March 30, 2015 I wanted to take a moment this week to talk about a long
term-ish project I have been working on since summer of 2014. I came up with an
idea for a fundraiser for the New Alexandrian Library, which was to create a
book about my favorite women in the magickal community, which would feature
portraits I paint of the women and interviews with the women conducted by Nicky
LeBlanc, another Assembly member, and a writer with a published book under her
belt to boot. Due to the time constraints of having a full-time job, it is
taking longer then I would like, but the project is evolving and growing in
exciting ways. I kicked off the project much as I kicked off the last
long-term-ish project I did – The Fellowship of the Fool Tarot – with a photo
shoot at my home. I invited an amazing group of women to my home on August 26,
2014 for the photo shoot with the instructions that everyone bring costumes,
props, whatever they wanted to bring along that they felt best expressed their
magickal selves. We took photos inside, we took photos in my backyard outside,
and drank a lot of wine and talked and laughed and had a great day of
sisterhood. In between taking pictures (and drinking wine), we enjoyed
the time in one another’s company, and hearing one another’s stories from so
many different backgrounds and traditions. It seemed every time a new arrival
came to my door, there were exclamations of joy and sometimes surprise as women
who had not seen one another in a long time re-connected, or realized
connections they may not have known they shared. All of my life I have heard
that women together are often catty and competitive, but I have to say I have
been blessed with some wonderful women in my life as friends and have been
fortunate not to encounter that kind of behavior. There was lots of wonderful
laughter, stories, and sisterly support taking place that day. Ever since that day, I have wanted to host another photo
shoot – to get more reference material and to also allow us all the chance to
share in one another’s company again. Life has proved more hectic than I
anticipated, so it looks like it will be Summer 2015 before I have the chance
to host one again. And it is a shame that it will take me that long because I
learned something important that day – that we as women do need to connect with
one another more often. There is something divine about the sharing of stories
and magic when women come together as we did. In the meantime, I have been
painting pictures of my many wonderful, magical spiritual friends. Nicky has
been collecting their stories and writing them down. I have managed to collect some photos at events through the
year, and some of my friends have been kind enough to send me their photos. One
thing about a project like this – it is FUN! And not hard to find models. As I have been painting and Nicky has been writing, another
thought came to me about this project that I think would make it even more
exciting, which would be to create oracle cards to go with the book. This is
something that just came to me and is developing, but I hope to involve more of
my friends in this as the project evolves. Please stay tuned as I work on this
project and more news will be coming soon!! |