Elsa Mora

Good-Bye 2009!

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We had a lovely brunch yesterday to say: Good-bye 2009 :). It was a relaxed and down-to-Earth event with friends and family, it couldn't be nicer. In the first picture you can see our hand stamped tablecloth, reserved only for special days. It's proven that food tastes better when served on a hand stamped tablecloth :)

  

Billy not only did a great job finding the best fruits and vegetables available at our local farmer's market for the brunch but he also did a great job entertaining children and adults with his super duper vintage artifact known as "magic mirror" that plays music and gives motion to the tiny pictures with old cartoon characters in it. 

 

Bill's artifact is always a hit.

 

Then, there was my youngest friend ever: little Julio. Julio is only 5 months old but you can have the best conversations with him :) Plus he has the most adorable little feet!

 

And of course, here we have my dear friend Maiz. She's one of the best photographers that I know but on top of that she's also a talented musician. With her delightful voice and guitar skills Maiz delivered a special song for the little ones in our living room. You rock Maiz!

 

And this is truly yours with the silliest open-mouth smile that my face was able to hold and that my camera was able to capture. I am saying GOOD-BYYYYYYYE FRIENDS!!!! See you in 2010!!!!! 

Very soon we're going to be driving to 2 different places with the kids and I'm sure that we're going to have lots of fun. It will be a time for reconnection and for building special family memories. I will share pictures with you at our return. 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!

Elsita :)

(I love this post @  Bill's blog!)

 

HELP PLEASE!

Good Morning my friend!

Here I am with a little question: Do you know any good lawyer in Chicago, Illinois, that takes care of cases related to car accidents? My dear friend from childhood who lives in Chicago just had a car accident on the freeway. This crazy guy (drunk) hit her car and she is alive by a real miracle, her car is lost as you can see. My friend really needs a lawyer. We have gotten some contacts but I was wondering if you know someone in particular that you recommend?

 

 Thank you in advance!

Elsita :)

(You can send me an e-mail with the info @ elsammora@gmail.com)

Learning about food groups :)

Yay!! 

It's hard to find a better sign than this one :) We saw it at our favorite candy store ever up in the mountains. And we couldn't agree more with it :) The group that I personally appreciate the most from the list is: Milk Chocolate

How about you?

Have a sweet day!

Elsita :)

Let's Listen to Mary Poppins

Natalie and I were extremely lucky to enjoy the Mary Poppins musical here in LA. Billy got special tickets for his girls and we can't thank him enough for it. What a wonderful experience that was! It's not often that you can see a play where everything comes together in such a touching way: the music, the acting and the visual part of the show was mesmerizing. But the best part of all was: the subtle message behind the story and how it was delivered to the audience through the unique language of art.

 

 Mary Poppins is a Nanny that everyone has heard about. In the musical she comes from a fantasy world to save a family by making the distant and busy father realize that the most important thing in his life is not his job at the bank making money but being connected to his loved ones at home.This sounds pretty simple but it is so deep at the same time. 

We're going through hard times with the way the economy is right now. It is a fact that in one way or another the crisis is hurting us all. As responsible adults we need to find new ways to bring income home, to pay the bills and to keep our families going. All of these responsibilities bring stress and concerns into our lives and sometimes these elements can create crisis, subtle crisis that don't even look like crisis but they manifest in a lack of attention/connection to our loved ones and that also includes our friends.

By the end of the musical I realized that Mary Poppins was not exactly a Nanny but a symbol of that little inner voice that talks to us in times of crisis. Mary Poppins came to say: hey parents and adults in general! take it easy, everything will be OK no matter what, you just don't lose your sense of humor, pay attention to the important people in your life and good things will happen.

The musical ends up with millions of tiny stars (lights) coming gradually from the stage into the audience, like a huge wave, it was moving when the stars reached you and then unexpectedly, Mary Poppins goes up in the air, umbrella in hand, and "flies" above the audience. In that part everyone was crying, what a touching moment. I cried because I felt so lucky to have such a wonderful family and such wonderful friends. 

For the new year I am going to keep Mary Poppin's advice in mind. I know that 2010 is still not going to be an easy year in terms of the economy but we're all going to be OK no matter what. We just have to make the necessary moves, be smart about the way we spend, keep doing what we do the best we can and most of all keep an eye on our loved ones. Let them know how important they are to us and I'm sure that, as Mary Poppins says: good things will happen.

Love!

Elsita :)

(In the pictures you see Natalie with the outfit that she wore to the musical. I got the little Mary Poppins umbrella and purse for her at the theater. Several people thought that she was part of the show :)

My Friends.

I found out that a very dear friend of mine in Cuba is in a very delicate health situation. I can't stop thinking about him. I wish that I could go to the island right now to spend time with him and his partner. They have both been so important in my life. They embraced me in Havana when I didn't know anybody in the art world. They supported me as an artist and as a person in general. They have cared about me for so long. But here I am, miles and miles away from them. I feel frustrated. 

I love you Pedrito 

I love you Alejandro

Meeting Christina Conway :)

I first met Christina on the Internet. She is not only a beautiful woman but also a curator, graphic designer and illustrator (here is her blog). What a wonderful surprise I experienced the other day while I was browsing through Anthropologie (not the web-site but one of the physical stores here in Los Angeles)... I was walking around when a blond girl approached me: Are you Elsita? ... And that's how we met in person. She was with a friend, the wonderful artist Edwin Ushiro who offered to take a picture of us. Thank you Edwin!

Isn't it great?! The world is so small now! I love the positive side of the Internet. Specially when it connects you with someone wonderful like Chris. 

Lots of love for you and Happy Monday!

Elsita :)

Being Alert

Here is another painting for my Puerto Rico show which opens on December 10. The title is: Alert.

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Being alert is something important. Alert in the sense of letting our senses have a strong presence in our lives. When we go too fast we miss a lot because we don't let our senses absorb what's happening around us and within us. If we learn how to keep an alert mind then we become more sensitive to those little things that could build up in some areas of our lives and hurt us later.

Those were some of the ideas that I had in mind when I created this painting. Here you see a girl in touch with her own nature. She is very awake and ready to capture life through her five senses. All these ideas came out from a conversation that I had with Evelyn (my sister in law) some time ago :) Thank you sister! 

And I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving celebration yesterday :)

Happy Friday, lots of love and have a wonderful weekend!

Elsita :)

Cactus Girl

Here I wanted to share another painting for my show in Puerto Rico (which opens on December 10) The idea comes from one of my illustrations.

 

All the thorns represent those mechanisms of self-defense or  self-protection that we need to develop. Like a rose, this girl wants to be safe in her own emotional garden.

Because that way she can produce fruits to feed herself and the important people in her life.

 

 

Natalie liked this piece so much that I decided to scan it, print it out and frame it for her room. The print looks as nice as the original canvas :) 

THIS IS IT. The Michael Jackson Movie.

Natalie and I went to see THIS IS IT the last time that we went up to the mountains, while Bill stayed at our cabin with Diego. The Rustic Theater is my favorite theater ever, a cozy place where you can even grab one of the blankets available and feel like at home. Nothing compares to the charm of small towns. When we go up to the mountains we never want to go back to our home in Los Angeles.p

So, seeing THIS IS IT over there, far away from Hollywood was a very special experience. I could write a long review about this movie, there is so much that it could be said about it. But all I want to say is that it was extremely inspiring.

I cried a lot, it was impossible not to, I smiled, I dreamed and I wished that MJ was still alive. He was a true genius. His fame and the whole noise around his persona for years was too big for many of us to appreciate the real person, the real artist behind it.

 

There is a part by the end of the movie where he says to his crew (referring to the huge show that they were getting ready for): There is nothing to be nervous about, this is just an adventure... 

Those words traveled deep into my heart because he said them in such a simple and profound way at the same time. They made me think that in the end ART is an adventure and LIFE is an adventure and there is nothing to be nervous about. All we need is a way to express ourselves, a way to have fun being who we are and doing what we really enjoy doing. 

Thanks Michael!

Elsita :)

Dear friend,
I am working like crazy. But this is a happy kind of crazy :o because I am putting lots of Etsy orders together. It makes me extremely happy to see that my little bookmarks are making other people happy as well. I will be back as soon as things slow down. But I will keep blogging from The Hidden Seed.
See you there!

Love

Elsita the Bee :)