Desert Haiku is shaping up !

Editing, editing, editing, animating, scoring, editing. All night long. Errrday. All week. Coming soon to a (theater?) near you. Desert Haiku ! 2K12

Desert Haiku has wrapped filming !!

So much to say, so little time. 8 years ago, I began dreaming about making a film called Desert Haiku. As synchronicity, willpower and a slight amount of insanity would have it, I have launched myself into making the film happen - at last - this year. I have just wrapped production, which lasted 8 days. To top it off, I have exactly 8 days to edit the piece .. 888... How about that for a girl whose favorite number is that of infinity ?? :D

Photo below : A sneak peak of one of the characters getting her makeup on!

DESERT HAIKU CAMPAIGN GOES LIVE !!

And this is why ...

We live in New Mexico. Beautiful sunsets since the dawn of humanity.

Today's leisurely Sunday hike

Dragon's Back, Ojito Wilderness, New Mexico. THIS is why I chose to live here. A 5 minute walk from the parking lot, just off Zia reservation. #yes

Our little friends in mid air

Castaneda

To finish the script of my new film, I have been going through nine years worth of notebooks and journals over the last few days, looking for any and all hints, sketches and ideas for the film which has been brewing in my heart and soul for the past, well, nine years.

In doing so, I have been finding some incredibly funny, sad, insightful and various brilliant notes I have taken through the years, many of them being quotes from Julia Cameron's books, or from The Teachings of Don Juan (and its accompanying sequels), from the legendary Carlos Castaneda.

Here is one of these brilliant excerpts from his writings, which I had reproduced in my journal about five years ago :

'' (Don Juan speaking to Carlos) : You think and talk too much. You must stop talking to yourself''


''We maintain our world with our internal talk. Whenever we finish talking to ourselves, the world is always as it should be. We renew it, we kindle it with life, we uphold it with our internal talk. Not only that, but we also choose our paths as we talk to ourselves. Thus we repeat the same choices over and over until the day we die, because we keep on repeating the same internal talk over and over until the day we die. ''


''A warrior is aware of this and strives to stop his talking.''

New avatar

Regular camera. And then Pixlr-o-matic. So much cheating in contemporary photography ! let's go 60s and Polaroid .. Over and over and over again :)

Driving through Moab

Bear Lake

A still from a moment I filmed on my phone, water shooting from the boat as we roam about the lake ... Utah summer

Fiyah

Another Cloud Face + Marie-Michele collaboration :) photo filter brought to you by Hipstamatic, straight from Elephant Butte State Park

Elephant Butte, New Mexico

Water in the desert, margaritas camping. On a Tuesday. The artist life, in full effect #freedom

The crazy plant lady

So, amidst a world of bars & nightclubs (supporting Le live painter/bboy/DJ that is my boyfriend) and a lot of virtual manipulations (running my own art/design/film company) it has recently come to my attention that I am craving the tropics. So, I bought a plant that looks like a mini palm tree growing out of a pineapple. A Cyclas Revoluta. Bonsai style. Yes. 2 weeks later, I bought another palm-inspired plant. I'm on my way to becoming the crazy plant lady. If it wasnt for all the traveling, this house would become jungle. Here is a picture of my first new love. Ha ! Next up, tropical fish :P

Live painting, always & forever

This is not about me but rather my Lover aka Cloud Face (www.cloud-face.com), where live painting becomes lifestyle and painting to the beat of the music replaces - and surpasses?- the stillness of the studio..

Another snap shot from his work, this one was taken while live painting at the Arts Crawl in Gallup, New Mexico :)

Roots Revival

Opening the first weekend of Black History Month, was the cabaret-play-musical production written and directed by my amazing friends (and neighbors!) Cathryn McGill and Regina Dawley.

I cried, I laughed, I clapped, and I wish everybody could see it, if it wasn't for the fact that it is full on SOLD OUT!

I had the honor of creating a video for one of the scenes, and here is a shot from that :
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Jazzbah !

Tuesday January 17th. ''ENTICE''. Location : Jazzbah, downtown Albuquerque, the hip new jazzclub everyone is talking about.

FEATURING : Yours truly on the live video projections (think orchids and jellyfish in slow motion), DJs & live painters Cloud Face and Randy B, dancers JLeigh and Mikaela of Allure Live, DJ Mr Marvel and Quela, famed Chicago Tribe b-boy Check-It emceeing the night, a silent auction, and a fabulous crowd- especially for a Tuesday night !!!

Here are some images from the night :

The Wonder Chambers

Dear everyone who may be reading this. 

So, as some of you may know, I once upon a time, a couple of years ago that is, created a short film-poem called 'Wonder Chamber no 1' which went on to be shown on a few select international festivals and events, starting with Berlin, London, followed by Sun Valley back home in the U.S., and on to Byron Bay, Australia.

The idea for this film came to me after visiting an exhibition at the Santa Fe Museum of Natural History (I think it was), where for some reason I started daydreaming about the Renaissance, shadow boxes, and all these miniature studies that were made - the Da Vinci sketches, the dissected insects, and the exploratory world of beauty-seekers and science-researchers.

I decided to then create a series of visual shadow boxes, which I named the Wonder Chambers, which would act as a film version of a treasure box, based on the various worlds in which I live.

I shot the first Wonder Chamber in Japan, a country where I have been brought to work a lot recently, and which has been the foundation of my Buddhist life philosophy for 10 years already, as well as my inspiration in the many realms of architecture, fashion, design and lifestyle.  I have mixed into it vintage footage of New Mexico, which I had shot years ago, to explain the parallels (at least, my parallels) between New Mexico and Japan, and the solace I find in the fusion of both these worlds.

I have made my piece available to view publicly, and am now loosely starting to post it around on my various web channels. My blog was next on the list, so here you go :

(sorry this is a link and not an embedded video, but Blogspot is friend with YouTube and not Vimeo, and I refuse the low quality of YouTube videos.. so please do click on this Vimeo link. It will look nicer !)

http://vimeo.com/9045148

Next, came 'Wonder Chamber no 2'. A little bit ashamed of myself, I must admit right now that the film has been shot and edited, music was composed, and graphics were created for it already... quite a few moons ago. I have withheld its distribution, for a reason unknown to myself, but will soon be either releasing it online or sending it off to festivals again. 

As 'Wonder Chamber no 1' explored Japan, 'Wonder Chamber no 2' delved into the world of northern England, with its Edwardian homes, heavy wallpapers and misty landscapes. This is the country where my sister lives, and it has become (and will probably remain) a new chapter in my family's history. 

Next up will be 'Wonder Chamber no 3', for which I have just begun shooting last week in mythical old Las Vegas. I have decided to make this third film-poem about the U.S., but from a vintage perspective, perhaps the one I get to see the most : surrounded by low riders, old taquerias and 40s motel signs, all glories to be found in the American Southwest where I reside. Here are a few teaser images for you : 

All in all, this project of the Wonder Chambers has been and continues to be a dear companion to my roadtrips and overseas adventures. The footage is almost always captured spontaneously, on whatever medium I have at hand.. as I was using my iPhone 4 for the last images captured in Vegas, I will soon be reporting on how well (hopefully) that translates on screen :)

In the meantime, stay tuned for some updates perhaps on 'Wonder Chamber no 2'.. the mysterious unreleased piece lol.. coming soon to a web theater near you :)

Landed in L.A. !

Dear everybody, so I am back by the sea, 3 streets to be exact - Santa Monica yeayeah! - for a couple of weeks, working on a new 'living portrait' with Evolvement Productions :) Took a quick Hipstamatic on the way down.. 

apparently, i manifested these keys :)

see previous post .. and there it was, my very own, absolutely unplanned, gold & white Berlin-made piano, which now sits in my bedroom.. decadence to the max :) and lovin' it

songs in the key of LIFE

summer excerpts!

 our first EVER VJ/DJ show in Montreal at the über-awesome Cinémathèque Québécoise ..