In her series of paintings titled “Ancient Forest”, painter Kimberly Webber captures the archetypal sacred feminine in nature. In her luminous painting, Melissae, the interconnectedness of humanity and nature is made visible through golden rays forming a sacred hexagonal pattern – evocative of a honeycomb. Melissae is an ancient Latin word that translates to honeybees and also the priestesses who tended to the honeybees and brought the gift of prophecy.

See the painting and listen to Kimberly talk about the web of life that sustains us: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7_Bm6oWEz8.

There are many who feel that we stand on the verge of massive global change and that women will be at the forefront of that change. Leaders are emerging in many disciplines, including the arts. Painter Kimberly Webber feels compelled by a burning desire to create as much art as she can that depicts the divine feminine. Her inspiration comes from “the voice of the earth herself,” and the hope is that the work personifies mother earth and empowers the viewer. Images and ideas appear to her in dreams or through nature where the feminine archetypes bubble up from the chthonic into consciousness. “They are asking to be heard now,” Kimberly says.

Kimberly started painting as a 3 year old and went on to train formally as a painter including studies in Florence, Italy of traditional Renaissance Masters. After leaving the university, she spent six weeks hiking in Northern California and Southern Oregon on the Pacific Crest trail, which runs from Canada to Mexico.  The redwood forests and ocean in California beckoned her to a different kind of learning.  “I wanted to unravel all of my formal academic training and programming,” she says.

Entering a time of earth-based training; she studied with a female shaman and lived deep in the redwoods.  Feeling gently supported and nourished by the forest, Kimberly hiked regularly in the dark, without a flashlight, exploring the night.  Moving out of her head and into her heart, she says it was a time of quantum growth for her and propelled her to a more sensitive, subtle level of painting.

After a year in the redwoods, a quiet but insistent call led Kimberly to Taos, New Mexico. She packed up her tipi in a pickup truck and moved, without ever having been to Taos.  Within 24 hours, she had a work-trade arrangement at the New Buffalo Bed and Breakfast – in exchange for studio space.  Living in her tipi, she bartered for most of her needs and continued journeying deeper into the heart and rhythms of nature.

Kimberly began painting goddesses – a bird goddess on a pile of skulls, a series of figures submerged in their backgrounds. Her paintings reflect sacred geometry and other underlying natural orders. She uses lapis, mica and gemstones to add an inner luminosity to her work. Her current work in progress features the Crete snake goddess manifested in huge eight feet tall images. Read more…

Are you looking for your swagger?  Swagger Poet Olivia Romo shares her thoughts on finding yourself and expressing your voice. Listen to Olivia’s advice on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z42lBPQhKQo.

Thanks to Olivia for sharing her poetry and thoughts with The Girl’s Guide to Swagger.  Olivia’s inspiration comes from her connection to her roots and the land and water of Taos NM.

According to author Carol Lee Flinders in  Rebalancing the World, early humans lived in harmony with the land.  Flinders identifies a series of “values of belonging” that these peoples had in common.  One of the values is:

*intimate connection with the land to which one belongs. Not merely sentimental affection, but concrete knowledge of issues such as where the region’s water comes from, what kinds of grasses and trees flourish there, and what threatens it.

Olivia’s poetry reflects this value of belonging, as well as her life experiences, which includes joy, sorrow, outrage, and redemption. You can find out more about Olivia and her swagger poetry:

Introduction: http://www.girlsguidetoswagger.com/?p=1628

Woman empowering poem:http://www.girlsguidetoswagger.com/?p=1648

Sacred connection to land and water: http://www.girlsguidetoswagger.com/?p=1708

How can you stay grounded and know yourself in a world that is spinning so fast?

Olivia Romo, swagger poet from Taos, has found a way to stay connected to her roots, which include the language, the culture, the land, and the water of northern New Mexico.  Her poem about the water ways that sustain agriculture – called acequias- reflects her respect for her family and their traditions.  The poem also describes her experiences connecting with the water as a child, she says “water is a universal need for humanity – it also has personal and spiritual meaning for me.”

Olivia has a unique talent – respecting the past and finding the sacred in her connection with her history, while at the same time bringing in her own insights about the present, including threats to the land and water from newcomers and corporate interests that don’t understand the fragile system that has sustained the Taos Valley for hundreds of years. She says that the water is the sangria/blood of life for the magical people of Taos and she “swims in the tears of my people” as the ancient way of life is threatened by loss of understanding and respect.  She takes her place “a leaf on this family tree” and uses her art to bring attention to the sacred beauty of her home and the dangers that threaten it.

Olivia says, “I know where I’m from.  I step in front, hoping that my generations will follow.”

You can see Olivia perform her powerful poem about the land and water at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jMS4buSMno

To be our strongest selves, we must both connect with our roots and find ways to grow into our unique selves.  Some girls and women find both their connection and uniqueness through creative expression.  One such young woman is Olivia Romo of Taos NM.

Olivia was born in Taos and her poetry reflects the rich history of the area and her connection to the land, the language, and the traditions. She is also a slam poetry champion and has found her voice in writing and her confidence in performing.  Olivia says that poetry is the seed she carries in her heart.  She has been inspired by the natural beauty of Taos and the example of the poets and artists working in the active creative environment in Northern New Mexico.

As a young Hispanic woman, she has not always been understood or accepted as an artist and there are some days when it is hard to stay in the struggle. When she is discouraged, she looks for women role models whether they be confident women around her or women from history, like Cleopatra.  Her muse sounds like the voices of women from the past, whispering brilliant ideas – like angels speaking.

The Girl’s Guide to Swagger will be featuring Olivia and her poems over the next week.  Listen to Olivia introduce herself and talk about her inspiration and her swagger on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwZykYhVINU

When you think of sculptors who come to mind? Michelangelo? Rodin? Henry Moore? Aren’t there any women sculptors?

Artist Elsie Wood tells the story of her own creative journey and how misfortune led to inspiration. Elsie was the Executive Director of the non-profit organization Society for Creative Aging in Boulder, Colorado and the coordinator of the Intergenerational Mural Project for the Children, Youth, and Environments Center at the University of Colorado, where she brought together elder artists and elementary students to work on the project.

After over 30 years’ experience in the creative arts as a sculptor, including participating in international sculpture symposia, producing, exhibiting, lecturing on, writing about, and teaching art, Elsie says:

…life gave me a lemon – a rather large one. I had eye surgery in 2008 that went amuck. Consequently I was unable to continue working. Since then I have had 7 reconstructive surgeries – the last one in April 2011. Lots of down time and time to recreate myself. I now had the opportunity to walk my talk – my passion for the creative process put to the test. As a sculptor, I had to think about the possibility of not being able to carve as I had done before. So I put my creative hat on and found writing as a mode of creative expression - journaling and poetry. Then I had a dream – very detailed and woke up laughing. I looked at the dream and out of it came the idea to write a book on eight women stone sculptors and their magnificent creative lives. This intrigued me because I felt there was not a lot in art literature about women especially in the sculpture field and especially not about stone sculptors. The idea of writing a book is scary and challenging and I embark this new creative endeavor with excitement and look forward to my dream becoming a reality.

 As I continue my journey of re-creating my life with “new vision”, I realize how important it is to bring the creative spirit into one’s life.

 “What if imagination and art are not frosting at all, but the fountainhead of human experience?”

Rollo May