REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

Final Day of 12 Days of Mother Love - Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Thanks to our 12 Days of Mother Love journey 2016, I learned something I did not know right in the city I was born in and now I’m ready for a field trip. Thanks to Rebecca Brooks at Recuerda mi Corazon and this year's participants, I learned so much that I didn't know before. This is Our Lady of Guadalupe painted on the exterior of the Community Development Commission’s Housing Authority Building – L.A. County Arts Organization.

Artist: David Lopez Date: 1973

CDC Office Building (Exterior)

4800 Cesar E. Chavez Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90022

Project Description

While driving along Mednik Avenue in East Los Angeles it is impossible to miss David Lopez’s two 13’ h x 25’ w murals on the exterior of the Community Development Commission’s Housing Authority building. These murals were originally painted on a wall of the old Casa Maravilla housing project bungalows, but were salvaged and relocated when the housing project was torn down in 1975.

Designed by the artist with assistance from local teenagers, one mural features an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe surrounded by an aura of radiating colorful light while the other mural includes a cross overlaid with lines from a poem by Sam Zepeda. The poem reads, “Hermano / y porque estoy aquí en la tierra / sin sangrar / sin andar / Hermano por qué?” (translated in English as “Brother / why am I here on earth / without bleeding / without moving / Brother, why?”). The murals, joined together by a brick pillar, were dedicated to a young gang member who died as a victim of gang violence. The murals were originally designed to serve as a local community shrine and today people still come to leave flowers, light candles, and pray.

Over the years the murals’ paint faded and the local community restored the works with good intentions, but unfortunately the original artist was not consulted and a new painter changed the murals’ appearance. In 2008, David Lopez received funding from the Community Development Commission to restore the murals to their original brilliance and detail.

About the Artist

A native of East Los Angeles, David Lopez attended the Art Center College of Design and majored in illustration before pursuing a career in the film industry. Lopez worked as a production painter, scenic artist, and background animation artist for Batman, Lethal Weapon, and several Michael Jackson commercials. He has also worked with Robert Arenivar on a painting for the Pentagon of the Hispanic Medal of Honor winner and on a mural in an East Los Angeles bar that has been destroyed. Lopez currently lives in Saugus, California.

So, thanks Rebecca, for this wonderful 12 days! 

Day 11 - 12 Days of Mother Love - Blessed Art Journal Page

This is an art journal page I created last night after I got home from volunteering at the used book sale at the Malaga Cove Library. I call this page "Blessed." I pull many of my images from used books we sell and recycle. In addition to the images, which I cut from copies of other media I've created in the past, I used paint, glue, rubber stamps, ink pad inks, stencils, pens and Pan Pastels.

If you would like to see more of 12 Days of Mother Love creations, go to Rebecca Brooks Recuerda mi Corazon. This is our next to last post for 2016. Watch for Our Lady of Guadalupes on the 12th. 

Day 10 - 12 Days of Mother Love - SoulCollage® Our Lady of the Poinsettias

 

I created this SoulCollage® card several years ago and made it into a Christmas card that year. After creating SoulCollage® cards, they are put into suits and we write IAOW statements, “I am one who---“. Our Lady is in my Council suit. My cards usually have several layers, but this one is simple. “I am one who brings peace to the world, Our Lady says. And I say, thank you Seena Frost for developing this process that I have used for 13 years. And thank you to the team that continues to introduce SoulCollage to the world." 

I took the facilitator training for this method in 2004 and was so blessed that Seena Frost was there. She died in January of 2016. If you are interested in learning this method on your own, or you want to take a workshop just click on the SoulCollage link above. As I type this blog entry today I watched one of the videos where she narrates an overview of the process.

To see the creations of other participants in 12 Days of Mother Love visit Rebecca Brooks at Recuerda mi Corazon.

Day 9 - 12 Days of Mary - Our Lady of Cobre and Haiku

Religion is gone

from Cuba, Mary isn’t

El Cobre proves it.

Several years ago I created this page in one of my art journals and named it Our Lady of Cobre. She is the patron saint of Cuba. I got the inspiration from one of the late Thomas Merton's poems "Song of Our Lady of Cobre," 1944. Merton's 1948 autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain  played a key role in my life when I first read it in the early 1970s.

Her statue is in the mining town of El Cobre outside Santiago. She is also known as the Virgin of Charity (La Virgen de la Caridad). 

She was designated as the patron saint of Cuba by the Pope in 1916. Pope Francis visited Cuba last year (2015) and said Mass at the Basílica Santuario Nacional de Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre. I found this article from the New Yorker very interesting. The Pope visited the late Fidel Castro and Raul Castro had visited the Pope at the Vatican earlier that year. The Pope apparently had a key role in healing U.S. and Cuba relations. I wonder what Thomas Merton would have thought about all this had he been alive to see it. 

You can visit Recuerda mi Corazon to see the offerings of other participants in 12 Days of Mother Love. 

Day 8 - 12 Days of Mary Love - La Morenita

La Morenita, by Adry del Rocio

I found this painting at a website called Global Worship and next found Adry del Rocio’s blog where there are many photos of her creating art and out and about in her community. Google Images also has a treasure trove of photos. Now my appetite is whetted to find out more about her and her work. I just fell in love with this particular painting. If you visit her blog, be sure to read her artist statement and ask Google to translate if you don't read Spanish. Her words are filled with so much passion--like our own dear Rebecca's. 

Please join us at Rebecca Brooks 12 Days of Mother Love at Recuerda mi Corazon. It is time consuming to participate each year, but it also has deepened my connection with Mary and the divine feminine. I so look forward each of the 12 days to see what the other participants are sharing. 

"Lest We Forget" - Still Remembering Pearl Harbor

It seems hard to believe that 75 years have passed since the  Japanese struck Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. I started keeping this blog in 2003 and because our own family suffered losses on that infamous day, I usually post here on Dec. 7.  Bud and Wesley Heidt, twin brothers, close family friends, were killed on the U.S.S. Arizona. Countless others  lost their lives that day. My late sister Donna was engaged to Bud.  I'm the only one left in my family to remember him and his brother personally. 

I wrote my sister Donna's story about Pearl Harbor in my 2004 entry. If you are interested, I elaborated on it in my 2005 entry. We will not forget. 

Day 7 - 12 Days of Mother Love - All the Broken People

My offering today is Mary's love and comfort to all the broken people. May those who are suffering, lonely, alienated, hungry or feel less than and invisible feel her warmth, compassion and healing. This is a set from my creations on Polyvore. 

To see the offerings of other participants in Rebecca Brooks Twelve Days of Mother Love, go to Recuerda mi Corazon. 

Day 6 - 12 Days of Mary Love - Expectant Mary

During recent Pinterest travels I synchronistically tripped across this beautiful portrait of an expectant Mary by artist/photographer Krystin Brown.  Based in Pennsylvania, she is currently working on TheSaintsProject - Modern Portrayals of Catholic Saints. A click on her name brings you to Krystin's Etsy page. 

Visit Recuerda mi Corazon for more about 12 Days of Mother Love and to see offerings by other participants. 

Day 5: 12 Days of Mother Love - Queen of Stars Variation

Queen of Stars Variation 1 - Polyvore

Queen of Stars Variation 2 - Dreamscope Fractal Filter

Queen of Stars Variation 3 - Dreamscope Highlight Filter

I created the first image Queen of Stars in Polyvore in March 2016. Last night I played with filters in an application called Dreamscope. When I have time, I like to try out various filters with my own photography and with images I make in varied media. Over the centuries the divine feminine has been created by countless artists in many mediums. If you haven't tried this app, it opens up new artistic worlds--and even a way to worship in new ways. 

Visit Rebecca Brooks Recuerda mi Corazon to see other people's offerings for today in the 12 Days of Mother Love meme. 

Day 4: 12 Days of Mother Love - Gas Station Madonna

Madonna

Photo by SheepInABottle on Flickr

Stephanie Mancini

Passersby leave rosaries on this madonna in a gas station. I found her originally on Pinterest. Does anyone know where the gas station is? 

If you would like to see the work of other participants in Rebecca Brooks annual Twelve Days of Mother Love, go to Recuerda mi Corazon.