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sending love and gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving! I've just finished my first thanksgiving celebration and I'm now waiting on the second round of potatoes to cook so that I can be off to celebration number two! But before I scooted off, I wanted to take the time to say thank you... there's so much that I'm grateful for, and my friends and family and everyone who has been kind enough to support SpoonFed Art top the list! I try to count my blessings each day, and I'm particularly grateful to have a whole day just to take it all in... all the wonderful things that fill my life - and all the potatoes! I'm sending thoughts of love your way and hope you're having a happy day celebrating...

another take

A friend of mine saw Annie Leibovitz at Benaroya Hall in Seattle the other night and after my last post, she sent me a link to this Alice shoot she did for Vogue. She was there to talk about her new book, Annie Leibovitz at Work... my friend said she told a lot of stories about her times with the Rolling Stones and shooting them on the road in the mid-70s... she said the whole place was full, upstairs balcony included. Makes me wish I would have gone to see her when she was here in LA earlier this month...

A. Leibovitz
(One of my favorites)

She also talked about shooting the inauguration, but from a distance... since it's such an historical occasion, she anticipates everyone shuffling around, vying for close-ups and wants to capture the whole scene as it unfolds. Should be some amazing shots... she's so good...

So here are some of the other shots from the Alice shoot - the one of Marc Jacobs ties in my last post nicely!

a couple of wishes

Just a couple of my current favorite things, in case there's anyone out there who's curious... and the holidays are just around the corner, right?! Maggie Taylor's illustrated Alice in Wonderland and butterfly shoes by Marc Jacobs...

inspiration

Hello! I love this drawing by Catherine Campbell, an Australian Artist/Illustrator who has a shop called My Folk Lover... so pretty...

Also, there are a couple of new holiday pendant designs ready for the gallery but my goodness, they'll have to wait... more printer/scanner troubles. I just sold my brand new Epson rx595, which was my 3rd printer/scanner since my rx500 died back in October... *sigh*... I think the problem is Epson's new Claria inks... I'm not sure the blacks are 100% dye-based... they just aren't very black. If you have any printer/scanner/ink suggestions, please let me know! I hope to have the new pieces up by next week... stay tuned!

a very nice story... and an auction

About a year ago, I received an email that was truly inspiring... it was one of those that just makes you cry, and I certainly did! So grab your kleenex box... here's an excerpt from her email...
"... as a women in recovery for 2 years now from a 10 year battle with anorexia/bulimia, your art work is an inspiration. Through recovery, my mom was afraid to talk to me in fear that I would break, or not having anything helpful to say. Our mother/daughter relationship was ripping at the seams and I felt that I ruined everything. One day, for no reason at all, she gave me one of your necklaces with the bio. She said its the only way she know how to support me. It was the best gift that she could've given me. It showed me that she was making an effort to understand and attempting to pull me off the ground and help me through my difficult time. Thank you for being the catalyst to a now amazing relationship..."

I wanted to share it because it was such a lovely story of a relationship being healed - and such a great example of the power in even a small act of love and support. I really hadn't planned on SpoonFed Art being a part of a story like this but wow - it's humbling. You just never know how your life touches others. I recently received another email from her and although her eating disorder is still a part of her life, it no longer dictates the way she lives. She's now pursuing a masters degree in Nutrition and she's working with an organization that promotes eating disorders awareness in her area. The organization, The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness, goes into elementary schools and high schools to promote positive body image awareness and to educate teens and pre-teens about healthy eating and weight issues. They also offer support groups and participate in public awareness through fundraisers and "Real Body" fashion shows. The alliance will hold its 8th annual Silent Auction tomorrow night, so if you're in South Florida and want to help, stop by and place a bid. SpoonFed Art donated a pendant to the auction and there's lots of other goodies too. All proceeds will go to support the alliance and its programs, and you never know what a small act of love and support can do!

a whole new mind

I just starting reading Daniel Pink's book, "A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future", and I have to say, it's pretty fascinating. I haven't read enough to legitimately talk about it yet, but I'm really enthused so I thought I'd share what I know so far. Its premise is that we're entering into a more conceptual age, one where more traditional careers like Accounting and Lawyering and such are going away - some even literally away to India and China. According to Pink, the future in the West belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind. His central idea is that the era of left-brain dominance and the information age that it engendered are now giving way to a new world in which right-brain qualities like inventiveness, empathy, and meaning are predominate. And it makes sense... anything that can be automated or programed or outsourced to Asia is systematically disappearing from the landscape, which leaves space for something new... and more and more, people are wanting their work to have meaning.

According to Pink, the keys to success are in developing and cultivating six senses - design, story, symphony (seeing the big picture), empathy, play, and meaning. All of this feels very affirming to me, being a former left-brainer myself, and having spent the last few years creating and developing a very right-brained business in SpoonFed Art. I do value my left-brain abilities... I think they're essential. It's just nice to know that there's a larger trend toward businesses that have meaning, that are creative, that engage business interaction on a more personal level - and that people are becoming more interested in the story behind the business and in where their goods come from and how they're made. It feels like a trend toward people being more personally connected to each another, and that's pretty darn great. It also seems that this shift toward a more right-brained workplace is a balance that's essential to our overall development, and it certainly seems to be part of the larger change that's taking place in the US and the world. It's pretty exciting... can't wait to read more!

pumpkin macarons

My goodness... all I can say is yum!

am i dreaming - in O magazine!

It's live and ready to roll! My friend and massage therapist extraordinaire Dr. Sharon's new aromatherapy scent, Am I Dreaming, is finally available online on her new website, DrSharonInc.com... and the cool thing is, it's going to be featured in the in the holiday gift guide section of the December issue of O Magazine - way to go Dr. Sharon! Everyone needs a little stress relief from time to time, and Am I Dreaming smells sooo good - stop by and check out her new site!

bidding for good

The National Eating Disorders Association's 2008 Every BODY Is Beautiful Online Auction is now open for bidding! SpoonFed Art has donated 2 spoon pendants to this year's auction, and there are lots of great items up for bid just in time for holiday shopping - fun and unique items like a 1960s Beatles thermos, a lovely dinner for 2 at the Space Needle in Seattle, a 2-day/3-night spa getaway, a kids baseball clinic at Yankee Stadium and much more - it's a great way to cross things off your holiday shopping list while making a difference! Proceeds will go to support programs like NEDA's national toll-free helpline, insurance advocacy programs, their Parent, Family & Friends Network (PFN), educational toolkits, research grants, and more. New items will be posted each week, so check back often for updates. The success of the auction depends on spreading the word so please refer a friend... there's something for everyone!

the cutest nerd in the world... and oh, please vote!

Isn't she the cutest nerd you've ever seen?! Halloween week was so much fun this year - lots of time spent with friends, lots of candy and costumes - and a whole week full of visits to the Magic Castle in Hollywood. My favorite moments include performances by Rob Zabrecky in the Close-Up Gallery...

...and The MuMs in The Palace of Mystery - amazing. We actually won the "Funniest Costume" prize on Saturday for our "battered nerds" (see Tommi's nerd above... cute even with a black eye!). We all agreed our costumes were good because the nerd part wasn't too much of a stretch - haha! It was really great to just have fun and not care about how goofy and uncool we were...

Hope you all had a good time over the weekend... so sad it's over.... but happy to be back to reality and voting today! It was my first time voting in California, and I have to say it was truly a magical experience. My polling place is within walking distance, and the walk there just felt special... the air was so clear after the rain and all my neighbors were out - some I knew and some I didn't, but there was a unique sense of unity and freedom in the air that I just haven't experienced before. I'm so happy to be able to vote... especially at this crucial point in the history of our country. Please don't forget to vote today!

photographs

My friend Ginny just finished her new website, GinnyBanks.com, so I thought I'd share it with you, along with some of my favorite images from the gallery. Ginny's one of the sweetest people I know, and I love her shots that explore absence/presence. She's just started a new workshop of one-on-one digital photography lessons designed to help participants explore and express their personal life stories. For details, please visit her site... I really wish I could take the workshop myself but alas, it's a little too far for me to make the commute! I think the website is really beautiful, and I'm so happy it's up at last... congratulations Ginny!

halloween ice cream... and a treasured gift from a friend

Fall is truly my favorite time of year, and my love for all things pumpkin is most definitely in full swing! A couple of weeks ago, my friend Tommi, who loves both ice cream and Halloween as much as I do, introduced me to pumpkin ice cream... and oh my gosh, it's so good! It's full of yummy pumpkin flavor, with cinnamon and nutmeg... and since it's not feeling much like autumn here in LA just yet, it's the perfect October treat...
I also want to share this painting a friend gave me a couple of years ago... I still love it like I just saw it for the first time today! It was painted by my friend Marisa of Creative Thursday, and I have to say that each time I look at it, I silently check in with myself to see if I'm feeling "...at ease"... wise words indeed! Drop by her website and blog when you have a chance... her work is so sweet and uplifting and fun... just like Marisa herself!

arielle

Sometimes the smallest kindness really lifts your spirits. That's the case with an email I received first thing yesterday morning from Arielle, a fellow artist who is now recovered from her eating disorder too... isn't she a cutie pie! Her husband had given her the "Leap" pendant as a birthday gift, and she wanted to let me know how much she loved it and the meaning behind it. She told me that he had chosen that design because now that she's recovered, he sees her as leaping through life. Wow. It was so great to get a little peek inside Arielle's life, and opening that email first thing in the morning really made my day! It also reminded me how much happiness there is in simply sharing your appreciation... thank you Arielle!
arielleleebecker.blogspot.com
tearstowords.blogspot.com
artifactsbyarielle.ecrater.com

...have a wonderful day!

kirtsy!

The editors of kirtsy.com have invited Spoonfed Art to be featured in their forthcoming book, which will be released in Spring 2009 by Bright Sky Press (http://brightskypress.com) a part of Independent Publishers Group (http://www.ipgbook.com/). Their vision for the book is that it will be a snapshot of what kirtsy is on its very best day, so it's going to be great - and I'm thrilled to be invited to participate in such a fun project! I had to submit a photo of myself, so we did a little photo shoot today... this silly shot was part of the shenanigans....

man on wire

©2008 Jean-Louis Blondeau / Polaris Images

I love this film. Man On Wire is about Philippe Petit, the French juggler and performance artist who in 1974, spent 45 minutes walking, dancing, and lying down on a tightrope illegally rigged between the two newly-constructed WTC towers. It's simply an astonishing feat, and still difficult to believe that he and his motley crew of cohorts actually pulled it off...and this, British filmmaker James Marsh's documentary film about the escapade, is so inspiring and poetic that even an art-house curmudgeon couldn't find fault. It was thrilling and sweet, and I was totally pulled into the adventure and beauty of "the coup"... it's definitely one of the best films I've seen in a while...

makin' a record

A friend of mine is making a record. It's a top secret project, very hush-hush, and I've been asked to keep it on the down low, whatever that means. Anyway, I was visiting him the other night, checking out a few new tracks... that's when I took this picture. I'm very excited to be playing guitar on at least one track... it's a really interesting project and I can't wait to see how the whole thing comes together...

In addition to visiting friends and taking pictures of my feet, I've also been working on some new minis... they're so cute! Stay tuned for images... I'll post some pics here as soon as I get them finished-up...

take care and have a nice night!

me-ouch!

I'm a big fan of The Black Apple, aka Emily Martin, who just moved from Athens, GA to Portland, OR--and who, upon arriving in Portland, has just been through a kitty crisis! Her beloved Miette had to have emergency surgery (which was probably pretty pricey, especially after a cross-country move), hence the 'Miette Benefit Sale' going on today and tomorrow (13th &14th). So if you can, please visit her shop and perhaps purchase some of her wonderful prints & goodies... you'll be treating yourself and helping to pay for kitty wellness too - it's happiness all 'round!

two things...

All I can say is... yay! I was watching tv last week and caught a snippet of a commercial for the new season of Pushing Daisies... I'm so tickled! The first season was interrupted during the writer's strike last year, but alas! It got the magic touch, as it were, and season 2 starts on Oct 1. This makes me very happy!


I'm also very happy about Mother's Iced Lemonade cookies... oh my gosh, did you know about these? I'm not much of a store-bought cookie girl (except for Paulette's macarons of course!) so I don't ever buy cookies in the grocery store... but I saw these the other day and decided to give them a whirl... and they are outrageously good! The cookie part is like lemony shortbread and the icing is super tart... it really makes your mouth pucker! They're like little cookie lemon bars... yummm...

enjoy your day!

waffle, shake & giggle

My goodness it's been an odd week. And not just because of the earthquake... though it was quite out of the ordinary! I'm never really in tall buildings but as it happens, that's where I was Tuesday morning when it hit. We were at The Waffle, a fancy-pants "LA" version of Waffle House, which is in the bottom of the House of Blues tower on Sunset. What's funny is that there were some guys on a crane just outside the front of the building pruning a tree and at first, I thought the crane had malfunctioned... but wait... nope, that's an earthquake! It only lasted a few minutes, but really freaked everybody out. Honestly, we couldn't decide if we should have gotten up and done something... ya know, like get the heck out of there. You can't really run outside screaming like a banshi cause you'd get hit by all the falling glass and debris... so what then? Turns out that if you're in a tall building such as this and a building-shaking earthquake hits, what would happen is that the building would literally snap in half... so the people in the top half of the building would be most in danger. Who knew. Of course if you're in an earthquake, you do need to position yourself either in a doorway or under a table... I just made the mistake of assuming that being on the ground floor meant doom... ya learn something new every day, don't ya?! Just thought I'd share that in case you're ever in a similar situation... which, of course, I hope you're not!

I also wanted to share some of these photo booth photos from my friend Whitney's birthday party... they make me giggle! (...especially "the belly!")

...have a nice weekend!

the fringe benefits of failure, and the importance of imagination

Hi there! I was going to post J.K. Rowling's commencement address, "The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination" last month, but thought it was too long... I've now changed my mind... it's just too good not to share...

"President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates.

The first thing I would like to say is 'thank you.' Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I've experienced at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and fool myself into believing I am at the world's best-educated Harry Potter convention.

Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can't remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.

You see? If all you remember in years to come is the 'gay wizard' joke, I've still come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step towards personal improvement.

Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.

I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called 'real life', I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.

These might seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.

Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.

I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that could never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.

They had hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages. Hardly had my parents' car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.

I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day. Of all subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.

I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.

What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.

At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.

I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.

However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person's idea of success, so high have you already flown academically.

Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.

Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.

Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies.

The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.

Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books. This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at Amnesty International's headquarters in London.

There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them. I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends. I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.

Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to think independently of their government. Visitors to our office included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had been forced to leave behind.

I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland. He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him. He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child. I was given the job of escorting him to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.

And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since. The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her. She had just given him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country's regime, his mother had been seized and executed.

Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.

Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard and read.

And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.

Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people's minds, imagine themselves into other people's places.

Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.

And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.

I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.

What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.

One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people's lives simply by existing.

But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people's lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your nationality sets you apart. The great majority of you belong to the world's only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden.

If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.

I am nearly finished. I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21. The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life. They are my children's godparents, the people to whom I've been able to turn in times of trouble, friends who have been kind enough not to sue me when I've used their names for Death Eaters. At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.

So today, I can wish you nothing better than similar friendships. And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.

I wish you all very good lives.

Thank you very much."

Copyright JK Rowling, June 2008

spoonfed art minis!

I'm so excited about these new little mini pendants! They're perfect for summer... so light and airy and sweet! They're available in the gallery for a limited time only so if you like them as much as I do, scoot on over and pick one up before they go! And just so you'll have an idea of how "mini" the mini is, here are the 3 sizes of pendants, all in a bunch!

...have a nice night!

happy bastille day!

double apple happiness

Hi - hope you're having a nice weekend! I've been experimenting with new designs and came up with this double apple... look for it in a spoon very soon!

the first visit

Hope you had a happy 4th! Yesterday, before we fired up the grill and before our sidewalk viewing of a neighbor's (secret) fireworks show in the alley, we celebrated our country through the eyes of The Beatles seeing it for the first time. Yep, we were fortunate enough to see a screening of the Maysles Brothers (Grey Gardens, Gimme Shelter) documentary, The Beatles: The First US Visit. I'd seen bits and pieces of it before - I think probably everyone has - but I'd never seen the whole film, which documents their arrival at JFK, followed by oodles of backstage antics and their live onstage performances in New York, DC and Miami Beach for the Ed Sullivan Show. It was very silly, and was just a lot of fun to see in a theater, that theater being The Steve Allen Theater at the Center for Inquiry, West. And I have to say that the whole time I was thinking wow, it's so interesting that they went from all that silliness and "I Want To Hold Your Hand" to Sgt. Peppers...

(photo: Curt Gunther)

freedom

Our founding fathers embraced a challenging situation and turned it into a true victory for a higher ideal. I don't think freedom is necessarily about being free of life’s difficulties... I think it means being able to be flexible and use those difficulties to grow and move forward. I don't always succeed, but I really try my best to use each situation that comes up to learn... and even though it's not always fun, I'm thankful for all the small opportunities I'm given each day to grow. So I guess that's my idea of freedom... knowing that you have the choice to use whatever comes up for your own good...

(photo: Eric Lindbloom)

two phillips and a coronet

Hello! We went to two shows at the new Largo at the Coronet Theater in West Hollywood over the "weekend", Sam Phillips on Thursday and my friend Grant-Lee Phillips (no relation to Sam) on Saturday night. It was my first visit to Largo at the Coronet, which is larger than the old place on Fairfax and a lot more fancy... gone are the intimate tables w/ candlelight - and food and drink - but it's really beautiful in an old Hollywood-type of way and sort of reminds me of The Silent Movie Theater. Sam Phillips was great - I enjoyed The Section Quartet who opened, as well as the songs from her new CD - and Grant was charming, funny, and wonderful as always....

I've been painting the studio so stay tuned for photos ...and some new pendant designs! Have yourself a lovely evening!

(photos: samphillipsmusic.com and grantleephillips.com)

In Bruges

We saw a pretty cool little film last night called In Bruges, which is the story of 2 Dublin hitmen who are ordered to Bruges, Belgium to hide out for a couple of weeks after a hit they made in London went awry. The town itself is a character in the film and is so beautiful with its fairytale gothic architecture, canals, and cobbled streets...

I liked this film in part because it was well written and really well made but also because I've been to Belgium and have fallen in love with it. It truly is like being in a fairytale... especially Gent and a wonderful little mustard shop there! Interestingly enough, my Belgian friend Cedric was in town last week... (see silly-ish photo of him at Malibu Seafood below, high five-ing giant lobster) ...it was great to see him and as is the tradition with Cedric, we had a delicious sushi dinner at Matsuhisa Thursday (!) then did some serious hanging out at the very unique Moonshadows lounge in Malibu on Friday night. Anyway, In Bruges came out on video this week and is definitely worth checking out....


...have a nice weekend!

fun in 3-D

It's a little difficult to see from the pictures on the website, but the spoon pendants are very 3-dimensional... it's a big part of what makes them fun. Lately, I've been experimenting outside the spoons with slightly larger pieces like this one. (I'm also working on a pendant version of this piece so if you like it, stay tuned... as soon as I get it put together, I'll post photos here then put it up in the gallery.) I'm also working on a larger piece similar to this except that it's round, with more depth.... it's very exciting! More on that later...

I'm off to cast one more round of pendants before I call it quits... have a nice night!

strawberry fields

I love strawberries and really, there were so many things pressing on my psyche that led me to this design. First of all, of course, the Beatles. No mystery there. "Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about" has been running through my brain lately. Second, the jam. Not 'The Jam' as in Paul Weller's Jam, but actual jam... though I am quite partial to the former. The jam I'm referring to is the honest to goodness real thing... every year 'round this time, my mom make this outrageously delicious homemade strawberry jam... it's soooo good and thankfully, I get some every year for my birthday. I've been eating it every day since it arrived, so it's no wonder I'm making strawberry pendants! And last but not least, I wanted to make a necklace just like Astrid's...


Pretty hard to resist, right?!

winners of the may giveaway!

I'm very happy to announce the winner of our May Giveaway! It's Jan Kneeland of Burlington, CT! She chose "The Innocence Mission" from the gallery, and will receive her free SpoonFed Art pendant shortly. A big congratulations to Jan and a heartfelt thanks to all of you who entered the giveaway! So... how did we choose the winner you ask?


...Astrid! We put her in charge of the selection process, and she was awesome! First, she chose one page from all the entries, then took a big bite... we were originally going to throw a dart at the page she chose, but she bit a perfect arrow pointing to Jan's name so we just went with it!

Jan has decided to give the pendant she won in the giveaway to a friend and co-worker who has admired her SpoonFed Art necklaces, and who has been dealing with some personal issues. I'm so happy that the giveaway provided a way for Jan to give love and support to her friend, and I know that she receives so much in giving. And I'm grateful for what Jan, the "giveaway winner", has given me - a beautiful demonstration that in truth, giving and receiving are one.

stepping inside the images

Yesterday was a very productive day... I finished up all the creative and business stuff on my to do list for SpoonFed Art, which felt great because it was a very long list! I was a little tired last night, but decided to drop by the NYLON magazine party in Hollywood. The set-up was really cool... it was a walk-in installation of the latest issue, so you walk through the "front cover" and then through a set-up of all the pages and sections of the magazine. There were blown-up pages from the issue everywhere... and when you first walk in you encounter an area where you could have your hair styled into a NYLON-esque doo, a Levi's jeans ad section with lots of sample Levi's, and an area that displayed a feature on Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and her side project Free Kitten. It was the music issue so as you walked on through the installation/party, you came to an area where you could play Rockband - or if you wanted to experience the "real thing", you could hop on stage and play the instruments that were set-up for you and your "band" - or you could just hang out and listen to the actual bands play. Scarlett Johansson was on the cover of the issue, and even though I was a bit perplexed to read (in very large print) that David Bowie had played on her new record, the party itself was great, and really brought the pages of the magazine to life. And of course there were lots of beautiful fashion people there, who looked like they had just stepped out of a NYLON layout. It's fun to go to parties like this one and to just experience all the creativity... and for me, it's also a good time to check-in with myself to see if I'm recognizing and remembering what's image and what's real.

happy birthday rob zabrecky!

After a big day of mailing packages, we went out to the Magic Castle last night to celebrate Rob's birthday - it was spooky sweet fun! The Magic Castle is always a treat, and there were 4 cakes, lots of interesting people, and of course, it being Rob's birthday, it turned into a dance party! He was also handing out this little pocket Manifesto, direct from the Ghost Office, which gave "strategic directions, outlines of prospective laws and related questions for living in the present..."

a very good birthday

Hello there... I hope you're having a wonderful weekend! I've been catching up on orders and preparing for a big mail out on Monday - and recovering from my birthday! It really was the best one yet... the lunch at Chateau Marmont with my friends was SO much fun (I had champagne and french fries!) and there was a variety of amazing gifts, including a beautiful skirt from Anthropologie - and a handmade vase made entirely of jelly beans! And the main event was a picnic at the Hollywood Bowl - and REM. We stopped by Joan's before the show and picked up some goodies for our picnic, which included a pink cupcake, and even though we were running a bit late, birthday karma kicked in and got us there in record time! The show was great - I really enjoyed the new songs, and they sang "Happy Birthday" - and my sweet friend Ilona, whose birthday was the day before, brought me a piece of birthday cake - to the show! She carried it with her until I saw her at the after show party - wow - what a sweetie! If the day was any indication of my new year, it's going to be amazing...
(photos to follow)

a wonderful new year

Hello and hooray... today is my birthday! It's been really lovely so far... I've gotten birthday well-wishes from so many friends and loved ones, and I had an amazing lunch with my sweet friends Mark, Tommi and Rob at Chateau Marmont. There are some fun plans on the agenda for tonight, so I'd better get going... it's really shaping up to be a great birthday, and I have a feeling that the new year will be truly wonderful - just like the card says, "it's in the stars..."

a little get together with elvis and the police

Continuing the fanfare and hoopla of my birthday week, we went to a little get together last night at a friend's house in the Hollywood hills. The house itself is really amazing but part of what's so cool about it is that it's situated right above the Hollywood Bowl, and you can watch whatever's going on at the bowl from a little platform on the side of his house. I know, it's crazy, right?! It won't last forever because eventually someone's going to build there but as it is now, it's pretty fantastic. And the acoustics are amazing - it sounds like you're actually at the Hollywood Bowl. So last night the show was Elvis Costello and The Police, and it was really a treat... I'm an Elvis fan and I've seen him many times, but this was my first time seeing The Police. I loved the first few Police records but I'm not really a fan of Sting's jazzy stuff so the older songs that didn't get too jazzed up were cool. The get together was so much fun... lots of good friends, music, food and drinks - what could be better?! And it was fun just to see things from a different perspective, and be reminded that there are all kinds of ways to take in the fun of life...

birthday cake!

I haven't done much baking since I've been here because SpoonFed Art has taken most of my time, but my birthday is this week so I decided to bake myself a cake... and I think it turned out quite nice! Though I may have gotten a little carried away with the bougainvillea...
Anyway, I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend -
enjoy your week!

for april

Today I mailed out a pendant for my friend April, who lives in Athens, GA. She has the most amazing victorian home there that's part art installation/part museum of well-chosen antiques. She's an avid collector, and when she bought the house, she didn't know that stenciling and frescoes dating back to the end of the 19th century were hiding beneath that the many layers of white paint. She painstakingly restored the walls and added her own personal magic, and everywhere you look there's something unusual, dramatic and beautiful.... lots of old mercury glass, chunks of amber, a collection of glowing Vaseline glass... old botanical prints, murky oil paintings and aged mirrors... and lots of curiosities under glass domes. And I love the piece from her friend Howard Finster hanging over her bathtub that reads "for April"...

3 years ago, April found out she had breast cancer, and after a period of recovery, she's now feeling much better, and is a true believer that eventually, cancer will be stamped out completely. I saw her a couple of months ago while I was visiting Athens and she happily drove me around town in her new Prius. April is unique and very genuine, and I admire her deep appreciation for history and for simple beautiful things... and for her strong belief in wellness.

jacaranda loveliness

I went out for some supplies today and thought I'd post a picture of this part of Fairfax that's lined with jacaranda trees... it's so beautiful! I love when the jacaranda are in bloom and the city is dotted with purple... when you ride through this part of Fairfax, it's like you're under a gigantic umbrella of purple...

...enjoy your day!

the unguarded moment

I was working on some new designs today and thinking about how much I love the pieces I've made that came together in the moment, sort of out of the blue. I love abstract paintings because they seem to really capture that... and it's so fascinating how your brain makes sense of a picture that doesn't have images that it's used to seeing. I saw an exhibit of work by Sigrid Burton a couple of years ago, and it has really stayed with me... her pieces are so ethereal and beautiful - they make me think of the Cocteau Twins. I think maybe I'm fascinated with the abstract because it seems like there's no planning involved... and there's something really fun and even sacred in the unplanned.

(photos: sigridburton.com)

violet my dear

Hello... my goodness, is it Friday already? It was a busy week, but a very nice one! My sweet friend Ginny's birthday is next week, and it's a "big" birthday, one with a zero at the end. So I decided to make her a special gift, and I also included some of the wonderful macarons from Paulette. Ginny is a photographer and really appreciates design, so these goodies should tickle her fancy. But they're not just pretty... they're really, really yummy and definitely live up to the hype. And the Violet Cassis is just amazing...


I'm working on some new designs this weekend... look for some gallery updates next week...
have a very nice weekend!

just like heaven

Hello... I hope you had a very happy Mother's Day weekend! Since our moms are both on the East coast, a friend and I decided to celebrate in-absentia yesterday so we took a little trip to the Farmers Market for lunch. The Farmers Market is so great - I'm really glad they didn't demolish it several years ago when they were planning The Grove. It was built in the 1930s, and LA doesn't really have many "historical" sights... and they seem to demolish so many interesting things, like the Brown Derby and most recently, the Ambassador Hotel. So we had a little lunch and listened to "Mario" sing Sinatra songs (w/ a South American accent)... there was a couple slow dancing, which was really sweet, and you wouldn't believe the cast of characters walking by - just amazing! We split some caramel-dipped marshmallows and took a trip to Monsieur Marcel's and Anthropologie.... it was a very nice celebration, though I wish my mom could have been with me...

Late yesterday a friend called to tell me about his fights with the squirrels... seems they'd been stealing his sunflowers, and he wanted to take a trip to OSH to find some way to put a stop to their antics. So I went along for the ride and while we were there, I decided to buy some paint for the studio. I'd been thinking about painting for awhile... I'd even had a dream about it. So while I was waiting for my friend, I decided to go for it. And I must have been really happy about it because after the nice man mixed the paint for me, I blurted out "oh, it's the color of the sky!", which startled both of us! So the studio is taking a new shape and color, and I just found out that they're putting in central air - wow. I can't tell you how excited I am to be heading into a summer of working in the cool air! I'm really glad I cleared out all the old stuff and made way for the new... the air is pouring in, and it's cool! And I can't wait to start painting... there are lots of orders to finish-up this week, so I'll keep you posted... have a happy Monday!

may giveaway!

Here it is... SpoonFed Art's first-ever giveaway! It's so exciting... all you have to do is sign up for our mailing list anytime during the month of May and you'll automatically be entered to win a FREE SpoonFed Art pendant of your choice! If you're currently on the mailing list, you're already entered to win. There's no purchase necessary, of course, but anyone who places an order on the website in May will also receive an extra entry for every pendant they purchase! The winner will be chosen at random and announced during the first week of June, and will receive their choice of any available design on the website! And oh yes... free shipping and handling are included. The winner will also receive their pendant on one of our new brushed metal chains... so be sure to sign up for the mailing list before the end of May!

Have a great weekend!

a little tea

Hi! A nice little package of goodies is now on its way to Village Square Family in Lake Tahoe, and we've finished-up most of the Mother's Day shipments... and my Mother's Day gift to my own mom is on its way as well. So it seems like a good time to relax and take an early evening break! There was some tea in the goodie bag from the Spa Luce opening the other night, so I decided to give it a try. It's rose flower tea, and it's so pretty... the label promised all sorts of wonderful things but honestly, it wasn't for me. So I relied on an everyday favorite, Twinings' blackcurrant tea... always delicious! It was super nice to stop and take a break... I hope you do the same for yourself... it's easy to move too fast and forget to enjoy...

There are lots of exciting things happening this month at SpoonFed Art, so stay tuned... I'll post the details for one special event very shortly. I'm so grateful for all of you who enjoy and support SpoonFed Art... I can't tell you how thankful I am for you, and to be able to do what I do...

a new shop in lake tahoe!

Hi! Today I'm packing-up a new order for a shop in Lake Tahoe, Village Square Family, which is a lovely little modern general store. Mother's Day is just around the corner so there are lots of pieces to finish-up and lots of packaging & shipping to get done today, so I'd better scoot-

more later... enjoy your day!
(photo courtesy Village Square Family)

robyn hitchcock/my last day on earth as a cupcake

Hello! After a long work day, my friend Mark and I decided to have cupcake night, so we stopped by Joan's on Third last night for a little treat. We picked-up a bunch of goodies for dinner, then headed over to the cupcake counter for two cupcakes... two pink cupcakes. If you've talked to me at any time in the last few months, you already know about the pink cupcakes. I wouldn't exactly count myself in on the recent cupcake craze, but this really is an amazing cupcake... whoever invented it is a genius. The top is sprinkled with shaved chocolate, and there's a surprise filling inside... it tastes like what you would imagine if a pop tart and the best cupcake on earth had a baby. Anyway, we went back to Mark's and had a great dinner and watched the Robyn Hitchcock documentary. And when it was cupcake time, we, having just listened to Mr. Hitchcock for an hour, decided that the cupcakes needed to have a little fun before their demise. So... the cupcakes took a ride on a ferris wheel... rested in the hands of the great Buddha(s).... and last but not least, were displayed, as art, atop a pinball machine face, between two cat heads and under a lovely little painting of a dinosaur and a fish on a swimming expedition...

...and then they were eaten! Well, actually we split one... so alas, one pink cupcake survived.

You probably noticed that there's an extra cupcake in the photograph with the ferris wheel... a very tall chocolate-y one. We actually picked-up a third cupcake on our little trip to Joan's, one we'd never had before. It's the "marshmallow cloud cupcake dipped in chocolate" ...so crazy! ...and pretty darn good too. We cut it open just to take a peek... wow... we each took a nibble then put it back together and placed it back in its little box for another day....

There was a time when I wouldn't let myself enjoy a cupcake... a time that's now only a very faint memory. Last night was full of many good things... friendship, delicious food, the world of documentary film... and silliness! It's a blessing to enjoy such sweetness...

in quiet... a house fire

Yesterday was a quiet day, and I spent most of it on my studio reorganization project. There was a box in my studio, I'm sort of embarrassed to admit this, but there was a box there that I hadn't unpacked since my move here, stuff I'd packed-up in 2004. And being that it's now 2008... well, it was time to open it up! So I opened the box and it was full of interesting stuff... old journals and things from the past. And there was something in the box that made me giggle... it was this invitation to a mortgage burning party from my dear friend Dorian. She had finally paid-off her house and was over the moon with joy! It's really funny, and says so much about her... I love it! The inside says,"wear a spring hat, bring a quote for exuberant living, and be prepared to share and burn a burden from the past"... and we did, eventhough the house filled-up with smoke!

I've also posted a painting that was a gift from an artist/friend/former neighbor of mine, Diane Kilgore Condon. She started The Art Bomb, a really cool artists' studio in my hometown. It wasn't in the box... it's been hanging on my wall since I got here, but it definitely depicts this burn and renew theme I've got going on. I really love her 3-dimensional pieces like this one, which is called "Urban Renewal". She gave it to me in 2004, while I was clearing out and packing-up to move here...


Happy Monday!

the little garden

One of the newer pendants in the gallery is "The Little Garden"... I like the idea of people finding their own meaning, so I've always kept my inspiration for the pieces to myself. But since I'm testing the waters with this blog, I thought I'd post the following, which was my inspiration for this piece. It's a little long, even though it's just an excerpt... but I think it's really beautiful...

"Love knows no bodies, and reaches to everything created like itself. Its total lack of limit is its meaning. It is completely impartial in its giving, encompassing only to preserve and keep complete what it would give. In your tiny kingdom you have so little! Should it not, then, be there that you would call on love to enter? Look at the desert-dry and unproductive, scorched and joyless-that makes up your little kingdom. And realize the life and joy that love would bring to it from where it comes, and where it would return to you.

The thought of Love surrounds your little kingdom, waiting at the barrier you built to come inside and shine upon the barren ground. See how life springs up everywhere! The desert becomes a garden, green and deep and quiet, offering rest to those who lost their way and wander in the dust. Give them a place of refuge, prepared by love for them where once a desert was. And everyone you welcome will bring love with him from Heaven for you. They enter one by one into this holy place, but they will not depart as they had come, alone. The love they brought with them will stay with them, as it will stay with you. And under its beneficence your little garden will expand, and reach out to everyone who thirsts for living water, but has grown too weary to go on alone...

You have reached the end of an ancient journey, not realizing yet that it is over. You are still worn and tired, and the desert's dust still seams to cloud your eyes and keep you sightless. Yet He Whom you welcomed has come to you, and would welcome you. He has waited long to give you this. Receive it now of Him, for He would have you know Him. Only a little wall of dust still stands between you and your brother. Blow on it lightly and with happy laughter, and it will fall away. And walk into the garden that love has prepared for both of you."

the window

What if one day, things just opened up? I'd heard that question many times in the past but with all that's going on with me at the moment, it has come back around again. It popped into my head this morning when I remembered the window. My driver's-side window has been stuck for the longest time... my theory is that one of those promo cards that they stick on your car, the ones for house cleaning or yard services or palm reading, one of those had slid down inside the window and caused the jam-up. At least that's my theory. Anyway, it was particularly annoying on trips to the post office.... I would have to open my door to drop a letter... or if someone asked directions I would have to act out the "I can't roll down my window" thing, which was so silly! I was annoyed, but I wouldn't do anything about it because I just knew it would be expensive to have fixed - I just kept hearing "they'll have to take the whole door apart" run through my head. But yesterday... yesterday I was talking to Tara about all my clearing out projects, telling her about the new sense of clarity that had set in. And when I got in my car to leave, I was feeling - well, hot - but also like I was just going to give it a try... and down it went.

In the past I would have sat in that moment stunned, ears buzzing. But I found I wasn't surprised... I think I just accepted it... but how cool?! A little gift to show me that things are opening up and the fresh air is pouring in.

...an album of intrigue

I've been playing the new Sam Phillips non-stop over the last few days... it's really lovely. It's one of those records that grows more beautiful each time you take a listen. She has a wonderful gift of creating images that feel old-timey and mysterious, but the sentiments are timeless and real. I like that it rocks a bit more than the previous two, mostly due to Jay Bellrose's drumming and the muted, fuzzy guitars - and I'm really loving the gypsy rhythms on Sister Rosetta and Shake it Down. But what resonates with me is the voice of someone who is burning down the old and writing a new song for her life, once again. She produced this one herself for the first time, and while T. Bone Burnett was - and is - wonderful, she has her own gifts, and is uniquely magical all on her own.

well being

Hello! Yesterday just blew by, but it was a truly wonderful day. I got up early and drove over the hill to Burbank to pick up some clear plastic containers for the continuation of my studio reorganization project. It was such a nice day... cool and crisp and breezy... it felt SO good. There was a wonderful sense of freedom in the air, sort of like how you used to feel after school on a Friday afternoon... that feeling that after much learning, you could just relax and "be." Most of my day was spent cleaning, clearing out and reorganizing, but I did get some casting finished up - and there will be a big mail out (!) today and tomorrow...

I called it quits a little early last night to go to the opening of Spa Luce in Hollywood. I was invited by my sweet friend Dr. Sharon, who designed the spa's signature scent. She's an aromatherapist, acupuncturist, chiropractor and masseuse extraordinaire - and she looked so lovely last night! The spa is on the rooftop of the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel, and is really beautiful... and to top it off, I got a wonderful complimentary massage from Eva - what a great way to end a day of well being! I'm so grateful to be living here and for everything in my life... I'm blessed in so many wonderful ways, the best of which are unseen.

a spark of bright fire

Here we are on the eve of May Day, on what I just learned is the day of an old Celtic celebration called Beltane, or "bright fire". I'd been thinking about starting a blog for a while now and when I read about this celebration, I decided that a day of "bright fire" seemed as good a day as any to start! So... as I was reading about Beltane this morning, something in it really struck a cord with me. The celebration originated around the start of the summer crop-growing and breeding season, and is the cross-quarter point between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice. All that is to say that it's the start of a season of birth and growth, and at the other end is the harvest - Samhain to the Celts or just plain ol' Halloween to the rest of us (and one of my favorite holidays!). Anyway, on both occasions, bonfires were lit on hillsides across Scotland and Ireland, and both were believed to be times when the veil between worlds was especially thin...

And that's how I'm feeling today... everything looks a little more clear and I feel like I'm coming out of a lengthy hibernation. My birthday is also coming up in May so all that meaning and metaphor about birth and growth seems to ring true even more. So lots of beginnings are in the air and under foot... we'll see what happens!

May, clad in cloth of gold, Cometh this way; The fluting of the blackbirds Heralds the day. (Raven Grimassi)