Black 13 Collection

Amongst all the intriguing predictions of 2012, this be all, end all of doomsday has stimulated me to create a becoming jewelry collection called Black 13, inspired by Armageddon, mourning, death, destruction and the Book of Revelations. Over the past year I have begun collecting wonderful vintage pieces that relate to the symbolism in the Book of Revelations and even scientific predictions of natural disasters. Recently I've listed four pieces from this collection, and hope to have more soon!

Currently I am working on piece that revolves around the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, they symbolize the evils to come at the end of the world. The figure representing conquest rides a white horse, the red horse is war; famine is the black horse; and plague is the pale horse. I've found this lovely vintage brooch in a gold with four horses riding, I'm in the works of making it much darker and blackened.

~ Blood For Blood Necklace: In the coming rivals of man, a reign of blood is birthing in the depths. A talisman of sorts to lead the way through troubled times and blood against blood and for survival of man. Features three swooping chains, a unique amulet pendant and hidden religious medal.

~ Cosmic Madness Rhinestone Necklace: An explosion of the cosmic galaxies of fire and destruction, fire red rhinestones and dying stars of extinction. A vintage rhinestone brooch has been transformed into a bold pendant that radiates blood red and white light, it truly reminds me of a gamma ray burst or the exploding milky way.

~ Midnight Mourning Earrings: Dark talismans in jet black of a mementos past; of a soul lost brings faded happy memories and a token of ticking life.

~ Armageddon Empire Necklace: The final battle between God and Satan, the end of the world cometh. An end to the world for 1000 years, a glorious explosion of stars and a twinkle of their death. Clear rhinestones embedded into a black enamel pendant, a sparkle of infinity.

Stay tuned for more pieces! ~ You can read my original posting on my thoughts and some interesting articles plus websites, called Doomsday 2012.

Skeleton Krew no.0027 Blackened

During my travels, I come across many old photographs, I usually try and covet the most unique and odd into my Skeleton Krew Collection. Featured here is a sneak peek of the painting Blackened; the innocent face is fairly young and  reminds me of Victorian mourning photos of the recent departed. 

During the Victorian era it was not uncommon for the family to touch the corpse or hold lost children in the arms of the mother's one last time, evening dine in the same room as the corpse. This photo reminds me of a child's innocence lost once being introduced to death for the first time, whether be a younger brother or grandmother. 

The deceased portraits were commonly represented as though they were sleeping rather than dead, though this photo is rather a twist on the concept. The viewer of this portrait can be thought of as the departed looking into the eyes of the mourning. I often think of my paintings as a modern personal momento mori, reminding me that death is only a flicker away.

The painting is still in the beginning rough stages. The child features a plaid dress which is going to be turned black to match her black gloves. Her piercing eyes peek out from the black mask which is wrapped in black lace that surround her curls. I often find the more petite faces are much more difficult to capture detail, so this lovely child will take many more sittings, but I thought I'd share the process.

My Past Life Regression

Last year, a friend of mine Becca from The Caravan and I were talking about the concept of Past Life Regression, I've seen some shows about this technique of going into a hypnosis to reveal old memories or being reborn from past lives. This kind of thing really fascinates me, one day I wish to get this done professionally. However, Becca and I did a little research on how to tap into these memories yourself. Months before I tried this experiment, Becca did it herself and said she had visions of syringes and strange men with masks holding her down in a garden of some kind. Pretty bizarre! She later revealed that for the longest time she has always been afraid of needles. From there I truly was intrigued!

TAP INTO YOUR PAST LIFE

Before you do this meditation, you want to be in the right state of mind, find a time when you are aware but not overly tired, lay down in a relaxing place with no distractions. Once you are comfortable, you can try this technique I did: envision yourself walking down a flight of stairs while counting down from 100, once you reach the bottom you will envision a door that you will open. The time may vary for different people in which you will fall into the trance, with my experience I sort of fell in a light sleep but I was still conscious, this took me about 4-5 minutes. I chose a time in the mid-afternoon laying on my floor. 

My PERSONAL VISION:

It was nothing I've ever experienced before, after I opened my door during the exercise, I saw a pink Victorian house surrounded by a sunny sky, bright green grass on a neighborhood street right out of the early 1900s. There were tall palm trees that lined the street and I could see short white fencing. From my perspective, it seemed as if I was across the street taking on the fullness of the house, in the front yard was a little girl in a short dress with white apron. I couldn't make out features but more of her silhouette. My next vision was a black long looking car that pulled up to the house and parked in front of the house for a moment then drove away. I was really anxious to see inside, but the windows were jet black and the driver was hidden.

From that point, the vision jumped to a backyard or from my point of view I saw nothing but the blue sky looking up. There were four children standing in a line looking at me. The whole time there were no sounds, just images flashing. I tried looking at myself to do reality check, but I wasn't able to see myself. Right after I looked up, I saw a middle aged woman maybe mid 40s, she was in all black, could've been mourning clothes, but hard to tell from the vision, however she had really long hair ,but she didn't reveal her face to me. Abruptly my perspective changed…I was inside a box or wall looking out, I saw a hand reach in and pull out an old style hand gun. I was really confused at this point, but the sense of sadness fell over me.

The beginning of my experience in the trance was very innocent and reminded me of childhood, the children standing together really reminds me of my brothers and how we always stuck together. But later after seeing the woman I had this overwhelming feeling of grieving, were those that woman's children or was it me who died? The vision of the gun was really disturbing and depressing, like something tragic happened. Now that I look back to the beginning maybe the car could of been some kind of of hearse passing or a sign of death to the house. I couldn't tell you what the meanings were, could that that woman have been me? To tell you the truth, whenever I am around small children, I often get really teary eyed for some reason; very bizarre. I really want to do more of these sessions, and to try and get a connection of similar places or feelings, it was truly an amazing experience that lasted only about 15 minutes, but it is something that is truly unforgettable. 

Fast forwarding about five years…I did another session that wasn't as detailed but more of a mystery at this point. I had a vision during a meditation dream session where the perspective was me next to a horse or perhaps riding a horse. It's a real cropped in image of a brown horse very close on the mane. I can see the dark chocolate hair with a brown reins. Perhaps it was my horse, though I've never owned a horse. A very short image and so cropped in – the feel was happiness unlike the previous session I did.

Here are some sites that are very insightful about Past Life Regression:

~ Past Forward Exercise: Self Guided Life Regression

~ Crystal Links: Past Life Regression

~ Free Hemi Sync Guided Meditation

~ 8 Steps to Initiating an Outer Body Experience

A Broken Heart

Some of you may already know due to tweets here and there, but over the weekend one of my love birds passed away. I've had the couple of cuties for almost 10 years now and they have seen some places in their travels and had a family of babies at one time; they were like a couple growing older together. 

Jagger, the male is named after Mick Jagger; when I first brought them home I used to play The Stones on my playschool record player and they loved it! The female Niki, is named after the vixen from the '90s show La Femme Nikita. She was much more quiet and fatter, she loved to hide in her wooden box where she slept and once raised little hungry babes.

I was quite surprised Friday night when I found her, Jagger seemed louder then ever when I was rocking out to Faith No More the night before. I don't know if Flag my cat was the culprit, we did have an incident in the beginning of the year where he almost ate her, but she was a survivor. I buried her Sunday morning, in the field out back near the garden. It was a hot humid morning, I remember sweating really bad but it was a nice morning for such a sad thing. It was interesting when I was digging her grave, I came across some old pieces of glass from a amber bottle, I've saved these relics from her burial and washed them off and put them in my cabinet of memories.

For now, Jagger is all alone, I try and play music for him to make him happy for a while, but he sleeps alone on his perch. I have been calling around and actually found someone today in Hockessin, DE who might be able to one get one for me by next Tuesday. I've also found this exotic bird place down in Lewes, DE, so if all else fails I will have to go down there. I will keep everyone posted, please keep Jagger in your prayers so he doesn't die of a broken heart.

Odd & Beautiful Souls

I find that whenever strange happenings occur in my life or when death takes someone close, I turn to my nexus of time or what I like to call my 150 year old brick townhouse filled with my obsessions and collections. It is a world filled with creaking rocking chairs and enchanting immaculate faces amongst the darker side of things.

The beginning of this month is quite a mystery to me, I sort of had these same feelings about a year ago and began doing more painting and hoarding of odd relics, but only to embody them in my wooden cabinet of curiosities. I like to bring them out every now and then, but most of the time they sit behind glass as if I were an observer in an underground museum in New Orleans.

My miniature dark museum holds hand made relics in apothecary bottles, frozen memories all nestled together, a glass eye looks up at you as you observe animal skulls and tiny assemblages amongst anatomy books, ahhh a safe home filled with tragedy and romance.

I have a new relic to be added to my collection for the time being, until someone comes along to give it a new story, this Memento Mori Relic Locket is time capsule of life and death, beginnings and ends to memories that have left my soul and new ones that the future hold. A skeleton key stands as its comrade to lock in dark forbidden forces and for fate to birth a new dawn.

To old endings with the turn of the screw, and to new light upon the horizon…

For now my dark side has escaped and I welcome it kindly.

An Untimely Death

There are three parts of life, the beginning, middle and end. There are glimpses that appear outside my life that give hints death will someday come. Tonight I saw the result of true love being taken away from a kind loving mother and wife, who lost her one and only, her soul mate of over 50 years. 

Last week my step father's father died. My step dad Lloyd, was a brother amongst seven other brothers and sisters and was also a twin. The Layfield family grew up in Newcastle and years later his mother and father spent the rest of their lives there, still in the same brick house. Until recently his father Leroy was doing alright, getting old but going places, I was honored that he was able to attend my wedding, his wife told me that was his last official formal outing. It was taking a huge toll on her, but how could you not take care of someone you love that deeply?

Tonight was the viewing for the immediate family, usually I'm not to nervous about funerals. However, only five minutes from my work I took the ride and my heart was just beating like crazy. I knew this was going to be so hard to see this family go through this again. About five or so years back my step fathers sister Lori, well her daughter was killed in a car crash and about a year later youngest child was killed in another crash. So hard, she was left with a her son Bobby, however fate had it that he would almost be taken as well. Late last year he was in a car crash and almost died but he recovered after many surgeries and so forth. I just amazes me that, that kind of thing would happen to a mother more than once, a child being taken twice and almost a third; is there no mercy? So you now know why I was a little nervous. 

It is always hard walking to the funeral home door, there are certain aspects of death that don't bother me, it is more the mourning process that takes a little getting used to. No one wants to have to go through it, and it is so different for everyone. I think the hardest part is seeing everyone have to go through heart ache. It is one thing to think and go over things in your head, but when people express sadness in person I can't take it. So getting back to walking to the door, I was welcomed by Bobby sitting outside, I said hey stranger! What a miracle that kid is!

I finally made it in, and it was so somber, just like a weight dropped on my chest, it is so hard to know what to do, I just came in a sat with my mom and two brothers and turned back and said hi to my step dad. At one point Lorraine, mom mom as we call her, had gone up to the casket and god it was horrible, she was talking to her sweetie and caressing his hand and his gray white mustache with her fingers. She had just fell apart up there sobbing out louad, I felt so awkward and I had tears rolling down my cheeks. I can't imagine loosing a close loved one, but loosing my husband. They spent everyday together for over 50 some years, gone through so much together. I was laying in bed the other night, Bruce my husband had already fell asleep, I was just praying and thinking about her, their lives were infested in each other and now he is gone. She had to make the decision to let him go, I think the past two weeks were so hard, he had not been functioning cognitively and his body was shutting down. I remember seeing this same situation with my beloved grandmother Sarah Elizabeth in her last week on earth, the last time I saw her alive was Christmas of 2007, yet she wasn't totally there, two days later she had passed away in the hospital with her close family and friends next to her, we had played her favorite song from our cell phones, "Memories" by Elvis Presley. Those were the last days of her life and the last days of Lee's life, he died in his house along with his wife and children, I can't imagine that scene. I wasn't ever really too close to him, but the situation is all too real, so many memories ya know.

My mom had called me up on the phone last Thursday and told me the news. The funny thing is that same day we had found out my brother Mark got married in South Korea, so strange. The interesting part that night when he died was that they didn't call the undertaker for several hours, the family just sat by his side and later called the undertaker over and cooked him dinner. He was close member of the family, the same undertaker that did Ronnie and Jamie's funeral. I guess you get close to these kinds of people when the situation comes. I heard someone say tonight, I am so sorry we have to keep meeting like this.

Tomorrow is the funeral and so many people will be there to honor him, it is one of those things where you have to go through the same emotions again. Alot of people were talking about what they were going to wear to the funeral, a couple people said black but Lorraine, his wife said I am going to wear blue, because Lee loved that color and that was the color of his bright blue eyes. How romantic!

I can't imagine my soul mate being taken from me, I couldn't go on living in the same house or not part with his things, even Bruce's comics or blanket. It is so weird how we perceive death when we are young, my husband already has a list of what he wants to be buried with, his mustard yellow blanket, his Danzig shirt, Spiderman 17 and a copy of the Talisman. I don't think I could part with some of his things, I dunno these kinds of things get me down, I should stop thinking about that. I know death will come one day, could be tomorrow for all I know. Sometimes I think I will go in a car crash, I always think that when I am driving, ok this could be the day. I am curious to know if everyone thinks like that? Tomorrow is another day and we must live for that day, spend those days with the ones we love and tell them too. 

Reach for the sky because tomorrow may never come.

In Love With Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray. By Morgana -Angelik, ©Vivica Meyers 2006.

Often times I get inspired by novels, paintings, poetic fairy tales and classic films. One of my favorite characters in literature and film is Dorian Gray. The Picture of Dorian Gray written by Oscar Wilde, is one of the last works considered gothic horror fiction and has a Faustian and an underlying homoerotic theme.

Dorian Gray is a young handsome man, who becomes the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward. Basil is dazzled by Dorian's physical beauty and becomes obsessed with him; he believes that Dorian's beauty is the reasoning for his approach in his work, therefore creates a magnificent portrait of him.  The painting was so perfect that it makes Dorian wish he was immortal and inevitably stop the aging process. His wish was fulfilled, soon after the painting becomes more grotesque day after day instead of Dorian himself. The portrait serves as a memento of Dorian's fate and his narcissistic ways, and with each sin he lives the painting displays a form of disfigurement. 

This character truly fascinates me, these black and gray earrings were inspired from The Picture of Dorian Gray. Being infatuated with Dorian (amongst many), these earrings hold the physical beauty that Dorian always searched for. Last year I had created these designs, unfortunately I ran out of these lovely beads…but finally I have more in stock. 

Keep your eye out next week for these earrings or similar pieces.

Please email me if you would like to reserve a pair!

LEFT: The In Love With Dorian Gray design has engraved crystals infused with a jet black floral pattern that are matched with black rhinestone spacers and a clear gray glass bead on a gun metal chain.

RIGHT: The Victorian Gray pair are based on a modern girl living in a Victorian past; they have a twist of present simplicity and detailed flourishes of mourning colors. They are made from large lucite drops that are matched with a gray matte bead and a vintage crystal. 

~ The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wikipedia. February 2009. 

Gothic: Dark Glamour

The current exhibition Gothic: Dark Glamour at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, is a dedication to the strange history of the macabre and dark gloom of the gothic style. Over the years, the term gothic has been known to have negative connotations and symbol for the dark, mourning and the mischievous. The imagery of this new exhibit touches on the imagery of death and decay, and the erotic macabre that has often attracted many designers.

There are several collections of the exhibit that take you through different genres of dark glamour. The first is Night, it explores the symbolism of black. It has long been associated with death, evil, mystery and the Prince of Darkness.

The second is the Cabinet of Curiosities, which refers to wonder rooms or memory theaters of the Renaissance, a little world filled with collections such as natural history, religious reliquaries and art objects. One of my favorites is the human skull, it was often treasured as a memento mori, as a reminder that you must die.

This pig skin tattooed top hat, created by Justin Smith can be seen, as well as this Bat Belt Buckle made of gunmetal with paste lent from the Collection of Mark Walsh Leslie Chin.

The Strange Beauty collection is characterized by bizzare shapes and odd sources of imagery, such as this Rodarte evening dress inspired by Japanese horror movies. The designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte experimented with red dye and fabrics to resemble blood in water.

Other parts include the Bat Cave, Mourning inspired fashions, the Haunted Palace inspired by the architectural metaphor of the disturbed mind that recalls Edgar Allen Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher." You can also see medieval inspired fashions in the Ruined Castle collection and corsetry, veiling and masking fashions surrounded by a graveyard fence in the Cemetery collection.

Gothic: Dark Glamour is on view through February 21, 2009. Additional programming includes the Goth Talk panel, a Gothic: Dark Glamor talk and booksigning as well as screenings of Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd and Corpse Bride.