Tag Archives: writing

breaking apart your patterns

Reminiscing and found my old journals from 2011. That was a crazy year. I guess it was one of those years where you would look back when you’re 75 and say “That was a crazy year”

I was living in Hollywood for 5 or 6 years already (this is starting to sound like a sad biography..), going out all the time, partying, meeting interesting characters, shopping, you know, being a Hollywood rat. There are a looot of rats out here.

81510aHere’s one rat.

Anyways, a lot of things happened (a devastating break up, liars, not knowing who to trust, basically that hole you get into where you’re like What the fuck am I doing with my life?) and that’s when I made a conscious decision to cut certain people out of my life, stop going out, stop hanging out with losers, stop caring about unimportant crap. I started reading more, writing again, spending a LOT of time alone, donating and selling more than 75% of everything I owned, meditation retreat, started this blog, went on a solo 4-month trip to South America. I made a pact with myself: If who I’m hanging out with or what I’m doing isn’t a soul-enriching experience for myself or the other person then I’m not doing it. And I still live by that. There’s too many other things I could be doing. I’d rather be reading a book by myself than hanging out with a bunch of people pretending to talk about something. (It’s so true what they say–Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are.)

One thing I’ve learned is if someone is scared of your direction of growth, they will say anything to discourage it. Most likely because they discourage themselves…

So I went to South America by myself with a decent amount of savings (and I don’t care what anybody says; If you’re young and traveling is what you want to do, what do you keep saving money for? Take your savings immediately, go somewhere and come back with zero), little to no knowledge of spanish, one duffel bag, volunteered for half and travelled for the other half. It was the best thing I ever did and I met so many great people with curious, optimistic mindsets.

arutam3

banos15

arutam32

floratristan25

That was almost 2 years ago (and after South America, I kept traveling – Costa Rica, Europe) and now I still live in Los Angeles but I have the life I envisioned–well I wouldn’t even say envisioned, it’s more like a feeling you know in your gut–for myself from my true core, but I had all those layers before blocking it away–and I’m still working on removing more layers. I’m truly a believer of dreaming big and if you’re dissatisfied with your self/life (which I’m sure happens many times in one lifetime), it’s because there’s something bigger and better waiting for you; waiting for you to break apart the old patterns and layers that don’t serve you anymore. ♥

past

Do you ever look at something you wrote a while back and feel embarrassed and delete it right away? I just went through all my posts here and deleted almost half. It just made me feel uncomfortable. Sometimes I go through my pictures and delete. I go through facebook and delete. When I was in high school I burned all my journals from age five on. I don’t know if that’s a form of self suppression or only normal to cringe a bit? I believe I am very head-on with my past. I deal with it, I work on it, I allow whatever feelings to come up.. but maybe it is still a habit for me to attempt to bury my pasts?

I think a part of me is too afraid to share my writings in a book because later on I won’t be able to erase it..

when i first met him

Another artist I found while in Ojai :)

Storypeople by Brian Andreas (www.storypeople.com)

“When I first met him, I knew in a moment I would have to spend the next few days re-arranging my mind so there’d be room for him to stay.”

 

So sweet!! Leaves me fuzzy..

 

knowing woman

Found a book from one of the coolest bookstores ever, Bart’s Books (Ojai, CA).

Knowing Woman by Irene Claremont de Castillejo

“A woman today lives in perpetual conflict. She cannot slay the dragon of the unconscious without severing her own essential contact with it; without in fact destroying her feminine strength and becoming a mere pseudo-man. Her task is a peculiarly difficult one. She needs the focused consciousness her animus alone can give her, yet she must not forsake her woman’s role of mediator to man. Through a woman, man finds his soul. Through man, woman finds the animus who can express the soul she has never lost. Her burning need is to trust her own diffuse awareness, to know what she knows and to learn to speak of it, for until it is expressed she does not wholly know it.”

acrylics

Ride

 

I usually don’t talk about my “job” on my blog but I’m a makeup artist and recently worked on Lana Del Rey’s new music video (I worked on the lovely extras; her makeup artist is the sweet Pamela Cochrane). I have always loved her music and eye.. she wrote this mini short film. It’s beautiful…

“Who are you? Are you in touch with your darkest fantasies? Have you created a life for yourself where you can experience them?”

 

creative

 

monster

“Who hasn’t ever wondered: am I a monster or is this what it means to be a person?”

-Clarice Lispector Hour of the Star – PS: beautiful novel…

 

love’s moonlight

[acrylic - nikki star]

“All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.”

 

beast

“A woman is a beast. She is as lovely as she is repulsive. She is one part demon and one part goddess, one part slave and one part muse, one part child and one part mother. These contradictions are what make a woman so intoxicating.” -Unknown

 

Still am working on first draft of novel but conceived a new idea for another book.. will be sultry and full of erotic drawings.. Lewd. That’s a fun word.

Hmm.. I’m curious to know what you think is the sexiest part of a woman. The dive at the waist, a little peek of the wet inner mouth, the way her hair curls around her ear… ?

Mallorca, Spain

The key to the house. I love keys like this! I wish all of mine were like this.

- Mallorca, Spain; 18:30

Went to the beach today and realized something… in amidst to my love affair of the beaches in South America, having been to a few beaches in Europe now, I much prefer the latter… people leave you alone more or less. In most of South America, you’re lucky if you can walk in silence for two minutes (the annoying Ssss, ssss, I do not miss).

Catching up on my reading and have finished Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go which is a definite must-read. The story gave me a strange, heavy feeling; full and empty at the same time. It’s really good. Started John Steinbeck’s To A God Unknown and am hooked already. The way he writes is so… swift. I never get bored or start drifting off the page (I experience this habitually with other books and have to force myself to stay on the page) as he just carries the story so well. I read the Introduction in the beginning and found it interesting. This book was the hardest he had labored and took him 5 years to write. I can’t imagine writing 5 days a week (which is what he did) for 5 years and receiving one rejection after another; he had to rewrite the book many times. He never considered himself one of the greats. I suppose all writers experience insecurity and fury, no matter how good they are..

The laboring is what makes one great, I guess. But then, that scares me.