Remedios Varo: Science Fictions at the Art Institute of Chicago

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I came across her work this Thursday at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was all a lovely happenstance, much like many things in my life. Since seeing the show, I’ve found myself on a small deep dive learning more about her.

She was a woman captivated by the alchemy practices of her Surrealist circle, with a fascinating life lived in Mexico. She was surrounded by mystics, scientists, musicians, and occult practitioners. She explored these occult practices, with paintings showing scenes of transmutation practices and theories around music and levitation. The show also contains excerpts from her journal, including a recipe for how to have exotic dreams.

The show is the first solo show of Varo’s work in the United States in over 20 years. It’s located on the second floor of the Modern Wing next to the cafe. And I very much recommend you view it, it’s a great show to indulge yourself with as we enter the Autumn season. Up until November 27.

Exhibition Links:
1. Exhibition Details
2. Summoning Remedios Varo

Video of Conversations:
3. Remedios Varo AIC
4. A Taxonomy of Techniques

The Birth of Venus

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In August, Venus began its shift from being an evening “star” to appearing in the morning sky. The morning sky has always been a lovely thing to witness from Chicago. Watching the colors come out over the lake until the sun decides to make it’s appearance.

Through a few happenstance occurrences, towards the end of the painting, I chose to highlight this Venus resurrection and celebrate my own birthday on September 2, which happened to be the last full day Venus was in it’s apparent retrograde motion. 

For the flower, I originally painted this Miltoniopsis Orchid. I’ve been fascinated by orchids since starting my small collection a few years ago through a gift from my friend Xerx. I was feeling drawn to the patterns the petals have on this species and painted this one into a sky scene, unsure of where the composition would lead me.

During my visit to ArtPrize in Grand Rapids this weekend I encountered a Coleus shrub that caught my attention. I had planned on painting the Coleus in a new scene of it’s own, but after pulling out my collection of started paintings. It felt fitting to incorporate it into my orchid painting, merging the two in an unlikely union that results in the vision of a spirit in flight.

Captions:
Image 1: “The Birth of Venus” painting by me :)
Image 2: Explination of Venus and star placements in the painting
Images 3-5 diagrams of Venus


Resource to accurate Sky map click the link:
https://skyandtelescope.org/interactive-sky-chart/

Gestures of Love

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A fond memory I carry with me is my mom carrying me in the shower. I remember it used to be a little treat when I would shower with her, she would pick me up, carry me to the water falling from the shower head and let the water hit my back. I remember it was so soothing to me, it felt loving and it made me happy.

When I was little I would occasionally wake up in an emotional cry during the night, the first time I recall it happening my mom was laying next to me, grabbed me in her arms and calmed me back to sleep, it was a gesture of love, and I remember feeling comforted and safe.

These are some of my early memories of love, treasures I collect in my mind and look back at fondly from time to time.

A list of artist sites I want to see in my lifetime

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Earlier this year I visited Intuit art center in Chicago, small museum of outsider art. I came to know of them a few years ago because they have a section on the artist Henry Darger, and if you haven’t looked into his story, it’s interesting, look him up.

On this visit they had an exhibition titled “At home with the Artists” by Ted Degner and is based on his 50 years of roadtripping around the U.S. visiting these off-the-map artists’ sites (show is up until Sep 4, 2023)

A few years ago I began the start of many more years ahead roadtripping through the world. Inspired by some of the homes listed in the exhibition, along with my own curiosity, I decided to compile an on-going list (with links) of some notable artist homes/ sites that I want to see in my life. Feel free to take from this list or send me recs if you think I’m missing any. Enjoy 🙂

Also to note, I visited Kohler, Wisconsin last weekend and came to realize that the Kohler Foundation has a Preservation section dedicated to preserving some of these art sites in the U.S. more on that here.

Promise to my mom

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I was talking to my mom on the phone while I was doing dishes. I like to multitask when I talk on the phone, a little habit I have. I don’t talk to my mom very regularly, we keep up from time to time, there goes months where we talk 5 times over the phone, there’s months where we don’t talk at all. No real reason other than we just talk when we find the time or when one of us picks up the phone and calls and the other answers.

My mom was telling me about a family she had assisted a few weeks back, the family gets together every remembrance day of their loved one and prays a novena, a 9-day prayer for their deceased.

I am no longer religious, but I am a partial contributor to my mom’s religious journey and her religion is very important to her. So as I stood there washing dishes and listening to her tell me about how much she cherished helping this family complete their novena, I made her a promise. That if she were to die before me I would do a novena for her on every anniversary for the rest of my life.

I may find myself regretting making this promise some day. She accepted my promise, joking that if I ever break it she will come and pull my feet in the middle of the night, and we never want to disturb those at rest. So here it is, my promise to my mom.

Ex-votos by Frida Kahlo in Frida Kahlo’s house, Blue House, in Mexico City

Kenrick Mcfarlane's Solo Show :Meta at M+B Gallery

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Full Frontal Pussy on a Saturday Morning?

I visited Kenrick’s Meta solo show in LA this weekend. I’ve mentioned Kenrick on this blog before, he is a dear friend who I consider to be very wise. His presence and his words have many times brought me peace, I think he has that gift. Kenrick and I have kept up throughout the years, from our days commuting from the burbs to the city and back, bumping into eachother on the bus and the train to spend the time talking about life. I am very proud of him and his journey.

I didn’t really know what to expect going into the gallery. Kenrick is a very good painter. Just on a technical level, I love the way he paints. The openness and freedom, done in such a way that showcases skill, understanding of the medium and confidence. When all comes together, it’s something you have to see in person to really experience.

Walking into the gallery, the first image I was presented with, a woman with her legs up in the air, a pussy and black face. My first thought was that’s WILD, my second being “who the hell is buying that painting?” I walked around the gallery surrounded by the graphic images the paintings presented. In a general sense, I have grown to feel partially desensitized from graphic images and the number of audacious things one can expect to see in a globalized modern world. But these paintings, I couldn’t help but be with them for a while, attempting to put my finger on what it was about them that felt that way.

The images in this show explore some of the shadow spaces of the mind. Darker elements, that like nightmares, have their space and deserve their presence and meditation.

I am glad Kenrick has this space to explore, that there is this freedom of expression he has cultivated in order to give us images that explore these elements of humanity. It really is a show to see in person, if you are in the LA area or just have some cash to blow on a trip out there, highly recommend. He also has a show coming up in September in Paris this year, which like all his other shows I’m sure will be one worth seeing.

Kenrick Mcfarlane “Meta”
M+B Gallery in Los Angeles
July 7 - August 12, 2023

More images including THAT one on the gallery website here:
www.mbart.com

Images of Kenrick’s show from M+B gallery website
Copyright the artist

Flowers and the Number 5

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Lately I’ve had a tiny curiosity with number significance. This started around April when I began seeing repeating numbers everywhere, a few weeks later it was palindrome numbers. I mentioned it one day in a group chat, and my friend Angel told me to keep a list of them so I’ve been doing that. I’ve forgotten to document a few but most are on there.

I’m fully aware that doing this would potentially make me more alert to finding more numbers. You find what you seek/ make yourself aware of. If you start seeking purple cars you’ll start seeing them everywhere because that’s what tends to happen. I’m very actively trying to avoid doing this. Angel also told me to keep track of what instances I find these numbers but uneventfully no patterns have been found. Sorry Angel. That’s my little update on that.

At one of the stays in Guatemala I stumbled across the book “Cheiro's Book of Numbers: The Complete Science of Numerology” in it was a detail that stuck. It claimed that all flowers with seven petals were original forms of the flower, meaning, they were not cross-pollinated with other flowers. I found this detail interesting, the number 7 seemed to carry the origin of the flower.

I looked further into the significance of flower petals numbers and found this journal, titled “Five petals: The mysterious number "5" hidden in nature” from Osaka University Economics School, the author, a professor with a background in math.

The article starts with an analysis on petal numbers. Flowers generally have between 1-6 petals (7 or more is rare), but a large majority of flower species fall in the 5-petal category. It dives into this idea that nature seeks the number 5 (Venus and Earth’s 8 year dance around the sun produces a shape of a 5-petal flower). It ends with the comparison of a human hand to a flower, and the idea that our number systems are based off of this mysterious number 5 we find in nature.

I’ve been more aware of 5-petaled flowers. For the first time in my life I have a home to garden. After last weekend’s rain, the first flowers of the season showed up in the garden, five-petaled baby’s breath. I had watercolor backgrounds I made weeks back and it felt fitting to commemorate the first flowers of the garden in a painting.

Some people have told me they see the flowers coming down from the sky others have said that they see them going up, the vote is somewhat divided.

_________________________________________
& like the good little writer I am, sources and links to the free texts bellow 😊

Cherio, “Cherio’s book of Numbers: The Complete Science of Numerology”, Fireside Books, January 1988, pg14

Yutaka Nishiyama, “Five petals: The mysterious number "5" hidden in nature”, Osaka University of Economics, January 2012

 

“Baby’s-breath in Levitation”. June 2023. Watercolor and Gouache on Cold-press Arches paper. 7”x 10”

 

Moon Faces

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The other day Miguel asked why I don’t paint people or animals. I’ve painted people before, in high school I did a full series with people as the subject. But for now I enjoy flowers, landscapes and presences, although I am not opposed to insects, and maybe someday humans will find their way back into my paintings.

I’ve been thinking about next year’s calendar and I’ve talked about my relationship with the moon in this blog so I wanted to explore faces for the purpose of including a moon-face in next year’s calendar. Miguel’s also been looking at moon-faced watches the past few weeks so I think some of that has subconsciously spilled over into my practice.

It has admittedly been a while since I’ve attempted a face so as a re-intro to faces, I sat in front of the mirror and began to make quick sketches of my face. This is an exercise many art teachers will have you do at some point and it was a nice little way to get back into drawing faces.

Sketches of moon faces, 2023

A call with my mother

After spending some time making my 8.5 x 11 charcoal pieces I decided I wanted to create a large scale piece.

I had some heavy duty drawing paper so I laid it out on the studio floor putting weights on the ends to avoid having the paper curl and began spreading loose charcoal around with my hands wearing nitrile gloves to protect myself. After I laid out a few ikebana books open to select pages and began to carve out the image using an eraser and charcoal sticks.

At some point my mom called me. We began talking on the phone. My mom likes to talk about religion and Catholic mysticism. So she began sharing the story of Sister Lúcia dos Santos , one of the three kids who witnessed the Virgen of Fatima miracle and who was given visions of the end of the world. As she described the story of Fatima, the apocalyptic visions and the “Miracle of the Sun” that took place on October 13, 1917, where where the sun appeared to change colors and rotate, I continued to draw.

My mom is very present in this final piece. As I look at it in it’s final form I’m certain remnants of our conversation seeped into this drawing. A drawing which manifested itself with no prior planning. In the making of this I also thought of her home town of Zapiguri in the mountains, I thought about my dreams, portals into other mystical spaces, stories of the supernatural I grew up hearing all resulting in this piece.

A Visionary Call from Alicia. Charcoal on drawing paper. 90 x 48 in. Chicago.

Image taken of the setup with the main studio lights on

Typical lighting situation for my charcoal drawing setups, main studio lights turned off with a few spotlights lighting the work area / piece

Some downtime in Guatemala

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In anticipation for this Guatemala trip I prepared some watercolor supplies to take with me.

I let this be a time to explore and paint whatever my little heart desired. We had many lazy days spent lounging around our rented home on Lake Atitlan, eating fruit, drinking, listening to music, painting and reading from the select books at our spot. Occasionally, a visitor would come in the form of a neighborhood cat or dog and spend a few hours lounging with us. Towards the end of the trip, I became inspired after visiting La Galleria in Panajachel and seeing Nan Cuz's work. It led me to create messier backgrounds resulting in the making of “Orchedia del Volcan”, my favorite of the bunch.

There were other fellow artists who’s works I came across on this trip, some notable ones below:

Lastly, Antigua was a great city, I recommend stopping at Cafe No Se if you get to spend a night there.

Below is a list of supplies with clickable links to help facilitate traveling with paints, highly recommend them as they take up very minimal space in luggage :

Rediscovering Tulips

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Rediscovering Tulips

Tulips had never appealed to me, they’re mostly displayed closed, have a naturally drooping stem, didn’t feel like a flower to admire. But I recently came across a video that made me think differently. By gently bending the petals outward to open and placing a copper penny from before 1982 in the water, you get an almost too perfect looking flower that stands tall.

In a way they feel unreal and otherworldly, like something that belongs in the world of the Teletubbies or some other alt. universe. (A little tip: Trader Joe’s sells a bundle of 20 for $10.99 that could easily give you a good 3-5 vases worth).

I’ve enjoyed making these arrangements, it’s a nice way to get lost in the flowers, and now that I’m growing my own cut and grow garden I’m excited to have some more herbs and flowers to experiment with this year. I envision these displayed with my sky paintings in a series I’m building.

Lessons from my lineage:Healing the body from the poison of an overwhelming emotion

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Growing up, my mom stayed at home and raised me, she passed down many stories from her mom and grandma and so on. To this day I continue to learn new stories. This one, was one that I recently came to know and I will share, with hopes that if for whatever reason you find yourself or a loved one in a similar situation, you can use this little piece of knowledge. Healing the body from the poison that can come from a strong overwhelming emotion. 

When my grandma was pregnant with my youngest uncle she witnessed a scene that caused her to have a strong emotional response. She rushed to my great-grandmother’s place and my great-grandma fed her a spoonful of the burnt ashes from the stove, potentially saving my uncle from a miscarriage. As with any advice, take it with a grain of salt, my great-grandmother was the healer of the town, it was a middle of nowhere mountain town and going to the big town doctor was expensive and timely, she made remedies and brought babies into the world and had a certain knowledge that was helpful for the people there. 

My mom recently came across a finding that helped confirm the action my great-grandma took on that day. Similar to the burnt ashes, activated charcoal can be given to help victims of poison. There is a certain type of poison that can be absorbed through the body in moments of strong immediate emotion, people can internally poison themselves with anger, shock, a scare, intense grief, you get the idea. The effects of activated charcoal can be produced by burning any consumable dry grain on hand such as bread or a tortilla to a char black state (preferably with fire) and ingesting it. The though is that the poison produced is then absorbed by the burnt char and is able to be dispelled from the body rather than being absorbed.

So if you ever find yourself in such circumstances or with the ability to help such circumstances, you have this knowledge to carry with you, from my great-grandma to my grandma to my mom to me to you.

The current state of my grandma’s kitchen in her old home in Durango, Mexico

The night I unknowingly crossed paths with Miguel

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Memory from November 18, 2021

In our early stage of dating, Miguel had picked me up, we were passing by Arbella and I mentioned I had dj’d there before. That’s when he made a realization that he had seen me there. At first I didn’t believe him, I had only dj’d at Arbella once and I had only been there a hand full of times. But he kept insisting, describing the scenery he had seen me in, where I was, what I was doing and then I became curious. I asked him if he knew what day of the week he had been there and he couldn’t recall it. I had only ever gone to Arbella on Thursdays. I refused to give him any help so he could recall the date to it’s most authentic form, so he pulled out his phone. He had gone with his barber so he looked at their text messages, November 18, 2021, the day I went to Arbella for my friend Alyssa / Jillan’s Birthday. 

The day to me, unknowing to him, had more significance than just that. During this time in my life I had been finding myself grieving a certain situation. That day, I had spoken to my mom. We had a long conversation about life and love. My mom is a very religious woman now, very different from the woman who raised me in my early years, so at times I had found it difficult to have these conversations with her without her trying to convert me as an end goal. But this time I felt really heard by her, and the conversation resonated with me, it brought me peace. After hours on the phone I told her I needed to get ready, so she left me with this request, to go to St. Peter’s Catholic Church downtown and talk to God, I decided to give her that, so I promised her I would. I did have a period of my life when I was younger that I was religious, my religious era, around the age of 15-20 I recall having many moments where I would lay in bed before going to sleep, talking outloud to God about all sorts of things. So that night before going to Arbella I made the long detour walk to St. Peter’s Cathedral. But when I got there the doors were closed and locked, interesting sense of humor the universe has sometimes. So I silently sent my words before leaving. November 18, 2021. 

I’m glad I didn’t meet Miguel there, that night, it wouldn’t have been the right time. When I decided to start dating, my friend Karen pushed me to finally join a dating app, something I had been skeptical to do, and my friend Daniel told me to try Hinge, where I met Miguel. Thank you.

St. Peter’s Cathedral door November 18, 2021 at 7:26pm

The Pink Moon: Guidance from the Moon and the Ocean

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Yesterday was the pink moon. This year, I’ve been more intentional about tracking the moon stages. That is because last year, I noticed certain patterns I was having with the moon.

This year, around the time when my curiosity of the moon was starting, a mysterious stranger came into my life coincidentally at the exact moment when I needed it. Due to a series of events I had found myself with no phone or wallet, nothing but the little white jacket I was wearing in the cold, within seconds, I saw a car pull up to drop off some people, I went up to it and explained my situation to this stranger and he told me to get in. On the car ride, he told me his name was Shawn but he went by Casper because growing up his friends gave him the alias after the friendly ghost, since he was one of the few white kids. I don’t remember how we got into this conversation, but in the short ride he shared he had had a heart transplant after working construction in Colorado. He told me he had died while on the operation table and recalled being pulled into a tunnel. Later, by some form, he came across media where he recognized the tunnel he had been pulled into, it was a tunnel in Mexico and the name referenced the moon. He dropped me off safely and refused I get some cash to pay him, he was a kind man and I left him with these parting words: “follow the moon”. I’m not exactly sure what that meant but we all have our own patterns to find, so maybe he knew what it meant.

The moon like the ocean have been guiding presence in my life. So today I will recount a memory I recalled a few weeks ago, and that marks the 2nd anniversary of this recent pink moon. I haven’t talked much about this here and I won’t do it now, but in brief, I was in a very long relationship in my life that I had started at the young age of 17. I learned many beautiful things in this relationship, and I am grateful for those experiences but it took a lot of time for me to choose to walk away from this.

I thank the ocean and the moon for guiding me, the first time that I swam in the ocean, April 18, 2021, I remember sitting on the beach with ocean water dripping out of my nose and this clarity about this situation, a certain acceptance I had never fully experienced before. I was still in a relationship at this point but I had come to terms with it internally. The first time I ever tracked feeling that level of acceptance. When I returned from my trip I could see things falling into the same patterns but my perspective had changed, it was the full moon, the night of the Super pink moon, April 26, 2021, after going to see the moon over Lake Michigan when I finally ended things. It was the guidance I needed.

Guidance from the moon and the ocean, thank you pink moon. <3

The Pink Moon on April 5, 2023 over lake Michigan at 9:10pm

Screaming in the Car

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Okay, to preface, for a very long time I’ve had this desire to go somewhere secluded and scream at the top of my lungs until all the air is out. I think I just imagined it to be a nice little euphoric release of some sort. I’ve never done it, the alternative seemed to be to scream in the privacy of my home but I’ve lived in multi-unit buildings all my life and never quite felt comfortable for fear of alarming someone. So this little desire stayed just that for a very long time until a few months ago when this idea popped into my head and I said fuck it and just screamed to the top of my lungs while driving on the highway in the privacy of my car. I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me before, I’ve used my car countless times to cry in but never thought of screaming in it. It felt really good. I won’t lie, part of me was a little hesitant, and still am sometimes to do so. The other day I did it and the car in front of me’s brake lights came on so it made me a little paranoid that I had been heard, but that was quickly calmed when I realized the reason for the sudden stop had been due to an exit closure and not my horrific scream. I still hope to some day live out my little desire to the fullest but until then I’m going to continue to do this and if you ever feel like screaming in your car, I highly recommend, feels really good, my lungs feel cleared, my head sometimes a little dizzy but we’re good and I get a little jolt of energy so 10/10 recommend. 

Monyeka's new photo studio

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KAREN/ MONYEKA GOT A PHOTO STUDIO IN CHICAGO!!!!!

This shoot was fun, because we just had fun with it, it was Karen’s first shoot in her new space and I’m so honored that she asked to shoot me. I now have photos to feel hot when I’m 100-something looking back on my youth.

Book with her here, have her shoot your project and if you get lucky she may end up inviting you to her favorite spot in Chicago, that I now dub “Karen’s spot” and I think of her every time I pass by it. <3

Thank you for having me to be your first shoot in the space. This year will be amazing for you!!!

Follow her on insta, she may be doing a giveaway very soon. 🧚‍♀️

Insta: @monyeka_
Website: www.monyeka.com
Email: monyekaphoto@gmail.com



Wendy's Annual Friends & Family Calendar

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This year’s Friends and Family Calendars are out!

Each calendar is 1/1 edition, with a personalized note. 30 Calendars, hand sewn and bound by yours truly. My little labor of love. Thank you so much to all of you for being amazing people and for your kindness. I hope you enjoy it and that it brings a little joy into your space.

If there are empty days, write something good that happened to you that day, a dream, something to remember. At the end of the year, you can keep the calendar as a small memento of 2023.

Hoping to produce a larger batch for next year’s annual calendar. Love and appreciate you all.Besos <3

Red room window performances on Michigan Avenue’s Mag Mile

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In my free time I like to indulge the assortment of ideas that pop into my head.

I have a studio unit in a very visible-high traffic street in downtown Chicago and this window is visible from the street. A bed is pressed up against the window and I don’t have blinds so I’m sure many strangers have seen many snippets of my life through this glass.

The idea was inspired by my time in Amsterdam, to dance for the people walking on Mag Mile through the comfort of my window. It came to me at a time when many things had shut down and one of the ways to connect was through means of windows. I documented this little session of me dancing to the song “Europa” by Santana and I had a few onlookers who waved at me. It was a fun production.