Jenny Mendes

I have added a new section to my Etsy shop this week.  I am selling some special wood and salt fired pots, and donating the total net proceeds to the fundraising I have been doing for my friend's family in Nepal.  We have raised over $9000 all told so far which feels great, and will continue until he heads home this fall sometime.  In the coming weeks, I will continue to add additional work to this section of my shop including some jewelry that is a collaboration between myself and my dear friend Dawn.  There is no rebuilding to be done yet for our friends in Nepal because of the many serious aftershocks that have continued to happen and cause additional cracking and damage.   When it settles down they will be able to really assess what needs to be done. Here is the link to my Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/jennymendes?section_id=6451626&ref=shopsection_leftnav_8 and the link to read about my fund for Nepal Earthquake Relief https://www.crowdrise.com/nepalearthquakerel

Lisa J. and friends rocking her new do

Really :) it is :) just as it is :)

"Dans l'amour vrai c'est l'ame qui embrasse le corps."

I realised today that it was the anniversary of my grandmother's death. Memorial day May 25. I googled her and there it was.  Her death notice.  Born 1901- died 1991.  I had forgotten the exact day, though I remembered how a friend had brought a huge bouquet of peonies to the house, so I remember it by the time of year, and the flowers that are blooming, and that, I know she would have smiled at because she loved flowers so much.  Tomorrow I will go to the funeral of my friend.  Beginnings and endings sometimes have a life all their own that we can't control each existing and defined in defiance of their opposite. It will be a very sad event, because most people were unaware that she was not well.  In her memory, I planted a peony bush, right outside my window.  They send down deep roots, and can live for 100 years.   But tonight in celebration of new beginnings, I had pie with my friend and her newly graduated from college daughter just ready to begin her

Hold a true friend with both your hands. ~ Nigerian Proverb

Have a safe and pain free flight to the other side dear friend.  I will remember and love you always and tell Nanny we miss her when you see her.

Outside my friends home in Nepal is an open space.  When I was there a gang of stray dogs slept curled up in the grass after howling late into the night, now it is filled with tents. My friend is lucky to have his home standing, but with the uncertainty of cracks that grow with each new quake. Yesterday there were more but smaller earthquakes.  Understandably, it is safer to sleep and be outside.  This is what it looks like. They haven't gotten any help yet from  the government.  I hope the rain holds off for a while...... We've raised nearly $9000 on and offline so far.  I know more will be needed.  If you are still thinking about helping out in Nepal, please consider my fundraiser.....  you can learn about it here: https://www.crowdrise.com/NepalEarthquakeReliefforVillageofLaitpur https://www.crowdrise.com/NepalEarthquakeReliefforVillageofLaitpur

Sarah Wong's portraits of Dutch transgendered children. http://nyti.ms/QJRk0S http://www.sarahwong.com/independent

An interview on Fresh Air with Sally Mann. http://www.npr.org/2015/05/12/405937803/making-art-out-of-bodies-sally-mann-reflects-on-life-and-photography http://www.npr.org/2015/05/12/405937803/making-art-out-of-bodies-sally-mann-reflects-on-life-and-photography

“Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.” ~Bhagavad-gita 2.12

taylorbermanart.com  this is the image on the business card of a lovely man I met last weekend at my show in Minnesota.  He gave me the card and I only just went to his website tonight, where there are many very interesting images he has created.   About this image he said: For the portraiture part of this piece, I referenced a photograph of an actual Indian Sadhu. In conducting further research, I discovered that swans are a symbol of detachment in Hindu iconography, and rightfully so, given the following symbolic analogy: Much like the holy men of India, who are present in their bodily existence yet strictly resist attachment to anything worldly, swans can sit in water (the world), yet without getting wet (attached) due to the oils in their feathers (or in the Sadhu’s case, devotion to strict asceticism). For Sadhus, this renunciation of the worldly is seen as a necessary step towards attaining moksha, or liberation. It is for this reason that the top of the figure’s he

http://www.rithikamerchant.com/

My friend shared this poem with me yesterday.... she said it carried her for the whole day!  May it carry you as well. Tamanrasset by Rosalind Brackenbury On account of my knees I thought a camel would be appropriate: I could be helped on and eventually off again. Have you ever got on a camel? They go down for you on their own padded knees and close their eyes while they wait for you to be set in place, like priests waiting for all the communicants to be done, in some high church. Then they rise, tipping you, heaving beneath you but you don’t fall, you are suddenly feet up in the air, carried forward on the long sway of their stride. They will carry you across deserts, across days and datelines until you arrive one far-off day in the city of Tamanrasset where you have been waiting all your life to go. https://www.crowdrise.com/nepalearthquakereliefforvillageoflaitpur

Kindness Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness. How you ride and ride thinking the bus will never stop, the passengers eating maize and chicken will stare out the window forever. Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness, you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho lies dead by the side of the road. You must see how this could be you, how he too was someone who journeyed through the night with plans and the simple breath that kept him alive. Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. You must wake up with sorrow. You must speak to it till your voice catches the thread of all sorrows and you see the size of the cloth. Then it is only kindness that makes sense any

It is heartbreaking to know that there has been a second major earthquake just weeks after the first one in Nepal.  Damage hadn't yet been assessed, and now another layer of trauma for so many.  I have received many letters of support towards my effort to help out - from many that knew my friend Kedar through me, and from those that have never met him.  It has been heartwaming to witness the compassion of others, and I feel even more strongly now, that I want to do what I can to help out so I am doubling my effort to really make a difference.  Please if you know anyone who might be interested in supporting earthquake relief, pass this link on to them. https://www.crowdrise.com/nepalearthquakereliefforvillageoflaitpur/fundraiser/jennymendes All funds will directly benefit Kedar's family and neighbors.   We have raised over $8000 in private donations and online in the first few weeks.  I've never been an activist for anything before, but I feel the call now.  Thank you a

  Iran, Ilkhanid Period 1215-1353,  Bowl , Kashan or Sultanabad, 14th century, Kashan or Sultanabad, stone paste earthenware, decorated earthenwar, 20.8 cm (diam)

If you can, surround your mother with love today, or share your love with another mother.  Or with someone who never was a mother.  Or meditate on the beauty of mothers everywhere in all of their incarnations.  We didn't get to choose our mothers, but as someone always reminds me, we would be nothing without them so they are everything...   Happy Mother's Day to all of you, of all genders and species wherever you are.  

I am here at the Saint Croix pottery tour next to my friend Shoko and its a beautiful day!!

First of all I'd like to say that we met our initial funding goal to help out our friend's family and neighbors after the earthquake in Nepal in less than a week.  A huge thank you to everyone who has donated.  I set a modest goal,  and I am happy to say that we have met and exceeded it by a little bit already, which is so great. We will continue our efforts through the fall when our friend will be going home after working all year in the UK, and we hope to double the initial goal.  I don't think it is impossible, so please continue to share my link with anyone who might be interested.  100% of the funds we receive will go directly to him to help his family and neighbors.   https://www.crowdrise.com/nepalearthquakereliefforvillageoflaitpur/fundraiser/jennymendes Now to the other business at hand. The Saint Croix Pottery tour in Minnesota is this weekend!  If you live near by, please come out.  It looks like it will be a beautiful weekend!! No snow in the forcast,

Wow! A few things I'm excited about as I write this.  First of all, my fundraiser is going really well and we have almost met our initial benchmark.  I started with a fairly modest goal, but I hope to raise much more..... The response has been amazing in the first three days.  I feel so much gratitude towards the generosity of friends, and family and people I have never met.  Thank you.  Thank you.....  :)  Thank you for opening your heart.  Here is the link if you would like to donate or look at our progress: https://www.crowdrise.com/nepalearthquakereliefforvillageoflaitpur/fundraiser/jennymendes Secondly, I listened several times to the most interesting interview today on what is becoming one of my favorite radio shows.  Here is the link.  Why do I listen over and over?  Partly it is the way I like to experience words and new ideas.  Slowly, like breathing.  Like the way I used to learn the lyrics of a song...without realizing that it was happening.  The interviewee s

If I didn't have this feeling before, and I think I did even if it was in a quiet place in my mind, I've got it now.  Several of the people that have donated to my fundraising effort to help my friend's family in Nepal were signed  "We are all in it together", and by another person "We are all one".  Neither of these people I have ever met, but so thankful that they live in the world and care about it's survival in a way that is so much bigger than themselves...  This piece I made is talking about that feeling, even though I made it before I was on this mission... click on the link below to see how we are doing nearly halfway to our initial goal!     https://www.crowdrise.com/nepalearthquakereliefforvillageoflaitpur/fundraiser/jennymendes

A great rendition of this song by Ben E. King who recently left us.  I've always been a big Tracy Chapman fan, and I thought it was fitting as we kicked off our fundraiser to help our friends family in Nepal.  Here is the link if you might be interested in donating... Please check it out!  We are off to a great start... https://www.crowdrise.com/nepalearthquakereliefforvillageoflaitpur/fundraiser/jennymendes

My friend's parent's home and village were devasted by the earthquake.  If you were thinking about donating to Nepal Earthquake Relief this would be a way for your money to go directly to help a family and it's surrounding neighbors now.... No ammount is too small.  As he told me he knows people who have lost everything, so every little bit will help.  Thanks so much!!  Please if you can donate and share this link. https://www.crowdrise.com/NepalEarthquakeReliefforVillageofLaitpur/fundraiser/jennymendes