,Many devastating events, once sat with, and experienced are like a double edged sword.   It comes with pain and suffering like my bout with breast cancer in 2001 and 2016.  First there is fear which comes in waves. Then there is the discomfort of the treatments which almost killed me in 2001.  Then there is a time of convalescence where we lie quietly and come to terms with our disease.  If you take advantage of this time, you can come to a greater understanding of why you? Why now? and how can you heal.  This comes when you can stop blaming others, stop blaming yourselves, and look at cancer, or any disease as a wake up call and a gift.  For me, the first go around had to do with being a healer to others and filling others cups with my energy but not filling mine.  I learned that you have to "have, in order to give."  What that meant for me was that I was so busy filling other peoples cup that I was running out of energy for my very existence.  I was so busy giving that I forgot to receive, to fill up, and in the process, I was about to loose myself.  How many parents , service oriented professionals, teachers, and healers can relate.  Cancer kicked my butt, sat me down in time out, and began to teach me lessons.  I learned many more than just one.  I grew spiritually and became empowered in my life.  I became a better person and a better healer.  
  So now , here we are, hunkered down in our homes.  Not one of us has been kicked in the butt by a virus, but every single one of us are affected in some way.  Why us? Why Now?  I asked in meditation and the answers started to flow.  Here are some.  
  We sit at the precipice of extinction.  We need a time out to take a look in a global way, just as cancer made me take a look at where my actions ware leading me.  Humanity is being asked to take a look at what we are doing to our planet, our source for life.  We are polluting the air, our source for breath. Breath is life moving through us.  We are polluting our waters.  Our bodies are made up of 60% water.  We are putting harmful chemicals on our fruits, grains, and vegetables and it's poisoning not only the butterflies, birds, and the bees, it is poisoning the humans like me. We do it in the name of efficiency and ultimately greed.  The animals are dying in record numbers, the planet is warming, what more do we need to stop and take pause to really see, really see what we are doing to ourselves and others. 
  A global epidemic.  This virus is telling us that we are next, unless we stop and drastically change our lives, our values, and our actions. 

​We will know that change is working when the animal populations start to come back.  When the weather begins to calm.  When we see that we are all in this together and our solution must be global.  Humans working together to heal humanity.  You see from this event that we are not that different from one another after all.  We are one humanity and we can heal.  Just as I healed in 2001. 
  So when you are home, hunkering down, ask the bigger questions and I am sure , just like me, you will get the bigger answers.  In love and gratitude for life, Margot Carrera  

Join me for the opening of the February art show.  I will be there from 7 pm - 9 pm.  I have two pieces in the show.  Blue Heron which won 2nd place in the Photography category, and I Love Butterflies, which is a  photograph of a colorful butterfly with a red heart on it's chest.  

January has brought in a new Gallery exhibition at the OffTrack Gallery in Encinitas, Ca.  It is my first show of the year in a new gallery so I went in with zero expectations. I arrived at the gallery to take pictures for the first place winning images but the Judge was still going through all the entries so I met a friend for lunch and told him I would return in an hour.  I had a lovely lunch and caught up with all the happenings in my friends life, never thinking twice about the judging going on.  I returned as promised after lunch and was give a list of the winning images to photograph for the gallery.  Then I set out to find each print or item in each category and took the picture.  When it came to photography, I saw the name, Margot and thought to myself, Oh, they must have another Margot showing here, but then I saw the last name Carrera.  My mouth dropped in surprise and the other artists working around me began to smile sheepishly.  They knew that I had won but they wanted me to find out for myself so that had said nothing.  I am happy to share that I won first place in the photography category.  More correctly, I should say that Blue Iris won best photograph. 

Blue Iris is a blend of Photography and painting.  Often when a background is too busy and takes away from the beauty of the central image, I will paint in the background.  I named this technique, Painterly photography.  This photograph was taken at an amazing garden in Northern California that grows only roses and Irises. They had about 20 different varieties in numerous colors.  It was truly a feast for the eyes. 

Blue Iris will be showing at the OffTrack gallery in Encinitas, Ca. until January 28th and is for sale.  Also showing is my art glass tray, called Lily Pond. Shown below. 

Each artist sees the world differently. That is why there are so many different versions of the same image that can be presented and none come out exactly the same.  This is what I love about art.  In the last posting, I told you about my experience with cancer and one of the ways it has effected my art.  Today, I will share the way that my love of nature has effected my artistic impression.

When I am out in nature photographing, there is a sense that I am in someway communicating with my subject.  I believe that everything has a consciousness.  They may not communicate in the same way but there is communication going on.  That is why when I am walking through a forest I feel a certain sense of peace,  Not all forests feel the same to me.  In Alaska, I felt a primordial feeling that I have never had before.  The mist was rising through the trees and I felt like the trees were taking a deep breath while drinking in the moisture.  It was one of those moments that I can not adequately describe in words but it will inevitability be inscribed in my memory.  It was as if I was part of the forest and the forest was part me. 

This sense of unity, of being part of the whole has helped to evolve my art to a new level. It is a sensing, feeling, level of communicating with my subject.  My goal is to carry on that original feeling or sense to the viewer as well.  So when you see my art or even better, go out into nature, you open up to a new level of communication with your environment.  Allow the vision to provide you with it's message.  If we connect with nature at this level, we just may be able to all exist together without harming one another.  You will come to see, that if we are harming one another, we are also harming ourselves.  

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The year is coming to an end and as the sun goes down on 2019, I reflect on the changes that have occurred in my life and how they are affecting my gallery.  Four years ago I found out that I had metastatic breast cancer.  Since that time I have tried multiple therapies. Some helped, some made me very sick, and I continue to try new ways to manage the cancer.  I don't consider it permanent or mine.  It is like any other dis-ease, if you come to understand how it was created, you can find a way to un-create it.  To me it is not a death sentence.  I my first bought with cancer in 2001 and here I am in 2019 writing this blog . So if I overcame the cancer in 2001, I can do the same in 2020.  But it has had an inpact on how I see the world and how I see myself in the world.  I am sure it will also impact my art. 

One thing having cancer did was to get me to take myself much more seriously and therefore my art as well.  So in the year 2020, I am opening a new art gallery.  http:www.Carrerafineartgallery.com.  There you will be able to purchase my Photographs that are printed on multiple forms of media; Photographic paper with our without a frame, Canvas prints, Metal Prints, Acrylic Prints, and Prints on Wood.  I have also expanded my art to wearable art such as Women's scarves, Men's ties, t-shirts, wraps, women's bags, umbrellas, and other fashion items due to my collaboration with the company ShopVida.com.  I choose this business because they are interested in creating eco-friendly clothing, leaving a lesser impact on our environment. They also give back to the makers of the clothing by providing financial education and in some cases, literacy education.  They also believe in supporting the artist who design their clothing and that is where I come in.  It is hard for an artist to do everything or know everything about their craft, the clothing and design business, makers, marketing, and business practices.  You are asking too much of an artist who should put the majority of their time into their craft.  Vida understands this and helps in the areas that the artist are less familiar with.  It is a good merger.  So in my new gallery, you will see wearable art and home decor.  You will be able to purchase these item in the gallery store.  So go to the sight and watch for these new items to
appear in my online gallery.

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Below you see a tree that is probably 3 to 4 times my age.  It has lived on this earth providing a habitat for animals and insects.  It has shared it's beauty and it's shade with all who come in contact with it.  If you are silent and sit with it , I believe it will share it's wisdom.  I believe trees are sentient beings.  A tree coexists with man.  It takes the carbon dioxide that we emit and transmutes that into oxygen for us to breathe.  The big question is can man coexist with the trees without causing destruction?  I believe we falsely believed that we were the masters of the planet and that everything belonged to ourselves.  We looked to outer space to search for other intelligent beings when they were here all along.  The earth, the trees and plants, even the stones have consciousness.  The other day I had to cut down two of my trees at my new home due to disease from the drought.  As a  intuitive-sensitive being,, I could feel the fear coming from the second tree to be cut down.  I held onto it and sent it love.  After the tree had been cut down and I sent them into the light, the space felt calm and peaceful. It seems because they were infested with beetles, they had been suffering for sometime. A peace and calm came over the whole house that hadn't been there since the summer sun brought such high temperatures to our garden.  It was as if the trees sent love and comfort back to us in gratitude for ending their suffering.  

Man and Woman must learn to coexist with all other species, including their own, in order to exist.  We must treat the land, water, plants, and animals with respect.  We must treat one another with respect and take into account how our actions will effect the other.  I know it can be done.  I was fortunate enough to meet and study with the Q'ero elders who live in the high Andes and pre date the Incas.  They virtually live there leaving no footprint on the land.  They farm in the most difficult of conditions, living in the high altitude where very little grows.  They work with and communicate with nature.  They are grateful to nature for what they have and they share what little they have with one another.  They know how to treat one another with respect and generosity.  So they have learned to coexist.  We must change our ways now.  There is no more excuses.  It can be done, it has been done, and if my prayers get answered, it will be done.  I want my children and grand children to live a blessed life.  This is why I have decided to write my nature art blog.  I can help.  

The shamans of Peru gave me a spiritual name.  They called me MaMa Kinta, Mother hummingbird.  They consider the hummingbird the messenger of the mountains.  The one who speaks on behalf of nature.  That is how I came up with this topic.  In meditation in my garden, this message of coexistence came to me to share with you.  Humans with Humans, Humans with the environment, humans with animals, humans with water and the elements, humans with the earth, we must all coexist.