Virgin a Day: 10

Hello Violets! Today's virgin is a mixed media painting I made a few years ago: spatters of ink and candy wrapper bits. From the very beginning I have always loved her image--especially the fleshy fragrant roses that rested upon her head or near her heart...

"Oh Immaculate heart of Mary,
full of Goodness--
show your Love towards us.
Let the flame of you Heart,
Oh Mary, Descend on all people."

Join the pilgrimage here. <3

Virgin a Day: Lady Light: HerSpeak Guided Meditation

Hello My Pretty Ponies! Today's post is a combo--a potpourri if you will-- of projects I find inspiring. This is my first attempt at recording an original guided meditation. I hope you enjoy it. :)

Virgin a Day: 5

"Love is on The Way"

Good morning, muffins. Today's virgin is a shrine crafted from a mini Altoid tin. You can see more of my tin shrines here. Feeling inspired? Join the party here. Wishing you all radiant love today! <3

Virgin a Day: 4

Today's Virgin is a photo I took a few years back. My mother and grandmother are tucked into this photograph as well. :) Join the party here! Wishing you all much Light. <3

Virgin a Day: 3

This morning's Mary is a collage from my art journal. Join the party here. :)
Wishing you much Joy!

Studio Cam: New Tinkerings

Hello Sweetie Pies! The HerSpeak studio has been hoppin': scattered with gold leaf, felt scraps and paint squishing about! Here's a peep at what's been shakin' this week:





New mini shrine: 3" wide. Gold leaf, sequins, found images, nails, candles, glitter, plastic beads, wood pieces and silk flowers. The best part about these projects is I buy nothing: every shrine is recycled or found materials. Fiddling around and figuring out the best way to pair objects together is half the fun of making!


A Dia de Los Muertos fabric vignette underway--still have to stich on the mustache! He should be a sharp looking skelly when he's all sewed up. The frame is, if possible, more ridiculous than the skeleton. Can't wait to show you the finished piece!


And finally, the beginnings of a new painting! This is the second in my new latest series. I need to finish two more and they'll have homes in a Salon here in Milwaukee. More inprogress peeks to come! (30"x40", acrylic, watercolor and sequins on canvas.)

What is the state of your studios these days, darlings?

Blog Party: HerSpeak Equinox Shindig!

Hello Chickadees! Welcome to the HerSpeak Equinox Shindig! The shift of seasons is so invigorating--new smells, little discoveries, unusual and exciting energy. There is comfort in honoring the rhythm. Fall happens to be my favorite: bright days, long nights, the scent of leaves smoldering and new saturated colors always strike me: stunning...and spooky. Let's get to the party!

First up, a video vignette altar to welcome autumn!


Next, these adorable and delectable mini pumpkin pies! Fall food is my favorite: roasted, slow cooked, baked and broiled. So much love from the oven! I'll be making mine this evening. :)

Part of the fun of fall is sinking into a new pattern and enjoying the natural changes. This soothing Nature Attunement Meditation from Meditation Oasis lets you get down into the dirt and enjoy the qualities of nature when woods and shores are unavailable. It's one of my personal favorites. Listen, you'll like it. :)

Feast your eyes on a breathtaking collection of curious fall inspired photographs via That Unreliable Girl! The whole collection is haunting and beautiful-- The didgeridoo is my favorite!


How are you celebrating the shift, my pretties?

In The Studio: Shrine Series

Hello Sweetpeas! It was a whiplash weekend full of errands, work, baby showers, rehearsals AND a few snippets of sweet sweet studio time. Here are a few of the latest pieces for my craft fair shrine series:



A jewelrybox or cigarette case shrine. Materials include acrylic paint, nail polish, wood, plastic gems, sequins, silver glitter, pink felt, found images and charms.


Next, we have another tiny shrine. This version was much easier to make than the prototype. It may be my new favorite. Materials include acrylic paint, bottle caps, quartz crystal, nail polish, wood, masking tape, candle wax, felt, found images and charms and GLITTER.


And finally, the smallest shrine I've ever made! It's only slightly larger than a postage stamp. :)

What were you up to this weekend, craft warriors?

Happy Yule: Joy to You!

Warm Yule Wishes of Comfort
and Joy to You and Yours.~*

Super Shrines: Painting Diaries

Hello Dumplings!*

Now that I've overcome my turkey coma, the name of the game is Progress! Here's a quick peek at the balls-to-the-wall-exam-time-brouhaha that's brewing in Apartment #5:Bedazzling the crap out of my Aphrodite shrine. Making progress one sequin at a time...


My cat Miss Marney Pants providing moral support while I wail on watercolor assignments...


I decided to keep a "Painting Diary" to record the progress of my Bast (The Egyptian cat goddess of perfume, protection and pleasure) shrine. This is the first initial wash over the collaged ground and line drawing.
The initial straight-tube compliment underpainting and a second slightly metallic ground coat...


The initial first coats of oil. Tomorrow I'll be able to finish off her arms, work in with glazes and start her Cleopatra style collar piece...
I'm hoping to squeak in some time to make a December Dream Board this week in the midst of the mayhem! Now my pretties, what sort of magic and creative mischief have you been making?

Until next time,
Much Joy and Merry BeDaZzLiNg!***

Feel Like A Rabbit + Work In Progress

Hello Dumplings!*
I have rabbit energy these days--you know, feeling skittish, scamppery and on the anxious side. Feeling the overwhelming shaky sense of "OH-MY-GOSH-DON'T-EAT-ME!", as if something big will swoop down and gobble me up for lunch at any moment. "Gah! What was that?!" I'm unsure of where the rabbitiness is stemming from. Possibly my giant and growing list of "To Do's" before the end of semester, new moon configuration, maybe contamination from 10,000 other tense over-caffeinated kids on campus feeling the same sort of panic I am, or is something in retrograde? The news? Seasonal shift? City water perhaps? Whatever it is, I'm doing my damnedest to funnel these weird jitters into making work. Here's what the paws have been up to:

Reference photo for a self portrait I'm working on

"Shrine for Isis" based on a portrait of my Mum.

This "Aphrodite" shrine is still in progress. I plan to pimp out the frame using deconstructed costume jewelry and other sparkly bits in true balls-to-the-wall Liberace fashion. She'll also be illuminated from the inside with pink rope light. I also plan to work into the background to really build up the surface to a more textural peachy surface as opposed to the Mary Kay pink she is now. She'll get there, slowly but surely...

A quick experimental immersed drawing of Venus based on her birth myth "Born of The Sea". Right now I'm enjoying her rather voluptuous bedonkadonk. Unsure how I feel about this as a whole, but it's just an experiment--and you don't have to like experiements. We'll see if she develops into anything further...

A portrait of the queen based on Lucian Freud's masterwork. I love that he gives each of his sitters an undeniable five o'clock shadow...

A self portrait for Figure Painting influenced by Caravaggio if only in wardrobe and cheeky pose choices...

I call this portrait piece, " Hipster Douchebag Profile Pic"...


A moody portrait of my sister Anna wailing on her bass...

"Two Marys" a quick in class figure study.

More paintings and Mayhem to come! In the mean time I plan to slay To Do lists and attempt to rid myself of the rodent vibes. Now my dears, What have you been doing with your creative energies?

Until Next Time--
Much Joy and Merry Making!

Altar Building + Isis Bookwork

Hello Dearies!
School is officially over and the day is my oyster! While I sip my spicy tea and wait for this thunderstorm to start, I'll give you the scoop on what's been stewing in the HerSpeak studio since I've been away...

***A few days ago I felt the itch. You know--the itch to shuffle all your belongings, to make piles and generally mouse about. What ended up happening was this impromptu altar! I had started with a black candle that burns in my studio, which then led to a few stones settling near it...and a photograph...and then knots of string...and then another candle...and a magazine clipping...my tarot cards...and a doOdle and before I knew it, this was the end result:

It's my new favorite place in the apartment.

Aside from improvisational installation pieces, I finished my artist book, "Prayers for Isis". This petite accordian fold book was a project for my Print and Narrative Forms course, which is roughly based on a pocket prayer book or a Book of Hours. The pages consist of intaglio etchings watercolored illustrations and gold leaf on domestic etch paper. The text came from a stream of consciousness ramble I did about a year ago.

The pages read: "When they are with HER, they are queens of ostrich plumes & strings of crocodiles teeth--She Hounds wired and aware. When they are with HER, their skins are diamonds, rosy candied fly wings..."

"When I am with HER, I am stitched up swan parts--sure footed and insane. I speak in tongues of leaves, the recently deceased and lavish faun dreams--of dripping water, willow trees and the thousands of ticklish thistles."

"When I am with HER, me is I, this is WE and She is US--due cause for upper case. WE is grounds for celebration, strange festivities and acclimations in memory of dreams we never had, fires we never sparked and books whose spines we have long forgotten."

Each ovalette of text has a corresponding illustration of a maiden, mother and crone version of the same Virgin Mary/Isis/Tonantzin/Lady of Guadalupe icon.


It was interesting watching my peers handle the book during critique: very delicately, carefully turning pages, gingerly touching the gold leaf and absent mindedly rubbing the soft velvet casing ribbon as they read. Most smiled widely when they found the illustrations and recognized the woman as someone they know from paintings, church windows, or their own mothers. Whether they found Goddess in it or not was not important to me, they found Comfort. And really--aren't they the same? :)

And for tomorrow--more projects to document and post! Oooh it feels good to be back in the blogosphere! I'm going to brew a second cup and flit about to all of your blog homes to see what sort of mischeif you've been making! What have you been up to, my pretties? What sort of tinkering have you been doing in your studios, kitchens, classrooms and journals?

Until next time,

Much Joy and Merry Making, Friends!

An Altar for Us: Art for My Muffin

After a quiet moment in the closet staring at the blank space, I set to work our "US" altar. I shuffled through the candy tin that serves as my photo album and found a blurry snapshot of the two of us from high school--both of our eyes are closed. Then I found the "CONEY ISLAND IS FOR LOVERS" postcard from our trip to New York this past summer and a wrinkly ticket stub from "Edward Scissor Hands: The Ballet" which we attended in St. Paul two springs ago. While I looked at the glossy ticket I smiled as I recalled crying when the music swelled and snow suddenly started falling slowly from the auditorium ceiling. I realize it was only lights and costumes, but I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the moment. I placed a few glistening snail shells on the shelf--shells we found while shifting through wet sand at the cottage. As I arranged the scraps of paper, trinkets, string and travel artifacts I thought about how much we've evolved since we were scared seventeen-year-old kids, how many strange cities had seen us stumbling around in the wee hours of the morning, and fancied where we might be headed. I lit the candles and stepped back to view the work, savoring a small, silent celebration for us.