Fun and Festivals on the West Coast-Summer of 2014

We took a long trip out to the US West Coast last summer to try a few festivals and got to visit what I think is America’s best festival, The Oregon Country Fair. It was my 3^rd time to the fair and is always a delight! It was a great year to go since two of our favorite bands were performing back to back as Saturday’s headliners, Beats Antique and March Fourth Marching Band.

The Oregon Country fair is like a fairyland with Viney habitats and a dragon structure at the entryway.

Even the artwork and artisans seem like they are from the Faye or likely to be wizards!

With framed plants as wall art and tree fairies that hang out....everywhere!

And being a lover of body art and all things natural, I was of course fascinated by the earth pigments being used just as the Native Americans might have. Here are some samples of hematite and ochre, among others.

Seeing a totem pole come to life was supernatural.

And the mud people are a staple at every Fair, performing and playing in their parade of naked body painted tribesmen.

And of course, the highlight was seeing Zoe Jakes perform with Beats Antique in some gorgeous headdresses and the March Fourth Marching Band!

We were out there to work festivals as well and were so blessed to be the henna and face painting booth for High Sierra Music Festival and a few others.

 Along the way, we enjoyed some relaxation in some of America’s most fantastic hot springs and visited the Red Wood Forest.  Here are a few pictures…highly recommended!

 

The 2014 New Orleans Flesh Art Show

Well, I am on a roll and have produced three major events in the last year. They have all been a labor of love but look very promising as a means of income in the future for myself and all involved. The hardest part is finding sponsors to make it a viable event.
The last one mounted was a terrific success due to the quality of talent that volunteered to participate and the audience that came out for this first event since 2005. You can read more below and follow the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/thefleshartshow

The Flesh Art show hit the stage of New Orleans’ famous night club, One-Eyed Jacks for the first time since 2005, on Saturday, March 29th, 2014. Sixteen body artists spent six hours painting a select group of New Orleans most talented performers, before hitting the stage to entertain a packed house. Artists from across the US, as well as notable New Orleans locals, came to participate in this uniquely transformative performance event. Included were world-renowned fine art body painter Craig Tracy and 2014 RAW Make-Up Artist of the Year, Angela Renee Roberts, as well as several favorite contestants featured in Living Art America’s 2013 competition.
MC Gingerlicious, introduced acts such as Ballet Dancer-Kynt Bryan, Sacred Geometry Flow performer-Stepfhanie Connell, and Bounce Dancer-Anna Karina Hoopalina, for a fantastic evening of live painted entertainment. Indie rock band, Gravity A, created the live musical soundtrack for performers to improv to, with New Orleans burlesque queen Trixie Minx closing out the phenomenal show. The anticipation surrounding this year’s Flesh Art Show bolstered terrific press coverage and ongoing notoriety.
If you couldn’t catch the Flesh Art Show “in the flesh”, we have good news for you! Atlanta will again play host to sister event, The Body Art Ball (another brilliantly-produced bodypaint performance show by Rosemary Kimble) as a part of Living Art America, next October 3rd, 2014. Stay tuned to snap up those advance tickets, before another sellout! For more info on either of these EnRapturing Entertainment events please visit:
www.fleshartshow.com and www.bodyartballatl.com

Yogi Stuart LeBlance performs Ashtanga Yoga and goes into trance on stage. Photo by Cully Firmin. 

The cast of the 2014 New Orleans Flesh Art Show. Photo by Cully Firmin.

MC Ginger Licious performs burlesque on stilts, painted by body artist Angela Rene Roberts of New Orleans. Photo by Cully Firmin.

New Orleans Burlesque Diva Trixie Minx licks an audience member! Delicious! Body Painted by world champion Craig Tracy. Photo by Cully Firmin

Serena Stoddard models body art by her mom, Aimme Stoddard. Headdress by Rosemary Kimble. Photo by Thomas Ledford

Kynt Bryan performs ballet on point for the show. Painted by Oscar Galvez. Photo by Thomas Ledford

Hannah Gilley models body art by Brittney Pelloquin. Headdress by Rosemary Kimble. Photo by Thomas Ledford. 

Director/Executive Producer/ Creator of the Flesh Art Show- Rosemary Kimble, making a few last minute changes back stage at the Flesh Art Show 2014. 

The crowd gathers in anticipation of the Flesh Art Show at legendary night club, One Eyed Jacks in the French Quarter, March 29th, 2014

Kat Shellooe performs the Charleston in body art by Rio Sirah for the 2014 Flesh Art Show. Photo by Thomas Ledford.

Rachel Maxann performs wand levitation in body paint by iconic New Orleans character Amzie Adams, for the 2014 Flesh Art Show. Photo by Cully Firmin.

Trixie Minx performs burlesque to the music back drop of Gravity A, Flesh Art Show house band for the night. 

Our Greatest Project, NE Georgia Earthship

I live with my favorite artist in the world. Andrew is a woodworker and a master-mind builder. I do not say this lightly or because I love him so much either.

Four years ago I trusted him with my life and future when we decided to build an Earthship. I only knew then of one semi-major project he had done, restoring our airstream travel trailer. Restoration of Airstream Blog But something in me said, “Let him go for it. He can do it!”

And so we bought a piece of property in north Georgia and started on our new path. Since then we have spent most of our annual income each year building it. In the words of the original Earthship creator, Michael Reynolds (our biggest hero) “an Earthship is a radically sustainable off-grid home”. Which has come to mean to me that there is no other model like it, in the world that we know of, that is less consumptive or lives with the land more than an Earthship. 

Our Earthship collects all of its water from rain from the sky in underground cisterns and all of its energy from the sun, through solar panels. Instead of HVAC for air conditioning, cooling tubes run underground from the back of the house and up to the ground, where they pull cool air through the earth and into the home. At the front of the home, air vents open in the roof to release any build-up of hot air in the house. Brilliant Michael Reynolds!!

The greywater cell runs under the plants in the greenhouse, collecting used water sent from the washing machine, bathtub and bathroom sink. Then the greenhouse plants soak it up for their own use and filter what is left, which is then reused to flush the toilet. I love that!! 

The first time I ever saw one I was in Taos when I was 19 and I said, “I want to live like that one day”. Then I kept on with my journey and forgot all about it until Andrew and I watched the documentary “Garbage Warrior” for the first time 4 years ago. Andrew had been in transition of finding a new career and when the movie was through, we both looked at each other and said, “This is it!”. Thus the journey began and Andrew went to Taos to intern with Earthship Biotechture two months later.

Now five years later, I have seen Andrew build the ship 90% single-handedly. He spent the first year just designing the structure to meet standard building codes. First off he had to change Reynold’s first principle to build with used tires for the foundation because they would never meet code (I was sad to see them go but it made sense). Andrew has also found ways to improve some techniques (keep in mind that these have been built for 30 years now and there were a few things that he felt needed rethinking), such as the vapor barrier layers in the floor, putting in a French drain and engineering new parts for the greywater cell to name a few. He has spent thousands of hours over the past 4 years to make our Earthship the most efficient, state of the art structure to date and one that can pass building codes anywhere in the world.

We have incorporated one of Reynold's reuse techniques by adding bottle bricks to a few walls in the house, which adds lots of color, lighting up like jewels when the sun shines directly on them. 

I will never be able to tell you just how brilliant this man is. Words cannot describe him…. but he is… and someday the world will recognize it too. Andrew Hickman is my hero and I feel honored to share space with him, in a home that honors and respects the earth as it always should be.

For too long, houses have been built without the preservation of nature in mind. Or without even the understanding that all that we need to survive is given to us for free, from the sun and rainwater!

What person in their right mind would not want to live like that!!

The Visionaries

I have been inspired by visionary art since my introduction to the aya ceremonies several years ago and have recently been attending visionary arts festivals. My first experience was with Gratifly, where my friend Jeff Wood introduced me to a few of the brightest new up and coming artists in the genre. This is where I first met Bonnie Goodson, a very kind spirit whom Jeff says was already a master painter by the age of 19. It was Bonnie and her total welcoming attitude that convinced me to come to, Rootwire. the festival that seemed to spark this new trend. My contribution would be as it was at Gratifly, to offer henna and body art as a gift to the festival attendees, bringing joy and inspiration to them just as the other visionary artists did for all of us.

It took a lot of trust for me to attend because in order to do so I would have to step completely out of my comfort zone to travel there early with a group half my age that I didn't know and then be with them for 10 days through the setup and break down of the Vision Lab.  But something in me kept repeating that it was an experience that I needed to have, and I had to listen to it.

Keegan was the director of this operation and if it weren't for his generosity and openness to having me join them, I may not have made the effort.

The experience was incredibly challenging and at the same time truly inspiring and enlightening. It was a creative experience that I had been seeking for a long time and it introduced me to a new group of people who were on a consciousness level that is rare to find, one that truly cares about the earth and the progress of humanity.  

Visionary Art by Jeff Wood

Visionary Art by Bonnie Goodson

Visionary Art by Crystal Eyes

One of the most inspiring aspects of these festivals is seeing the number of artists that come to paint together for the night shows, sometimes up to 30 or more. 

Bonnie Goodson, showing off her new henna and always with a beautiful smile

The Visionary Body Art that I was inspired to create

Me and my dear friend and fellow henna artist Krystalyn standing in front of a Mark Henson giclee. Henson's work is highly acclaimed, often with a political message involved. You will want to take a closer look at his art if you have any interest in this culture.

Paper bag replicas of that which often inspires the visionaries. I found them one night while walking in the woods. 

Some of the fantastical art installations that can be found at a visionary arts festival. I was very inspired to see so much of this, a change from the festivals I am used to working at.

You will find many types of classes and workshops at one of these festivals. Among my favorites at Rootwire were Yoga (of course), Cacao Tea Time with Astor, Quantum Spirituality with Nicholas Nebula and anything on sustainability. 

The Creatrix Temple held numerous workshops and was a fantastic piece of woodwork art itself. I was honored to inadvertently be asked to create this henna style design which was painted on their steeple. 

And of course you will find tons of performing artists sharing their talents at a visionary arts festival. Here is my friend Aurora, embodying a sun god and performing with Ka Amorastraya for the first time. Ka's wings are made only with cruelty-free feathers. 

Here we are putting together the geodesic dome for the Vision Lab which you can see assembles as a dome just above. Vision Lab is Keegan's project which sells reproductions of visionary art from artists all over the US. It is the artwork of these artists that inspire these festivals and are the main attraction. 

And here was my favorite art installation created by Joy Fully. She macramed all of these webs for many hours before coming to the festival and then created this installation along one of the paths. She told me to look inside this box and you will see the most beautiful thing you have ever seen. Inside was a mirror with my face in it. It was a poignant way to share a sweet message through art.