ABSTRACTED VISIONS
In the abstracts that I have made, I have seen images in my minds eye, and often even had dreams about what it is I felt I needed to bring into existence. This is my time to explore with colors, ideas, and allowing the strokes to take on the visions which never really allow for mindful rest, until they are emitted onto its canvas. I try and tell my stories, my experiences and my emotions through these abstractions. It has always been my best tool for therapy. In the years that I have been exploring these mediums, I have stood back and seen the stories I have lived; how I have evolved and changed with the brush strokes and their messages.
Violently Exposed
This story tells of a young woman longing desperately to free herself from the unconscious suspicions of unseen traumas and emotional blindness. She knows something is not aligned within her and all she can do is let what ever needs to expose itself, to come through. Not to fear it, or hide it, simply just let it be. And so she did.
Acrylics on canvas
Inside my Skin
I had a friend not to long after my 2nd divorce that expressed how the emotions and divisions occurring during their divorce, that made the separation of children and family unity as if the lifeblood was being drawn out and life was unraveling. I somehow got this vision as this personal pain was being expressed through another person. Being able to relate to that division, I began this piece on thin wood and carved out some of the images, representing the tearing away of family. In being able to relate to this process, I also began to feel stronger and more courageous to rebuild with my own strands of trust.
Desgraciada
EMERGING
Emerging came about one day when I reflected back on the obstacles I had overcome from the Americas and into the Australia's.. I felt something was beginning to change in myself.
Out of the ashes, down from the mountains, she will emerge.
Through winds of pain, rivers of mourning, and landscapes of isolation, she emerges.
Battled by treacherous tumultude, the cloak she carries is the warmth she bears, the shadows of head revere her victories
And in Armour of heart, her staff goes forth..
To conquer her demons, to slay her dragons, and bring to light the depths of despair.
Out of the ashes, down from the mountain, she has EMERGED.
medium: Acrylics
The Space Between Us
When I migrated to Australia from American, I had no idea the transition I would go through; not only culturally, environmentally, and ELEMENTAL, but especially Relationship. The distance of all these aspects began to create waves of discord in the full beingness of me, and I began to feel alone and distanced from that which I had migrated for. LOVE.
medium: Acrylics
I AM DONE
POEM: There once was a boy that I knew, who knew nothing more but to love the world of his children, and how this boy loved them so. Then one day, the boy became someone else's world, and so love bloomed between the two worlds, and light was expanded from the one to the other, who's only world had been that of his children's. Two worlds became ONE and there was new life in the worlds once more. But the boy, whose love was so profound for the merged worlds, began to lose faith in a light that had appeared so dim. See, although the boy loved the two more than his own, he had lost the root of his own light many years ago when his heart was left an empty space where light of his mother had once filled. The boys void could not be filled unless he allowed more light to consume the dim. But since the root of his light had chosen to cut the cord to her own, the boy was left empty and did not know how to allow light to enter. Somehow the boy tried and tried hard as he could, to repair his broken cord with the dim of the two worlds. He struggled with the burden as far as he could, until he fell under the spell of the daunting shadow. Colliding hopelessly with the darkness and the flicker, the boy saw it fit to cut the cord from the two worlds he loved the most and surrendered his dim to the weight of the darkness just as his mother had done long ago. And so the boy left his dim behind in the shadows of two worlds that he loved more than his own, and light left him for he could no longer fill the empty spaces of a broken cord. Yet, in the dim, the boy left a small flicker in the shape of a special rose to remind the two worlds of his undying love... THE MORAL...... To remind those in your life that DIM can EXPAND into LIGHT by telling those you LOVE that they are IMPORTANT to you, that you LOVE them, by reminding them that you are GRATEFUL for their presence in your Life and ALLOWING yourself to also be LOVED by them as well. YOU ARE THE SEED ............ AND YOU ARE THE SOWER It has never been an easy topic to think about, much less TALK about it. SUICIDE. So many, smile throughout their days, going about in a guise of pretense and charades never eliciting an indication of loneliness, despair, or the hopelessness inside. My intention for this vision came a few years after the suicide of the “love of my life”. A man I knew only for his smile and giggling laughter. I used to remind him how proud I was that he was so damned resilient and strong for having gone through the suicide of his mother as a young adult, and trying to figure out how to provide for his kids in uncertain times. In his heart, he carried a very heavy burden and though we had touched base on his experiences, we never fully, or truly, TALKED about it. The economy in 2008 had financially collapsed in America and many people lost jobs, families, and hope. He fell victim to the times and to the legacies his own mother left behind when she too took her own life. Combined with chaos of structure, stability and family, he began to lose his grip on HOPE and FUTURE. Suicide leaves an enormous void with a lot of questions and confusion, and there never truly is “closure” from it. Yet, so many have taken a permanent solution for a temporary transition. We often feel alone and isolated especially when going through trials and hardships, and those around will never know there are taunting shadows lurking in our minds if we give no indication or invitation to allow light in to help retract our steps. Being open to those discussions, being vulnerable and practicing grace and compassion are keys that can help open up these topics for discussion, and help to assist or be assisted with those transitions that so many often see no end to, or feel as if they are alone... It is those illusive fears that keep us in the shadows of despair, and hold us back from reaching out to others. If we can remember that we are never truly alone, then even in the darkest nights, we at most, have GRACE to pull us into the next morning. For EVERY MORINING IS A NEW BEGINNING. Keep your lights on so you can share it with others. Medium: Prisma colorsDate: 2015
Camo and Fire
When I was a firefighter, many moons ago, both in Wild lands and Structural, I got the privilege of knowing friends / team mates who had also served their country in the military. These mates gave their lives in more ways than one. In most cases, voluntarily. These are my brothers.
medium: prisma colors
The Crying Faces
The Journey---(a 4pc story)
By Nelida
There is a beginning, a living, and an end to every soul.
We are all given the same choice to make, "what will we make of this journey?"
Along this journey-this breath, we are born innocent of all impurities. The eyes we see with are crystal clear without acknowledgement of the wars raging within, and without our souls. We are completely dependent on love that is assigned to our caretakers to instill in us.
In the middle life, the adulthood, is the life we choose to create for ourselves; the wars that become us, and the struggles from within that we luggage around become evident. The demons that we carry with us not realizing that they had followed us throughout. It is now upon us to face those on our own.
The end is near, when we are filled with the destinations we were meant to behold-we lived with the journeys we ventured and are left looking up.
We start our journeys looking up, we end it looking up. It is only in the middle, we look down. There is a Mayan symbolic mask called La Muerte y la Vida (The Death and Rebirth) that I based this painting from as my interpretation of that belief.
""The mask has three layered faces, each representing stages of life. The inner face represents the beginning of life at birth. The middle face is the most important one since it represents the adult stage when the person comes into its full potential and most of its life experiences happened. The outer or third face represents the end of earthly life. This sacred time was viewed by the Maya as the end of one cycle and the beginning of another one. ""
Nelida
Stage One, El nacimiento / the birth
Stage 2, Etapa de la Vida / adult stage
Stage 3. La Muerte / the death
Pained ...
Inspired by the anatomy of my own organism, this depiction of the system I am hosted in cames from the struggles of chronic pain running through my body. Whilst focusing my thoughts and energies in self healing, the battle is closer to my mind to keeping the pain at bay within its limits and not allowing it to consume my Mental health. It has been through much of this "know thyself" that has opened me up to seeing results within my self that stregnth and vitality gained.
Nelida
Ink
Del Viento
Abstract acrylics