongst a group who was so open and welcoming to what you believe in. I may be an elementalist, but I do celebrate the sabbaths and do do circles/rituals so it was all very familiar to me. If I ever happen to be back there around a sabbath, I’ll definitely join again. One of the members told me something interesting about Seabright Beach. Around the equinoxes and other holidays, all the spiritual groups come out and do their variation of their spring, autumn, winter or summer ritual and sometimes you can hear an echo. The energy of that beach must be amazing.

Sunday afternoon I went to the Rosicrucian Park to the research library and the Egyptian museum with my friend Gwen. I read an old physics book and the Secret Life of Plants book. Got some info to support some theories and hypotheses that I have. I wished I had more time there, but it wasn’t meant to be I guess.

 

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