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Welcome

 In Her Image Studio

In The Art Grotto

Deborah K. Tash

White Wolf Woman

Curator of Arise Gallery

herchurch/Purple Church Artist In Residence

 

Mission Statement:

As a visionary artist, healer and poet I am committed to using my voice, my hands and my art in the community for the intersection of spirituality and sexuality, honoring the Divine Feminine, the Gods and Goddesses, the angelics, spirit animal allies and spirit guides, as well as reclaiming sexual desire and pleasure for the empowerment of all women.

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ANEW Gallery is now

Arise Gallery

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Calling all poets and those who love poetry.  Come read your poems at an open mic and celebrate National Poetry Month with us as we close the current show at Arise Gallery!  In honor of an Ekphrastic theme all are invited to see the current show featuring the mixed media art of Jon Kastrup, the recent paintings of Stacy Boorn and paintings and ceramics of Deborah K. Tash in the main gallery and write a poem about a piece of art in the show that inspires you to words!   

ARISE GALLERY

678 Portola Drive

San Francisco, CA  94127

Sunday, April 29, 2018

Poetry Event: 1:00 to 3:30pm

(1:00 to 2:00pm/Write Poems About Art

2:00 to 3:30/Read Poems)

For More Information Contact:

Deborah K. Tash – 415.875.9510

                                    inherimage@artlover.com                                ********************************************************** 

ARISE GALLERY With the New Year 2018 ANEW Gallery is renamed Arise Gallery. With the same dedication to women’s art and the Divine Feminine in 2018, Arise Gallery, the herchurch community gallery, formerly called ANEW Gallery, will have the front of the building repainted with a mural and new outside signage.   Stacy Boorn will continue  to show her themed work in the second room formerly called the Annex and  Deborah Tash as Curator Of Special Exhibits for the main gallery space will curate rotating special exhibits in conjunction with presenting her work there, as well.

Arise Gallery Shows

Main Gallery:

February 11 to April 30, 2018

JON KASTRUP
Mixed Media Paintings
……….

STACY BOORN
Goddess Paintings
……….

DEBORAH K. TASH
Mixed Media and Ceramics

Second Room:

2017 through 2018
 STACY BOORN
 Photographic Selections

From Alaska Trip

 

 

 

 

 

 

News of
In Her Image Studio
Art Grotto

 

While Spirit Voices Of Light/Totem Animal Allies project continues, I am also developing the companion series Illuminated Bestiary.  The forty animal totem mask paintings will each be accompanied by a smaller separate mixed media drawing inspired by European style illuminated manuscripts incorporating the poem for each of the totem animal allies and will be shown together with the mask paintings.  With this series in mind I am exploring a fabulous technique used by an artist whose work I saw online.  The artist painted his hand with realistic paintings of faces and then used the resultant hand print on paper; powerful and beautiful.  I have been using outlines and drawings of my hands for many years in my art, but have never tried painting my hand and using a print from it.  The hand print appears in many cave paintings and is a Shamanic symbol.  When I saw this artist’s work I realized that I, too, could incorporate hand prints into my work as well.   So I started thinking about what kind of paint to use.  As a massage therapist as well as artist I can’t have hands stained by paint when I work so acrylic paint didn’t seem to make sense.  I sat with the question for a few days and then one morning before waking I had a dream in which I saw a finished Illuminated Bestiary piece including a hand print as part of the design.  Underneath it were the words: Finger Paint.  Such a lovely gift of the dreamtime.  After waking I went online and researched where to buy finger paint.  Found a great site that sells school art supplies and in looking through their product line I discovered washable tempura paint!  A better consistency of paint with better coverage, but washable.  So the next step is to do some preliminary experimentation with the paints which came in the mail this week.  I have also been doing small drawing and painting studies to increase my skills using black paper and black backgrounds.  I love the rich textures and sense of mystery that working with black creates.  Each of the Illuminated Bestiary pieces will be painted and drawn on black paper.

 Voice Of The Poet

Beyond The Dark Wall

 Soul decodes the unconscious
Beauty translates its form
The life-cycle of time
Arising and dissolving
In a rhythm of human breath

Breathe deeply into the now
Let its mysteries inform your life
For the brief brilliance it brings
Sweetened by the knowledge of death
Rising and dissolving beyond our reach

We cannot grasp and hold
What passes in an instant
The wheel of change ever revolving
Like prayer wheels in wind
Sending our entreaties to the ineffable

Take the moment to see what is
The mind unfolding into light and dark
To capture the fleeting senses
Sensate reality in Maya passing
Distinct and emergent as spirit

02JAN18     TASH   ©

Ally Of The Dreamtime VI

 Playing with the breeze
Your fragile wings dance
Fluttering without a sound
Ephemeral loveliness manifest after ordeal

You harbinger of blossoms and spring
Alighting for the briefest moment
On leaf or bud to suckle
Sweet nectar your due

You mimic the wings of faeries
Reminder of grace and whimsy
After a season held captive
In a cocoon of transformation

Melted down to your essential need to fly
Your tribe gathers
Covering whole walls
In a swarm of desire

Sweet wingéd messenger
You are not just a simple pleasure
Meant to delight and entertain
Pretty and meaningless

No, not you my guide
You are a gentle beacon of beauty
A reminder of strength in adversity
And the everlasting truth of the soul

29NOV14     TASH   ©

 

 

Update as of early March 2018:

Well, amazingly, here it is March 2018!  There have been a number of events since September 2017 and my last update including The Goddess Harvest Festival show, a mask making workshop for the Goddess Harvest Festival and currently a show featuring three artists; Jon Kastrup, Stacy Boorn and me at the now renamed Arise Gallery. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On January 1, 2018 we had a great turn out for an open mic poetry event to kick off the New Year.  I shared my first song as part of the event!   We will be hosting another open mic in honor of National Poetry Month at the newly renamed gallery on Sunday, April 29, 2018:

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Calling all poets and those who love poetry.  Come read your poems at an open mic and celebrate National Poetry Month with us as we close the current show at Arise Gallery!  In honor of an Ekphrastic theme all are invited to see the current show featuring the mixed media art of Jon Kastrup, the recent paintings of Stacy Boorn and paintings and ceramics of Deborah K. Tash in the main gallery and write a poem about a piece of art in the show that inspires you to words!   

Sunday, April 29, 2018

Poetry Event: 1:00 to 3:30pm

(1:00 to 2:00pm/Write Poems About Art

2:00 to 3:30/Read Poems)

For More Information Contact:

Deborah K. Tash – 415.875.9510 – inherimage@artlover.com

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Spirit Voices of Light/Totem Animal Allies project is still ongoing and I have pulled nearly twenty of the forty masks which will comprise the paintings.  I have also begun working on the Illuminated Bestiary part of the project which will showcase each of the forty Ally poems that started this journey.   Here is one for FROG and photos of mask pulls:

Illuminated Bestiary VI-Above /Cleansing

Frog

In the slough a chorus rose

Courting my simple home

Voices raised in praise of rain

Deep throated croaking cacophony

Frog

What will we do if you disappear

Your embodied vigilance lost

You who signals the balance of earth

With the voice of your own blood

Frog

Small green prince in disguise

You stand above me in the wisdom of myth

Fairy tales woven with your kiss

Changing form when the spell is broken

Frog

Your cleansing power awakens insight

Naming what no longer serves

Releasing the toxic for a new cycle

Fresh water to brighten the air

Frog

Hopping for joy in the smallest pond

You plunge into the depths of the deepest well

Retrieving lessons of friendship

To prepare the heart for compassion

Frog

20FEB15     TASH   ©

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Highlights of September 2017 Newsletter

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Deborah K. Tash White Wolf Woman ANEW Gallery Curator of Special Exhibits herchurch Artist In Residence In Her Image Studio Art Grotto

I was interviewed by Rev. Maggie Oman Shannon on Unity Radio online on Wednesday, August 30, 2017.  The theme was Creativity and Emotional Healing.  To hear the interview go to:

www.unity.fm/program/CreativeSpirit

 ANEW Gallery Presents:

Walking Hand In Hand With Nature

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Closing Reception
and
Poetry Open Mic

Sunday
August 27, 2017
1:00 to 5:00pm

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The first ever ANEW Gallery Open Mic was held in conjunction with the Closing Reception for Annette Wagner and Cass Kalinski’s exhibit.  It was well received with requests afterward to do it again! 

Poets From The Open Mic

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ANEW Gallery and Theme Gallery Shows

 

Main Gallery:
September 17 to November 5, 2017

Deborah K. Tash
Stones and Bones/Drawings, Mask and Poetry

Alice Heimsoth
Stones and Bones/Photography

Stacy Boorn
Rusty Relics/Photography

 

Theme Gallery:
2017

Stacy Boorn
Namibia and Other Sacred Stones

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News of
In Her Image Studio
Art Grotto

Stones And Bones

I will be presenting my six poem cycle, masks and the Fragments drawings in conjunction with the photography of Alice Heimsoth whose trip to Ireland and her photos in Irish graveyards of headstones inspired the Stones And Bones theme for this next show, as well as Stacy Boorn’s Rusty Relics photographs.  Because I have been thinking about new ways to present poetry, I have decided to include the Stones and Bones cycle as an interactive installation piece to release grief and for emotional healing through creativity.  The show will span the month of October leading into Fall and the celebration of Celtic New Year/Samhain, as well as Halloween and I want to explore the theme in honor and remembrance of our beloved dead with this installation and ritual.  So far my plan is to cover one of the gallery walls with a length of open weave fabric and then hang the poems from the fabric after printing them on canvas with a monolith or headstone outline accenting them.  Adding the names of the people who have passed on in my life written on strips of cloth by tying them into the fabric will be an added element to the stones and bones that will also be included.  I plan to include a public ritual around the time of Samhain that will give people an opportunity to write the names of their beloved dead on strips of fabric and tie them into the installation, as well.  Depending on city regulations I hope to have an ending ritual in which the whole installation will be burned allowing the release of the memories of our beloveds who have passed into the spirit realms.  The stones and bones will then be passed out among the participants for their altars or as keepsakes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Voice Of The Poet

Midnight Haiku

This nesting poem
Now desires only spirit
Muse calls out its name

The background image for this painting began in 1984.  I carried the painting with me through several studios, painting and repainting and not quite knowing how to complete it.  As it turns out it was meant to be a mask painting and I used the last mask I had in stock to finish it.  The haiku is written on the banner and there are ground cherry husks which look like lanterns surrounding the mask, as well as stones and crystals.    It will be included in the mask presentation of Stones And Bones.

  ANEW Gallery Hours Open

Saturdays 1:00 to 5:00pm
Sundays 1:00 to 5:00pm
Wednesdays 2:00 to 6:00pm
Or by appointment

 

Deborah K. Tash contact information:
 Facebook: Deborah K. Tash/In Her Studio

email: inherimage @artlover.com
text:  415.716.1504
phone: 415.875.9510
website: www.inherimagestudio.com 

 

 

Highlights of August 2017 Newsletter:

Thinking about Stones And Bones

In the midst of living a full life, I did two processes in the last two months; the first was taking a Reiki class with Jennifer Mantle which included a “placement” for channeling Reiki Holy Fire and the second a Shamanic technology called Soul Retrieval.  Both were gentle and sweet, but also very potent.  Three days after the Soul Retrieval session I thought I had a cold which quickly and unexpectedly developed into Bronchitis/lung infection.  I was forced by the situation to basically do nothing except cough and drink plenty of fluids for a few days in a row and then modify my busy schedule for nearly three weeks to include lots of down time.  Boy, did I have a cough!  Though I did not get to the studio much during that time because mostly all I could do was lay low, I did have a chance to read a lot.  I read Hank Wesselman’s books on Hawaiian/Kahuna shamanism and had the opportunity to examine my past assertion that my art is Shamanic inspired.  I am still sitting with where I want to go with my art, now that the studio is set up and I have access to all my tools and books.  I plan on exploring my mask work incorporating images of spirit guides and animal allies more in depth.  One of the things I particularly appreciate in The Bowl of Light is that the Kahuna elder whose teachings Hank Wesselman is writing about confirms that sexuality is the most efficient portal for connection into the spirit realms.  I am sitting with how to continue with my Reclaiming The Sacred Cunt Project in conjunction with my emerging understanding of how I want to go forward with my art as a Shamanic practice. During this period of recuperation I find myself thinking a lot about the next show which will be mounted in the gallery and open in mid-September.  Stones and Bones.  I just completed four studies in the Fragments series which may lead to a commission which feature crystals as part of the design.  They actually stand alone as completed works as well as function as studies and will be shown in the Stones And Bones exhibit.

 

 

 

 

 

 Voice Of The Poet

Stones and Bones I

Unearthing the eloquence of grief
I find myself adrift once more
Walking alone in the territory of Unknown
Stones and bones my only guides
When all I want is to sing
In praise of the fragrance of roses
 
The sirens of night refuse me
Keening past the simple pleasures
To demand attention to heartache
Without offering any clues
To navigate the labyrinth of loss
While death walks steadily ahead
 
Stones and bones the talismans
As my soul identifies with the rising moon
My eyes aching with horizons
Ever shifting beyond reach
One more step beckoning and
Veils between worlds shape shift
 
Those simple white roses on my table
Diluted pink at their center
Last no more than a span of days
Then ready to return to earth
They wither into the cycles of time
Their beauty held only in memory
 
Memory like a stone
Skipping across a pond
Rose petals and bones
Weighted in the eloquence of grief
Unearthed in the territory of Unknown
Waiting just outside the door
 
14JUN17     TASH   ©

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June Newsletter Highlights

ANEW Gallery Hours:

Saturday – 1:00 to 5:00pm

Sunday – 1:00 to 5:00pm

Wednesday – 2:00 to 6:00pm

OR BY APPOINTMENT

 

Deborah K. Tash contact information:

Facebook: Deborah K. Tash/In Her Studio
email: inherimage @artlover.com
text:  415.716.1504
phone: 415.875.9510
website: www.inherimagestudio.com

 

 

MAY 2017 Newsletter

May 2017 Newsletter:                                   Deborah K. Tash/In Her Image Studio and ANEW Gallery

 

Mission Statement: As a visual artist, healer and poet I am committed to using my voice, my hands and my art in the community for the intersection of spirituality and sexuality, honoring the Divine Feminine, the Gods and Goddesses, the angelics, spirit animal allies and spirit guides, as well as reclaiming sexual desire and pleasure for the empowerment of all women.

Deborah K. Tash White Wolf WomanANEW Gallery Curator of Special Exhibits herchurch Artist In Residence In Her Image Studio Art Grotto

ANEW Gallery Open Hours:
Saturdays 1:00 to 5:00pm
Sundays 1:00 to 5:00pm
Wednesdays 2:00 to 6:00pm
Or by appointment

 

ANEW Gallery Presents:

Resurrected  Goddess

Jennifer Lothrigel
Photographs

With
Deborah K. Tash
Awaken To The Goddess

and
Stacy Boorn
Photographs

Opening Reception

Sunday
May 14, 2017
1:00 to 5:00pm

ANEW Gallery
678 Portola
San Francisco, CA

!FREE PARKING!

For More Information Contact:
Deborah Tash
inherimage @artlover.com
415.875.9510

 

ANEW Gallery and Annex Current Shows Main Gallery: May 14 to June 30, 2017 Deborah K. Tash Awaken To The Goddess Series Jennifer Lothrigel Resurrected Goddess Stacy Boorn Photography Selections Gallery Annex: 2017 Stacy Boorn Namibia and Other Sacred Stones AWAKEN TO THE GODDESS SERIES   Awaken To The Goddess Series began in a tiny basement studio in East Oakland in the early 1980s.  The series has never been shown in a public gallery space until now, though I did present some of the pieces in my Castro Street studio during Open Studios in the late 1980s.  In that one showing, a young woman told me that the images inspired her to more fully accept herself as a woman which affirmed part of my purpose in creating the series.  I wanted to find a way to connect more deeply with the Feminine Divine within; the Goddess, my power and fierceness as a woman, as well as enrich my Wiccan practice through my art.  I was inspired by the many faces of the Goddess in nature allowing them to move me as I created each piece and also hoped to inspire other women to experience the fullness of their womanliness and the Goddess within.   Working from a photograph of myself looking into a mirror, I used the grid technique to hone a prototype outline drawing which I then used to create mixed media pieces in the series. The challenge was framing the work.  Framing these puzzled me because I didn’t want to lose the deckled and irregular edges by covering them up with mat board and because the paper I used was not a standard size for all of the pieces.  The things one must learn over time!  I finally figured out that they could be floated on mat backing board and the window mat didn’t have to touch the edges of the paper.    I am so pleased to be able to present these mixed media works on paper here in ANEW Gallery in conjunction with the Resurrected Goddess show and hope that you will be inspired and find a deeper connection to the Feminine Divine within as a result.

 

 

 

Mission Statement:

As a visual artist, healer and poet I am committed to using my voice, my hands and my art in the community for the intersection of spirituality and sexuality, honoring the Divine Feminine, the Gods and Goddesses, the angelics, spirit animal allies and spirit guides, as well as reclaiming sexual desire and pleasure for the empowerment of all women.

 

 News Of In Her Image Studio and Upcoming Events:

 

Deborah K. Tash

White Wolf Woman

 

ANEW Gallery Curator of Special Exhibits
herchurch Artist In Residence
In Her Image Studio
Art Grotto

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DEBORAH K. TASH
IN HER IMAGE STUDIO

ART GROTTO
OPEN HOUSE

Sunday
March 19, 2017
1:00 to 6:00pm

herchurch
678 Portola
San Francisco, CA

FREE PARKING

For More Information Contact:
Deborah Tash
inherimage @artlover.com
415.875.9510

 

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ANEW Gallery and Annex Current Shows

Main Gallery:
February 1 – April 30, 2017

Deborah K. Tash
Journal Sketches and Hidden Voices

Jennifer A. Mantle Installation
A Soul Collage(R) Ritual Space For Healing

Stacy Boorn
Nature Photography Selections

Gallery Annex:
2017

Stacy Boorn
Namibia and Other Sacred Stones

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Moving In Her Image Studio into the Art Grotto
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open House at the ART GROTTO!  Sunday, March 19, 2017 1:00 to 6:00pm

On November 15, 2016 I finally moved all my studio contents and art from the three storage units I’d been renting since losing my studio in Dogpatch five years previously.  It was an all day task for three movers, my friend, Marshall, and me which ended with rain.  Whew!  What a relief to finally be out of the Public Storage facility where two of my units were robbed the year before and many valuable pieces of work were stolen; not to mention the persistent rising costs of the storage units. 

Named herchurch Artist In Residence, during November 2016 through to the present I have been emptying boxes and setting up my new studio, dubbed the Art Grotto, in the basement of herchurch.  What a joy while unpacking to find pieces of art I feared had been stolen.  It’s been both a grueling task and lots of fun knowing that at the end of the setting up I have all the room I need to begin making art and displaying my work, as well as having an office, ample storage space and ritual space.  There is also plenty of room to learn to play the cello again, which will be a wonderful adjunct to making art!

Not only have I been emptying boxes, putting things away and organizing, but I have also put together five tables made from scrap wood and Ikea legs, one of which my friend, Marshall (who is an amazingly skilled craftsperson and fabulous handyman), and I covered with exotic black plastic snakeskin fabric for my office desk.  The perfect staging area for a large monitor and computer!

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 Spirit Of The Creek/Incanto
 
When you hear the music of nature
Singing in your blood
Filling you with the essence of water
Filling you with the essence of stones
Then the spirit of the creek
Is calling to you
 
Calling to your deepest memories
To the rich vein of reality
That waits for you in the center of your self
From a place that hides nothing
In ancient tongues of joy and reverence
An Incanto for your soul
 
10MAY06     TASH   ©

Since moving into the Art Grotto, my connection to the Spirits of Water has deepened.  Last month during those amazing deluge rainstorms the presence of the water spirits was strong!   Water poured off the roof of the building, and the drain in front of my door was clogged with pine needles so that water rose outside my door, going under it and coming into the studio flooding the space.  Fortunately I had just put down two of my thickest rugs and they soaked up a majority of the water saving quite a number of boxes  and avoiding spreading under bookcases.  The cleanup lasted about a week, but fortunately there was little lasting damage.  I got back on track to finishing the set up and now will be ready for the Open House on Sunday, March 19th the day before the Vernal Equinox!    There will also be tours of the building, the gallery and Annex, so come join me for the fun!

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Currently showing in ANEW Gallery from February 1 through April 30th: 

Selections from Journal Sketches and Hidden Voices

 

During the year after my father died in 2008 I began drawing regularly in my journal with gel pens.  Several of the selections currently on display in   ANEW Gallery are drawings from this period of time and deal with the internal searching I did in order to cope with my grief.  In the ensuing several years, more than twenty people in my life have died including family members and cherished friends.  Art has sustained me, allowing me to plumb the depths of my understanding of death and spirit and translate my loss  and grief into powerful images and poetry.  

Ancestor Song In Green I
 
Another day has accumulated
Stacked up atop a slow greening
The markers of loss alchemize
Shifting grief to growth
Like grass on an old grave
 
They encircle the day
Wreathing it with memories
Ancestors once lovers and friends
Helping to root and restore
While those who remain continue
 
Listen to the greening song of blood
Precious invocations of morning
Harvesting the light and rain
While the spirits watch and smile
Knowing the cycle of days
 
08APR15     TASH   ©

 

Deborah Tash contact information:

Facebook: Deborah K. Tash/In Her Studio
email: inherimage @artlover.com
text:  415.716.1504
phone: 415.875.9510
website: www.inherimagestudio.com

 

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In Her Image Studio Past Events:

Workshop: Finding Your Totem Animals and Spirit Allies

In the Full Moon in Sagittarius energy we will discover your totem animals and spirit allies.  Learn about the wisdom, guidance and healing available in working with them and their meaning in your life.

Date: Sunday, May 22, 2016
Time: 2:30 to 5:30pm
Cost: Donations Welcome
Where: ANEW Gallery Annex
678 Portola Drive
San Francisco, CA
(Next to the Purple Church)

Workshop: Mask Journey Into Your Interior

Using the energy of the New Moon in Gemini discover hidden and unexplored parts of yourself for healing and self-knowledge through ritual journey work and the process of creating a mask of your face.

Date: Sunday, June 5, 2016
Time: 1:30 to 5:00pm
Cost: $50 per person
Where: ANEW Gallery Annex
678 Portola Drive
San Francisco, CA
(Next to the Purple Church)

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:

Women’s Finery: The Art Of Fabric and Fiber

Are you a fiber artist?  I am accepting submissions to curate a show that opens in July 2016.
Contact me, Deborah Tash, via email at inherimage@artlover.com or phone: 415-875-9510 for details.

Retrospective:

The Art Of Deborah K. Tash

March through June 2016

ANEW Gallery Annex

Well here I am again!  Deborah aka Bee-Messenger of the Goddess, Cosmic Cowgirl and OMer!  2016 has been a whirlwind of events and activities.  I wasn’t planning to do any shows this year but life had other plans for me and I just couldn’t say no.  At the end of January I read in an Ekphrastic Poetry event at ANEW Gallery and then starting off the month of  February, I was part of the Love and Erotic Show at Castro Street ART SAVES LIVES Studio and Gallery which opened for Valentine’s weekend to packed attendance and went through the month. Friday night in the Castro!  After I agreed to be the Curator of Special Events for ANEW Gallery Annex with a wall dedicated to my work in exchange, my Retrospective:The Art Of Deborah K. Tash show opened on March 20th and continues on through the month of June.  One of April’s fun events was a celebration of National Poetry Month sponsored by San Francisco Peace and Hope in which I read two new poems.  It was held in the Annex in the midst of my show which was such an honor.  I am so pleased to have my work published in the San Francisco Peace and Hope journal, as well.  Not only am I establishing my voice as a poet, but I am being recognized, as well.  Then last Friday, May 6th, Woman’s Art Show opened at Castro Street ART SAVES LIVES Studio and Gallery to another packed crowd.  Selections from Reclaiming The Sacred Cunt project will be part of the show through the month of May.  See the show at 518 Castro Street here in San Francisco.

 

 

 

OneTaste Spring Retreat held in the amazing Four Springs Retreat Center near Calistoga.  The spirit of Frog Medicine dominated the awesome weekend energy with frogs singing all night long the entire weekend.  (Want to know more about Spirit Animal Allies and Frog Medicine?  Check out UPCOMING EVENTS at the beginning of this newsletter.)  I celebrated my one year anniversary of “OM”ing or Orgasmic Meditation, a consciousness based, partnered meditation practice which involves stroking the clitoris, in April.   My OM practice has increased the healing energy in conjunction with the amazing network chiropractic Aidan Kinsella and Peg Capers of Verve Wellness Studio have been doing with me for a number of years.  One of the amazing results being that my spine and pelvis, which were chronically torqued to the left for most of my life have, over the last several months, straightened out.  My right leg is normalizing and soon I will be walking more gracefully again.  The level of sensation in my right leg has increased dramatically and now I can even feel my toes!

In alignment with my commitment to working with “intentional creativity” calling on the Shamanic energies of the gods and goddesses, animal allies and spirit guides I continue to incorporate my understanding of sexuality as spirit and the sacred cunt as a portal of spirit in my art and writing.  Proceeding with my Reclaiming The Sacred Cunt project, I am working on the book for the project and planning additions to the art.  Slowly but surely I add chapters to my graphic novel in progress, The Gods In The Mirror, as well.  After completing the writing, I will be exploring comic book illustration.

Additionally I am excited to be exploring figurative drawing and painting again; attending life drawing sessions at Castro Street Gallery to work from live models. I have had a strong desire for several months to figure out how to imbue my work with sensual and orgasmic energy in such a way that it transmits sensation to the viewer.  At the opening last Friday I had a conversation with Rafael Martinez, who is a talented visual artist and OM coach, who told me about a class he wants to design to explore exactly that!  It will be for OMers who are also visual artists or musicians (using live models for sketching and painting) who want to explore learning transmission of orgasmic energy into their work.  The intention being to then transmit sensual bodily sensations to those who view and experience the art and music in return.  So, we are working on setting that up and finding 15 to 20 OMers who would like to participate!  An answer to my prayer.  And stay tuned, as I am also entering the Luxembourg Art Prize competition!  All expenses paid, including hotels, airfare and meals, a cash award, inclusion in the group show in the gallery and a solo show are all part of the prize for the artists who win!
https://www.facebook.com/luxembourgartprize/

And for some fooling around, I started out taking mirror “selfies” with my camera a couple of years ago and lately I’ve been playing around with my iPhone 5 camera taking more.  An interesting way to explore self portraits…Here is a sampling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Born in 1949 in Oakland, California and raised in Alameda from the age of ten, Deborah was shaped by both her dual heritage (Mexican and English/Irish/Scotch) and a childhood marked by polio and years of being confined in hospital. These influences contributed to her childhood preoccupation with solitary activities. Daydreaming, reading, writing poetry and art making were augmented by telepathic conversations with the screech owls that lived in a 100 foot Eucalyptus tree, her best friend, which grew in her backyard. These early Shamanic/psychic experiences led her out of organized religion and into the pagan community in her early twenties where she became a Wiccan worshipper of the Goddess and the Feminine Divine. The impulse to make art began with a love of paper dolls and experimenting with writing and penmanship. At eight she began to write short stories and poetry as a member of the Aunt Elsie Club. By the age of eighteen drawing and painting invisible faces became an entry point for more fully exploring visual art. At twenty-five she attended Shasta Community College in Redding, CA with visual art as a major. After returning to San Francisco in the late 1970’s moving back to Oakland, she founded Cloudscape Design mural company, offering interior murals inspired by the psychic profiles of her clients. One of her commissioned pieces for the 1982 Designer Showcase was included in an article for a design magazine popular in the 1980’s. In that same time period she also completed a commissioned piece for the Port of Oakland’s conference room as well as many commissioned pieces for private collectors.

The intervening years as a Wiccan, massage therapist and psychic healer helped to shape her work to her current interests in the embodiment of spirit as physical. As a resident of San Francisco for over twenty years she has continued to develop mask making and drawing, as well as adding her poetry into her paintings and assemblages. She has also continued her study of ceramics since 2007 exploring adding ceramic objects into her paintings, as well.

Why do I make art? Why is it intrinsically important to me to manipulate symbol and image? How does my interior life shape and influence the act of art making as well as the act resonating into my interior life? Why is self-expression necessary? How do I instill spiritual meaning and implement the desire to inspire and create change both within the process and within the viewer? How does art-making change me? When I confront my edges and established boundaries in order to create an image, how am I transformed in the process? These questions drive me to create, as well as to understand the fluid nature of the answers.

On the Path of Beauty creating images inspired by the Feminine Divine I have endeavored to combine both whimsy and the Shamanic influence of alchemical transformation in my work as spiritual path and a means of self-expression. Over the years I’ve pursued alchemical themes, following the whispering of the Shamanic journey with guides, spirits and archetypes to interact at the intersection of the human world with the other realms. The archetypal realm and the energies of the gods and goddesses fuel my love of color.

See my Business Facebook page here

 

 

One of the things I wanted last year was to show my work in the Castro, which is where I live. I was considering doing a popup show when I saw an available storefront on 18th Street which was being offered for popups, but after assessing all the costs and time issues, decided that it was best not to pursue that option. Imagine my joy when I discovered that the AHP Clinic on Castro Street, which had a very large unoccupied area at the front of the space had been turned into a gallery! Thomasina DeMaio, herself a talented portrait painter, has been running Castro Street Art Saves Lives Studio and Gallery since the last quarter of 2015. When I stepped into the gallery to find out more about the Life Drawing sessions that happen there twice a week, we discussed my work for the Reclaiming The Sacred Cunt project and she booked me for two upcoming group shows after looking at my website. One of them is for the month of February and one in May 2016. The opening reception for the February group show is this coming Friday, February 12th from 6:00 to 9:00pm. I love that ART SAVES LIVES is part of the name of the gallery, as I have carried a dollar bill with that printed on it since the 1970s!
Come join me and the other fabulous artists! Here is all the information:
WHAT: Group Show
WHERE: Castro Street Art Saves Lives Studio
and Gallery
ADDRESS: 518A Castro Street
San Francisco, CA 94114
OPENING: Friday, February 12, 2016
TIME: 6:00 to 9:00PM

 

Gallery/Reclaiming The Sacred Cunt Project

[Show thumbnails]

 

See the YouTube video for the September AWE Gallery Show for Soft Power/Shamanic Invocation Of The Sacred Feminine with selections from the Reclaiming The Sacred Cunt Project:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Follow Me on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/InHerImageStudio

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