The Raven's Eye

Flagstaff Open Studios This weekend, Aug.27-28!

2011-08-24T11:03:00.000-07:00

2011-08-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

This is an older commission I did for a friend last year. I really had fun translating the image of the sun breaking through the clouds with glass.

10 More Arrested for Blocking Pipeline Construction on Peaks

2011-08-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

10 More Arrested for Blocking Pipeline Construction on Peaks

2011-07-11T22:18:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest commission, created for Burnell Yow! of Raven's Wing Studio. Burnell's studio is located in Philadelphia and he is a master of creating amazing things from discarded items. Dolls of the Apocalypse are some of my favorites of his creations!

Having traveled to Sedona, he and wife Betsy, who is an accomplished musician, fell in love with the landscape. So we created this design to show his raven soaring over Bell rock with the full moon. As an added element I used a flashed cobalt blue glass and sandblasted stars into the night sky. Over in the right side of the night sky you can find a cluster of stars known as "Corvus". In our sky it can be seen soon after dark in the south, southwestern sky just above the horizon.

Love and Light
Christina

Heart of the Lotus Comes Home!

2011-01-01T12:06:00.000-08:00

So this is the final piece as it looks sitting in my window of my studio. Just this week, Gail called to tell me it has been installed in the door and it has made it to her final resting place in her home in Oak Creek. I can hardly wait to see it! This has been a wondrous journey, from the first phone call to a new and loving friendship. I believe one of the most exciting aspects of my creativity is working with people to help them bring to life the ideas they have in their hearts and minds. It's a beautiful collaboration! What can I create for you?
Happy New Year!
1/1/11

New Name: Raven's Eye CreativeWerks

2010-11-19T08:48:00.000-08:00

Raven's Eye Glassworks has now grown to Raven's Eye CreativeWerks . Here is a small preview of my jewelry that will be featured at Zani's Cards & Gifts located at 107 W. Phoenix av, Flagstaff, AZ. Come Join us for December's First Friday Artwalk.

Top image: "Whimsical Goddess", cut glass seed beads, brass, cloisonne beads, raku.

Below: "Tribal Goddess", Batik yak bones capped in sterling silver, graced with pearls, sterling silver heishi, and glass beads.

New Moon in Virgo: Deb O'Connor's wise words

2010-09-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

Please share these notes with your friends.

New Moon in Virgo

3:30 AM PDT

Wednesday

September 8, 2010

"To meet everything and everyone through stillness, instead of mental noise, is the greatest gift you can offer to the universe.” Eckhart Tolle

Take a deep breath. Please. And another.

In the spirit of these last days of retrograde Mercury in Virgo . . . and of the moon renewing itself in Virgo early this morning, I'm going to keep this note simple.

Every new moon is born out of the dark. And this empty dark is fertile ground for the nourishing seed of your desire to notice the difference between the voice within you which is clear and present, and that other voice . . . the one which isn't yours anyway.

Please be aware of any thoughts or words rising within you which are blaming you for being inadequate. They are ghosts of other times and other people. They do not belong to you. Simply say STOP. Do not let these confidence-bashing words into your head any more. And if you feel yourself picking away critically at someone else, please just stop. When you try to analyze what's happening, you will only find yourself standing in a deeper hole.

We are being tutored in the fine art of humility. This is a different concept than shame. Please be sure you notice the difference.

What if a humble approach to our lives means that we focus our attention on the nobility of a simple squash lying in the garden rather than on the blathering voice coming out of our television or radio or from inside our head?

What if humility means quieting our minds so that we can remember to lift our eyes to the dark, luminous night sky where hundreds of thousands of birds are migrating at night, guided by the stars?

Today is the perfect time to notice the perfection in all things, and to let that awareness be enough.

Many rich blessings upon you.

Deborah O'Connor

deb@lovedogdesign.com

406.531.5129

New work: Heart of the Lotus

2010-09-05T08:27:00.000-07:00

Now that the Butterfly is done, "Costa Rica: Metamorphosis Part 3" I am focusing on my next commission, "Heart of the Lotus"

Here is the art work above and the piece in progress as it looks on my work bench. This will go in an entry way door. The size is 25"x 36".

When I first talked to Gail, I was boarding a plane to Chicago to relocate my Mom and Dad down to Little Rock, AR. My art was on hold and I had no idea when I would be able to resume my passion. But in those few minutes on the phone, I knew I really wanted to work with her! I was so happy when she called me back months later to start what has become a wonderful friendship!

Thank you Gail for having faith in me and understanding the chore I had to do and believing that I was the right artist to create this piece!

The elements for the "Lotus", including the tree, the red rocks, the sun and moon were inspired from Gail's home in Oak Creek Canyon.

I think what I love the most about creating glass for people is learning who they are and helping them bring to reality, a vision that they have.

This piece has a new challenge: the center of the lotus blossom will have a large crystal in the center, so it will be thicker then the glass and will have special consideration when soldering it together. I'll keep you posted on what I come up with and the final out come.

Peace,
Christina

Coming soon... Raven's Eye Glassworks expands into the world of jewelry. I have returned to my love of beads. Working with primarily Tibetan beads, semi-precious gems and minerals, seed beads and sterling findings. I am creating a line of necklaces that are substantial and earthy. Posting images soon!

Costa Rica:The Blue Morpho Stained Glass Piece

2010-08-26T20:39:00.000-07:00

This is the final piece. It measures 20"x30". This piece is available for sale, please contact me for more information about this and other pieces I have. It took awhile, but it was worth the time and detail. Inside the moon I sandblasted a poem.

Defeated by Love by Rumi,

"The sky was lit by the splendor of the moon
So powerful I fell to the ground
Your love has made me sure I am ready to
forsake this worldly life and surrender
to the magnificence of your Being"

This is the artwork
The poem is perfect. One night about a week into the trip I couldn't sleep and I walked out to the beach and lay in a hammock just yards from the ocean. Looking up, there was the full moon in all of her glory shining through the fronds of a coconut palm. Too good to be true, but it was true. I was moon struck.

Flagstaff Open Studios Tour: Ladies of the Canyon 2010

2010-08-25T11:28:00.000-07:00

It's here again, but this year it is a month earlier! August 28-29, 10am-5pm each day.

Please come out and celebrate a weekend of creativity with us; Joni Pevarnik, pottery; Ryanne Sebern, uniquely original jewelry; Christina Norlin etched and stained glass.

Raven’s Eye Studio Location #25 in the catalog:
1255 Cox Ave. (Mountain Dell)
From the Visitors Center at Rt 66 & Beaver str. West on Route 66,
follow road to left under RR overpass (turns into Milton Rd).
At sixth traffic light turn right onto Forest Meadows. At first traffic light
turn left onto Beulah, continue through third traffic light. Go half a mile
on 89A and bear right at fork onto Mountain Dell Rd. Turn right onto
Sinclair to the 4th street, Cox, turn right, studio is just past the
stone house on the right corner.

Directions from Phx. on I-17: Exit # 337 Pulliam Airport, left on to
John Westley Powell Blvd, then right (north) onto 89A, 2 miles to
hard left to Mountain Dell Rd. Turn right onto Sinclair, Then to the 4th
street, Cox, turn right, studio is just past the stone house on the right
928-699-6824

Quaff & Nosh will be provided by:
Simply Delicious
928-774-2855

We will be doing demonstrations, so bring the kids!!

This is the Moon of Love

2010-08-24T08:25:00.000-07:00

Full Moon in Pisces

10:05 AM PDT

Tuesday

August 24, 2010

“You who let yourselves feel: enter the breathing that is more than your own.” Rilke

Ultimately, all our questions return to our desire to understand Love. Yet so often we confuse ourselves with the allure of romance. The difference between being in-love-with-love and being in the presence of Love is an important one.

The astrological reference is this one: Tonight we feel the tug of the mystical Pisces’s Full Moon as it merges with Pisces’ ruler, Neptune, and with Chiron, the Wounded Healer. And, simultaneously, we are experiencing Mars and Venus tightly coupled in relationship-focused Libra.

For several weeks, and continuing through September, Mars and Venus are helping us to see where we've created balance--and where we're seeking balance--relative to our human desire for love.

* Enter tonight’s (and tomorrow night’s) Pisces Full Moon. Pisces teaches us that in our search to be loved, we so often miss the obvious . . . we are Love.

Pisces helps us sense the compassionate Universal Heart energy which floods our human bodies every minute of every day. The human body is, indeed, a temple . . . and the energy of this moon reminds us that we are Infinite Light moving within and out from the human experience.

Pisces understands that grief and longing for completion are part of the experience of Love. This full moon is coupled with Chiron which suggests that we may sense the places in our lives where we've felt both unloved and unlovable. Tonight's moon is reminding us of the Love which we carry within ourselves.

This is energy which can also create no small dose of delusion, so please watch for any old habits which seem to offer escape from the rough edges of your life.

You can expect a rich dream life these next couple nights. And with Pisces, it's often unclear where the dream begins and where it ends. But whatever, or whether, the dream, it is nourished by our capacity to surrender ourselves, humbly and bravely, to the wonder which is Grace.

Please share these notes with your friends.

Much peace to you.

Deborah O’Connor

deb@lovedogdesign.com

www.lovedogdesign.com

406.531.5129

Food & Wine Festival: June 19th Noon to 6pm Flagstaff, Pine Mountain Amphitheater

2010-06-16T11:22:00.000-07:00

I will be showing the unique design of custom wine bottles and glass sets. They are the perfect gift for that very special occasion when you really want to show someone how much you care!

Metamorphosis: A Butterfly's Story: The Zen of Creating

2010-05-11T17:56:00.000-07:00

*** Please note, the above artwork is only a drawing and not the final piece. This was designed with The Glass Eye software.

Here is the first design that has come to me from my trip to Costa Rica. This incredible insect helped me to revealed a part of me that has long been concealed.The finished size will be 32"x 20". I will post more of the actual piece as it is being created tonight...
Thanks,
Christina

So there is a lot of saw work , lots of inside curves. More to come!

It's at the point now where I am so excited about being able to hold it up to the light. This is the thing about stained glass: I've picked out all the glass, scrutinized each color and how it will appear next to the other colors and textures. I cut, grind, foil, solder, reinforce. There are many steps involved in the creation of a stained glass panel, hours of love.....

Finally, the long awaited moment comes when I get to pick the piece up and hold it to the light! Was I right? Did I choose the right colors and textures? It's kind of like gardening, planting all of those bulbs in the fall then having to wait and wait and wonder.... Delayed gratification to put it simply. It teaches patients and love of the craft. I am excited to share this with you.... More to come!

Update on A Little Piece of Heaven.... August 25, 2011

2010-05-10T19:52:00.000-07:00

The land sold.... Now it is up for sale again, this time I am really actively working to buy it. Why not? It enhances my existing lot. And it feels like it has been part of my life for years already. So I again ask for your prayers and positive energy in obtaining this little piece of heaven.
Many Blessing to you all!
Chris

Looking down hill to my home and studio. Faithful dog, Lola sits about where my land stops up the hill... My labyrinth is in the foreground, buried in new spring grass...

I have lived nestled on a hillside for 18+ years now. I am also guilty of "squatting" on the top of the hillside for 18 years... You see, my property ends just at about the top of the hill. My neighbor, Mark has graciously allowed me to sit, party, camp, sleep, daydream, build a labyrinth, walk, and pray on this hillside for years now.

I grew up in a suburb of Chicago; houses close together, fenced yards, snug to say the least. Then I came out to NORTHERN Arizona, high elevation and open spaces back then, in 1976. I found my little slice of heaven in 1992. I rented the house for 2 years and was so taken by the space, energy, light and just beauty of the postage stamp lot, that I had to buy it! SOLD; 1994! To the east lays the hillside, an undeveloped acres or so of land owned by an old college friend, he has a total of about 5 or so acres. Since this hillside dips down towards my home, there was/is no value for anyone up hill from it. Like I said I have used the hillside to feed the birds, observe wildlife, welcome the sun and just sit and rejoice for 18 years now. I can look out my studio windows and not see another house or structure, It looks and feels like I am in the wilderness with no others around me on that side of my land, I love it!

Last year my neighbor got married and moved from the property and put the entire 5 and then some acres up for sale. My dilemma is ZONING!!! All I want is less then a 1/4 acre of the 5+ acres that is up for sale. Just enough to buffer me from anyone who buys the uphill property and builds a house. The way zoning works, he is unable to divide the lots up any differently then they are now, which means would have to buy 2+ acres for a lot more money than I have and I don't really want what comes with the 2+ acres which is several building and a triplex. So now I risk losing the small piece I want.

I am writing this blog as a prayer, a prayer that will be sent out to the universe, the heavens, the powers that be to let them know that I need to obtain this small piece of heaven I have known now for so long. I don't want to "squat" any more, but have the right to sit and pray, set a tent up for my grandson to camp in and what ever, on my own property. So I am putting the energy out there now, looking for a solution that works for both Mark and I. There truly is a win-win situation.... I know it!!

Peace,
Christina

Mary Sojourner Is Power and Grace, Real Time

2010-04-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

My long time friend, Mary lays out her knowledge and heart in 2 New books:
Going Through Ghosts & She Bets Her Life

Vegas flashback: A woman walks up to me just before the Vegas reading. "I heard your interview on KNPR," she says. "You said one thing that might slice through the noose that's strangling me." "You're a gambling addict too?" I say. "Yes," she says. "I never understood till I heard your words that I've taken care of everybody since I was little. Gambling is the only place I'm in a world of my own." We high five.

http://www.shebetsherlife.com/

New PT post. It is realllllly deep. www.psychologytoday.com/blog/she-bets-her-life/201004/basement-medicine-8-why-do-women-big-packages

Here's the direct link to "Going Through Ghosts."University of Nevada Presswww.unpress.nevada.eduThe official University of Nevada Press web site

University of Nevada Press
www.unpress.nevada.edu
The official University of Nevada Press web site

Imagery And Energy: Insight from Deb O'Connor and Love Dog Design

2010-04-26T20:55:00.001-07:00

My Friend and Reader Deb; vision on this week's full moon.

I (Deb) took all the photos which begin these notes in the magical Bitterroot Valley of western Montana.

Full Moon at 7 degrees SCORPIO
6:19 AM MDT or 5:19 AM PDT
Thursday morning
4.28.10

A more intense full moon does not exist. If ever there is a moon with the power to take us deep down into the cellar of our awareness . . . it is the Scorpio moon.

It's so important that we use this Scorpio energy--like all the planetary energy--to facilitate growth rather than to generate or court fear.

You could begin by imagining your metaphorical, inner cellar filled with the most beautiful of jars . . . in some of them you'll find peach-ginger compote, apple butter, elderberry potions or tomato basil sauces . . . or maybe, beneath a basement window, there is a long shelf filled with glass bottles of every color and shape and texture imaginable and you can see these reflecting a quiet and transparent light into this harbor of the subconscious.

It's probable that within this deep inner sanctum there are also a few cobwebs or a jar or two which hold some old substance whose shelf-life is used up and it's contents look a little off or maybe even smell funny. It's time, then, to remove these out-dated things from this otherwise nourishing space.

Scorpio wants us to take the deep dive, to sense our fear of the situations in our lives which make our stomachs uneasy . . . and then, having helped us notice those fears, Scorpio would lead us through them.

I like the metaphor, simple as it is, of our inner cellar because all of us have experienced actual subterranean places which are sort of scary, and yet, all of us have also experienced these same kinds of places when their mystery and beauty was such that we passed through our fear and entered in. Scorpio carries us into the places where we are nourished to the degree that we allow ourselves to be led by our instincts and where we tap into our emotional courage.

A question which I imagine you might sometimes ask is this one: Why does Deb write about an energetic event--the full moon--which lasts only a day or two?

I write because each month the moon is full in a different sign, and it brings our focus to, and wakes us up to the longer term work of its planetary ruler. The Moon itself is like a spotlight leading us to notice what the planet is up to. We get a great hit at the full moon because the moon always heightens our emotional responses.

So when the moon is full in Scorpio, it's directing our attention to the work of Pluto. And as you know from the many references I've made this last year to Pluto's current square to the Uranus/Saturn opposition, Pluto is intensely active now helping all of us, demanding that we face our fear of loss.

One of the great gifts of both Scorpio and Pluto is their desire to bring to the surface the things which we would rather keep buried. Somehow we continue to believe that we'll be safer if we leave buried those issues or feelings which scare us or which have the potential to fuel our anger. But the simple fact is that these buried energies actually take more energy to ignore than they do to face and, by the simple act of facing them down, we help them to dissolve.

When the moon is full in Scorpio, or when Pluto is involved, as it is now in an energetic cleansing with Saturn and Uranus, you can expect many things to continue to be "uncovered" both within yourself and within the context of the collective.

So as the moon shines brightly in the sky Wednesday and Thursday evenings, imagine it as the tip of a cosmic wand whose sole purpose is to tap you gently on the top of your head and ignite your sense of courage in the face of any and every fearful response still standing between you and the freedom which comes from letting go . . . letting go so that you can create the empty space into which the newer, healthier situation can be born.

Please remember that the only real obstacle facing us now, and for all time, is our fear of the unknown. We know from all our years of experiencing ourselves in Time that anything we resist will persist. So lets bow to this shaman-like Scorpio energy as it helps us to continue spiraling up and out of our fear-based responses.

If you'd like to go more deeply into the significance of this energy through work on your own chart, please let me know.

As always, I ask that you share these notes with anyone you think might like a clearer sense of what is at work in the energetic world.

Many deep and rich blessings,

Deborah O'Connor
406.531.5129
www.lovedogdesign.com

2010-04-17T16:50:00.000-07:00

My newest commission is now on it's way to it's new home. "Ravens Over Nankoweap" is 22 x 26". Thank you, Cory & Terry for coming to my studio for Flagstaff Open Studio last year and letting me bring your vision of 2 ravens soaring over the Grand Canyon come to life in this piece!

2010-04-02T11:00:00.000-07:00

Ravens love shiny things, they are curious and they are mischievous! I love designing glass with their imagery in it. One of my favorite stories is the raven and the sun.

Here is the story that inspired me to create one of my most popular designs; Raven Steals the Sun

This is an ancient story told on the Queen Charlotte Islands and includes how Raven helped to bring the Sun, Moon, Stars, Fresh Water, and Fire to the world.

Long ago, near the beginning of the world, Gray Eagle was the guardian of the Sun, Moon and Stars, of fresh water, and of fire. Gray Eagle hated people so much that he kept these things hidden. People lived in darkness, without fire and without fresh water.

Gray Eagle had a beautiful daughter, and Raven fell in love with her. In the beginning, Raven was a snow-white bird, and as a such, he pleased Gray Eagle's daughter. She invited him to her father's longhouse.

When Raven saw the Sun, Moon and stars, and fresh water hanging on the sides of Eagle's lodge, he knew what he should do. He watched for his chance to seize them when no one was looking. He stole all of them, and a brand of fire also, and flew out of the longhouse through the smoke hole. As soon as Raven got outside he hung the Sun up in the sky. It made so much light that he was able to fly far out to an island in the middle of the ocean. When the Sun set, he fastened the Moon up in the sky and hung the stars around in different places. By this new light he kept on flying, carrying with him the fresh water and the brand of fire he had stolen.

He flew back over the land. When he had reached the right place, he dropped all the water he had stolen. It fell to the ground and there became the source of all the fresh-water streams and lakes in the world. Then Raven flew on, holding the brand of fire in his bill. The smoke from the fire blew back over his white feathers and made them black. When his bill began to burn, he had to drop the firebrand. It struck rocks and hid itself within them. That is why, if you strike two stones together, sparks of fire will drop out.

Raven's feathers never became white again after they were blackened by the smoke from the firebrand. That is why Raven is now a black bird.

2010-03-29T19:06:00.000-07:00

April 2nd is First Friday Artwalk. I will be showing my work at Cafe Daily Fare, 408 East Route 66, located in the old ice house, just 2 blocks east of The Green Room down the alley. Join us from 6 -9 pm!

2010-03-06T22:17:00.000-08:00

Norma Russell Sheff Posted this to my FaceBook page, but I just had to post it here. Some of the best inspration comes from our friends.

Thank You Norma!

Many Blessings to you,
Christina

This is in the Unitarian Church in Las Cruces, NM. It's Clyde Tombaugh polishing a telescope mirror. This is only one portion of a whole wall. There is a raven behind him.

EARTHSHINE

Today I see Clyde Tombaugh polishing a telescope mirror, his image caught forever, almost, in the stained glass window of the Unitarian church.

He will polish it, polish it fine, until the stained glass is gone,
the mauve jewelers’ rouge running off the squat glass cylinder in a ferric oxide flood. Pluto exists.

Clyde’s eyes, unnaturally clear and blue, meet my gaze
over his sinewed hands, as planets circle
and galaxies beckon,
and I remember earthshine.

Just when night is darkest on the mountain trail,
seven humans straggle back to camp
from the waterfall, without a light, convinced
we cannot navigate like the silent owls,
nor like lions, with their shining eyes;
that as creation’s least-natural foster children, we are here
less competent than the nimble-fingered tarsier;
only human, dispossessed, and far from at home
in the world of night.

It’s night! we say, No moon!
There’s nothing out there! Only stars!!

Slowly, we realize that we have begun to see;
a subtle glow emanates from an unknown source
… the sky? We can discern trees, the path,
an occasional patch of phosphorescence,
rocks, a dim horizon, on this dark side
of our world.

Too long we have bent our heads and shielded our gaze
before the gods of the city lights, thinking them real;
to remember that we should name, or even see,
planets, galaxies, great individual stars.
Our sight is dulled by angled things.

The truth is:

The earth shines beneath our feet.

Whose telescope now watches this unexplored world,
and sees us choosing to stumble, blind,
surrounded by light?

Norma Russell Sheff

2010-03-06T07:41:00.000-08:00

This was the my passage from the Daily Word today. It is the perfect blessing for me, now that I have a new space to live and to create in. I am so blessed!!

Thanks!

I bless my home as a place of comfort and rest, a place where beauty and graciousness are expressed and experienced. The atmosphere of my home is permeated with love and peace, light and sunshine. My home is a space for refreshment, renewal and mental and physical well-being because the love of God is reflected in this space.

I bless and value everyone who enters my home. I practice patience, cooperation and respect and do all I can to create a haven where every family member and guest feels God's spirit of love, peace and joy within these walls.

I am grateful for my home and for the privilege it affords me of expressing grace, beauty and hospitality.

Facebook | Raven's Eye Glassworks

2010-03-05T08:13:00.000-08:00

Facebook | Raven's Eye Glassworks

2010-03-05T07:19:00.000-08:00

Here are a few images that were visually inspiring from Costa Rica. And then there were the birds, Macaws, Toucans, Parrots, Humming birds! Butter flies... The Magnificent Blue Morpho! The first time I saw one I was returned to my childhood chasing it down a jungle road. So big and blue, it almost seems surreal!

2010-03-04T12:15:00.000-08:00

I am back from the jungle paradise of Costa Rica. I am full of inspiration! I played in the ocean and I saw breath taking displays of the glory of nature.

This piece,"Place of My Strength" is on exhibit at the High Country Conference Center on the campus of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. It measures 36"x44" and is framed in red oak. It is my homage to a giant Alligator Juniper.

Just past the Flag mall, there is a well-known trail called Fat Man’s Loop. At the top of this loop just east of the turn off that climbs to Elden lookout, sits a massive Alligator Juniper just above the trail. She is centuries old with many branches reaching out in a nurturing canopy. There is a boulder to sit on and a branch to lean on. I go there to pay my respects and give thanks for so many things…

This incredible piece is available for purchase. Please contact me for more information on how to have this uniquely original work of art. 928-699-6824

Blessings,
Christina

The Raven's Eye: Collaborations...

2010-01-19T09:05:00.000-08:00

The Raven's Eye: Collaborations...

Here is more of what I do... www.ravenseyeglass.com

Collaborations...

2010-01-02T09:39:00.000-08:00

Another collaboration with Hot glass artist, George Averbeck from Fire on the Mountain Studio. His work can be seen at Arizona Handmade 13 N. San Francisco st. Flagstaff, Az.
What you can't see in the photograph is the flashed glass and the shades red to clear that were revealed as I carved away layers of the red glass.

2009-12-27T08:34:00.000-08:00

I just heard a program on NPR about a little girl, Maya Chamberlin, who needs a bone Marrow transplant. She is bi-racial, as am I. I have just joined the Be The Match Marrow donation site. If I have a chance to save a life, guess it's time... Here is the link to the story, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121910707

And a link to the donation site: http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/index.html?src=Ijoined

2009-12-23T08:19:00.000-08:00

The best way to appreciate the snow is to play in it!! This morning I opened my eyes to see a wonderful new snow!

Snow shoes on and out into the woods just up the road from my home I go with faithful dog, Princes Lola. It's the morning light on new snow that is so inspiring.

Lola waiting for the 2 legged to catch up as usual.

New Work: Morning Star

2009-12-18T09:23:00.000-08:00

This piece is called Morning Star. 24"x48".
I created it for Theresa (tmsr@tmsrdesign.com), who helped me create such a wonderful website. Sunrise and sunset were the inspirations for this work. Just after or before the sun sets or rises the sky is layers of blues from the sweetest periwinkle to deepest cobalt as you look up towards the heavens. And in this neck of the woods, there is most likely a silhouette of a Ponderosa. And then there is the moon, ah, Luna my love! Sometimes when she is in her new phase, she is cradling a planet. This was the first piece I have done using lead came in such an organic manner. My past works in lead have been geometric, inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. I loved the construction process, the flow of shapes. I used a sheet of copper to cut out the tree shape, then textured it with solder and added black patina. It sits on top of the lead came so there is a shadow box feel to the piece. It was quite fun and a great learning experience!

2009-12-05T08:54:00.000-08:00

Welcome. This blog will be about the evolution of art and the art of seeing and taking what I see and how it makes my feel and transforming it into art and love and energy.
Blessings,
Christina

So this is my first post and it is from my friend Deb O'Connor. A very gifted artist and astrologer. What she has to say needs to be read and reread. Please share this with everyone!

More to come!

So many of you have written to ask why all around us continues to feel so difficult, that I've re-written what began as notes about Tuesday night's full moon.

lf I were to try to summarize the wild cosmic ride we're all taking together, I'd say that every single being--every human, every yellow warbler, every ponderosa pine, every drop of water in the Clark Fork/Columbia/Pacific, every stone and aquifer--is being completely re-configured at the level of consciousness. We are part of a magnificent weaving of Divine energy and all of this energy is undergoing a radical shift in awareness.

All that is underway might be easiest to understand if you imagine you are participating in great theatre, and that the planets are Players mirroring back to you cosmic secrets which will lead you through these Interesting Times.

On stage we see intensely life-altering relationships between Saturn, Uranus & Pluto, and also between Neptune, Jupiter & Chiron. These players are sending us extraordinary opportunities to facilitate the kinds of changes we've longed for all our lives. The key, of course, is to pay attention, to keep our minds and hearts wide open, and to be very very brave.

Of course this is not Act One, but Act Million-and-One, because everything which happens astrologically follows upon the energetic cycle which just finished. We have been being tutored all our many lives for this place in Time. So as we watch the stage, and we see Saturn enter on one side and Uranus on the other, we know that they have opposed each other before, but that this time they are more seasoned and have an agenda drawn from eons of experience. Like all of us, they are evolving.

So we come into our drama, here on December 3, 2009, in the middle of a conversation between Saturn and Uranus. Their exact opposition actually began a year ago, on the day Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. And as these two giant planets rock slowly back and forth in space, they will have opposed each other exactly five times between November 4, 2008 and July 26, 2010, working to bring great changes to bear upon the traditions we hold to so dearly.

What we experience with Saturn is everything having to do with the structure of our lives: personally this has to do with our work and our homes and our bank accounts. In the larger picture, Saturn is universally concerned with the monolithic institutions which we have always believed held up the world around us: banks, corporations, universities, the entire industrial/military complex. Imagine everything concerned with the patriarchy on a large scale.

Saturn is also the Master of Time--as we understand it. Saturn would like us to remain grounded in the traditions we have always known. Saturn would like to remain In Control.

And Uranus? As an archetype, Uranus is the revolutionary and the visionary. Uranus takes great delight in radical and unexpected changes which lead to the creation of new paradyms. Uranus is not interested in the conventional and gleefully renders traditions asunder. And Uranus is so closely aligned with Divine Mind (not to be confused with the human brain), that it understands Time to be an illusion.

So when these energies are working in direct opposition to each other we have two choices. We can either cling frantically to our personal and cultural traditions as radical changes leave us feeling as if we've completely lost control of our resources and of our lives. Or we can work to integrate the strengths of these two Players. Certainly some of Saturn's traditions are valuable and worth salvaging--it is a good thing to have a roof over our heads (somewhere) and to know how to work a garden. But any of our traditions which prevent our growth are going to continue to dissolve. Uranus is shaking our cages and shifting us into a new paradym, a New Time and a new sense of time, and there is no turning back.

Enter Pluto. To help facilitate our way forward, we need to pay attention to the subtle nuances of the Lord of the Sub-Conscious. Imagine an upside-down pyramid where Saturn and Uranus oppose each other at the top angles and at the bottom angle stands emotionally transformative Pluto . . . asking us what makes us afraid. Pluto brings our attention to our Fear and helps us to see what an obstacle it presents us as we make our way through these Changes. It's place on stage is exactly in the middle of Saturn and Uranus, blocking us from integrating their strengths until we acknowledge our fear for the old emotional baggage it is and release it. At that point, Pluto empowers us.

Over the course of the next year, Pluto will ask you to let go of things you think you can't survive without. But this is an act of benevolence on its part . . . as we let go of relationships which are no longer serving anyone, as we move out of old emotional patterns, our psyches will feel lighter and lighter and the empty spaces we've created as we let go will be filled with people and experiences coming from an energetic level more in line with our newly-shifted awareness.

None of this is particularly easy. Let me say now, before I take you farther into the story of Planets On A Mission that the human race is being challenged hard and fast to wake up and become flexible and very very creative.

And just as we thought this drama was verging on the impossible . . .

Enter Neptune, Jupiter and Chiron. These three arrive arm-in-arm. They have been traveling together through Aquarius for 9 months. You can look up into the evening sky and see Jupiter to the south, looking for all the world like the beacon it is. How could a planet so beautiful offer us anything but faith in the journey? Jupiter assures us that the risks we're taking now will only enrich our lives. And its partner, Neptune, offers us an extraordinary spiritual deepening. Chiron joins them in this work by helping us heal ancient wounds, both personal and communal.

Of course, there is always a way to veer off course, even with three such luminous Players. Jupiter helps us to see where we might have grown a little too arrogant and where we might feel a tad too entitled. If we try, all of us can find places in our lives where we think we deserve "fill-in-the-blank" . . . regardless of its impact on others or the environment or "fill-in-the-blank."

And Neptune, when we fall asleep, is very capable of adding confusion to our tea party, if only to get our attention so we might rein in our focus.

Chiron . . . Chiron is the wounded healer and his role in this stellar three-some is to guide us through situations which bring up old feelings of woundedness so we can lift our hearts and shake off the tentacles of the past, and go on free of the despair. Chiron then steps in to help us heal others with our newly gained awareness. The beauty of the Chiron work is that to the degree we heal ourselves, we become healers.

Together, Neptune, Jupiter and Chiron ask that each of us trust ourselves to meet the Divine World in our own unique way. Of course, with Saturn at work nailing down everything that hasn't already blown away, there are going to be people clinging with all they have to their Belief Systems. But the Universe is very clearly asking that we recognize that each of us is unique, and therefore, our relationship with the Divine is unique. Gratitude may be the only spiritual common denominator we need.

There is more to this truly Divine Comedy, but I may have already worn you out. Sometime next spring, we'll watch Jupiter and Mars change costumes and enter more powerfully into this dialogue.

If you can only remember one thing from this long play, I hope it will be this line from Neptune: "I Surrender."

Of all the energies afoot, Neptune is the most compassionate. And though our creative, dreamy, cosmic mystic is often maligned as confused, Neptune is, more than anything, unconditionally loving and forgiving. And it counsels us to surrender our desire for control to the all-loving, all-knowing One Love.

Next time, I promise, just three paragraphs about the Sagittarius new moon.

All love and great peace to you.

Deb

Deborah O'Connor

406-531-5129

deb@lovedogdesign.com