TAROT BLOG HOP: Spring

The Empress by The HarleQuintetI can’t be more thrilled to see signs of Spring.  It’s been a difficult winter economically, literally, and spiritually.  Rather than focus on that struggle, however, I say farewell to the Hag of Winter, and look toward abundance.  I implore the Empress, dear Brighid, the Triple Goddess in all Her glory and leave an offering for Laxmi, as well.  

I offer everything that I am.  My heart, my head, my talent, my love.  I leave my writing and the novel I have finished half way.  I leave my art, and the art journal I plan to include in the next group show.  I leave my worries at Your feet, dear Brighid, and am lighter in spirit for it.

Is my struggle over?  Will the seeds of my labor bear fruit this season?

I’ve written so much about this already. It helps to keep my head from exploding.  You might read more about it at Sapphokinesis, my personal blog, if you wish.  

Like the Empress, I am pregnant with possibility, almost to bursting.  As my outside changes to be like my inside (due to weight loss surgery in July 2012), I am a poster child for transformation.  I am anxious to work with something that nurtures my spirit as well as my bank account.  I hope that it will be writing, a critical function for me, or art, a celebration of inspiration with offerings left at the tender and lovely feet of my muse.  I know, in fact, it will be something requiring creativity in one form or another.  It always is.

I want to learn, love, and celebrate this Spring.  I want my family to be happy.  I want forward motion and prosperity. I hope that I've learned what I'm supposed to learn so that I might be released from this lesson and cast forward on to another.  I hope She graces me with good fortune, and gives me the tools I need to take care of the ones I love.

As above, so below.

You, dear reader, might hop onward to Aisling the Bard or backward to Alison Cross ... but whatever you do, keep hopping!  It's loads of fun!

If you get lost, refer to our master list and be found again.

OCTOBER BLOG HOP: My Shadow Owned Me

Francine #1, #2, #3, and #4My shadow owned me.

 

The full moon shines tonight over a wild and anxious civilization, Hurricane Sandy tears a path of destruction across the eastern seaboard, the ocean reaches far beyond its shores, and I know perfectly well that once I was not the mistress of my domain.

For years, I was subject to the unconscious reactions of long since hard wired experiences.  I never responded, but frequently reacted.  I was loud and so anxious for acknowledgement it hurt.  I was selfish and blind to the needs of others, as my compassion was robbed from me by neglect.  I grew up as a prison of inadequacy was erected around me, and my fists, my self-respect, beat against the bars of fear.  

No matter where I was, no matter what side of the United States I was on, I encountered the same stressful situations pushing my buttons over and over again.  That’s what made me look at my shadow.  I grew weary of bumping into the same brick wall repeatedly.

My journey with shadow integration began in the early 90’s, and it started with journaling.  I wrote and wrote.  I declared myself a survivor and my manifesto was a promise to grow and improve.  It began very gradually.  When I gave birth to our daughter, and I saw myself reflected in her eyes and behavior, that integration grew in momentum.  There is nothing quite like a child to show us where we need to grow. 

I am almost 50 years old, and I know my shadow only too well.  She is me, there is no doubt.  And while she no longer runs rampant in my day to day existence, instead she expresses herself in my art and writing.  Her name is Francine, the Scarlet Witch, and Malificent.  She is the Wicked Witch of the West become Elphaba, and Morgan Le Fey become Morgaine.  Her essence is part of my pop-culture obsession, and she is all that is not socially acceptable.  But still she thrives, drawn and rendered in an intense desire to create.

Now, I am the Queen of Wands, she who has walked both paths of dark and light, selfishness and compassion, and lived to tell the tale.  I made a conscious choice toward personal evolution, and I no longer need to see myself reflected back in the eyes of others for personal definition. 

I know myself, and I remember the lessons of the past.

Read more about and see Francine here, here, here, and here.

Read about and see my Queen of Wands here.

  

Art Guild of Pacifica's "Dirty Pallette"

The writing I do for the Art Guild of Pacifica's Blog was featured in the September 2012 issue of the "Dirty Palette", the Guild's newsletter.  The blog is here.

Pacifica Tribune: "54th Annual Members Exhibition"

I was published with a by-line in the October 10-16, 2012 issue of the Tribune, which is part of the Bay Area News Group.  Here is my article.

 Pacifica may seem like a sleepy coastal town, but if you were to part the curtain of fog, you would find a community that boasts a treasure chest of creative arts. Art Guild of Pacifica is one of the finest jewels in that chest. 

Art Guild of Pacifica has encouraged fine art in the community for almost 55 years with a yearlong array of shows, reaching its pinnacle with the 54th Annual Members Exhibition.  The Members Exhibition opens on Friday, October 12, 2012, with a reception from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. It features live music, something to nibble, wine & beer, and notably the work of last year’s award winners Cynthia Rettig, Denny Holland, Amanda Boehm-Garcia, and Janine Roepke Stegmaier presented simultaneously in a group show. This year’s Members Exhibition will be juried by Pacifican Tim Berry, an accomplished and widely respected artist who is on the faculty of both San Francisco Art Institute and University of California Davis.  The action happens at Sanchez Art Center at 1220 Linda Mar Boulevard in Pacifica. Sanchez is a non-profit center that provides free art exhibitions, lectures, arts education, and artist studios to the community primarily through the use of dedicated volunteers. 

The four award winners from 2011 who are featured this year are accomplished artists offering something indicatively special with their work. Cynthia Rettig explores the many facets of human nature with her photography, particularly the “hierarchy of human above the natural world” (as she states).  Denny Holland encourages the art enthusiast to explore the thin line between realism and abstraction with a new series of water and wave paintings.  Most profoundly affected by her mother’s disability, Amanda Boehm-Garcia’s work strives to bridge the gap of human understanding perceiving beauty in the disabled.  With a figurative group of sculptures and paintings, Janine Roepke Stegmaier focuses on the tragedies of Haiti while celebrating the resiliency of its spirit.  These winners were selected by Shannon Trimble, Gallery Manager of the recently closed Braunstein Quay Gallery, and who is currently with Gallery Paule Anglim in San Francisco.   

The work of these recognized and talented artists along with the art guild members participating in this year’s Member’s Exhibition at the Sanchez Art Center is a joyous celebration of the artistic talent that thrives in Pacifica’s coastal community.  Visit Art Guild of Pacifica at artguildofpacifica.org and Sanchez Art Center at www.sanchezartcenter.org. 

By Donna L. Faber

The Scarlet Witch aka Wanda Maximoff

The Scarlet Witch ©  Donna L. Faber, July 21, 2012. Pen, ink & acrylic on posterboard. There was so much negative space on this one, I had to use photoshop a lot more than usual to have it translate properly on the net.

I’ve had an adult crush on The Scarlett Witch for a little over 10 years.  I wasn’t focused on her as a kid, but as I grew up, something about her looks and powers attracted me.   It might just be a fantasy about wearing the red spandex.  I’m pretty sure as comic books go, she’s one of the few if not the only mainstream or primary Marvel character that is a good witch.  So why the Scarlet Witch won't be in the new Avenger's movie rather than the Black Widow (boring) is beyond me. 

I identify with Wanda Maximoff aka The Scarlet Witch because she’s been through so many iterations during her life and career.  I went through many iterations before figuring out who I was, too.  It was like the writers and artists had a hard time settling on the details around what made Wanda special. Wanda has the ability to manipulate probability, which I think is pretty damn cool.  But they dorked around with the origin of her powers, the breadth of her powers, what kind of magic she wielded, and the level of control she exercised over them the whole time she was in print.  Nobody screwed around with Wonder Woman. She was who she was right from the start, more or less. Nobody dared screw with her mythos either (not in a way that stuck, anyhow).   

I think manipulating probability would be incredibly awesome, not just at a Black Jack table in Vegas, but also in daily life.  All chattering about destiny and synchronicity aside, a significant portion of life seems random to me (being in the right place at the right time and all that), so manipulating probability seems the perfect way to stack the deck just a wee bit more in one’s favor, right?  

Initially, Wanda’s hexes were short rage and limited to her line of sight, which is totally metaphorical.  The ability to affect change in our lives, particularly when we’re younger, might be limited to those things we think we can see clearly or understand.  It also implies a desire to control our lives, particularly when we’ve had rough beginnings and need to heal, like I did.  Wanda’s hexes were unconscious for a time, and now and again they backfired.  This is so me, as well.  As a young adult, many of my reactions were unconscious, and much of what I thought I had under control backfired.  Then I learned how to respond, rather than react all the time, which was life altering. 

The writer’s introduced Chaos Magic “a form of magic so dreaded and horrific that all of Earth’s sorcerers made a pact …” … sounds pretty gross, doesn’t it?  The entire world is made of chaos magic, folks.  It’s called CURRENT EVENTS and, man, it’s happening right now.  The Janese earthquake, Joplin tornados, the recent and on-going stock market uncertainty, the latest depression, the mortgage foreclosure crisis, unemployment, cancer, HIV, hunger.  There has got to be some nasty super villain out there fucking everything up!  We need a superhero now more than ever. We Americans don’t call upon Laxmi or Ganesh.  We call upon Superman and Batman to save the day!  Maybe that’s why the current rush of superhero movies is doing so well.  We need “The AVENGERS!”  If that isn’t chaos magic, I don’t know what is. 

In the end, the writers decided that Wanda’s powers were a combination of her mutant ability to affect probability and Chaos Magic.  Not too far after that, she became almost omniscient in the ability to utilize endless possibilities.  And so this is where I’d like to leave it … with endless possibilities.  

In this life we are walking through chaos wielding our own form of personal magic, which for me is creativity.  It doesn’t matter if it’s making art or writing.  Creativity is the weapon I have against this changing and often frightening world.  It’s how I keep from being overwhelmed.  It’s how I attempt to stack the deck in my favor. 

Ask yourself if your creations are “powerful enough to alter reality”, “rewrite the entire universe” or “cause multiverse-threatening ripples”.  

I don’t think we need the power to warp reality.   It’s warped enough already. 

We only need endless possibilities.

Such is the power of the Scarlet Witch.

This was orinally blogged here in Sapphokinesis as part of my 2011 Halloween Countdown.

Source.