TOTEM ROCKS THE EL REY THEATRE SAT JUNE 10 2010
TOTEM, the blues/reggae band consisting of Issac Barbosa,
Cody Jones, Danny the Harp and Devon Hjelmna, caused some
serious dancing magic sat night at the El ReyTtheatre.
This was TOTEMʼs first appearance on the big stage at the El Rey,
and they filled the theatre with joyous, original songs, all composed
by Issac. They are an experienced band, having played many
outdoor festivals and ceremonial events, and this show showed them
off as a major musical force in New Mexcio. With heartfelt
and sincere songs well crafted by Issac that raised peopleʼs consciousness
and also made them dance, Totem was totemly original!
With the well integrated band of Cody on hand drums creating a great
island like groove, Devin supporting the low end with a steady rockin bass
and Danny wailing on his harmonica like a sonic hurricane, Totem brought
the entire theatre on to their feet to make the dance floor crowded
with energy. From couples sharing the wonderful energy with each other
to single people blissing out with wild gyrations, the audience moved
with glee to Totems well crafted songs. Issac, alternating on rythmn guitar
and silver flute, wowed the audience with his melodic playing and virtuosity.
Together, each player actually listened to the others and filled
a separate role in the overall sound of the band, taking turns leading the
band through nine well received numbers.
The band was well received not only by the dancing audience but by
several producers in the audience who hope to have TOTEM soon
opening shows for their more well known acts.
Totemly! is the best new word in town to describe how a concert went.
This show was recorded by El Rey for release on a new cd of up and
coming Albuquerque bands, and filmed by Michael Polembo
for possible inclusion in a new movie about the 3sidedwhole commmunity,
of which Totem is the ʻHouse Band” playing in that outside desert
venue that is an “Urban Legend” that many folks have heard about
but never found. This show will lead many old fans of Totem back out
the Whole, as it called, and call many new fans out there to see what
the excitement is all about at the “edge of creation” site where Totem
plays under the stars.

————————————————————————————————————————

IN YOUR DREAMS: THE SHAMANIC ART OF LISA DE ST CROIX

Dreams have a way of persisting in our waking life and being more real than our daily sensory input.  Especially when images are vivid, unusual, filled with startling erotic symbolism, dreams can become obsessive to our waking minds, and persist. The unconscious mind (and the mind of the underworld) has a hypnotic, trance producing iconic quality that transcends and trumps ordinary consciousness and persists in our reflections long after see we images from the depths of our journeys. The classic dreamlike surrealist paintings of Yves Tanguy painted from a Freudian psychological perspective, are such and many intrigue visitors to the Art Institute of Chicago, such as
“the persistence of sleep”, with Salvador Dali like melted landscapes.  Lisa St Croix has opened up new such doorways with her new series: paintings of personal Shamanic experiences. Once the door is opened, innocence and experience merge in a William Blake like manner.

Lisa de St Croix is a Santa Fe based New Mexico artist who
has bravely explored this realm in a series of almost shocking and courageous explorations of shamanic dream states.  Her body of work goes back years to paintings of her power animals, plants of power, places of power, and shamanic landscapes. Her most recent work EMERGENCE, explores a shamanic tantric sexual landscape in which huge canvasses reveal with no mercy the power and scope of the shamanic erotic mind.

Lisa’s paintings range from small canvasses to wall size visions. They can be stunning (literally) on first sight, seeming to shock the naive observer with the raw juxtaposition of the known and unknown the permitted and the taboo.  They reveal dimensions of experience that many people have in dreams, shamanic journeys, hyper excited imaginative interludes, states of consciousness most people will not verbalize and share with others. That is why these paintings take courage both to create and to view.

Originally from South Africa, Lisa has had a storied art career with major showings in New York City, and Boston, including soundscape installations, and traditional landscapes, and many juried showings.  After relocating to El Morro, New Mexico, in the heart of the southwestern desert, Lisa began to be influenced by various shamanic sacred ceremonies she attended from different traditions.  Expanding her styles to include dioramas, triptychs, and especially VISUAL JOURNALS, she recorded in detail a stunning series of experiences that could have remained private territory.  Instead, she has shared them with the world, and opened windows into the kind of private journeys that we usually only read about (Carlos Castaneda, Don Juan series) Of course, the pictures convey far more than words, and speak for themselves.

Lisa’s new work, occupying in multiple layers the walls of her new Santa Fe studio, are a stunning achievement that deserves a strong public  viewing.  The connections between Female sexuality, snake energy, and rebirth are explored in multiple paintings.  Painting on a background of Venetian red instead of white, she creates hot canvasses that have layers of sparkle and color which engage our emotions as well as intellect.  The paintings take us into the land of the shamanic/mythological and transcend Lisa’s strong personal experiences, which became gateways to a more important universal archetypical experience that speaks to all of us.  We all long to be born again through the watery
layers of the mind/body in order to be free and fly with released erotic, aka creative energy…

The paintings are all based on real experiences and not abstract ideas. They flow from an immediacy of experience that persists even when the painting becomes universal and archetypical.  This leads to an uncanny sense of entering a private and public realm of experience at the same time and of witnessing something that we feel a special permission and a privilege to share, which could have remained private.  The paintings require no explanation or guidebook, they speak for themselves. Yet they convey a mysticism (or access to secret knowledge) that stimulates our curiosity and sense of wonder, and initiates a sense of longing for the ineffable that great art can produce.

Lisa’s work is “in progress” in that the paintings continue to emerge fromher dreams, shamanic experiences, and personal growth.  They do notsignal a return to a paradise or final destination, but a process of transformation and becoming which is both ecstatic and painful,
clear and yet confusing.  Emerging from water, a goddess figure seems to be attempting to fly, but remains stuck in the water with her feet.

Such is the process of transformation, going from one level to another,
one world through another, but with the difficulty of keeping the same
identity and changing also.

Lisa teaches her visual journaling and shamanic painting techniques in Santa Fe and also in summer workshops at 3SidedWhole, a shamanic teaching ranch in the desert between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico

Lisa’s work can be viewed at her website, www.lisadestcroix.com
or at her studio by appointment. contact Lisa at lisadestcroix@hotmail.com
When you gaze upon these images
you may not be able to forget them, or may find they send you
through your personal gateway in search of your own transformation.
Caveat emptor, the power is there. Enter at your own risk and potential tremendous gain.

drblue