Next Super Wonder Gallery show: "True Crime"...

 Here's the flyer for the next show I'll be featured in at Super Wonder Gallery.  I just bought the canvas for my second piece ("The Devil" tarot card), but have yet to get started.

I didn't realize that this doubles as a show about artifacts from criminals - the curator certainly loves wild themes, which can be tricky for me, as far as what I'm willing to paint.  As mentioned before, I love esoteric / religious / surrealist / psychedelic / psychology themes, so I had to find ways to work around what these shows are about.

Just voted today in the provincial election - I liked what the Liberal leader was promising about OHIP covered mental health care, so I voted for her (I usually vote NDP).  Here's hoping!

-Saraƒin

Feeling a bit more lighthearted...

My suspicion has been that my lower chakras were devastated, my soul corroded somehow, from what possession did to me - it's also true that now I'm feeling a release from that darkness, hope in me is stronger than ever, and a weightiness in my limbs is fading.  Between taking the mushrooms to tackle trauma / expand consciousness, and consuming consecrated alcohol to restore the soul, my pain is lifting, slowly but surely.  All I have to do, when in doubt, is reflect on what things felt like months prior, and my confidence is restored.  Whatever got in me was so dark, it made the Elephant's Foot corium mass beneath Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant look like a Sanrio product, at least to my soul, so who knows what came of me while I was fighting that horror.  The recovery period wouldn't be overnight, it felt like I went rotten.

I do worry a little bit that all this beer is a bad idea, I try to hydrate often with lots of water, I skip harder alcohol, I don't even drink that much wine - the key ingredient for this kind of ritual is alcohol, which is said to call in the spirits, so that's why I'm using it.  Sometimes I feel a bit bloated, never drunk, I do take breaks, but not for long.  I have no emotional attachment to drinking, I simply see results with this technique, and press on.  Nothing else has worked as well, it's a strange medicine, but many Christians swear by it.

My motto has been "Give'r", as I march to and from the store for more beer.  I just hope this technique doesn't catch up with me, and that I can give it up soon.

-Saraƒin

The Super Naughty Show results...

Well, I didn't sell, but the show was still a lot of fun.  There was some very good (sexy!) art, a couple of my fellow artists sold some pieces, and my piece will remain in the gallery for another week before I return to collect it.  Maybe $400.00 was too high, or maybe it was not the right audience for a piece like this?  At any rate, I have no problem returning it to its place above my Orisha shrine.

The next Super Wonder Gallery show is the "True Crimes" themed show in April, and I was invited to paint a second piece for it - the curator loved the electric chair one.  I am thinking of painting a tarot card that represents criminal activity - The Devil comes to mind as an image, and is tied in meaning to certain levels of criminal activity, such as human trafficking, which I could imply with the image of the chained couple, perhaps I'll put a gun in the devil's hand.  It is such a bold image I was thinking of painting it anyway, so this will be my opportunity.  (Again, my work tends to be about the esoteric, spirituality, religion, so I like to stick to those themes, no matter the theme of an art opening.)

After years of walking around without them, I finally have new glasses!  I ordered them from Zenni, saving a bundle, because of how much cheaper they are to buy online.  I don't think I'll buy in-store ever again!

The snow is really coming down today - February 2025 has been Toronto's worst month for winter weather this season.  Sigh.

-Saraƒin

"Hex Kit"...

 

I think this is it for the "Hex Kit" project - I'm probably going to price it at $200, not sure yet, but I might add a screw eye to the top of it for hanging.  Silly me, I was looking for glass vials to put Dragon's Blood in, when I remembered I collect scented oils, and just had to finish one off in my diffuser, then I could peel off the label and fill it with the resin.  My Mom came to town recently, and gave me the red cord, which she had sitting around with some craft supplies.  (Who knows, maybe some witch will like it and buy it?) There's an upcoming toys themed show later this year that I want to submit this to, I hope the curator will take it.

Now, I must bless this item, in case anyone wants to use it!  lol

-Saraƒin

Upcoming art shows...

 The "Super Naughty Show 2025" is coming up on Feb 14th and 15th, but I just found out about another one, which is a revamped thrift find show.  I submitted "St. Hubert of Liege", I won't be certain if they've accepted it or not until the end of February, but I'm hopeful, because it fits in well with the theme.  "Fix Up Look Sharp"will include any art that is a found object that has been modified somehow - perfect for my Value Village found antlers piece that (ironically?) honours the patron saint of hunters.  (I think I will price this one at $500 because I like it so much on my wall, that I don't want to low ball it - I doubt it will sell at that price, but hey - if someone wants it for $500, I'll sell it.)  It would look good in a bar setting, next to the Jagermeister bottles, for one.

I waited only a week to have a bit more psilocybin, after talking to a Shroomyz salesperson about spacing out my trips - because the dosage is so low, it didn't seem to be a problem to wait that length of time.  Again, massive clouds have lifted in my psyche from this drug - I don't feel haunted by dread anymore, the idea of suicidal ideation is lifting, life feels more hopeful, and I am sorry I have suggested such a thing as suicide on this blog.  Perhaps I feel compelled as an artist and a writer to illustrate how bleak it can get sometimes, this blog is about recovery as much as it is about art and spirituality, and I have confessed to feeling things that are very painful - I don't wish to promote bleakness, most days are more positive than not.

I am currently working on another piece for an upcoming Super Wonder Gallery show that is on the theme of toys: a spell poppet in a display box that I want to call "Hex Kit".  It includes a burlap poppet that I hand sewed, a collection of pins pierced through a felt heart, a vial of Dragon's Blood, and red binding cord.  (I may include more supplies, but that's what I have decided on for now.)  This piece is a spell product as much as it is a sculptural piece, and I plan on blessing it before I submit it, in case a buyer is actually interested in using it for ritual.  (Because my art focuses mostly on spirituality now, I thought that a spell poppet was an obvious choice for an art show about toys.)

More to come - I have an eye exam later today, it's about time I invested in new frames!

-Saraƒin

New levels of release...

 The second round of mushrooms was a good idea!

I just finished the 7G bag of Mexican Cubensis, and already I feel like another level of relief was achieved.  The mind feels less cloudy, the heart feels livelier, and heck - my downloads seem better.  Because of the risk of closure going on right now in Toronto, I went back to Shroomyz and bought a third bag, which I will begin devouring several weeks from now, to give my brain a rest.  (I do hope magic mushrooms become legal, because they are such good medicine for PTSD.)

The strange patterns I see while under their influence remind me of lights in a Las Vegas casino - I am not actually fond of the "highs" of the experience, so I take a low dose every time to avoid feeling overwhelmed.  It is at about the 3 hour mark into the trip that I start to feel the therapeutic effects - up until then, I might feel dizzy or emotional.  Strange medicine, like THC was, but effective.

My next art show will be coming up soon, in February - "The Super Naughty Show", an exhibition of erotic art.  My piece, "Excess, The Mother of Harlots" (I added to the name) will be submitted.  If you are in the Toronto area, why not drop by?

-Saraƒin

Back to the Mushroom Kingdom...

While Bowser (AKA the cops) wants to shut down all the mushroom shops in Toronto, I thought I'd get another round of Mexican Cubensis in the meantime, before it's too late - my guides kept showing me a mushroom, so I decided to get another 7G bag.

Again, just little one gram or less doses here and there, just to coax the subconscious along, out of its pain.  I feel it was the right choice, after several months of not touching them.  (I really hope these dispensaries can remain in some form, this is powerful medicine for some people, where nothing else works - I can't afford ketamine treatments, based on what I have heard about them, and conventional mental health medicine for PTSD is trash.)

I am also contemplating ayahuasca, only because I made a connection in the community, but I want to stick with this for now, understanding the territory.  I'm not jumping the gun with anything.

-Saraƒin