new year's eve tarot

a little tarot spread for the last day of 2015, looking forward to what 2016 has to bring... using the star spread from Rachel Pollack's New Tarot Handbook.

A: Hope
8 of wands
entering 2016 there's positive movement in your life. things are moving. this won't be another year of stagnation...

B: Guidance
9 of pentacles
follow your inner guide to satisfaction & fulfillment this year. but also remember to stay present & grateful for where you are, how far you've come, & what you've achieved.

C: Peace
the hanged man inverted
peace comes from moving on. this year you're ready to untie yourself from a binding situation that no longer serves you & let go.

D: Healing
10 of cups
I think of the 10 of cups as the happiest card in the entire deck. your healing comes through happiness & fulfillment but it is also its cause. healing creates happiness & happiness creates healing. cultivate both in 2016. 

happy new year everyone. may 2016 continue to be weird & wonderful for you & bring many moments of learning, laughing, & a lot of burritos.

-N

letter, early 2000's (?)

looking through old art projects & journals

surfing the #artjournal tag on instagram

ingesting

inspiration

to keep moving

 

current events

-reading books
-boxing
-dealing tarot
-learning lenormand
-running
-hiking
-cat quality time
-expanding
-journaling
-procrastinating

reading poems

Reading at Poetic Reseach Bureau! from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

Reading two poems at the Poetic Research Bureau in downtown LA, 11 December 2015.

 

I'm reading this friday, 11 december, at poetic research bureau in LA.

A group of very cool poets/writers/humans from CalArts & UCSD will be reading brief interludes, free & open to the public. More info on the facebook event page. 

-N

“starting over--the idea--is a lot like the idea of mental health.
(“when you woke up, was it there?”)”
        -Kate Greenstreet

concretes

emotion regulation handout 6, cut & woven paper, 2015.

writing is ruthlessly cutting out things your spent hours fashioning from nothing.

here is a concrete poem I cut from my graduate thesis last week. 

notes

"masquerading yourself
as yourself.

the journey is it's own reward.

memory is just a word.



artists have to be vampires & parasites."

lady macbeth

getting a little psycho this halloween

wanna watch me wrapped in sheet paying tribute to my all time favourite scary flick, psycho? you're in luck, that's exactly what I have for you this halloween!


a tribute to psycho from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo .

I'm such a dork, but I had a jolly good time making this lil nerd video. also: lol ignore my little bugs... I left my window open all day before I realized there was a giant hole in my screen. whoops.

Happy Halloween & Blessed Samhain to all.

tarot of terror: the tower

a while back I drew 'the tower' in my daily tarot reading. my initial thought was: oh shit.

but I've been thinking now about the tower for the past several weeks... & it doesn't feel quite so doom & gloom anymore.

in her book, the new tarot handbook (which I highly recommend, along with everything else she's ever written) Rachel Pollack writes:

"the tower does not only mean destruction, it can also mean release of energy or some powerful revelation that changes everything. the change is usually positive, even if it feels painful in the moment."

in my notes I wrote:

"sometimes you need to burn everything down to prepare for new things to grow"

I think of it as a kind of fertilization process. when farmers burn their old crops to ash to prepare the soil for the new plantings. is there pain in this destruction? yes, of course. but isn't it more painful to stay firmly where you are, unable to flex & grow? change is never easy, it certainly never has been for me, but pulling up your roots allows space for new things to take shape.

I've been thinking about that a lot. how to create space for the things you desire to expand. the creating of space seems to be the most important part. you can't fill a vessel that's already full of old ideas & old dreams.

you can't build a new tower without destroying the old one first.

this post was deleted because I felt like it.

mindful climbing

"Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present. When you're mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience." -Psychology Today







hiking among trees
rustling in hot wind
with dirt folding
into the bends of my arms &
behind my knees
I feel the muscles 
of my thighs 
chanting
rise, rise, rise

itty bitty ditty about me

made a lil video about me.

find it on my website or watch below.

About Me! from Natalie Raymond on Vimeo.

news of the day

headshots

getting going.

getting the ball rolling.

 

new headshots & a photo gallery are added to my website.

list of words while watching Samiya Bashir's 'M A P S'

"Il faut dépasser le but pour l'atteindre."

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve

"One must go beyond their goals in order to achieve them."

showcase

Tuesday I performed in the showcase for the acting class I've been taking at Andrew Wood Acting Studio in Hollywood. Had a lot of fun learning with these rad people & can't wait to work with them again!

most of the gang.

this is the best facial expression I've ever had.

"I've been thinking about it & I think cockroaches are my spirit animal. They follow me & are hard looking but easy to squish."

-journal entry, 14 August 2015.

out to salvation

drove into the desert

left an offering for the universe. 

more photos on instagram.

work

'work,' blackout poem, july 2015

"we cannot simply sit & stare at our wounds forever. we must stand up & move on to the next action."

-haruki murakami

beverages

trying to remember to stay hydrated.

adventure

some photos from my friday at california adventure park celebrating my 27th birthday.

"it's never too late to be what you might have been"

-george eliot

tarot: 2 of swords

what are you refusing to see?

what are you keeping hidden?

what feelings are you rejecting?

making tiny things

I made a tiny zine/collage/book thingy. 

Original collage & poem by me. First edition. 

If you'd like to purchase a copy, limited quantities are available in my newly minted shop. 

on the gorgeous nothings

video of Jen Bervin and Marta Werner talking about the gorgeous nothings: Emily Dickinson's envelope poems. 

hills + trees

weekly hiking adventures through griffith park...

little personality poem

Coyotes

audio of this blog post.

today's tarot

go out into the world

communicate

laugh

speak

live

two cities

New York City folds, Los Angeles curls like long fingers tipped with pointed nails.

New York City pants, Los Angeles practices meditative breathing.

New York City hunches its shoulders, Los Angeles struts with its chest pushed forward.

LAABF

 

Went to the LA Art Book Fair at MOCA yesterday. 

Perused the endless tables of bookish creations. 

Got inspired for my own small press explorations.

A few more photos on tumblr. 

TBR book list

I was tagged by the lovely Rebecca Ann Jordan.

My TBR list, super pared down & all I can remember from my notebook scribbles on the subject.

Bough Down - Karen Green
The Last 4 Things - Kate Greenstreet
The Gorgeous Nothings - Emily Dickinson/Jen Bervin
A Little White Shadow - Mary Ruefle
Ecodeviance - CA Conrad
Red Juice - Hoa Nguyen
Vicious Red Relic, Love - Anna Joy Springer

Read my TBR list answers under the cut.

books & paper

receipt book
thread, paper, recycled receipts
2015

double

portrait, 2015

notes: the main benefit of art school is self-loathing.

THE MAIN BENEFIT OF ART SCHOOL IS SELF LOATHING

the desire & ability to interact with the world on a conceptual level.
THINKING. PUTTING ONESELF IN CONTEXT.
UNDERSTANDING ONES CONTEXT

Art is free. Free to make. Free to consume. Free to fake.

what’s bad is when you just start putting stuff out into the world without thinking about it at all. when you don’t have to examine your place or ask any questions. when you simply run around smiling like an idiot saying “I’m an artist” without the knowledge to investigate anything.

art is investigation.

we like to pretend that “there is no wrong answer” in art, in literature. BUT THIS IS A LIE. when shakespeare wrote; “love all // trust a few // do harm to none” he was NOT talking about giving daisies to kittens. if you believe he was writing about giving daisies to kittens you are WRONG.

instead of worrying about who gets to run around saying they’re an artist, we should be worrying about what the art itself ACTUALLY SAYS.

emily dickinson's 1129, original manuscript (johnson numbering)

(the first two lines of which is tattooed on my arm)