LINDSAY JOY HAMILTON » About Me

Top Ten Influential Artist’s of 2010

lindsayjoy — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 01:05:47 +0000

This is a personal list of Artists who have influenced me over the past year. They are in no particular order;

I was struck by Nerdrum’s technique. He is incredibly skilled with oil paint and I find his colour pallette to be emotive and mysterious. But what I appreciate most about Nerdrum’s work are his landscapes which resemble an surreal void, or a limbo of some sort. It further alienates his subject matter.

2. Peter Doig- Doig has made the biggest impact on me this year for many reasons; his imagery, his palette and his handling of paint. I am at home with many of his symbols: the canoe, the coniferous forests, lake landscapes similar to the Canadian landscape. He captures an interior world in his exterior landscapes through the mystersious use of washes and eccentric application of electic colour. I haven’t be able to fully articulate how moved I am by this artist. Maybe after I have seen his work in person, I will be able to better articulate exactly what makes Doig’s work so moving for me.

3. James Jean- I love James Jean’s creativity and ability to capture the figure. His palettes are also so diverse, I could just lick his paintings!

4. Daniel Richter- Similar to the way I feel about Peter Doig, Richter’s interior/exterior landscape really gets to me. More then Doig, I appreciate Richter’s groups of figures.

5. Justin Ogilvie- Although I only worked briefly with Ogilvie in his studio, I was exposed to so many great ways of running an art studio and producing work. Ogilvie let me in on his process, how he conducts his classes and his daily regime of painting and organizing a professional studio. Priceless education I find myself very grateful for. I hope Justin Ogilvie is kicking ass at the University of Edmonton, where he is obtaining his M.F.A. He is an incredible Canadian talent who works very hard at his craft. I wish him all the best.

6. All Citizens-Bruno, Saskatchewan- While researching the idea that Contemporary art is biased towards urban centres, I stumbled across this very special place call All Citizens in Bruno, Saskatchewan. It is providing contemporary music and visual art to the very rural community. They showcase very talented and successful Canadian Musicians who apprecaite art being accessible to rural folk. All Citizens has inspired many ideas for the Little Beaver Cultural Centre.

7. Pat B Allen- After reading these two books, I’ve been open to the idea of art being more then just an academic institiution. There are possibilties of serving humanity beyond the Art World’s prescribed notions, throw theraputic and creative medititations. It provides a visual manifestation of our interior worlds, and offers a great way to get to know ourselves. It has great healing powers. These books introduced Creative Arts therapy as a possible career path for me.

8. Joe Fig- This book is very inspiration for any artist who has spent time in the studio. The book is set up on the “Inside the Actor’s Studio” basis where Joe Fig asks the same questions to a variety of professional artist ( all painters). There amswers give insight to the unique routine of individual artists and how they manage to develop a creative lifestyle. This is a must read for those who are struggling to get into the studio and work.

9. Cucuteni-Trypillian Culture- During my Ayahuasca trip, I saw many visions which looked like designs and figures from the Cucuteni-Trypillian Culture (Ancestors to the Ukrainian People) I am of Ukrainian ancestry and I now find myself very intrigued by the fashion of the Trypillian people. I will be researching more about these ancient people to see if there is any primordial connection trying to find its way into my work.

10. Wangechi Mutu-Using a variety of materials, Mutu collages are disturbing and fantastic and display the vast creativity of the artist. By hybridizing different images of African women in the media she intersects a space of symbols and stereotypes. She also captures an abject and groteseque beauty in her figures. I find her visual assemblages very pleasing and thougth prevoking.

Year’s end post

lindsayjoy — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 03:39:59 +0000

the things I’ve accomplished this year;

apprenticed with a great painter

made across Canada move from Vancouver, BC to little town Fort Frances, Ontario

revamped my family business

taught my first art classes in my own studio at the Little Beaver Cultural Centre

met many talented and amazing musicians through the new concert series at Little Beaver Cultural Centre

raising a beautiful baby newfoundland dog named Hyzer

began painting a series of paintings I think will move me into the right direction

admitted to suffering from depression and found the best help I could (propbably the best accomplishment yet…)

taking control of my life, in small ways and learning to relax

learning to live presently

learning to roller derby

how this will help me;

I have gained the experience to develop my own artistic practice

I am confident in my artistic knowledge and can contribute to others through teaching

I must have solitary moments for my mental health and for my creative heart

enjoy the moment

calm assertive energy

a new commission finished

lindsayjoy — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 21:11:10 +0000

“Emma” 2010 acrylic on wood panel

Summer’s end

lindsay joy — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:38:37 +0000

It’s been an eventful summer for me, and hence the reason for the lack of blog postings. My partner and I moved from Vancouver to Fort Frances, Ontario, to renovate and re-establish Little Beaver Snow Park into Little Beaver Cultural Centre. We’ve moved in with my parents, put money down on a New Foundland dog, threw a Folk Festival and spent a bit of time in our 1979 Triple E Motorhome. I also taught my first art class, set up my first art studio, and have begun a new way of approaching my paintings. I have 11 of them on the go, and soon I will post the works in progress.

I’ve recently been diagnosed with clinical depression and have started my long journey into the wonderful world of anti-depressants. I’m taking it easy with myself, so you won’t hear any lame excuses for not posting except that I’m taking time to heal myself and I don’t feel an ounce of guilt for doing so.

So until the summer end’s completely, you won’t be hearing from me. May the fall bring a more consistent blog routine…

First Press about my studio. Thanks Fort Frances Times!

lindsayjoy — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:56:46 +0000

Artist opts to return to set up own studio

Wednesday, 14 July 2010 – 1:30pm

By Peggy Revell, Staff writer from the Fort Frances Times

Several years and with thousands of miles later, contemporary artist Lindsay Hamilton has bid adieu to Canada’s West Coast and returned home to Fort Frances to establish her own art studio. The 27-year-old is returning to her roots, with her family’s business—Little Beaver Snow Park—now being transformed into the Little Beaver Cultural Centre with a renovation adding a second story to serve as an artists’ workspace.

“It’s sort of a beautiful place of art and music and community, creative community development,” Hamilton said about the vision for the Little Beaver, which still functions as a banquet hall but now hopefully also as a community base for the visual arts and music. “You can come out here and have dinner, have a party, and also have a painting party upstairs or have a band playing, or have an open mic,” Hamilton remarked.“It’s like a blank slate right now for us, we can do lots of things out here,” she added. “We just shoot for the stars and get the moon.”
It’s a fresh start for the artist who graduated last year from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver.
“The amount of work I can do now here in a studio space, with a business that I can run in order to support my work, I would never have that in Vancouver, at least not anytime soon,” she reasoned.
Hamilton is aiming to start teaching beginner-level painting classes in the fall, and eventually intermediate and advanced ones, covering both acrylics and oil and with a lot of drawing, which she says is “fundamental to all art.”

“I’m not teaching a technique,” she stressed. “I’m teaching how to find your own visual language—that’s a big one.
“You hear lots of people say, ‘Oh, I can’t draw,’” she added. “In essence, drawing is just mark making on a page, so anybody can draw.
“Maybe you can’t make something look exactly like it does in real life, but that’s not as interesting to me as someone taking the time to find they’re own way of expressing themselves or finding their own visual language.
“So that’s what the class will be more focused on—finding your own visual language and getting really messy with paint,” she remarked.
As a contemporary artist, Hamilton said there’s no specific medium or technique she’s focused on, although she did specialize on sculpture at university.
“What’s more important to me is the idea of the work, and the idea dictates the material,” she explained, noting she’s worked in everything from traditional materials like ceramic and metal all the way to pancake batter.
As well, she’s hoping to connect artistic talent from across the area, setting up a sketch club where fellow artists can come together and start drawing as practice with models, live models, life drawing classes, and en plein air. “I would like to have art shows, as well. It is a space to showcase local talent here,” Hamilton said about her vision for Little Beaver, where local art would be displayed on a rotating basis like an art gallery in any city would.
“I would like to have a unified creative collective in Fort Frances, where we support each other and go to each other’s art shows and talk about each other’s work,” she noted. “Because that’s really important for me as an artist—to have others witness my work [and] it’s good to have constructive criticism, especially if you’re going to develop.
“The critique is very important in art.”
Hamilton also hopes to eventually establish an artist-in-residency program, and have artists from the area and beyond to visit to develop a body of work, run workshops in the medium they work in, and hold an art show at the end of their stay. “The point is to have the artist [in residence] affect the area, as well as see how the area affects the artist,” she explained. “As well as maybe give light to other types of beauty that, say, someone who lives here might completely overlook.
“But new eyes can always bring new perspective, and it’s important, it’s really important, to infuse this area with a lot of different perspectives,” she reasoned.
After several years of living on the West Coast, leaving behind good friends to return to Fort Frances is “definitely scary and weird,” Hamilton admitted of her decision.
“It was disappointing because you go to a city and you set up your life, and they tell you in university—they pump you up hoping that it will be easy to get a job once you get out,” she noted. “Well, it’s not that easy. Things are a lot more complicated now, and you can’t just walk out and get a job, especially not in the arts.”
Hamilton left Fort Frances at age 19 to attend school—first in Toronto and then Vancouver—and originally focuses on drama.
But after graduating from a year-long program at the Vancouver Academy of Dramatic Arts, she realized she was drawing more than pursuing an acting career, causing her to rethink her future. “Acting was a creative way of living, but I don’t think I really put it together that art could be a career,” she recalled.
“I’ve always drawn, and had a sketch book ever since I was little, [but] I didn’t think of it as a career.
“And then I realized, ‘Oh no, maybe that’s what I’m actually supposed to be doing.’”
From there, Hamilton went on to spend four years studying at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, with a primary focus on sculpture.
“I threw myself into sculpture and I realized that it has a different energy to it,” she said about taking advantage of the facilities the school had to offer—a metal shop, wood shop, and ceramic studios, as well as world-renowned artists as teachers like Liz Magor and Alan Storey.
“Painting is 2-D. It hangs on a wall, and it can be as powerful and has a different type of energy, but when you move something into a third dimension, it’s more bodily, it affects the body and the viewer who’s looking at the work.
“It was important for me to start doing that.
“Moving from acting, sculpture, in a way, is like an actor,” she reasoned, referring to how it connected to her earlier studies.
“It doesn’t move or say words, or dialogue necessarily from a script, but it still says something and has an energy, and takes up space just as an actor would.”
After graduation, Hamilton worked as a studio assistant for both the public sculptor, Alan Storey, and painter, Justin Ogilvie—a “great experience,” she explained, as she was able to see two different facets of the art world. “Unfortunately, it didn’t pay the bills, and it was few and far between.
“Working for any artist, it’s hard for them to come up with money to pay for their materials, let alone pay for their assistants,” she noted, adding that employment of any kind was scarce there. Finding studio space—the next step for any artist after graduation—also was a problem in Vancouver.
“An artist needs a studio,” Hamilton stressed. “I’m not one of those artists who can work in their bedroom in a little corner.
“I like big space, I like making a big mess, and I like walking away from it,” she added. “I was barely able to afford rent in a big city—Vancouver is ridiculously expensive—so how was I ever going to afford another type of rent for studio space?
“I was realizing that if I want to really make a career out of being an artist, I have to stop assisting people and I have to get into the studio,” she reasoned.
It was at that point that her dad “made her an offer [she] couldn’t refuse” to put in a second floor at the Little Beaver Snow Park for her studio.
“My dad worked really hard,” Hamilton lauded, pointing to how he built the second floor above the dining area at Little Beaver—all while keeping the business running—and then helping her move home this past spring.
Leaving Vancouver meant leaving the benefits of an established urban arts scene, acknowledged Hamilton, but tools like the Internet mean she can stay connected as an artist.
“There’s so much connection now,” she remarked. “You can sell lots of work over the Internet.
“You can have submissions for an artist-in-residency where people from around Canada or the world could come to, and be a part of the space.
“The Internet’s an amazing tool for an emerging artist because you don’t necessarily have to be in an urban centre in order to make contemporary art,” she argued, noting city centres like Minneapolis, Winnipeg, and Thunder Bay aren’t too far from here, either.
A city like Vancouver, with an established arts scene, has its downsides, as well, noted Hamilton, citing more competition and it being harder to get people’s attention.
“And if there’s already a fashionable trend that’s going on and you don’t fit into it, you’re isolated already in a big city,” she warned.
“Whereas here, I have a chance to create my own space, invite the creative people of Fort Frances, give everyone something to talk about and work on, as well as myself.
“It’s like it’s just an odd space of rural vs. urban.
“There’s lots of creative people in this area,” Hamilton added. “It’s almost like an untapped environment, [a] unique, cultural perspective that isn’t represented in urban centres. “I’m really excited for that,” she enthused.
Hamilton said it’s important to have that contemporary art scene which happens in urban environments—but whose to say that that can’t happen here?
“It certainly can happen uniquely, and from a cultural perspective that hasn’t really been represented in Canadian culture,” she noted.
As her studio gets up and running, Hamilton is looking to get in touch with other local artists, noting they can reach her through her website at www.lindsayjoyhamilton.com, by phone at 275-7680, or just stopping by the Little Beaver.
Updates on events, and what’s happening at Little Beaver, also can be found at www.littlebeaverculturalcentre.com

THANKS PEGGY FOR THE ARTICLE! (and making sure I didn’t sound like an idoit…)

Dear John letter to Vancouver

lindsayjoy — Sat, 01 May 2010 13:01:05 +0000

Dear Vancouver,

Let me start by saying how grateful I am to have spent this time in Vancouver. It has been a perfect environment for change and development. I moved here subconsciously following my dream of becoming an artist. And I did; training at VADA, attended Emily Carr, and also experienced the honour of singing with Jackie Treehorn. It was here I found my purpose and life’s passion.

Vancouver, you also surprised me in ways I could have never planned. You introduced me to some of the world’s most intelligent, free spirited, creative individuals who will, for the rest of my life, inspire and teach me new ways of experiencing the world. You allowed me to meet my future husband and provided a wonderful new family and friends. I never expected to fall in love here, and now I have a life partner. So thank you for providing me with a glorious future filled with amazing relationships.

I will miss your mountains, although I couldn’t afford to snowboard on them. I will miss your beaches, and delicious ocean air. I will miss swimming buck naked in phosphorescence . I will miss jamming and dancing to hand drum jams around a campfire late into the night on Wreck Beach. I will miss the pot, and the tasty marijuana baked goods that only vegan organic hippies know how to make.

I am going to miss the cheap sushi, and hot giant bowls of pho when I’m hung over at the Cambie Vietnam Restaurant ( goodbye my brother, good bye my sister!) I will miss Alan Storey and his public sculptures and I will miss Emily Carr University. I will miss hot sunny summer days laying around Queen Elizabeth Park and BBQ’s at Acadia Beach. I will miss the sunsets setting on the mountain skyline.

But, it is time for me to leave and find opportunity elsewhere. You have been neglecting me in that aspect. I’m sick of being rejected from work that I am more then competent to do, but lack the required experience (and social connections). I have gone so far as removing my BFA from my resume in attempt to get hired as a barrista,but to no avail. I’ve worked to damn hard for my degree for me to be concealing it. So, fuck you for that.

I hate your music venues and your slimy production companies. I hate how shitty you treat the talented musicians of Vancouver. I hate how you treat most of the artists in the city actually. For how much talent and gifted people who live in Van, the city sure as shit doesn’t support them. MORE VENUES, MORE GALLERIES, MORE MONEY SPENT ON THE ARTS! I hate Vancouver’s fragmented and fickle cultural identity. Identity evolves as a one gets to know oneself, not by superficially imposing trends and narrow minded perceptions upon a disagree culture. Vancouver’s cultural identity could be so rich, and deep, if the city would support the Arts.

Also, the rent is far too high, I’m tired of roommates and fed up with living in run down wartime houses run by slumlords. I simply cannot afford this lifestyle anymore. How can I save anything here? How am I to develop my work without a studio space?

I am disappointed in Vancouver’s politics and how cruel this city can be to the marginalized and poverty stricken. I hate Vancouver’s transit system. I hate West Van, and I hate leaving my house most of the time because of the fucking rain. Yes Vancouver, the things I love about you are intense and strong, but I’m afraid the negatives are titling the scale over to its side.

So it is over. I’m going to Fort Frances, my hometown, to grieve for my loss of you and begin anew. It is bittersweet, but so is every parting from someone or thing that means so much. Moving way will give me the distance in which to remember your charm and grace. With time, all the sweet gifts you have given me will reveal themselves in my memory. I know eventually I will look fondly on my time in Vancouver. I know there were moments when I uttered ” I am having the time of my life”. I can’t wait to remember that again.

To Vancouver I wish you adieu.

A sample from NYE gig

lindsayjoy — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:56:28 +0000

Jackie Treehorn is the name of my band. We are mostly a cover band, but are in the process of writing and recording originals.

This video was taken from our New Year’s Eve gig at Nyala in Vancouver. It’s a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “the Chain”. The video is crappy although the sound is pretty good. Its the first video capturing us (thanks Leora)…just thought I would share it for posterity sake.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

I’ve been thinking…

lindsayjoy — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 14:24:26 +0000

about art, my future and artists I admire. I am slowly seeing common threads between the three which are drawing me to a few conclusions and potential ideas about where my career and spiritual life are heading. I’ll begin with Art school, move on to my favourite artists and how school, spiritual paths and those whom I admire are guiding me on a path of healing through art.

In Art school, those who used art as a form of therapy were brutally criticized. Art with a capital ‘A’ has no room for the creations of the disturbed. If art is a forum for the therapeutic anyone could do it and put their work up as art. I interpret that this could compromise the elite and hierarchical structure preserved by the Art World elite.In art school, some teacher’s have no time to get personal. It is too uncomfortable if critique enters realms of the personal and not the conceptual or formal, which can be abstractly discussed. The personal is a realm for therapists, psychologists and are “private” matters. I even experienced a teacher criticizing a student who presented a work of a very personal nature as “self indulgent” and that she should speak to the counselor and not to the whole class. On the PracticeSpace webblog the article “Art as a way of knowing: care and feeding of the imagination” complimented my experience in art school;

I believe that most “teachers” in traditiional academia today, especially in the US, offer overly complex theories meant to create separate cultures of elites, maintaining an unjust social heirarchy of experts. At the same time many more educators and researchers prefer and acknowledge the effectiveness of methods of engaged, relational ways of learning and research. Learning occurs from the inside out; learner and environment, learner and community are not separate but interactive, mutually benefitting.

Whilst under the authority of the Emily Carr University, I upheld this “unjust social hierarchy” in which the article speaks. I preached that Art isn’t used for healing or to exorcise emotions, pain or suffering. It is for the academic, the mind and the intellect. Everything else is self indulgent and doesn’t progress the evolution of Art…or so I thought.

I created art from the academic space. From this conceptual realm, I made work I was intellectually stimulated by and was proud of how it flowed with cultural theories. Yet, I began to have panic attacks. I was neglecting my body, like many students do, in order to feed my mind in “higher” education. I notice now that my work is cold. I received great marks and praise from my teachers, but in hindsight, I don’t know how much of my work is honest to me. Maybe I was allowing too much of the institution’s influence to stifle my personal insight and not allow enough of my own soul into the work? It would mean risking disapproval from my mentors and through rejection, be pained by baring my soul. Was I a chicken shit?

Throughout Art school I was introduced to many artist and their practices. Contradictory to a few of my teacher’s criticism I found many famous and successful artists who work through their pain, emotions and memories in order to create their work. I found many artists use the personal to draw inspiration and to exorcise their emotions. These artists are the ones who stuck with me. These are the artists I want to fashion my own career after. I want to share a few with you now.

Frida Kahlo

I loved Frida Kahlo before art school and I love her even more after art school. Kahlo painted from a place of necessity. Being bed ridden most of her life and left alone, she passed her time painting which grew into a much needed forum for her thoughts.

I have been very influenced by her ability to use painting as a filter to exorcise her pain. She painted Miscarriage after losing her baby in Detroit. This is one of her many self portraits which she uses her own life as a subject in her work.

Miscarriage 1932

Since my subjects have always been my sensations, my states of mind and the profound reactions that life has been producing in me, I have frequently objectified all this in figures of myself, which were the most sincere and real thing that I could do in order to express what I felt inside and outside of myself

Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois exorcises her dysfunctional childhood memories in her art. She relives her pain and resentment towards her parents every time she creates a work.

The Destruction of the Father 1974

Bourgeois is one of the most important modern Artists and she uses her emotions and pain in order to create art.

Joseph Beuys

Beuys adopted a persona of shaman in many of his performances. He believed art could heal the wounds of Western culture through creative energy. Through his own personal symbolism he interpreted pain and suffering and attempted to transform it into art. He believed everyone is an artist and must participate in the healing of our culture.

Amy Levine writes; “Beuys argued that the key to survival was in the collective transformation of the “social organism.” For him, communication between the domains of the spiritual and the earthly were primary to cultural regeneration”

These three artists all felt it is important to exorcise pain into art in order to heal, albeit themselves or the greater good. Beuys, Kahlo and Bourgeois were such visionaries, they could draw upon personal and esoteric symbols and create Art which struck chord with others. They found a universal way of projecting personal experience. I wish to align myself with Kahlo, Bourgeois and Beuys. I want to make art that heals myself and our culture.

My mother in law lent me a book by artist and art therapist Pat B Allen called Art As A Way of Knowing. It has become very influential in my thoughts as of late. She describes similar dissatisfaction with the Art World as I have felt, and when developing her practice found the importance of Art as a therapeutic tool. It has moved me to consider a life in Art therapy. It would provide first hand evidence that Art heals and would satisfy my need to help others. So, I just have to make my next step…back to school.

The Obligatory End of the Year post.

lindsayjoy — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:47:37 +0000

As 2009 comes to a close, like many bloggers take the time to reflect upon the past year and share some aspirations for the coming one. As ‘different’ as I tell myself I am, I too will tow this line.

It was a big year for me. I took my first big trip to Mexico, received my B.F.A. from the Emily Carr University, had my first art show, experienced encouraging feedback with my band Jackie Treehorn (Upcoming cross Canada tour 2010 and a new website this new year!), participated in my first ayahuasca ceremony, traveled across the USA with my two favourite men, attending Burning Man for my first time, and finally kicked my nasty smoking habit after 13 years. Its been a year of new experiences as well as a lot of insecurity and dawning of new realities. I’ve been out of the safe loving arms of academia for under a year and have been feeling pressured to take the next step into the right direction. But what is the right direction for an artist? Art school gives you the sense of working on your craft, developing a practice and seeing the results through deadlines and critiques. Without the structure provided, I feel like I’ve been flailing. Yet, in reality I’m testing the waters so to speak. I’m considering the options available for one who holds a Bachelor degree in Fine Art. I have been volunteering in a high school classroom with an Art teacher to get a sense of what that is meant be like, as well as working for Alan Storey, as his personal assistant. I’ve been hosting Art evening’s in my living room and I’ve taken a few jobs in the decorative art’s industry as a faux finisher. I am also considering becoming an Art therapist for those who suffer from mental illness and drug addiction but I’m hesitant to get back into school because I just need to take a break from it. I also feeling I should be applying to Call for submissions, and also searching out artist in residencies, but I seem to be coming up with many reasons not to apply; no studio, no money for big projects, and no interest.

My heart holds me still. It tells me to wait to make any decisions. This year has been a dramatic one and I should take sometime to relax and see what the Universe tells me to do. It doesn’t seem to be pointing in any particular direction as of yet. If anything, it seems as if my band is warranting a lot of my attention. We have been made the house band of Nyala Restaurant and we play every Wednesday night. The weekly gig has made all seven of us consider the potential of the project. With the weekly dedicated time and money that Nyala has afforded us means we will be ready to record an album soon, prepares us to set tour dates across Canada and has given as all a swift kick in the ass. Maybe I could put “career’ decisions off for a while and see where Jackie Treehorn can take me? All the memories and experiences I could have on tour as the lead singer of a band has seduced my fantasies a bit as well as taking a stab at writing and developing a stage persona is very intriguing. Not to mention how great it is to be singing again, and with 7 very talented, supportive and professional musicians. (I was kicked out of my first band in high school because they didn’t want a female lead singer…it will be sweet revenge if they could see me now.)

In the New Year I hope to have a clearer picture of what I am meant to do with my time on this earth. Caroline Myss, medical intuitive and spiritual teacher, states in her lecture “Being Fearless” that by asking the mystical question “what is my purpose?” you rock the heavens and initiate a series of events which aids you to find your purpose in life. Please check out more of Caroline Myss’s kick ass lecture here;

So, for the beginning of this year, I will be seeking heaven’s advice, and waiting for instruction.

Ayahuasca Ceremony

lindsayjoy — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:03:58 +0000

Recently, I experienced my first Ayahuasca Ceremony. This is a traditional Peruvian ceremony in which a shaman delivers a brew of Ayahuasca, a sacred vine grown in Peru, and acts as Maestro of the performance once the medicine takes effect. In this ceremony, the shaman trail blazed his way through the many different energies the collective, 10 of us, experienced. He would sing icaros and flap his collection of feathers constantly, singing to each of us and to call the Spirits to the circle.

This ceremony was held in the dark and everyone brought bedding and a small bucket in case of the need to purge. (Ayahuasca can induce purging.) I did not experience this on my trip, but others did. No one complained of it being an uncomfortable purge, but more of a spiritual release, or freeing of some sort of personal or emotional block. I had a moment of intense nausea, but the shaman, knowing my trepidation about taking the medicine, came to me and sang a song and brushed my face with feathers. He placed his hand upon my head and held it there for a moment. Immediately he spun around and purged into a yogurt container. My nausea subsided and I felt relaxed and at peace. I believe the shaman took that purge for me.

I saw many things, and learned about the universe and myself, but what leaves the biggest impact upon me was the delicacy of Ayahuasca. Mytrip unfolded itself to me, and respected my intention of taking the medicine. I prepared myself sufficiently, I believe. It took me 2 weeks of cleansing, and a few days of strict diet and fasting. Also I had to prepare myself mentally. I was very scared of taking Ayahuasca because of the thought of giving myself over to a plant and to God. I don’t let myself get too out of control (or so I like to think) and taking this brew forced me to let things go. I allowed myself to relax, have no fear, and be an observer. I placed myself into the hands of the Universe and hoped it would be kind. It was an amazing experience.

Virtudes Espirituales by Pablo Amaringo