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This Image "Temple Goddess Torso". Elena Ray copyright 2008. Lensbaby photography. This one is for you Lisa-Marie: soft focus, high grain photography...and headless photography to boot!
As I was getting ready to walk out the door I took one last glance back at my office to see if I was forgetting anything, and my heart filled up with an unexpected joy for the reality of my existence. There were all my things! There were a couple of cameras sitting on different tables, my calligraphy tools laid out, with practice sheets piled up nearby, a finished painting just hung on the wall waiting to be scanned, my computer and all it's cords and peripherals, too many unfiled discs lying about labeled with my cryptic titles, my big printer being used as a surface for some props I'm planning to use...and I was on my way to yoga class. I don't know if life could get any better. I feel as though it would be an insult to the universe not to be happy at this point...on top of it to be loved by so many people. Strangely it may have always been this way...I just never realized it 'till now.
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This Image "Leaf Paper Nude". Elena Ray Copyright 2008. 11" x 14" Photograph. Pigment ink on Inkaid treated collaged Asian paper substrate. This one has been around for awhile. I simplified it a couple of days ago, collaging over some embellishments that had ultimately seemed to make too many demands on the eye.
Surprisingly, Annie has begun encouraging me to begin introducing my calligraphy to my artwork. I feel it is not even close to happening...I don't even know yet what a good character really is. Everything I've read and all my practice has given me some education in the art of Chinese calligraphy, but no practical understanding...except that the character reveals energy...a good calligrapher focuses and rides their energy in the practice of brushwork. Yesterday she introduced me to Master Cheng Man Ching. From all I'm learning about Chinese culture, and it's history of repressive politics, when I see a human being like him it's like witnessing a miracle.
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This Image: A sheet from my recent calligraphy practice.
This weekend while we were camping in Joshua Tree (National Park) a friend and I made a foray to far out dusty desert bookshop "Raven's Books", where I picked up a used copy of Carlos Castaneda's final novel "The Art Of Dreaming". Happily it has little to do with ingesting psychotropics. Instead it's focus is really the story of Castaneda learning the fine art of shifting his assemblage point and then using his dreams as a doorway to releasing his energy body into other worlds. The idea of an assemblage point has me thinking, if it's true, how other cultures might have discovered it differently through: ritual, meditation, alchemy, (etc. etc.) and entered other worlds different from those visited by the Toltec Naguals. I'd like to be able to self willingly shift my assemblage point...though the beauty of this world is enough for me, the idea of knowing more is compelling.
Assemblage Point
(Don't know if this info has anything to do with the Toltec meaning but it is at least "scientifically" interesting.)
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"And dreaming is the art of tempering the energy body, of making it supple and coherent by gradually exercising it".
Carlos Castaneda
The Art Of Dreaming
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This Image "Vision Quest" Elena Ray Copyright 2006
My fascination with yoga continues to grow everyday. I was reading recently in an old book by Indra Devi about the endocrine system and how the ancient yogis developed many of the yoga postures to "correct the sluggish functioning" of particular glands, despite their lacking any concrete medical data as to their existence. She lists the endocrine system as: pituitary gland, pineal gland, thyroid gland, parathyroid glands, adrenal glands, and the gonads. As an image maker I'm mining yoga's rich symbolism. My practice of yoga is clearly opening my mind to a deepening comprehension of the meaning of symbols. The body especially presents itself as a living symbol, revealing and expressing multiple dimensions of reality.
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This Image "Yoga Collage/Comprehend Truth" ElenaRay copyright 2008. A multi-panel mixed medium collage with many yoga symbols including Krishnamacharya, the iconic yogi who instructed many of the great yoga teachers who brought yoga to the west (including Indra Devi). This art work uses a myriad of asian papers. It is about 16" x 16". I scanned it in 9 sections on my Microtek 9800XL scanner and reassembled it in Photoshop with the Photomerge function. Photomerge is not as automatic as one might hope, but it's still a God send for me-especially as my physical art increases in size. I like scanning my work as opposed to shooting it-the textures are much more defined by the direct contact to the scanner bed. Since these collages buckle I do find that weighing them down with phone books while scanning help the Photomerge function to work better. I also leave the parts in layers, for some final tweaks, after they've been "merged".
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This Image "Sacred Sanskrit Heart" Elena Ray Copyright 2006
I'm reading the Bhagavad Gita. Something happened to me about 3 weeks ago, an opening, and suddenly I was able to read both William Blake and this sacred ancient text, both which I've been trying to read for years...decades! The story of Arjuna and Krishna is unfolding before me like a vivid film. The translation I am reading is by Swami Prabhavananda. The purport he offers for each translated passage is key...although I admit I didn't like his take on women...it's hard to read it now as he suggests one should, as a devotion, when my gender, right off in the first chapter, is described as "generally not very intelligent" (text 40). If he'd just said that about all humanity I might not have been so offended! Oh well, maybe it's a good thing...it's still a translation, no matter how perfect he claims it is...I can't blame Krishna for that. At heart I am a swooning gopi and so I suppose, according to the Swami's perspective, there's the patriarchal proof.
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"Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast"
William Blake
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This Image 'Incense Burning" Elena Ray Copyright 2008. I am an incense freak. A great place to get high quality incense online is http://www.essenceoftheages.com/
I love making these photographs!! I'm having such a good time making these images for my friend's new yoga studio that I have decided I want to be a professional yoga photographer.... I think I'll actually print up a physical portfolio when all is said and done and start sending it out. Just Yoga. I'm not really interested in anything else. I would actually be enthusiastic if someone called me up to work on a mind body spirit themed project - even if it were advertising, which I vowed to never go back to. My desire to be a professional photographer was almost extinguished doing that...I've just been drifting, for years now...! It's kind of thrilling to think about entering the playing field again with a different perspective.
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This Image Copyright Elena Ray 2008. Close up of Lotus pose with mudra. For now (sigh) I've given up on the lotus pose. I have knee issues...not sure why or where the problem originated from...but even as I write this I feel my knees kinda hurtin' after having recklessly whirled the other day. Whirling feels great but the lateral spinning movement always torques my knees, and then it takes weeks to recover...
You cannot grab the wave, no matter how much effort you expend... !
The other night watched a woman I've recently come to know perform traditional Indian dances. It was so fascinating and beautiful, and her movements somehow transcended the space time boundaries of my mind. I felt completely different afterwards... I wanted reconciliation with the universe! I loved Krishna! The sensation of his divine blue skin, brushing past mine, turned my mind.
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This Image "untitled yogini" Elena Ray copyright 2008. Ellie, one of the strongest women I have ever met; strong physically but even more so in her capability to meet the escalating challenges of maturity, all the while retaining the most essential yin qualities of the feminine.
