Monkeys, My Favorite Animals

In Peru I went to this amazing butterfly farm and animal rehab center outside of Iquitos. It was a wonderful experience to hang out with the monkeys and be so close to them. They are wild because they live in the trees around the center but they were rescued animals and so are fed by the staff. I hope to go back there and volunteer with them someday. Here is a video of me with the monkeys.

Funtime in Rural A-Town

A couple of weeks ago I had a fun and interesting day. I was in Kennesaw, Georgia for a small town festival, which I was face painting at. I guess I did not realize that there were such hillbilly towns so close to Atlanta still. When the first little girl asked me to paint a cow on her cheek it was a big clue. So was the big confederate flag flying at the towns main restaurant. I think also that the freight train was their idea of a parade because it went by, right through the middle of the festival, at least 8 times in the 5 hours that I was there. I could not decide if that was louder or if the two radio station booths battleing it out for attention were. I think the Fish Christian radio station won that contest though because we could not even hear what was happening on the very nearby stage by the end of the day.

There was a stage with lots of interesting entertainment too, including cloggers dancing to “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”, which I had not seen at a festival for at least ten years. (See video below.) Then it was quite bizarre when the scene changed drastically and a group of preteens appeared on stage in pin striped mini skirts and black hats and vests doing lots of Britney Spears moves and appearing way too racey for a Kennesaw family festival. I just had to laugh at the irony. I’m sure the Fish station was appalled. I was glad to see the diversity.

Later that night I found myself at a pizza joint in Tucker, Georgia watching perhaps the most amazing electric guitar player I had ever seen, an Australian named Geoff Atchison. (See video below.) It was obvious that most of his fans were guitar aficionados because they all sat staring and studying his every move. No one danced, they just sat at tables in awe of the master at work. He played so fast and with such dexterity that his hands looked disfigured. Later a kid no more than 15 years old came up on stage and wowed us with a guitar ability as amazing as Jeff’s. His guitar face was pro as well.
Anyway, I just wanted to share that. I love when a day like this comes along to remind me of what a interesting life this is.

New Orleans Lives On

It is so hard to believe that it has been 3 years since Katrina hit New Orleans. Thankfully they made it through Hurricane Gustav this week but there is still great fear that the levees may not hold if another hurricane made a direct hit. With Katrina our country witnessed the worst case of neglect by the government since the Trail of Tears. In the end it was U.S. citizens who helped and rescued New Orleanians, more than anything the government finally did. The people of this country opened up to evacuees, feeding and housing perfect strangers for weeks before they would be allowed back home. They gave us hope and reminded us that at least our fellow man gives a damn even if the government does not.
I lived in New Orleans for 7 years until Katrina hit and changed my life forever. I had a successful life as an artist there and was active in the community. I bought and renovated a gorgeous house and put my costume storefront in it. It was a dream come true and I imagined it would become a family heirloom. I was happy and loved being a part of a great community. But after Katrina, the place I knew and loved would never be the same to me. With no tourist industry and half the population gone I knew it would be too much of a struggle for me to survive there as an artist. My friends were now all over the country and I might never see them again. And, I was concerned about my health and safety in the now toxic and overly crime ridden city. (My house did get some damage but not compared to the loss others experienced.)
I was torn. I wanted to stay and help but I knew that what I could do for New Orleans would amount to nothing compared to what it would need to breathe life again. I can remember how the first few times I went back, it felt like the heart of that city was barely beating and I remember feeling like it took so much energy just to be there, that the city needed every bit it could suck out of you in order to survive. I know a lot of people felt that way. Thankfully, there were some who had the energy to give and it is due to them that there is even a New Orleans left to speak of.
I decided to relocate….but I got a ton of hell for it. Some people were really supportive of my decision but others thought I was selfish and that I should come back and play an active role as I always had. All I knew was that to live there would probably kill me or drive me crazy and I had to take care of myself first. I know that for me I made the best decision. I have a new life, completely different really and I believe many blessings came from my decision to take care of myself. I have no regrets. I will always love New Orleans and the blessings it shared with me while I was there.
It has been a long journey since then but New Orleans is recovering, though very slowly. There is not much reported on the progress of New Orleans any more but if you are interested, here is an article I found that seems to be more realistic than anything else out there. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/how-we-forgot-the-city-of-jazz-and-jambalaya-907652.html
I also was sent this one which is very interesting called “The Katrina Myth”, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wln_iq5bc8k
New Orleans is still one of the most beautiful, culturally diverse, and entertaining places that this country has ever known. I recommend anyone who has never been to go visit it and even those who have been there to go back and be a support to the most unique culture this country has to offer.
(If you would like to know more about my life and role in New Orleans you can visit the history link of my webpage on the bio page at http://www.rosemaryi.com/history.html starting at 1998.)

My Passion for Henna

I have been so excited about my travels and everything else that I have not even touched on my henna art. It’s the henna that pays the bills and allows me to travel more than any other art form I do. So I wanted to give honor to it now.
Henna is actually one of the oldest art forms on the planet and can be found on paintings in the Egyptian pyramids. It starts as a greenish paste that once applied to the skin turns to an earth red color, a perfectly painless temporary tattoo. It is believed that Egypt first brought henna to India where the art form is known as Mehendi. Traditionally Mehendi has been used ritually in birthing ceremonies and in wedding ceremonies to insure a lasting marriage. Often the name of the groom is written on the palm of the bride, very cleverly hidden, and the couple cannot mate until he finds it. Also it is said that the bride does not have to do any housework until the stain has completely faded, which can last for weeks. (I always imagined brides hiding in a closet to reapply the henna and put off the housework for a few more weeks.) I have found Indian people to be supportive of my work and often excited to see that their native art has traveled across the globe.
Ironically I was visiting New Orleans in 1997 when I first saw henna applied. A friend of mine had told me about it a few months earlier and instinctively I knew that it would become my passion. The artist doing it saw my enthusiasm and gave me a free tattoo. I bought my first henna kit from him and have been practicing it ever since.
The next year I moved to New Orleans hoping to make a living in Jackson Square doing henna. It was not that easy. Many old school portrait artists, mostly antiquated in their own right, were opposed and put up quite a battle to keep me out. Luckily I met another artist who was also starting to do hand painted temporary tattoos, in color. His name was Tanner and through our long term battle with the city’s artist licensing office and those reluctant Jackson Square artists, we won the battle and claimed the right to do body art in Jackson Square.
Since then I have traveled all over creating henna designs and making a living from it. It really is my favorite art to do and one that I know will be with me for the rest of my life. Many thanks to Egypt, India and to all of the other cultures that have been generous enough to share this gorgeous art form with us.

Working With Wild Animals Native to Georgia

I have more great pictures to share. I never did tell you about how I got started in wildlife rehabilitation. I wanted to work with wild animals for quite a while but never had the time when I lived in New Orleans. So when I came to Atlanta I began thinking a lot more about it until one day it just happened. I found an injured possum in my yard, which I rescued and took to the closest rehabilitator I could find.
From there I discovered AWARE (the Atlanta Wild Animal Rescue Effort) where I volunteered for two years, on and off, helping rescue and rehabilitate wild animals native to Georgia: including possums, squirrels, raccoons, foxes, bobcats, snakes, song birds, bats, and chipmunks among other creatures. I learned so much and enjoyed bottle feeding babies and helping to heal the animals. Of course lots of dirty work cleaning cages comes with this but it is all worth it. When possible the animals would be re released into the wild.
I have not been able to help out much for the past several months but I am finally available again to do rescues for the organization and to help with events. I am planning to get more involved again soon and am also looking for other local organizations where I can accomplish my dream to work with primates as well. These photos are of some baby possums and a bob kitten as well as me with two of the ambassador education owls, Goliath and Owlbert.

More Bizarre and Cute Animals

I especially love the little hedgehog and the kitten with four ears is too cute!

Bizzare and Cute Animal Images

I love animals, in case you had'nt figured that out already. So i have compiled some bizzare and cute pics of some that i found or have been sent to me. Fascinating!

Out Out Damb Pathogen!

So I’ve had a pathogen living in my body for the past four years! It has been called “an amoebic infection” by my acupuncturist and a “parasite” by shaman Don Javier but I like the word “pathogen” because it sounds so “X-Files”.
It has been like an x-file too because for so long I have had these terrible colon issues: from constipation to diarrhea and flatulence to belly aches, with no idea why. I even had an impacted colon about two years ago, that almost killed me!
By July of this year I had been having diarrhea for weeks on end and just could not take it anymore, so I finally went to an acupuncturist to help cure me. I answered a simple questionaire and then he diagnosed me with “amoebas”, mostly by using his intuition. He gave me some Chinese medicine and said I’d feel a big difference in a few weeks.
He told me that you get it from bad food or water and I knew right away when I had gotten it. I was in Brazil for a month, very careful not to eat any salads when on my last week I went to a fancy restaurant and decided to take the risk. I was sick for two days and when I came home the colon problems began.
Soon after visiting the accupuncturist I went to Peru, still with belly aches and beginning to notice headaches as well. Then on my first visit to Javiers for ceremony, he too diagnosed me with a “parasite”. He said that it was filling up my entire belly, robbing me of all my nutrients, keeping me from gaining any weight and generally trying to kill me. Almost precisely what the acupuncturist had already said. He said that if I did not have such a strong spirit I would already be dead. I went to him for two private healings hoping to finally be rid of the nasty varmit.
By the time I came home I thought it was about gone but low and behold the belly aches came back and refusing to wait any longer I went to a western medicine doctor for testing. Then the county health department called, having received the results even before my doctor. They said that the lab let them know because legally the health department has to be informed of these cases. Although two healers had already diagnosed what it was, the tests were more proof of a pathogen with the medical name of “campylovacter”. They said that in most people it goes away in a week or two but in 20% it relapses. I decided to just take the damb antibiotics and be done with it. They ripped up my stomache but within a week I knew it was finally out of me. I can not stand to take western medicine but I am grateful to have the option when it is absolutely necessary.
I feel better than I have in a really long time now and energy is returning that I have not felt in years.
Although I believe it was a combination of all of the medicines that helped to make me well, it was not until I began to fully focus on healing myself that the healing truly began. I also believe that it is due to my neglect of the issue from the start that it lived inside of me for so long.
The lesson? To pay close attention to any health issues as they arise and do not expect the healing to come completely from an outside source when you yourself have the willpower to manifest healing.
(Here are some pictures of the acupuncture at work, helping to heal my digestive system after the damage the pathogen and antibiotics did to it.)

Mi Amor

So amidst all of the excitement of travel and of making a most wonderful living as an artist, I am also falling in love!
My love is an amazing, funny, motivated, hard working man who was born on the Winter Solstice and has a great ear for music. He loves to travel like me too and we’ve already had some beautiful trips together. We are both fire signs, which makes for a most vibrant relationship. It seriously seems like when we are together amazing and fascinating things happen around us. Even wildlife, which we both adore, is drawn to us!
Also he does an unusual thing for a man….he actually communicates how he feels! Kudos to his parents for raising him to be a caring, communicative, open and positive human being! I swear I’ve never had a relationship with someone who actually does want to talk about issues and even brings them up before I get the guts to. It is truly amazing to find this man. Oh and also, he makes me laugh a lot, a lot!
There is only one thing that bugs me about him, He farts really loudly! Oops, was that too much information? Well nobody is perfect right?
I met this beautiful man in a most bizarre way, when his slightly psycho dog sort of bit my dog. (He was a rescue so we don’t know what he went through before he adopted him.) It was as if the universe took drastic measures to be sure that we met, as if living around the corner from each other just was’nt going to do it. He was so upset about my girl getting hurt, he paid the $1,000 plus vet bill within a few days and then started coming to visit her during her recovery. Seriously I think he was visiting my dog at first and not me!
So now we have been together for 5 months and it just gets better all of the time! What a beautiful life! Thank you generous universe for making another dream come true!

Everything Happens For A Reason

Within two hours of arriving in Iquitos I met two great women, each of whom had traveled on their own to come to the conference, just like me. From then on we did practically everything together, ceremonies, eating, talking all night long and watching out for one another, until we all went home. We became great friends and formed friendships that will last forever. Here are some photos of us together, loving life. As one of them said, meeting them was some of the best medicine I had in Peru.

The Curandera from North Dakota

In South and Central America, Curanderos are the medicine men and shamans of their culture. Likewise a Curandera is a female medicine woman, which there are few of compared to the number of men.
Lately I really felt guided to find a medicine woman to do ceremony with, which is part of why I went to Peru for the conference. I knew that several women would speak and that I would be in the company of some of the leading experts on ayahuasca and shamanism, who could at least lead me in the right direction.
I had all these grandiose ideas about the Curanadera that I would meet. That she would be indigenous, having traveled from her home in the far off jungle somewhere and needing an interpreter to translate her complex ancient language to us.
Who I found was Wendy. Wendy is a humble Curandera who really prefers not to have a title at all. She would just rather be a friend and not someone to be revered. She wears tye dyes and speaks only a little Spanish. But, she has trained with shamans from all over Peru for many years, including Don Augustine Rivas.
My first ceremony with Wendy was beautiful. It was for women only and we worked with a beautiful medicine. It is an integrative plant, meaning it teaches you how to connect with nature and with spirit. It was a day ceremony at the zoo. We started off sitting under a little maloca (palm hut) on a lake for a couple of hours, reciting our intentions for learning from the medicine that day and waiting for it to take effect. Wendy got a reading off of each of us for where our original bloodlines were from. Mine, would’nt you know, is of Elven decent, meaning of the Fairies.
When we were ready we ventured into the zoo, first visiting with a gorgeous water boa (see picture). At one point we ended up at a Jaguar cage where I witnessed something I had never seen before. Wendy stood looking at the animal for awhile and then the cat actually came over to the cage, stood on its hind legs and leaned up against the bars, staring at her and purring. He obviously felt a connection, without any threat or he would never have bared his belly. It was incredible.
We all got so excited, taking pictures and talking that is distracted him and he sat down again. Then the other women walked on and Wendy explained to me what had happened. She said that she had gone into a space of just feeling the cat, sort of shifting her energy to be on his level. She did not ask him to do what he did. She just opened up to who he was and he felt her connection and returned her honoring of him with that gesture, showing his honor of her as well. It is really hard to explain. She had me do an exercise to understand it myself. I truly felt the tree I was leaning against. I felt its connection to everything around it and to me, its acceptance of everything exactly as it is. And I felt like I was the tree. It was the most amazing lesson in connecting with nature that I have learned yet. It happened again later when these monkeys sat staring at me for several minutes.
That was proof enough that I had found the woman I had looked for, a Curandera from North Dakota who is as brilliant as any other shaman, if not more so. I am honored to learn from Wendy and I feel a wonderful friendship is developing with this amazing sister of mine.
huachuma

Photojournaling of Peru 2

The markets too were fascinating places, with shelves of corked bottles containing medicines and ointments made from hundreds of Amazonian plants. After all, the Amazon is the pharmacy to the world. And the Plaza de Armas was always a happening place on weekends, with plenty of nightlife and entertainment on Saturday night, including an airband of 8 year olds.

Photojournaling of Peru

Here are some more pictures of my trip to Peru. I enjoyed riding in the moto taxis, although they make Iquitos one of the noisiest cities on earth. The boat ride to my camping spot was always interesting, like being in another country compared to the city, where local people fished, swam and washed their clothes, seemingly unaware of the nearby noisy Iquitos. I thought the kids playing in the water from the storm runoff were adorable as well as this cutie at a fruit stand.

Body Painting for a Living

You may wonder how I can afford all this traveling. Well honestly I’m just getting by really but I lately have been doing pretty well (for an independent artists’ standards) by doing body painting. My latest client has been hiring me for a bunch of gigs to promote their product at some swanky Atlanta bars. Here are some photos of my designs on the fabulous models that are hired for the gigs. Wowee zowee! It’s a fun and bizarre living to say the least!
What is even more bizarre to me is that the money I made from these gigs, painting the logo of a liquor company on naked ladies, is what got me on my most spiritual journey yet……to Peru!

A Gifted Shamanic Healer

On going to Peru, I wanted to find a shaman with the ability to heal and a true desire to help people. I had already done ceremony with several shamans and although I’ve had lots of good experiences, I also found that many shamans are just as lost as the rest of us, with alcohol addictions, adultery issues and a craving to make money more than to heal.
The first day I got there I heard about a ceremony to be held at the house of a talented Banco Espiritual in Iquitos, Don Javier Dasilva Oliveira. Bancos are rare because they work on each of the three planes (here, above and below) while many shamans work on only one plane.
Don Javier was originally from Brazil and had been practicing shamanism since his early teens, trained by his father, who in turn was trained by his father. He was said to be an amazing healer. He held ceremonies in his home, a small house with many chairs and a alter to the Baby Jesus. The dining room and kitchen was where those of us who would drink the ayahuasca (around 15 people) would sit for the night, while the front room would hold all of his other “patients”, locals mostly (about 50 or so people).
Throughout the night Javier would perform limpias (cleansings) on each person there, giving valuable information about health and things to watch out for in the future.
Javier said that he worked through the Baby Jesus, his main spirit guide, and that it was only through him and the “doctors” that he was able to perform this magic. He called these spirits the “doctors” because when they were alive, about 250 years ago, they were powerful healers. Now they performed healings and psychic surgeries through Javier. He would embody these spirits, speaking in their ancient languages and singing icaros throughout the night. It was amazing how his personality would change with each spirit that spoke through him. By the end of the night he would become even more vibrant and would have performed limpias on 50 to 80 people.
The man was clearly a powerful shaman. This was evidenced by the fact that each person I talked to found his assessment of them to be right on, including myself.
I had never seen a shaman with such focus and devotion to his “patients”. His icaros were powerfully beautiful and I felt I could sit and listen to him sing for days. His medicine was very pure too. He used only ayahuasca and chacruna in his brew.
I wish I could better express what an incredible impact he had on us all. The best I can say is that being in his ceremony was one of the most amazing experiences ever. I truly believe that not many as powerful as him exist, and that I was blessed and guided to find him.
Here are a few pictures of him next to his alter. In one he is blowing tobacco smoke into the jar of ayahuasca, cleansing it to prepare for the ceremony and there's another of him and me. I am also posting a video is of one of the private healings that he performed on me, during a regular business day.

More Photojournaling of Mexico

Here are some more pics of Mexico and a video of some Huichol acrobats in the plaza one Sunday. There are photos here of Palm Sunday, where the locals create gorgeous art from palm fronds and of amazing sandcastles of the last supper, next to the Plaza de Centro in Puerto Vallarta.

Photojournaling of Mexico 2

Let me try that again. Here are the photos.