“Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art.”
~ Don Miguel Ruiz
The Nagual, Toltec Master of Transformation, Don Miguel Ruiz (best known for his book The Four Agreements), transmits the teachings of his ancestors that every human is an artist, and our greatest art is our individual life. Living is an art- and life itself is an empty canvas upon which we can create sublimely beautiful art through the paintbrush of our ideas, thoughts, actions, beliefs, and emotions. We are each constantly crafting our own realities: how we speak to ourselves, the beliefs we hold, how we treat and respond to others- all contribute to the masterpiece of our lives.
It is in this spirit that my latest self portrait, Sicilian Fly Girl, abides. I am looking in a compact, holding a paintbrush, actively engaged in the dream of life I wish to create. I am painting my dream. I am wearing one of my favorite dresses (both a nod to Dance- and to Picasso’s iconic striped shirt) , on a Vespa, with Noche- my beloved chi- minpin mix- at my lucky-boots-donned-feet. In it, I am becoming, and I Am, my highest best self.
The piece is a creative counter power to darkness and destruction: it is an uplifting bright buoyant ode to everything I love- an offering of gratitude that I am able to spend my days doing what I love, with those I love, in places I love. It is a love poem to Art, Travel, Drawing, Rendering, Tango Dancing, Friendships, Romances, Creativity and Movement- comprised of ephemera evocative of these very genres: there are torn posters from Buenos Aires, Sicily, and Berlin; a program from the Catania Tango Festival; Loteria venado cards transformed into Noche; a Saint Anthony incense box; sardine boxes and tango shoe boxes and a box proclaiming ‘magnetic’; sharpie marker and cover girl eyebrow pencil packaging; an old color chart; tickets from art exhibitions from Rome & Istanbul; secret references to beloveds; and, at the center of it all on my skirt: The Sweetness of Life.
