Eso Meliae

2012-01-29T23:07:00.000-08:00

Photoshoot with the lovely Carla Choy. Sneak peek of new pieces, very soon.

2012-01-27T23:09:00.000-08:00

Grand Canyon trip, through holga lens

2012-01-27T23:07:00.000-08:00

Moneyless.

Edible Schoolyard

2011-11-05T13:30:00.000-07:00

So much happening tomorrow. The Weaving and Fiber Festival, and the edible schoolyard project.

2011-10-10T22:56:00.000-07:00

2011-09-22T23:41:00.002-07:00

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage

2011-09-22T23:41:00.001-07:00

New Loom

All around and away we go!

2011-09-21T23:45:00.001-07:00

2011-09-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

Wow

2011-07-19T01:38:00.000-07:00

The Vacant Lots-Cadillac

Happy Summer Solstice

2011-06-21T21:21:00.000-07:00

2011-06-07T15:49:00.000-07:00

Via

Born into a family of Swiss weavers in 1892, visionary artist Emma Kunz created pulsing, mandala-like grids which she regularly used as instruments of healing. Abstract, lush, enigmatic and illusionistic, each diagram was reportedly drawn by Kunz in a single sitting.

“The time will come when my pictures will be understood,” said Kunz. “[They] are destined for the 21st century.”

2011-06-05T12:33:00.000-07:00

New pieces coming soon!

2011-05-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

2011-05-18T17:25:00.000-07:00

via

Las Pozas ("the Pools") is a sculpture garden built by James, more than 2,000 feet (610 m) above sea level, in a tropical rain jungle in the mountains of Mexico just outside the town of Xilitla. It includes more than 80 acres (320,000 m²) of natural waterfalls and pools interlaced with towering Surrealist sculptures in concrete.

Textile Show

2011-05-18T12:55:00.000-07:00

via

I can’t wait.

2011-05-17T16:47:00.001-07:00

2011-05-13T21:42:00.000-07:00

2011-05-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

Santeria (or La Regla Lucumi or Regla de Ocha) is an Afro-Cuban religion that combines the traditional belief systems of the Yoruba peoples of Nigeria and Benin with elements of Catholicism. It arose in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when the slave trade brought many of these people to the shores of Cuba, Brazil, Haiti, Trinidad and Puerto Rico. The slaves were expected to adopt the Catholic religion, which they did, but with a twist: they incorporated the Saints among their traditional deities or Orisha (Oricha).The illustrations below are from a set of seventeen lithographs of Orisha by Alberto del Pozo from about the 1980s, courtesy of University of Miami Digital Libraries [Oricha Collection].

2011-05-10T17:34:00.001-07:00

Healing Properties of Plants

2011-05-10T17:29:00.000-07:00

2011-05-10T00:27:00.001-07:00

2011-05-10T00:12:00.000-07:00

Via

currently reading

2011-05-09T00:36:00.000-07:00

"Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by step. There's no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That's the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.

An you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You'll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others.

And once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about."

2011-05-08T23:56:00.000-07:00

Via

The ultimate

2011-05-07T19:25:00.001-07:00

When no one is looking,
I swallow deserts and clouds
and chew on mountains
knowing they are sweet bones!
When no one is looking
and I want to kiss God,
I just lift my own hand to my mouth.

Hafiz

2011-05-07T16:51:00.000-07:00

2011-05-06T11:25:00.000-07:00

2011-05-05T23:15:00.001-07:00

I follow rivers

2011-05-05T23:07:00.000-07:00

a little late

2011-04-30T18:47:00.000-07:00

For Earth Day, but worth watching.

Earth Day Special: Vandana Shiva and Maude Barlow on the Rights of Mother Earth

another installment

2011-04-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

via

2011-04-29T17:09:00.002-07:00

LA food swap

2011-04-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

I don’t know what to bring, I am thinking something with herbs from my garden.

What is a food swap?
A food swap is part silent auction/part village marketplace/part fun-loving open house where your homemade, homegrown, and foraged creations become your own personal currency for use in swapping with other participants. Diversify your pantry while meeting your friends and neighbors!

more info here.

cracks in the street

2011-04-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

Juliana Santacruz Herrera patches up potholes in Paris with Yarn. I love this idea.

via

2011-04-24T22:21:00.001-07:00

low

2011-04-19T22:57:00.001-07:00

cloud illusions

2011-04-17T16:55:00.000-07:00

just a folky lady kind of weekend

2011-04-17T16:54:00.000-07:00

Viera Bombová (1932-2005) a Slovak book illustrator of the 60s and 70s.

via

2011-04-17T00:14:00.001-07:00

2011-04-15T19:17:00.000-07:00

2011-04-06T23:35:00.001-07:00

2011-04-05T11:52:00.000-07:00

Another photo shoot with the talented Carla. She fed me and put on some Fleetwood Mac, and I was ready to go.

2011-04-05T11:08:00.000-07:00

The new Anthropologie catalog was shot in my hometown of Cartagena, Colombia. So beautiful, kind of unbelievable the model doesn’t look sweaty in any of the pictures because of the 200% humidity..unlike my pictures.

2011-04-04T00:06:00.000-07:00

Found the entire text! Been thinking a lot about Sans Soleil lately.

song of summer

2011-04-03T23:57:00.000-07:00

Found a Halloween costume contender

2011-03-24T19:45:00.001-07:00

"L'Éloignement des pays répare en quelque sorte la trop grande proximité des temps."

2011-03-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

2011-03-15T20:32:00.000-07:00

the Mission

2011-03-08T18:08:00.000-08:00

loved it.

liquid crystals

2011-03-07T01:53:00.001-08:00

Bay area trip

2011-03-06T10:29:00.001-08:00

Tartine

Bonny Doon

Took a little breather up to the bay area, San Fransisco and Santa Cruz. The stars, trees, ocean, food, friends, chilliness, warm fires. I love the bay.

Maja school

2011-02-23T17:19:00.000-08:00

Next one is soon! ghosts, zombies, and the undead.

2011-02-22T23:23:00.000-08:00

Alpinism is the art of climbing mountains by confronting the greatest dangers with the greatest prudence. Art is used here to mean the accomplishment of knowledge in action. You cannot always stay on the summits. You have to come down again... So what’s the point? Only this: what is above knows what is below, what is below does not know what is above. While climbing, take note of all the difficulties along your path. During the descent, you will no longer see them, but you will know that they are there if you have observed carefully. There is an art to finding your way in the lower regions by the memory of what you have seen when you were higher up. When you can no longer see, you can at least still know. . .

The moon cannot be stolen

2011-02-22T23:15:00.000-08:00

Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing to steal.

Ryokan returned and caught him. "You have come a long way to visit me," he told the prowler, "and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift."

The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away.

Ryoken sat naked, watching the moon. "Poor fellow," he mused, "I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon.”

koan’s

Jodo

2011-02-22T23:06:00.000-08:00

This video is really sweet, seriously considering moving to Paris and becoming Jodorowsky’s apprentice.

2011-02-22T16:45:00.000-08:00

xochiquetzal

2011-02-21T16:45:00.000-08:00

need more of this vibe

2011-02-20T23:54:00.000-08:00

A few of my favorite things I picked up on my travels

Llama hair pin/lethal weapon

Mola mary janes

I’m in love with this hat, hand beaded/woven replica of a ceremonial hat

I feel like a ceremonial alpaca when I wear it

Hand woven, vegetable dyed bag from Ollantaytambo....kind of made my entire suitcase smell like an alpaca

poncho from Medellin

leg warmers small for my feet

Pre-Columbian replica earrings

Botero magnet

corn husk doll from Cusco

2011-02-19T18:31:00.000-08:00

‎"Distractions? Interruptions? Welcome them. They give you the chance to know whether you're disciplined." - John Cage

side note, I really wish I could zen out on traffic like that

2011-02-19T16:54:00.001-08:00

Follow my blog with bloglovin

Dream bedrooms, another installment

2011-02-19T16:35:00.000-08:00

via

Wild canopy reserve, India

I love how the color changes

via

Get me some Mandrake, stat!

2011-02-18T15:54:00.000-08:00

The Distaff Gospels (Les Evangiles des Quenouilles), a fascinating fifteenth-century collection of more than 250 popular beliefs, constitutes a kind of encyclopedia of late medieval women’s wisdom. The women's beliefs and experiences are recounted within the narrative frame of traditional gatherings where women meet with their spindles and distaffs to spin. They share advice on such important matters as how to control errant husbands, how to predict the gender of future offspring, how to cure common diseases, and ways to deal with evil spirits, providing a rare look into the intimate lives of medieval peasant women.

What! How do I not own this book?

Via

An excerpt:

Second night.
90. The second chapter.

I tell you that if someone could find a mandrake, put it between white sheets and give it something to eat and drink twice a day, even if it does not eat or drink, this person would become rich in short time without knowing how.

I missed you...

2011-02-12T14:09:00.000-08:00

...Casbah. A new book, some coffee, it doesn’t take much to make me happy.

Je suis Ra

2011-02-10T13:30:00.000-08:00

I haven’t updated my etsy site and my jewelry website in a while, but I have come back from South America more inspired with more ideas for jewelry, and some amazing handmade ceramic beads from Cusco. Je suis Ra.

dream bedrooms, another installment

2011-02-10T13:27:00.000-08:00

Fingers crossed I’ll be moving soon, dream places

Epic food post: Colombia

2011-02-08T22:39:00.000-08:00

Some of my favorite images of food in Colombia, I’m getting hungry just posting this.

My cousins adorable son eating cotton candy at Monserrate, Bogota

I don’t know how I lived before Coconut lemonade, going away party in Cartagena

Making the lemonade

Dessert at Mila in Cartagena. They even let me bring in soy milk and made me a latte.

Mila

Patacon con todo...I couldn’t finish it was huge! Normal portions for there, and yes I am on a detox now that I’m back. (Chips and salsa counts as detox, right?) This was the Oriental chicken by the way.

Portal de dulces, Cartagena

Mini empanadas at my cousins house

Lunch on the farm, Pereira

Giving Loreto some apple guava

Not food, but couldn’t help myself

Arepas with cheese, at a small roadside restaurant on the way to Medellin. Inland Colombia you can’t escape the Arepa.

Breakfast

Lunch on the farm, Sancocho

Home made bunuelos, fried bread..yumm

Guava apple, with some lime and salt is the best

Lunch on the farm...I dream of this meal

Lunch on the island, Cocoliso...coconut rice, my favorite.

Making cheese with my great-aunts

Making patacones but with green bananas instead of plantains

Obleas!!

Epic food post: Peru

2011-02-08T21:13:00.000-08:00

I decided to put my favorite pictures of food I took while traveling, so many of my favorite images. These are from Peru.

Best breakfast at Cicciolina’s in Cusco

Cicciolina

Christmas dinner at Los Perros, Cusco

Christmas Eve dinner with the Aldea Yanapay volunteers, so amazing.

Naturally we had high tea in Cusco

Amazing 3 course veggie meals for 5 soles. So about $1.75

Okay, so not food, but baby Washington was cute enough to eat had to post a picture.

San Pedro market

Downstairs bakery at Cicciolina

Their bread basket

Forget the name of this cafe, overlooking the plaza de Armas. Peruvian apple pie

Chocolate cake in Arequipe

Garlic bread, soup in Arequipe

Espresso in the cafe overlooking the plaza. There are plenty of expensive ones but you have to find the one with the wooden door that has an internet sign over it, very inexpensive and what a view!

My birthday Panetone at the hostel

Bbq at the hostel

Breakfast at Jacks

Ceviche in Lima, I think the name is MarySol...delicious. Spring for a restaurant, whatever you do don’t go for the 6 soles ceviche sold on the street.

Dessert at Cicciolina

2 am street food, I was being so cautious with my food, but at 2am that all goes out the window

Amazing breakfast at Cicciolina, my last day in Cusco. I got up early before my flight back to Lima to eat breakfast there.

home

2011-02-08T17:55:00.000-08:00

Had a little bit of a panicky “can’t believe I’m back moment” but this always seems to cheer me up and makes me appreciate being back in California, that, and chips and salsa along with my delicious vegan lunch.

Bogota

2011-02-07T12:33:00.000-08:00

Some more of my pictures from Bogota

Grasping animal affection

2011-02-06T19:34:00.000-08:00

To paint in earth's dull colours the forms clothed in the living light of other worlds is a hard and thankless task; so much the more gratitude is due to those who have attempted it. They needed coloured fire, and had only ground earths. We have also to thank Mr F. Bligh Bond for allowing us to use his essay on Vibration Figures, and some of his exquisite drawings. Another friend, who sent us some notes and a few drawings, insists on remaining anonymous, so we can only send our thanks to him with similar anonymity.

Back home

2011-02-05T21:04:00.000-08:00

Rio

Buenos Aires

Uruguay

Grand Canyon

Back in sunny California, enjoying the unusually warm weather for this time of year. Its only been a little bit of an adjustment, being gone for 2 months I had a lot of things to readjust when i came back. Dealing with cell phones, cars, jobs, moving to San Francisco , etc etc, it can be difficult, but there are things I am thankful for being back home. The fact that the other day I went to a Japanese market, bought snacks, then for dinner went to a Persian market and yesterday ate Thai food, is something you can take for granted, but I missed the influence of so many different cultures and immigrants here...especially the food! Giving my body a break from all the fried food, sun, and travels but I am still planning out my next adventures. Next trip to South America I want to do Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil (and everywhere else) I do want to be more of a tourist in my own country this year, go places I have never been like the Grand Canyon! Road trip anyone?

Islas de Rosario

2011-02-04T21:45:00.000-08:00

I feel very deeply that the swimming in the Caribbean has certain healing properties. Some cousins and I ended up going to Cocoliso island, very easy to get to any of them, just catch a boat near the old town it takes around 2 hours. They leave every morning and the trip includes a delicious lunch. I am going to miss swimming in crystal clear warm water.

Parque Tayrona

2011-02-04T21:33:00.000-08:00

One of the most incredible places I have been too. Click aqui for more info.

Campground at Arrecifes beach, I slept in a hammock that night, under the full moon.

Taganga

Santa Marta

Cartagena..

2011-02-04T21:24:00.000-08:00

On top of Castillo San Felipe
One of the most interesting, beautiful, and hot cities I have ever been to, and I’m not just saying that because I was born there.

Plaza San Diego

Church I was baptized in

View from La Popa

On the farm

2011-01-10T18:31:00.000-08:00

Medellin

2011-01-08T18:55:00.000-08:00

Me, over looking Medellin

Botero statues

Medellin was great, sunny, warm, then torrential rain and lightning..comes with the territory of being near the equator. Spending lots of time with family, tomorrow we are having a big lunch on my cousins farm which is what I love most about Pereira. The 13th I leave for my birth place, Cartagena. There is a huge music festival going on now which I am excited about. Came home to my aunts apartment, drank some wine and turned on the television and what do I see, a show about Echo Park! Oh made me miss home a lil bit. There is so much amazing art, music, craftsmanship,and jewelry here. I bought some supplies in Cusco, have been very inspired and am going to work work work when I get back home. Wherever that may be...

Colombia

2011-01-04T20:25:00.000-08:00

My favorite spot on the farm

Salt Cathedral, Bogota

Pereira, on my families farm

In Colombia now, visiting and staying with family. Its been amazing, I will post more pictures as I travel. Heading to Medellin tomorrow.

Peru

2011-01-04T20:17:00.000-08:00

Plaza de Armas, Cusco

Machu Picchu

Hiking up Waynapicchu

View from my room in Aguas Calientes

Machu Picchu, alpacas

Center for Textiles, Cusco

My looming class

Parque del Amor, Lima

Arequipa

Lima

I wish I could fully describe into words what my month in Peru was like, it was incredible, volunteering at a school and travelling throughout the country and meeting some incredible people.

2010-11-23T16:53:00.000-08:00

2010-11-21T12:35:00.000-08:00

In about one week and counting! ...

Eros and Magic

2010-11-10T11:37:00.000-08:00

This weekend is another night of Maja’s Magic school, the topic: Eros & Magic, Sway and the Beloved. I really enjoyed her last lecture, the Annie Besant lodge is this hidden little space that looks like an old church tucked up in Beachwood Canyon.

tarot

2010-11-10T01:05:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow the House of Intuition in Silverlake is hosting some Tarot classes, I could use some brushing up on my Major Arcana.

2010-11-10T00:54:00.000-08:00

Some new pieces for winter I’m working on. Sunny photos for winter... in my defense its been in the 80s and 70s recently…but it don’t snow here, stays pretty green.

2010-11-05T14:16:00.000-07:00

Hunters Moon

2010-10-23T20:26:00.000-07:00

The nights are colder, rainier, chillier, and the moon is bright and beautiful.

Day of the Dead

2010-10-20T18:25:00.000-07:00

so excited I found a lot of great tutorials for Dia De Los Muertos face makeup, woohoo!

Tejar

2010-10-06T12:13:00.000-07:00

Took me almost 2 months to finish my first looming project, it's so satisfying to finish. I plan on going to Peru/Colombia soon to study textiles and visit family so I won't be able to loom at Barnsdall anymore but their registration is this saturday for Fall semester for all you future luddites out there.

Magic of the Animal

2010-10-04T22:58:00.000-07:00

Maja D'Aoust, the White Witch of Los Angeles, hosts a new metaphysical lecture series held on the second Sunday of each month in the historic Annie Besant Lodge in Beachwood Canyon. Maja is the librarian at Manly P. Hall's Philosophical Research Society, where she lectured for four years, the co-author of "The Secret Source: The Law of Attraction is One Of Seven Hermetic Laws, Here are the Other Six" and hostess of the Maja's Mysteries series of Esotouric bus adventures. The theme of tonight's lecture is: The Familiar & the Magic of the Animal.

Location

Annie Besant Lodge

2560 N. Beachwood Drive

Los Angeles, CA, 90068

United States

Sun, 10/10/2010 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

I have already rsvp'd for The Familiar & Magic of the Animal. Some more info

here and Maja's website here.

yikes

2010-10-04T18:33:00.000-07:00

Now that I've seen this I'm frustrated at most movies I have seen.

New York

2010-09-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

Back from New York, had the most amazing time, ate good food with good people, walked more than I have in a long time. Can't wait to go back.

I've been blogged!

2010-08-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Aimee for the mention :)

Read her interview and write up about Space 1520 ici.

L'été

2010-08-25T23:07:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from the Free For All Fest, it was wonderful and had fun with my booth..I added some more of Carla's great photos. Last week of August and I feel summer is finally here.

Come!

2010-08-11T01:20:00.000-07:00

Stop by I'll be having a few things for sale at a booth

Here for more details

Divino, Maravilhoso

2010-08-11T01:19:00.001-07:00

Crystal World

2010-07-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

By day fantastic birds flew through the petrified forest, and jewelled crocodiles glittered like heraldic salamanders on the banks of the crystalline river.

By night the illuminated man raced among the trees, his arms like golden cartwheels, his head like a spectral crown...

:)

heaven and earth

2010-07-10T01:59:00.001-07:00

Konono#1

2010-07-08T14:40:00.000-07:00

Konono#1 is playing a free show tonight on the Santa Monica pier at 7:30...so excited.

Oh, Forugh Farrokhzad!

2010-06-30T00:40:00.000-07:00

Another Birth

My whole being is a dark chant
which will carry you
perpetuating you
to the dawn of eternal growths and blossoming
in this chant I sighed you sighed
in this chant
I grafted you to the tree to the water to the fire.

Life is perhaps
a long street through which a woman holding
a basket passes every day

Life is perhaps
a rope with which a man hangs himself from a branch
life is perhaps a child returning home from school.

Life is perhaps lighting up a cigarette
in the narcotic repose between two love-makings
or the absent gaze of a passerby
who takes off his hat to another passerby
with a meaningless smile and a good morning .

Life is perhaps that enclosed moment
when my gaze destroys itself in the pupil of your eyes
and it is in the feeling
which I will put into the Moon's impression
and the Night's perception.

In a room as big as loneliness
my heart
which is as big as love
looks at the simple pretexts of its happiness
at the beautiful decay of flowers in the vase
at the sapling you planted in our garden
and the song of canaries
which sing to the size of a window.

Ah
this is my lot
this is my lot
my lot is
a sky which is taken away at the drop of a curtain
my lot is going down a flight of disused stairs
a regain something amid putrefaction and nostalgia
my lot is a sad promenade in the garden of memories
and dying in the grief of a voice which tells me
I love
your hands.

I will plant my hands in the garden
I will grow I know I know I know
and swallows will lay eggs
in the hollow of my ink-stained hands.

I shall wear
a pair of twin cherries as ear-rings
and I shall put dahlia petals on my finger-nails
there is an alley
where the boys who were in love with me
still loiter with the same unkempt hair
thin necks and bony legs
and think of the innocent smiles of a little girl
who was blown away by the wind one night.

There is an alley
which my heart has stolen
from the streets of my childhood.

The journey of a form along the line of time
inseminating the line of time with the form
a form conscious of an image
coming back from a feast in a mirror

And it is in this way
that someone dies
and someone lives on.

No fisherman shall ever find a pearl in a small brook
which empties into a pool.

I know a sad little fairy
who lives in an ocean
and ever so softly
plays her heart into a magic flute
a sad little fairy
who dies with one kiss each night
and is reborn with one kiss each dawn.

*Sigh*

Finalmente!

2010-06-27T00:50:00.000-07:00

www.EsoMeliae.com

The website is up and running (still under construction)