HOPE ~ RENEWAL ~ TRANSFORMATION

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.”  ~  Confucius

“The great renewal of the world will perhaps consist in that, that man and maid, freed of all false feelings and reluctance, will seek each other not as opposites, but as brother and sister, as neighbors, and will come together as human beings.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

                                           HOPE

“Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.”   ~   Louis Pasteur

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, “My son, the battle is between 2 “wolves” inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.” The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.”  ~  Carl Sagan

TRANSFORMATION

“If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.” ~  Maya Angelou

“Transformation literally means going beyond your form.”   ~ Wayne Dwyer

“Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.”  ~  Napoleon Hill

                                                                                                  RENEWAL

“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”  ~  Carl Gustav Jung

“Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that is where I renew my springs that never dry up.”  ~   Pearl S. Buck

“It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.”   ~  Anais Nin

All images photographed by Nefertiti

©Nefertiti 2011

                            Beauty Thru Mesh

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”  ~ Steve Jobs

Things can fall apart, or threaten to, for many reasons, and then there’s got to be a leap of faith. Ultimately, when you’re at the edge, you have to go forward or backward; if you go forward, you have to jump together. ~ Yo-Yo Ma

Zavolu: A Silver Lining II   ~ painting   ©Nefertiti

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
- Waldo Emerson

Reflecting on Reflections, a Rainy Day  ©Nefertiti

“Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”
- Muhammad Ali

With unpredictable tsunamis, weather patterns and collapsing world economies, we must strengthen our will power, be warriors to overcome and win!

~Nefertiti

All images are copyrighted and created by the artist.  Please do not take or lift images without permission from the artist.  Thank you. ©Nefertiti

Escape from the Aviary

“Change is not merely necessary to life – it is life.”
Alvin Toffler

“The illiterate of the 21^st Century will not be the person who cannot read.  It will be the person who does not know how to learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
Alvin Toffler

Let’s not fool ourselves, Mother Nature rules, no matter how much you pray to your god or tinker with 21^st century technology; man has no control of the manifestations of her unpredictable calamities. Just before Halloween the Northeast was overpowered with an unprecedented fall snowstorm yielding two feet of snow in some areas, and destroying approximately 1000 trees in Central Park.  One does not have a choice but to change and adapt to the fluctuations of the economy, scientific and technological breakthroughs, as well as crazed weather patterns.  Being frozen in time will only extinguish and diminish the possibility for growth and survival.  To avoid becoming extinct too soon, perhaps a rapid transformation with a different way of seeing and acting will be needed as the modus operandi: for the relentlessly swift changes taking place on our planet and the New World Order.   Thus far, I do not think Cliff Notes or the How to For Dummies are available for these metempirical experiences. ~~  Nefertiti

Escape from the Aviary: Chine collé, multi-plate linoleum cut print with hand painting. ©Nefertiti

Haiku Waves: Liberté

What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful that the garment with which it is clothed?
Michelangelo

Man is the sole animal whose nudity offends his own companions, and the only one who, in his natural actions, withdraws and hides himself from his own kind.  ~Montaigne

A Statement About Haiku Waves: Liberté

Cutting to the chase, Haiku Waves: Liberté is a subtle metaphor about isms, institutions, mores, etc controlling the female body on so many levels, but especially her genitalia.  Women from all over the world need to be free from these primitive constraints and tyranny on our gender. Simultaneously the body should be accepted for what it is, in any color or form, nothing more or less, without the provincial pretenses and contradictions.   Nefertiti

A lot of people refuse to do things because they don’t want to go naked, don’t want to go without guarantee. But that’s what’s got to happen. You go naked until you die.
Nikki Giovanni

Haiku Waves: Liberté, watercolor & gouache ~©Nefertiti

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart,…you’ll know when you find it.” — Steve Jobs

Mother Nature has been busy accelerating her dark side by relinquishing the powerful Hurricane Irene and the earthquake of 5.8, touching down in Virginia with tremors extending all the way to Maine last week. The possibility of releasing our creative gifts at the velocity of Mother Nature is very slim, except perhaps through Twitter.  However, we are endowed with power, but it is a rarity for most of us to master all the gifts that are inherent in our DNA or develop the wherewithal to learn new skills that are far beyond our comfort zones.

There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns. Edward de Bono

To be continued…

* Multi-plate linoleum cut print by Nefertiti    Ryu-Kyuan Waves @Nefertiti

DEFAULT

Seismic fault

a parting of the Parties,

stalemate, squandering ethics, draining sustenance, clipping wings,

emaciated souls starved as if photographed by Dorothea Lange,

empty storefronts and barren landscapes permeating America the beautiful.

by Nefertiti

  Enchantress Aligning Her Chakras While Floating in the Water    ©Nefertiti 

Unraveling the mysterious threads of life within the dark cocoon
to shed the past,
rebirthing a new destiny with wisdom
gliding like a butterfly
and when need be
emulating the prowess of a leopard.  by Nefertiti

“The sorcery and charm of imagination, and the power it gives to the individual to transform his world into a new world of order and delight, makes it one of the most treasured of all human capacities.”  Frank Barron

“No matter how old you get, if you can keep the desire to be creative, you’re keeping the man-child alive.”  John Cassavetes

“In the creative state a man is taken out of himself. He lets down as it were a bucket into his subconscious, and draws up something which is normally beyond his reach. He mixes this thing with his normal experiences and out of the mixture he makes a work of art.”    E.M. Forster

Safary Tapisserie is a painting with a harmony of exotic jewel like prisms entwined with gold fillets offsetting the taupe colors.   This work is soothing and captivating, which would heighten the elegance of a home or office environment.

Medium:  Watercolor and gouache on 100% cotton rag paper

Image Size:  38”x16.5”

PRICE ON REQUEST

Inquiries are welcomed.

Contact: nefer(dot)nefertiti(at)verizon(dot)net

©Nefertiti 2011

Artiste Studio: Past commissioned courthouse project in progress – schematics and ceramic tile prototypes.

“It is always wonderful spending time at Nefertiti’s studio.  I feel like a little kid going into a candy store, but this is a studio with many beautiful works of art, desiring to consume them all.  She is truly a professional artist: dedicated and passionate with high standards.”  Natalie Johnson Alves, MD

“Art is both the taking and giving of beauty; the turning out to the light the inner folds of the awareness of the spirit. It is the recreation on another plane of the realities of the world; the tragic and wonderful realities of earth and men, and of all the inter-relations of these.”  Ansel Adams

Studio

“I see more and more that my work goes infinitely better when I am properly fed, and the paints are there, and the studio and all that.  But have I set my heart on my work being a success?  A thousand times no.  I wish I could manage to make you really understand that when you give money to artists, you are yourself doing an artist’s work, and that I only want my pictures to be of such a quality that you will not be too dissatisfied with your work.”  Vincent van Gogh

Artist Does Work: blessed with seven days a week.

“A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his mind is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.”   St. Thomas Aquinas

Framed artwork on display for a visitor

“Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”  Andy Warhol

A solitaire moment before the creative process begins

“The master of the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him, he is always doing both.”  Lao Tzu

To be continued……

©Nefertiti

All photographs and artwork are copyrighted.  Please do not use for any reason unless you have the artist’s permission.