Gratitude.

Although I've been drawing since I was a kid, I never considered before the possibility of following a career solely based on my skills as a fine artist. I became many things during my mercurial life: actress, designer, writer, astrologer, singer, teacher. Dealing with brushes and paints was limited to my aspirations of illustrating my books or comic novels. nothing like showing in galleries or selling, an universe that I had experienced only as a student and spectator.

Digital painting made my friend Roy, UK. 

When i moved to America, at exactly 5 years ago, I found myself extremely limited by language and communication. The very things that have forever moved my life and defined my career paths. I could speak a basic English, but that was not enough to get a teaching or writing job, acting roles (here, my strong accent posed another difficulty), or anything else related to communication. The only thing left was my drawing. And it was to my drawing that I grabbed myself in my absolute necessity of expressing my ideas and communicating.

Initially, i wanted to do illustrations for the fantasy and new age markets ("The Divine in Me" and "The Chemistry" are from this phase), but doing this kind of work soon became restrictive and limiting, both stylistically and in matters of concept. In the late 2008 I began to experiment new approaches, materials and techniques and also to put my pieces for sale and promote myself around the web. I then started this blog to record my trajectory, ideas, blocks, and the "human" side of being an artist.

I am a true believer in "life paths". You know, a particular reason or purpose of your coming to this world, a special job or "mission" that everybody has and that is part of the big web of life. Following this path, or your "hero's journey", brings great inner satisfaction and ends up opening a chain of happenings that will ultimately lead you to the accomplishment of that "mission", what happens because it is just natural.

Vali Meyers' print sent as a gift from my friend Julia Inglis, Australia. The gift was also from Vali, in whose life and work I mirror my own.

And that's how the story has been unfolding: since I decided to change my direction in art, many wonderful things have happened, things that have made me believe that yes, I found my true path, the one I've been just strongly felt in my heart since early age but that it was a little blurred or covered by a kind of fog. It's funny how we are educated to never believe in the magical, in the wonderful, in the good and beautiful. It's amazing how many attempts we do in life to obliterate our true path; in the case of artists or creative folks, always struggling with the practical things of life - i.e., paying the bills - we are always making choices that turn our path more difficult because we believe we're not going to survive doing the things we love. I know life can be tough. I myself many times had to temporarily stop doing the things I wanted to do because I had to make some money. But we should never forget that our nature is to be creative. that's how we manifest the Supreme Intelligence in us. And when you allow some room for this energy to flow, you begin to align with Nature and the natural cycles and things just happen, because they are meant to be, just like new green leaves in Spring, or the planets orbiting the Sun like clockwork... Meant to be, in a flow that's just natural because we are part of it. (To illustrate this, I recommend you watch the beautiful M. Night Shyamalan's tale "Lady in the Water"... It is everything there.)

My Gratitude to all the ones that have been made this all very clear to me, and much more than a theory... Patrons who become friends, people who come here just to say words of encouragement and love, or who leave messages on Facebook, RedBubble, Fine Art America, Deviantart, and other places where I showcase my work but i simply don't have the time to come by often and send the love back... I try to find other ways to pay it forward though, to keep feeding the big source of Love from where everything originates...

and the Great Round spins on...

There are hidden elements writhing beneath my coming together.

Transformative fires with flames of butterfly shadows dancing inside the skin of this lionhearted past.

My twins perfection splits masked by artist craving

where I paint loving invitations, inviting opportunities for you to feel the impossible (the knowing my perception) .

There is nothing like owning my own body and feeling my own movements to songs that send me off into the zone of creation.

Here all my ‘work’ becomes meaningless but remains the only way I know to get from here to there.

It is a place that swoons jazzy ideas round a lighted desert flame

A vortex appears and clothes my spirit with zennia passion and captures relentless fury allowing for spectrum color clouds

that I embrace like a lover.

I am a seer who calls the spirits to play, our language translates into pools of water, color and form. I sense my place in the world

when you too begin to sing water songs embracing what I have found. And I have found life everywhere, in my dreams, and on the days where sun is hidden from our hearts, grace opens its loving arms and asks to be revealed .

With Joy, I comply.

Inspired by the work of Patricia Ariel

The Waterman: Ignis Aeris

By Linaji 2010

on the board

Materia: Earth

Portrait of Angie

so much going on, a lot to write, not much time or energy, not now...  I have a post right from my soul that I need to put into words, but I am having a migraine today. and a bit of a broken heart.

and this is going on since yesterday, and it's being so fun, encouraging and uplifting:

big thanks to Frannie, Maxy, and all the fantastic fellow artists who's been participating on this virtual event. I am very honored and grateful.

pencil pencil pencil

i have tried different methods of starting a painting, but at the moment the one that seems to best suit my needs is doing the penciling first. i am primarily a penciller and that has always been my favorite medium, either for the texture or for the ease of control. it is time consuming, but as a technique, in my opinion there's nothing more impressive than a good pencil work. it shows all the artist's craftsmanship. I've been doing some pencil work before applying the underpainting, which have helped me to have more control over the values and the overall mood of the painting.



Materia: Earth
(yeah, I have horrible finger nails. besides being an incurable nail biter, they are usually dirty with graphite. never seen any point in nail polishing either. but i almost always had the boys i wanted. :P)


Materia: Water (detail of the mandala)


Portrait of Angie

Masquerade Show

good news and next projects

I've been in a family trip in the last few days. zero internet, what is not all bad since i don't get so distracted and can focus on reading and sketching. but it was extra good to come home and find out that Duality was accepted into the Masquerade group show, which will happen at the Gallery 101, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. that will be my first group show in an actual gallery, and I am pretty excited about it.

and after several days attempting to put ideas together, i have finally started sketching the works that will be part of the next Energy Art Movement salon, in July. it's a group of 4 paintings entitled "Materia" (Latin word for matter), each one portraying  one of the 4 elements. the works will deal with the notion of chemical structure of the human body and its relation with the circular forms of the sacred geometry (mandalas), while attempting to transmit a sense of energetic nurturing through colors and symbolic images related to each one of the elements. i will be incorporating a bit of mandala art into the paintings.

talking about mandalas, i am really itching to come back to teaching. i have already started looking for classroom space in the area i live in for some classes and workshops. also starting to have the energy back for online classes, but still not much available time to prepare written material. must think!