Crow Moon

I can't believe it's already been another month and we are nearing the end of March! It seems as though I am consistently feeling that mystery of time more and more, the sensation that time speeds up as one gets older. I am going to have to re-read the section of the book The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks where he defines an idea called "Einstein Time' in which "YOU are where time comes from-you can make as much of it as you want!”

Art Happenings

My painting Believe will be up at Las Laguna Gallery in Laguna Beach until the end of this month, so if you’re in the area, check out this all women artist's show.

Details here! 

I was invited by Hive Gallery in Downtown LA to partake in their "Best of the Hive" art show which opens on April 6th alongside Hive’s Family Reunion and Honey themed show. If you have never been to a Hive Gallery art show before and are in the area, or even if you have been before, come out! They are fun events filled with interesting people and some amazing art.

Details here!

Full Moon Painting

This month's Full Moon is most often called the Worm Moon due to the earthworms that are beginning to show their heads again as the weather warms up, but other signs of spring, such as the cawing of crows, gave rise to an array of name variations including the Crow Moon, the Crust Moon (referring to snow crusts) and the Sap Moon (this is a time for tapping maple trees). For my Full Moon painting, I chose to depict crows as they represent the air sign of Libra well and they are more fun for me to paint than earthworms.

The Full Moon this month also happens to be another Super-moon (like last month) and it also lands on the same day, depending on your part of the world, as the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere (Autumn in the Southern). During an equinox, the Sun shines directly on the equator and the length of day and night is nearly equal.

Astrologically, this month's Full Moon occurs in Los Angeles on March 20th (the 21st for London and Sydney) and it lands in the sign of Libra.  Libra is an air sign that is symbolically tied to cooperation, balance, harmony, love and relationships. The Sun falls in the zodiac sign of Aries, whose symbolism is opposite that of Libra.  Aries is a sign that is about self-hood, individuality, and trusting your impulses. The qualities associated with both signs are important factors in being a human being who has deep, caring and meaningful relationships with not only others but themselves as well. How do you share yourself with others and practice balance in your life?

Moon Calling

Under the brightest night of a full bellied moon I will rise
charged with whisper of lunar
to pull at womb, galvanize from within
the voice that speaks the tides

                          -Anna Griego

That's it for now! As always, I love to hear from each and every one of you, so feel free to respond to this email or drop me a line anytime!

Until next Full Moon,
xoxo
Mary Ancilla Martinez

Snow moon

Hello and Happy Full Moon!

Hope everyone is staying warm this time of year! I'm happy to be writing you and am back this month to share more news from my studio.  I work a full time job as a graphic artist for an apparel company, but have been doing my best to stay creative with my personal work and to keep painting as often as possible! I have a new Work in Progress (WIP) that I'm excited about which is part of the Mythological Paintings series I began last month with my painting Spirit Walker.  That's all I will say for now, but here is a pic of the WIP.  She's got a long way to go but I can't wait for the finish!

Every Day Original

I'm pleased again to announce that my painting Lodestar was featured this month on Every Day Original.  However, there was some technical issue with the site the day I posted, and my painting wasn't sent out to their email list as their daily original which was a total and complete bummer to me! It may get another date with them in the future, but it is still available through their site here for anyone interested: http://www.everydayoriginal.com/product/lodestar/

Lodestar explores some of the symbols of the elements and relationships of earth, air, fire, water, ether and the transformations between life and death. A lodestar is a guide, the skull represents not only death but life beyond death. Death doesn’t always mean a physical death but also could be the death of a relationship, of a bad habit, a time period, a thought pattern, even an emotional moment. Sometimes this death can guide and lead us to greener pastures and more hopeful paths. 

Full Moon Painting

Another Full Moon is here Tuesday the 19th! This February Full Moon is also a super moon! Which just means that it will appear particularly large because of the coincidence of the moon being full with the fact that the moon's orbit is bringing it at it's closest point to the earth right now.  It looks extra big as a result.

This February Full Moon is referred to as the Snow Moon due to the typically heavy snowfall of February in the United States before and during Colonial times.  Hunting was difficult and the food supply was often low in February, so it was also called Hunger Moon or Bone Moon.  Other names include Shoulder to Shoulder Around the Fire Moon, No Snow in the Trails Moon, Storm Moon and Ice Moon. Animals associated with the Snow Moon are the fox, bear, wolf and owl.  

This year, the Snow Moon falls under the Zodiac Sign of Virgo, a sign known for clarity of mind, practicality, perfectionism. organization, independence and analysis.  It is considered the main sign in which we begin to see others as different from ourselves and we start to discover our true selves. What better sign to occur during the Snow Moon, a moon in which organization (which can bring a feeling of safety) was traditionally important due to the harsh winter conditions?  How can we relate this to our current lives? Virgo inspires mental endurance, project management and the ability to organize which can all serve to be a great mental recharge during the cold months where we tend to stay inside and be in our heads rather than outside in the world being physical.  If desired, you can use the Virgo inspiration and opportunity this Full Moon to organize some projects and get some work done.  It's easy to think too much this time of year, so be careful of the shadow side of Virgo which is known for criticism of self and others, worrying and complaining too much, underrating the self, being self absorbed and pickiness.  

For my Snow Moon painting in Virgo, I chose to represent the Moon this time with a polar bear, known for it's keen, practical and observant mind, it's independence and perfectionism which are all Virgo traits.  He is also a snow animal as well as representative of the Element of Earth (Virgo is considered an Earth Sign).  The bird symbolizes the spiritual and higher aspects of the Mind in relation to Virgo (Air of Earth for those interested).

Winter solstice dream, warm cradle of life

Tattoo a bear claw onto my heart

That I may eternally return

Etched in sky constellation

                    -Geraldine Rose Martinez

Las Laguna Gallery

Finally, I'd like to remind anyone interested that my painting Believe will be displayed at Las Laguna Gallery's Women in Art Exhibition.  The show will run from March 7 - March 29, 2019. Opening reception is March 7, from 5:30 to 9:30 pm.  

Details here!

That's it for now! As always, I love to hear from each and every one of you, so feel free to respond to this email or drop me a line anytime! Until next Full Moon, 

xoxo

Mary Ancilla Martinez

www.maryancilla.com

Visit my store on Etsy

Happy Sunday!

Happy Sunday friends!

It's been a while since I've reached out and I wanted to fill you in on my current art happenings.

Every Day Original

I am pleased to announce that my new painting Spirit Walker was featured on Every Day Original last month. If you are unfamiliar with Every Day Original, please go to their site and check them out. Every day they send out an email that features an original small art piece for sale by a different artist--and wow there are some amazing artists featured!

Spirit Walker got snatched up and is no longer available for purchase, but I do have 3 different sizes of high quality giclee prints available now on my Etsy. I am also offering free shipping for a limited time, so this is a great time to pick one up.

Spirit Walker is a very special painting to me and probably my favorite so far that I have done. It is based upon the Celtic/Welsh mythology of the Cwwn Anwwn (pronounced "coon ah-noon") the red-eared, white coated phantom hounds of the Underworld, who were later dubbed as the "Hounds of Hell" by Christians. In the mythology I chose to illustrate, we have a pair of these hounds that live inside of us, coming out when necessary as guides and protectors. Spirit Walker depicts the ability to transverse between the Otherworlds, the Underworld and this reality that we know and are generally fully steeped in. It is also the first of a series of mythological paintings that I am really excited about, more to come soon.

Las Laguna Gallery

I am also excited to share that my painting Believe is going to be in Las Laguna Gallery's Women in Art Exhibition in March 2019 and was chosen to be featured as the promo art. If you are a woman artist, Las Lagunas is accepting entries into the show-the deadline is February 4th so get your entries in! The exhibition will run from March 7-March 29, 2019.

Believe is another special painting to me, and is about our strength to go within, discover and be true to who we are despite all the distractions and opinions of others, the media, and society at large that we are constantly surrounded by.

Full Moon Painting Series

January 20/January 21 (depending on your time zone) is a Full Blood Moon Eclipse in Leo! The perfect way to kick off my new Full Moon Paintings studies series which is something I have wanted to delve into for awhile now and there is no better time to start than now with the first full moon in a brand new year! It is my intention to create a Full Moon painting each month which explores the mythologies and astrology around that particular full moon and the related zodiac signs. I'm really excited about this series! I tend to get a bit serious and mentally heavy with my paintings and have been wanting to have fun, play, explore and experiment with animals, design and mythology in a series of small paintings in between larger, longer paintings. Here is the very first one--Leo Wolf Moon.

The January Full Moon also happens to be an eclipse which is created when the Sun, Moon and Earth are aligned in such a way that the Earth stands in the way of the Sun's light, creating a shadow on the Moon's face. The blood red color created is due to sunlight scattering across the Earth's atmosphere, the same concept as to why sunsets and sunrises appear red.

The January Full Moon is typically known as the Wolf Moon and is named for the wolf packs that were heard howling outside villages who named this moon so long ago. Wolves have long been associated with the Moon, night and the shadow self. Other names for the Moon include Hunger Moon, Old Moon, Ice Moon and Snow Moon. This Wolf Moon happens to occur this year when the Moon lands in the astrological sign of Leo, associated with the Sun. We have the Full Moon (wolf/shadow) in a Sun sign (lion/illumination)--this is about balance of course! We are also in the zodiac sign of Aquarius, which is about individuality. Leo brings intuition, creativity and illumination as well as bright and proud energy to the mix. I think this can all be summed up by contemplating on ways to shine our individual light bright into the world, not worrying about what others think as well as paying close attention to both the shadow and light aspects of ourselves to remain in balance.

Great Frozen Lake of Moon Rises

I am Crouching Wolf, Lap it's Light

Rise Filled with Silver Helium

My Voice Clear as Water Beneath Ice

Ruth Yvonne Nakamura

That's it for now! Would love to hear from each and every one of you so feel free to respond to this email! Until next Full Moon,

xoxo

Mary Ancilla Martinez

www.maryancilla.com

Is there life beyond oil paint?

As much as I love oil paints, I have to say it is hard to work on after I get home from 11 hours a day of working and commuting. I'm trying to find a new method of working that might not be faster, but is easier to work on and clean up after the day job. My experiment here is a quick little sketch with graphite and charcoal, and then painting on top with watercolor. So far it's working out and I think I will even try thin layers of oil paint on top...

Spectrum

I will have a piece featured in this years edition of Spectrum! Spectrum 22--So excited! I'm not sure which piece yet-just saw my name on the list of selected artists. Yes!! This lovely cover piece is by Bastien Lecouffe Deharme.

Cannibal Flower Art Show

The Cannibal Flower Art show is back at at, and I will have a piece in it this coming Sat March 14th. Come by and say hi!

Hive Gallery Show

I was one of the featured artists for the January Hive Gallery show--great times! 

Happenings

This Saturday July 5 2014, I will have a piece (Somnolent) in the Hive Gallery Group Show.  I also now have permanent gallery space at Hive Gallery, behind the group show gallery space!! I am so excited to have space here and I am grateful to Ken Dougherty for inviting me to join. Hive Gallery is located at 729 S. Spring St LA 90014, and the show will be up until August 2.

I will be live painting the night of August 8 at King King which is a 21 plus club located at 6555 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood 90028. This is a Dolab/DoArt event! Solidisco, Steedlord and Marcelo Moxy will be performing.  I'm excited as live painting is so much fun!

If you haven't checked out the "I Heart LA" group exhibition at the Jeanie Madsen Gallery, please do! I'm not sure how much longer the pieces will be displaying, so go see it soon! My piece "Wallflower" is hanging there along with some beautiful pieces by a range of different LA artists.  Jeanie Madsen Gallery is located at 1431 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica Ca 90401. This show is a collaboration with Jeanie Madsen and LC from Thinkspace Gallery (aka Mr. NumberOnederful)

That's all for now!!

Illuminate Album Release Party

I had the best time live painting at Maki Hsieh's album release party Illuminate! Illya from Roam Creative gallery ( a beautiful little gallery with an enchanting zen vibe located in Topanga) assembled a great group of live painters for the event including such talents as Dave Zaboski, Michael Pukac and Ngene Mwaura.  Lots of great music and talented, creative vendors helped to create an eclectic community vibe full of fun and dancing.  I connected with many amazing people and am happy and grateful to have participated in the event.  I look forward to more live painting in my future! Which just so happens to be at King King on August 8 with Soldisco + Steed Lord performing :)

Dreams and Happenings

I'm honored and excited to have my work showing in various places around Los Angeles! Yay!! First, I have two pieces, Somnolent and 4th Etheric up at Studio C Gallery in the ONEIRA: I DREAM THE SELF group show.  This show was a beautiful one for me to partake in because of my deep interest in dream work.  There was a long period in my life where I woke up each and every morning to write about and contemplate on the incredibly vivid dreams from the night before, and in doing so created many positive and lasting changes in my life as a result.  I remember right before I left a deeply damaging relationship, I had reoccurring dreams involving myself having tails-long serpent tails or short furry deer tails--tails, tails, tails, and more tails.  One particular night, I dreamt of having a beautiful, iridescent mermaid tail.  I was on the edge of a cliff overlooking an incredibly deep part of an ocean..and I was terrified to jump off...in fact, in real life I am afraid of being underwater and I still cannot swim...but in the dream I felt my tail growing larger and stronger, more vivid in color with each moment.  It gave me the courage to jump into the water where in the dream I actually experienced the beauty and strength of swimming freely and without fear, under the deep water with whales, dolphins and colorful fish, breathing naturally in the water like I had been one with it since birth.  I felt completely free, strong, happy, connected with the universe and so very alive.  I literally woke up and left the relationship the next day.  Of course, there had been many other steps leading up to my courage and I don't imply that the dream is the only thing that gave me the strength to leave, but the dream was a symbol of my strength and readiness, and I will never forget the beauty of that dream or what it meant to me to wake up from it.  Dreamwork is very special to me, and I know I am not alone in my feelings toward this. So many of us seek and find answers within our dreams.  We face our fears and live out our desires.  Emotions are vivid and alive, and, if we desire, we can control our dreams, shape them, turn them around, face our fears and in doing so come closer to turning our waking lives into that which we dream about.

ONEIRA: I DREAM THE SELF is an all women art show concerning the world of dreams and what it means to ourselves as artists and women.  We will have a closing reception this coming Saturday June 14 from 6 to 9 at STUDIO C GALLERY--Santa Fe Art Colony 2349 So. Santa Fe Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90058 For more information: studiocla148@gmail.com / 323 363-2188.  There are some creative pieces in the show! Peggy Nichols, Kaleeka Bond, Kathryn Jacobi, Hanneke Naterop and Kimberly Webber are just a few of the other talented female artists who participated in the show! This Sat will be the last day to see everyone's work together in this powerful show--so come by.

I also have my Wallflower piece up at the JEANIE MADSEN GALLERY, 1431 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica.  Penny Marshall, Chico Brown and Mercedes joined forces with Jeanie Madsen and LC from Cannibal Flower to create a red carpet charity event for Reach Back LA called I HEART LA in which a group of LA artists all contributed work--20% of the art work sales go straight to Reach Back LA!  The show will be up for another month so please go check it out--The gallery is right across the water in Santa Monica where there are plenty of super yummy places to eat right around the street--make a date night of it and go check out some art, the ocean and eat some delicious food :)

I will be participating in the LA ART WALK downtown this coming Thursday June 12, 2014.  My Reconstruction painting will be showing along with a couple of my figure paintings at the DOVE BISCUIT STUDIO which is a gallery located above THE LAST BOOKSTORE.  DOVE BISCUIT is a gallery run by Robin McGough who is an amazing man I just met and already discovered is not afraid to tell his story and live his truth authentically.  I am honored to met him, plus I think he has some super cool pieces in his gallery worth checking out! Come down to LA ART WALK this coming Thursday, June 12 from 6 to midnight. 453 S Spring St Suite M-4, Los Angeles, California 90013

Lastly, this coming Saturday June 14 at Lot 613, which is located at 613 Imperial St, Los Angeles 90021,  I will be LIVE PAINTING for the ILLUMINATE event! "THE CRUZ COALITION, THE GOOD VIBE, BURNLA and ROAM CREATIVE join forces for the one-time only  ILLUMINATE which benefits Maki Hsieh's debut album "Illuminate"! Featuring two stages of epicness and an artisan courtyard full of light, love and glow. Kick-off your most amazing summer with masters of bass and harmony, light workers, live painters, and co-creators of light and love. $15 first tier, $25 at the door at http://illuminate-fundraiser.eventbrite.com."   Other live painters include Michael Pukac, Dave Zabowski, David Art Lawell, Aaron Mostow, Ngene Mwaura, Yuki Miyazaki and Joey Rotten--should be super fun! I will be live painting starting at 9, and MAYBE going all the way to 4 in the morning--we'll see how far I go! 

That's it for now! :) 

Getting out of the home and my head

It has been quite some time since I've written on a public blog! I started one a few years back on blogspot under the title Zoetic, but it's been a minute since I've touched it.  I love the idea of blogs and love reading what other people are up to in theirs...let's see if I can integrate writing in my own blog more frequently into my life.  I write all the time in journals, so it sounds like it won't be tooo hard of a transition!

I've spent so much time alone in my studio and working for Bioworld creating graphics for the apparel industry that I've felt strongly for some time that it's waaay past due for me to go out into the world and start hanging out with other artists to talk with them, connect, be inspired, see how they live their lives and what they are up to.  So lately, over the past few weeks, I have been getting involved in live painting events! This terrified me at first, but that's all the more reason for me to continue doing it! Actually, it's still a bit scary.  As an artist and a bit of a perfectionist, I'm so critical of myself and my own procedures and outcomes that why in the world would I want to display the very thing I'm critical of and the manner in which I create the things I am critical of? The little voices in my head (FEAR) tell me I'm not ready yet, I'm not good enough yet, I don't paint fast enough, I don't spend enough time in the week drawing and painting yet, I don't want to be seen or heard, who do I think I am?? 

The older I get and the deeper I allow myself to develop as well as really get to know and listen to myself, to pay attention to my intuition, what my body tells me and how I want to progress my life, the easier it is to FEEL THE FEAR AND DO IT ANYWAY.  Everyone has those little voices inside--it's part of our interesting and complex psychological makeup as human beings.  I have been choosing lately to observe my own feelings and behaviors from almost an outsiders perspective...to know that I am NOT those feelings--I allow them to come, I allow myself to feel them fully but not to let them stop me. In feeling them fully, they tend to warp and change and exit my body which helps rather than hinders. Additionally,  what's the worse that can happen anyway? I create a shitty painting, but no one is going to remember and think about it and point at me, laughing anyway....the only one affected is ME and I have been through much much much worse in my life for a shitty painting to stop me :) plus it all chalks up to those 10,000 hours of experience everyone has to go through anyway....and so far it pushes me to paint faster and make more strokes that actually count...

And you know what? It turns out live painting is SO MUCH FUN!!! The people involved are super enlightened it seems (so far at least), there's always great djs playing in the background, I get to meet other artists and tons of people, I'm usually dancing and painting at the same time--feeling the fear and doing it anyway has paid off--again! Out of the three times I've live painted, I've only scraped the painting once.

My first event was for the DoArt Foundation at Angel City Brewery for Heritage Day.  Super fun scene with food trucks, lots of art and vendors, some other live painters, bands, flowing beer, etc.  My next event was a huge one--Lightning in A Bottle Music and Art Festival which is a camping event I have gone to for the past three years featuring electronic music, bands, yoga, african dance, tantra classes, organic food, drumming and sooo much more.  I was incredibly honored to have been chosen this year as one of the 50 featured artists painting, including artists like Mear One, Van Saro, John Park, Angelina Christina and a ton more-- 16,000 people were in attendance and I got to paint as long as I wanted for four days straight--which was absolutely amazing! 

I will be at ILLUMINATE June 14, 2014 painting from 9pm to 4am.  Michael Pukac who I briefly met at LIB will be one of the other featured artists and he is a PRO at this live painting stuff. I got to watch him in action at LIB and he is also teaching a class at ROAM in Topanga that I will definitely be attending coming up shortly.  I can't wait to hear what he has to share in Topanga.