Happy New Year from Buddhas Garden

Here's an old photo from the Buddha statue garden at Tashi Choling outside Ashland looking out from the gate which is open. By this I want to say I hope all your gates are open and you are free to pursue your life in a positive way and one that also benefits others. We all want peace and justice and well being.
I am content that I chose Buddhism about 30 years ago....It is a path with heart and with the potential to liberate us.

Church in Oaxaca Valley

This is the church at Tlacochauaya......near Teotitlan.

In Oaxaca every morning at 7 am the local church.....Carmen Alta......rings its bells.......That church probably sits on an old site from before the Conquest where the locals celebrated the Guelaguetza in honor of the corn goddess. I read that in the Oaxaca newspaper a few years ago. A guelaguetza is a giveway and fiesta made by everyone co-operating.

In Teotitlan it is the way to have a great fiesta, like a wedding, where everyone pays back others what they previously received from them. Lists are compiled.....you got 4 turkeys, you now give 4 turkeys.......you received 100 handmade tlayudas, you now bring your metate and mano and the dough and make 100 tlayudas at your compadre's or relative's wedding.... They provided 10 boxes of cervezas for your 7 day wedding, and you will return the favor. A beautiful custom.

Soon to fly out of this querida place. I am so thankful Oaxaca is part of my life.

Guadelupe the Corn Dancer

Gouache painting by Mitzi Linn
Guadelupe is dancing the corn ears....mazorca....recently harvested here in the Oaxaca valley. Just the other day Tito´s family in Teotitlan went to their fields to bring in corn, which will be dried and then used to make tortillas and tlayudas for their meals. His sister Reina is giving cooking classes at their family home in Teotitlan now after working with other chefs. I hope she will make me some mole negro to bring back.
Pilgrims scurry about too, arriving with fireworks to celebrate the day of the Virgin of Guadelupe on Sunday. My painting is part of a series of Guadelupes dancing, ie making sacred, various things--here, the corn.
Today is the Virgin of Juquila´s day.....before becoming catholic, ie before the conquest, both were goddesses of the indigenous people here. Juquila specifically comes from Oaxaca.

Yesterday I said hello to Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent).......who is still seen near or in the church (and prehispanic temple) in Teotitlan--hidden in a figure of the Christ....One of Q.´s aspects is creativity...Ojala me ayuda!

Mexico Mix

A collage of Mitzi's images.......
I am heading for Oaxaca in a couple weeks. Looking forward to seeing all my friends/families there and eating at my favorite restaurants--La Olla and La Bisnaga and El Descanso......and seeing...feeling....tasting....knowing that beautiful old place again. Hoping to renew myself on many levels......Saludos a mi querida Oaxaca.....

Frida's Bouquet

Collage by Mitzi Linn
Here's a collage of my images and of Frida's I put together a few years ago.

Honoring friends and family for Day of the Dead

We, Edmundo Montano family and I, decorated the grave of Karen Turtle for Todos Santos in 1992. Karen died in Oaxaca during Semana Santa in 1992. Her ashes were buried in the cemetery of Teotitlan Del Valle after a ceremony hosted by the Montano's and attended by people of the folkarte communities of Oaxaca. Karen had many friends and she is still missed.

"Our Planet Earth" a new painting by Mitzi Linn
Our Children's Trust will use a similar image. Stay tuned for more info.
Happy Equinox, Full Moon and Fall!

Butterfly Canyon

Butterfly Canyon--Gouache painting by Mitzi Linn

This painting was inspired by a visit to a sacred waterfall near Juquila, Oaxaca. The water was sacred to the prehispanic Zapotec goddess who preceded the Catholic virgin .....The Virgin of Juquila. She is the focus of much adoration among Oaxacans still.

Guatemalan Textile and a Poem

Photo of part of weaving from San Juan Cotzal, K'iche', Guatemala.

View From My 50’S

Contemplating the journey ahead
I can only remember past ones,
across open spaces,
journeys that cleansed this being
of Doubt and Fear.

I can only go how and where
My heart directs me.
I continue,
With intense aloneness,
Looking at each horizon
as a possible home.
The same way I stare in lighted windows as
I pass along this street.

The journey to the Light is
the same as the one home.
The going is a becoming.
I seek wisdom and compassion,
a total healing of my myriad selves.

Still, in awe of the Spirit’s pull,
I know Death cannot free me
of this longing to go beyond...........

Through lifetimes of learning and letting go,

karmic debts will be paid.

Wise, compassionate, empty,
I will be free at last.


1997 copyright Mitzi Linn

Womantrees Dancing to Perfume de Gardenias.

Here's another video of paintings set to music by Lila Downs. Womantrees Dancing is a spiritual feminist series that features the concept of women as the Tree of Life, a universal symbol and motif. They dance with the wind, the rain, with experience and to celebrate. As trees their roots go deep in the earth. Faceless, they refer to their archetypal identity. All paintings copyright Mitzi Linn

Slideshow "La Bamba" by Lila Downs... Oaxacan Inspired Paintings by Mitzi Linn

Here's my first attempt at a slideshow with music. I had to put it on YouTube in order to put it on my blog. I know Lila Downs and her partner, Paul Cohen, from the '90's in Oaxaca. They are really good people as well as really talented and creative musicians. A gozar!

How Can We Know the Dancer from the Dance?

Womantrees Dancing--Spring--- Gouache painting by Mitzi Linn

Labour is blossoming or dancing where
The body is not bruised to pleasure soul,
Nor beauty born out of its own despair,
Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil.
O chestnut-tree, great-rooted blossomer,
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?

from "Among School Children" by W. B. Yeats

Dreaming New Mexico

Dreaming New Mexico--Gouache painting by Mitzi Linn
To dream something is to imagine something. I am imagining being in Northern New Mexico right now. Imagining another journey there is the first step--'the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step'-- LaoTze--Tao de Ching

Ghost Ranch

Dark Horse Night--gouache painting by Mitzi Linn--inspired by time spent in New Mexico.

The Ghost Ranch outside Abiquiu NM is one of my favorite places. It is beautiful. They have a campground, a laundry, a library, rooms for rent, and a cafeteria. They host various workshops over the summer. Hiking and horseback riding are great ways to explore their land of enchantment. Here's a link to Ghost Ranch--one of Georgia O'Keefe's favorite places. You can walk to the house she owned there--where she lived and painted.
www.ghostranch.org

Navajo Account of American Conquest

Photo by George Huey

I saw this account of the American war against the Navajo in Canyon de Muertos. Named for the massacre and defeat of the Navajo in this part of Canyon de Chelly, their sacred homeland.

Postcard from Canyon de Chelly

Photo by Russ Finley

I find myself wanting to travel again now that spring is arriving. Canyon de Chelly on the Navajo Reservation is one of my favorite places. Standing on the rim and looking down, the Canyon called me to explore it on horseback and on foot during my first visit to Chinle. Here's an edited poem inspired by the visit.....
Blue Horse Sequence
i
Coral-colored rocks.
Chalk-white sands, The
infinite blue sky rising from
distant black mesas.
I glimpse a mirage,
A blue shimmer,a dazzle or
a wild wandering spirit....The blue horse.
ii
The Blue Horse
speaks a secret tongue, wanders in Beauty
outside time, before, beyond
Blue horses merge in blue winds.
They raise their heads against
Chinle’s frozen winter stars.
I ride the Blue Horse Spirit. We,
kindred spirits in transformation,
Beauty behind us. Beauty in front.
Surrender to Beauty.
In Beauty
It is done.

The Bananaleaf Series

Painting: BLS: Wild Horses--gouache by Mitzi Linn

A painting for all my sisters. Celebrating the spiritual nature of women for International Women's Day. Sisterhood is powerful. Let's honor our beautiful feminine planet and her creations.

The Oasis Series

"Oasis #5" gouache painting by Mitzi Linn

I look towards spring from my window above the park. This painting series was created in Oaxaca. The tall rocks represent spirits of the natural world. They are also spirit guides--connected to our universal ancestors as well as enlightened beings existing in the spiritual world.

On a waterway, a boat sails by. At the bottom of the spirit stones, grow many tropical type plants. The sky is sunset red. The boat holds our hopes and dreams as we sail into the unknown.

Welcome to Mitzi's Studio

My apartment in Eugene's tallest building is tiny. I imagine it to be like a New York apartment, with all available spaces to be used. Here's part of my collection of things from living in Oaxaca off and on for 20 plus years, as well as various paintings made over those same years. In the photo you can see a Tree of Life candle made in Teotitlan, at the top on the right. They are usually found in the church there and are given to the family of the bride-to-be in a beautiful ceremony called "Contentar" The paintings are some of my favorites which I have kept over the years.
A closer view of part of the art wall including a painted chair from Margarito Melchor of San Martin Tilcajete, Oaxaca. Two jicapetzles sit on the bottom shelf. After being a nomad and housesitter over the years, I am pleased to surround myself with things I like from my travels.
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Friends from Teotitlan

Gi'bets--Teotitlan's sacred mountain
Bryan (American) with Ale Rios and Tito Mendoza in Teotitlan on Todos Santos (photo by Liv)
Dinner on Todos Santos with Tito, Abi, Ale, Liv and Mitzi (photo by Bryan)









Tito & Lili & Santi by their house altar on Todos Santos (the Day of the Dead)










Tito's parents--Felix and Antonia with their Day of the Dead altar on Todos Santos.

Below--My old friend Altagracia (on right) with Soledad and Maria (her daughters-in-law) and her grandaughter Mayto. They were cooking for a group at the Danza de la Pluma. Alta is famous for her traditional barbacoa.

La Danza de La Pluma-- For the Virgin of Guadelupe

Linda, the Dancer, with her grandmother. Then a foto of her parents Lichita and Ismael at their home with their jicapetzles before going to the dance in front of the church in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca