VIVA LA BEAT

VIVA LA BEAT Life-Enriching Arts | Rhythm-Based Programming |
Expressive Arts Therapy | Arts-Based Facilitation
Imagination in service of the Soul

02/23/2022

Studio practice session. Bongos and a Jumbie Jam mallet join me to say hello to my inner “tamborera“… Tap into the beat of your heart amigos! Turn up the volume and jam with me ❤️

“Listen:In the silence between there is music;In the spaces between there is story...” Sally Atkins
08/18/2021

“Listen:
In the silence between there is music;
In the spaces between there is story...” Sally Atkins

Grateful for hallway art-to-art conversations and soul warming moments… Ocean drum meets Garden Sweet Garden 🐠🪴💚💦🍃 ...
08/18/2021

Grateful for hallway art-to-art conversations and soul warming moments… Ocean drum meets Garden Sweet Garden 🐠🪴💚💦🍃

Rhythmic forecast: drumroll with a chance of rain-sticks! Thank you and for believing in the transformational power of...
08/17/2021

Rhythmic forecast: drumroll with a chance of rain-sticks!

Thank you and for believing in the transformational power of the arts and the imagination and for the opportunity to assist your organizations on their mission to improve the quality of life of the members of the community they serve.

Bridging into the imaginal space… Ready to weave our personal responses into a collective rhythmic experience… One momen...
08/17/2021

Bridging into the imaginal space… Ready to weave our personal responses into a collective rhythmic experience… One moment, one breath, one beat at a time ❤️

Thank you and for believing in transformational power of the arts and the imagination and for the opportunity to assist your organizations on their mission to improve the quality of life of the members of the community they serve.

Its been a long while… but here we are again! Building creative community and cultivating artful togetherness as we put ...
08/17/2021

Its been a long while… but here we are again!
Building creative community and cultivating artful togetherness as we put the power of rhythm in service of our bodies, minds and souls ❤️
Thank you and for believing in the transformational power of the arts and the imagination and for the opportunity to assist your organizations on their mission to improve the quality of life of the members of the community they serve.

I never considered myself to be a person with clear-cut outlines and refined edges. On my journey of becoming I have alw...
04/08/2021

I never considered myself to be a person with clear-cut outlines and refined edges. On my journey of becoming I have always been moving along a broad spectrum, a wide range of preferences, passions, interests and emotions.

I know what I know I know but I often do not know how to articulate it without feeling like the magic is seeping through my fingers.

My art is the vessel on which I navigate truths and subjects that may otherwise feel heavy and difficult to articulate. It is the playground where I deconstruct difficult concepts to “understand” them at a visceral level... Concepts, realities and truths that might otherwise be difficult to hold and to carry.

Even -or I could say, especially- in the midst of uncertainty, it has helped me embrace the unfolding horizon with curiosity and child-like sense of wonder.

My art has been a compassionate companion that has facilitated, time after time, the process of naming my “abstract knowing”, my ability and readiness to own it and share it.

While it is true that creating gives me grounding clarity, there is beauty in knowing that in my “soul’s toolbox” there will always be traces of unnamed knowing, a willingness to make myself available to the creative force, a call to pursuit my intuitive hunches and a yearning to continue to open more, and more room, for the unknown to manifest itself.

I thank today’s inspiration for arriving as a gentle reminder and an invitation to navigate uncertainty in complete and artful state of surrender...

I attempt to share my aesthetic reflections while the kinesthetic memory of my journey through the creation of this piec...
01/05/2021

I attempt to share my aesthetic reflections while the kinesthetic memory of my journey through the creation of this piece is still encrypted in my body...
I did not know it then but looking back at yesterday morning I realize I showed up to my studio in search of an epiphany or a life changing truth. This is not new, in fact, it has happened to me many times before: I become aware of a subtle yet pressing dilema between giving in to the self inflicted pressure to create something “pretty” or surrendering to the urge to put the power of my creativity and imagination in service of my body, mind and soul — whatever that means or implies... Whatever that looks like...

Usually, a studio tidying session “café en mano” is grounding enough to shake me up and bring me back into the present moment but yesterday my eagerness and thirst of clarity took over me, pulling images out of my inner workbench and onto a plastic-covered wall in a neglected corner of my unfinished basement studio.
A lightly, roughly painted foundation set the mood and held the space for a non-stop procession of materials, collected trinkets and created objects (including a lovely paper hibiscus made by my talented artist friend Cari Shim 🌺). Oh! It was a beautiful, soul-warming procession of “perolitos” dancing out of their nesting pockets and making their way onto the wall!
Finally, across this leafy piece, a jute thread suspended like a garland popped the word “solid” —ironically hanging from a wobbly clothespin just about to give in... (ok, that is a teeny tiny beyond-the-surface observation)
The result? Not necessarily “pretty” in the worldly sense but the subtle moments of beauty that came with the experience gave a resting place to my busy, questioning mind, a playful touch to an otherwise dull corner and a renewed sense of purpose to my eager my soul.

And I must say that the fact that I found a new life for the egg carton flowers that I made last year is a lovely added bonus! ❤️

Swipe all the way to the end to see this previously neglected studio corner with its plastic covered wall coming to life!

Sometimes, all I need is a little change in perspective... To be able to see the wetlands as a vegetal green sky, or who...
08/25/2020

Sometimes, all I need is a little change in perspective... To be able to see the wetlands as a vegetal green sky, or who knows?, maybe as a swampy pergola... To see the clouds as effervescent waves of a heavenly ocean, bringing the willow branches towards the leafy shore in a rhythmic flow as if they were floating algae...
To imagine a day when it would rain turtles and toads over the baby blue sea where birds swim with -and sometimes against- the current — tree tops on the surface, as a beautiful, decorative garland...
Oh, yes, there is no doubt (or is there? Or viceversa?) .... In any case, sometimes all I need is a little change in perspective...

Next month, the walls of the Pierre Janet pavilion of the historic Sainte-Anne Hospital in Paris will be the container a...
08/14/2020

Next month, the walls of the Pierre Janet pavilion of the historic Sainte-Anne Hospital in Paris will be the container and physical support of an artistic intervention before being demolished in the fall 2020 and replaced in 2023.
From September 7 to 11, said building will become an Ephemeral Art Workshop allowing to express both the collective fear and anger raised by Covid-19 as well as by the global context in which it occurs. In the manner of a manifesto, there will be room to illustrate reactions of hope and desire for renewal or reunion with solid and equitable socio-cultural references. "El Día Después: Taller de Arte Efímero en París” (The Day After: Ephemeral Art Workshop in Paris) also promotes openness to artists who have responded to provide insights and inspiration during the workshop. On the 5th and last day the workshop will become an exhibition open to the public.

Yesterday I submitted my aesthetic response and today I get to share it with you all.

Here, you can see it from different perspectives and under different lights...

Title: “Cuando la oruga pensó que el mundo se acababa, se convirtió en mariposa”. - An installation of created objects and collected treasures, tools and trinkets, meticulously arranged out of a pull of soul.
@ Toronto, C•a•n•a•d•a

Standing up for what I believe in is a moment to moment experience that starts in the arena of my own inner life.It is t...
07/03/2020

Standing up for what I believe in is a moment to moment experience that starts in the arena of my own inner life.

It is there where I can embrace the discomfort of my not knowing and deconstruct my felt sense to later bridge it out into the world, where I can -hopefully- articulate it in a linear and coherent way.

Long lasting change requires that I take the time to take in my inner tapestry not through the lens of clear-cut answers but open-ended questions, that I have the patience and strength needed to resist the dilemma between outward delivering and inward sitting with.

Processing what needs to be processed in my own soul’s space and time requires that I bring a willing heart, daring-enough to detangle the threads that make up the wholeness of who I am; fierce-enough, to sustain me as I lean into my vulnerability to take a good, honest look at the stories that shape my world and curate my noticing by either sharpening or fogging my perception.

In the face of adversity and injustice, despite not always feeling brave and resourceful, my inner wisdom tells me that an imperfect, willing heart is a good place to start for a soul prepared to listen, to learn and grow.

I trust that on the other side of vulnerability, we can meet each other with love, humility and compassion so that we can integrate the lessons learned and begin anew.

Together. As One.

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Toronto, ON
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