New World Photographs

I've been rediscovering photography, starting with my little digital camera and my trips to the DBG. Some things inspire me towards basketry; all the cactus forms, the colors, the natural fibers. Other things have inspired me to take a new look at perspective. Close-up shots and low-to-the-ground angles have become very interesting to me, creating a new way to look at a scene and changing the viewer's relationship to the scene. I call this the New World series, as to me it's presenting the world on a whole different scale. And then, some of the photos are just pretty. Some of the cactus flowers are so beautiful close up, and we don't really see them as we're passing quickly by. Like the Ocotillo, the tall green spikes shooting up to the sky, with red tails at the end of each stalk. They actually are a beautiful, delicate cluster of red and yellow flowers. I'd never seen them up close before.

Amazing textures in the garden....

 

And somehow I've developed this series of bees.....

Yoga, heirloom tomatoes, and Buckeye goats

Made it to another yoga class today - am pretty content with all the stretching I've been doing as opposed to jumping in and trying to do crazy poses. Very good way to start the day. 2 for 2 in my goal of 5 classes in one week. Gee, what a sparkling accomplishment! Hit the farmer's market just before it closed, got the last 2 heirloom tomatoes - they're expensive but they actually taste like tomatoes are supposed to taste! Actually, I think I got 2.5 tomatoes, as one has a smaller siamese twin attached. Aren't they cute? Wrigley came along, and while he was snuffling crackers off the floor of someone's booth, I discovered someone selling goat cheese made from their herd of 33 goats in Buckeye, AZ. Sweet! Although I'm working towards being vegan, I'm also interested in finding healthy animal products from animals that are treated, well, like family. Eggs from chickens in someone's back yard, cheese from goats living on a small, attentive farm... there's also a buffalo farm in Buckeye that I'm dying to check out.

Came home to find an interesting PBS show, Global Voices, on the Cuban revolution through the eyes of photographers. The universe is definitely sending me specific things right now. This morning before yoga, there was a segment on CBS Sunday Morning about a holy event at a specific part of the Ganges river, which happens only every 12 years, and that 50 million people attend over the course of three months. Intriguing and unexpected. And just a few days ago, Mom talks about how I need to go to Kauai (well, yeah) and visit the Hindu temple. There have just been a few signposts along the path reminding me of thoughts and things that are important to me, that maybe I've forgotten. I'm certainly not pursuing organized religion, but it's hard to deny the meaningful thoughts communicated through Buddhism and similar religions/spiritual paths.















Georgia O'Keefe

Hot Yoga

Had a wonderful heated yoga session this morning at Inner Vision Yoga. I think I sweated more than anyone else in the class, but I love that feeling! Like being in a steam room and knowing that everything pouring out of your pores is all positive cleansing. Did better than my first heated yoga last week; didn't have to sit down or get a second bottle of water half-way through. Have a long way to go to return to my previous yogic abilities, but for once in my life don't mind being the slowest in the class, standing next to the girl that can put her leg behind her ear. I'm currently in a two-week new student period, meaning lots of classes for one low price, so I'm going to try to go to as many as I can - 5 a week? Wouldn't it be wonderful to go to yoga every single day?

Eventually I'll be strong enough to ride my bike there and back, but today I had to hang around in the main room, shopping, until it felt safe enough to get behind the wheel of my car! Lots of tempting things: yoga clothes, wonderfully scented things (coveting the patchouli-lime hand lotion). Ended up buying a peach/mango coconut milk drink and a hand-made granola square, which were both fantastic and had me revived by the time I got home. Then a black bean and egg quesadilla - have been missing eggs and found a number of postings on craigslist.com for chicken eggs, extras from families that sound like they raise chickens for the joy of it. Got these particular eggs at the farmer's market, but I think I'll make the effort to find a home to buy from.

In Napa, potter Karen Winograde raises chickens, and I usually get treated to her eggs when I visit JP. So far, hers are the best, brightest, tastiest, orangiest yet. One batch we had all double yolks! Would love to raise chickens - buy maybe not in the city. Don't know yet. It's one thing to have someone babysit your cats and dog when you travel, but clean the chicken coop? I don't know about that one!

Tempeh Enchiladas - from The Kind Life

Just found this recipe from The Kind Life website, www.thekindlife.com, which was taken from Sammi Mclean’s blog, Vegan Pandamonium. Looks good, going to try it! I had just found a great method of making chicken enchiladas when I started going vegan.... never got to make them again! This recipe uses the same trick, the diced tomatoes with green chiles!

Tempeh Enchiladas

INGREDIENTS
1 package of tempeh

1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles, drained

1 packet taco seasoning
1/2 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can of beans of your choice (Sammi used vegetarian refried beans)
Flour tortillas

Nutritional yeast to garnish (optional)

1 jar of your favorite tomato sauce



STEPS
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large sauté pan, sauté the onion and garlic with a little olive oil until fragrant and translucent.

Add the can of tomatoes and crumble in the tempeh.

Mix in the taco seasoning and let it all incorporate for about 5-10 minutes.

In a separate sauce pan, let your beans heat up.

Once the beans are hot and the tempeh mixture is settled, start assembling your tortillas.

Spread out the beans first on the tortilla, and then add the tempeh mixture on top.

Roll it up, and place in a casserole dish.

Repeat (Sammi made 5 enchiladas in one casserole dish).
Pour the tomato sauce over the enchiladas (you don’t need the whole jar, just enough to cover them evenly)
.
Put the dish in the oven for about 15-20 minutes.



You can also try adding some vegan cheese and/or sour cream on top.



Change is Good... Right? Right.

After squeezing myself, not-too-successfully, into writing a work-focused blog (cervinihaasfineart) for a while, I have been thinking about actually creating a journal that reflects all the things I'm interested in. Instead of pretending that work is the only thing I'm interested in. So I find myself making lots of changes to my life right now, improvements, hopefully, as well as finding that changes are being made to or for me, and embracing new ideas, and under the umbrella of an art dealer there's really been no room at all for me to express the rest of myself. So now I get to write in my run-on sentences, embrace my love of commas and dislike of exclamation points, pontificate on all the things I think everyone should know about and agree with me on, and find a little balance. Maybe. Maybe not.

It's a rather obvious point in time - facing 40. Of course it's a great time to evaluate one's life as there is so much weight on this built-up, invented moment in life. So I'll try to embrace it. Maybe it's because I'm about to turn 40, but I don't think that's all of it, not by a long shot. Over the past year, I've closed my art gallery's exhibition space and started working privately. From home. I've started moving towards veganism. At home. Outside of home - still a grey area. Started 2010 with T'ai Chi classes in the Desert Botanical Garden in Tempe. Amazing. Simply the compulsion to go to the gardens once a week is worth anything - I'd probably take a chemistry class in the DBG. Not really. But the combination of t'ai chi and DBG is phenominal and calming and healing. After living in this house for 11 years, I've just started going to the Ahwatukee farmer's market a few times. Duh. A week ago I returned to yoga, after a long, long, multi-year absence, at the studio that is even closer to my house than the farmers market. I love it, I've missed it, my body missed it and remembers it better than I thought it would.

My mind is full of artwork - my own, for once. Visions of coiled baskets and sculptures, elaborate beaded imagery and loomwork. I've been rediscovering photography, which I've always enjoyed, and left behind when I lost access to darkrooms. So I'm definitely behind the times in embracing digital photography, but trying to get the hang of it.



Anyway. The other night I heard a great quote on a PBS documentary on Buddhism. A gentleman was talking about having a glass. A pretty glass that you could fill with water, drink the water, put the glass on a shelf and admire it; then one day the glass breaks, and you miss it, regret it, wish you still had it. He then said that one should look at and value that glass, for its whole existence, as if it were already broken.