To prepare for Florida’s 500th anniversary in 2013, Florida Living History, Inc. (www.floridalivinghistory.org), will offer its annual heritage Event – “This Other World”: Ponce de León and the Founding of Florida – on Saturday, March 31st, from 10AM to4PM, at the Mission Nombre de Dios Museum (www.missionandshrine.org/), in St.Augustine, FL.

The Event will commemorate the landing of Don Juan Ponce de León’s “First Fleet,”which carried passengers and crew – white, black, Native American; male and female; soldier and sailor; slave and free – who became the first documented Europeans and Africans to set foot on what is now the continental United States, landing on the east coast of Florida on April 3rd, 1513.

In addition, this Florida Living History, Inc. heritage Event will feature thesecond, annual “This Other World”: Poncede León and the Founding of Florida lecture series on Don Juan Ponce de León and his world. The lectures will take place in the auditorium of the Mission Nombre de Dios Museum.

For further information on “This Other World”: Ponce de León and the Founding of Florida Event, please see the attached press release or contact us at info@floridalivinghistory.orgor (toll-free)1-877-FLA-HIST (1-877-352-4478).

Florida Living History, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, educational organization dedicated to the support of living history activities, events, and portrayals related to the history of colonial Florida.

www.floridalivinghistory.org

There are some amazingly talented body painters out there in the world. They are paid top dollar for what they do. I dream of being one of them here VERY soon. I learn from each one. I am inspired by their extraordinary skills. I don’t know the stories that are behind their pictures. What was it like for their models? I don’t know. I know I want to learn from the best and share their space. Here shortly I am going to do just that when I go to the Body Painting Convention at the Flamingo Hotel in Vegas, March 11th through the 14th.

I remember when I went to Sarasota Florida and met my chalk art heroes. This time I am going to Las Vegas Nevada to meet my body-painting heroes! I have that same sense of anticipation. I can’t wait to meet everyone, and learn from them… how do they do the magic they do?

They paint the skin… but do they touch the soul? Do they teach that?

Right now all I know is my own experience.

When I went to Sarasota for the chalk art festival I only knew that I was good at color in Denver. I found out who I really was when I left the comfort and blinders of only being in my own backyard. I found out my place in the world at large because it wasn’t just a national chalk art festival, but international. Through the other artists from around the nation and world I found a way to accept myself. It was an amazing experience.

In a similar fashion, Denver is this small intimate community of body painters. We all work, live and paint side by side. We have watched each other learn and grow.
Last year, David (our oldest and most experienced body painter) went to the convention and came back infusing us all with his new tips and tricks. On top of that he brought other body painters to teach us new skills. Now it’s one year later and several of us are excited about going.

Many painters just paint. They get into the groove, the zone, the flow… and paint. In the end there is this miraculous piece of treasured art and human being called a canvas that has been transformed. The experience for many of the models here in Denver is one where they get addicted to the experience. They come back again, and again, because one human being pays complete attention to another for hours. Most of the time the artist isn’t necessarily talking because they are concentrating on the task at hand.

Then there is me.

I’ve written about my process before. Everyone is beautiful. How I am talking about how they are loved, loveable, beloved, perfect, whole, deserving, courageous, etc. While I am “in the flow” I also tell them that if I feel things about a certain part of their body I will tell them. This is the short version.

So my spirituality and art has been merging on a level that is meeting the deepest part of my own soul. The more I paint on them, loving who they are, sharing lives and stories, the more they are transformed, which in turn comes back to me.

Ok there is the short version… but behind a single image is a life forever changed.

Meet Anna.

Anna by Wyl Williams Photography

Anna works at a sports bar where there are weight restrictions, and uniforms to entice the customers. She walked around all day getting compliments she didn’t really believe. She had a boyfriend who told her all the time she was gorgeous. No amount of people telling her, made Anna believe anyone.

I hang out all the time at the bar she works at. Every day I paint someone new I come in and upload the images using their Wi-Fi as a virtual office. The girls there have come to love and respect the work I do. So one day Anna said she would be willing to be one of my practice body painting sessions. As long as I can remember I have thought of her as being the one I wanted to try the wedding outfit on. She smiles more than anyone there. She is so bubbly! If anyone had the perfect image of happiness that a bride would have on that day, it was Anna.

We had a massage table for her to lay down on because all the gems and sequins we had to glue on her for the outfit was going to be a long & tedious process. I had a friend assist me because she had the table. I asked her because she also knows about energy work and could hold the space with me.

Anna also had a wonderful willingness to paint for as long as it took to make it happen. Eventually my friend had to leave with her table to go to another appointment. The body painting, because it is so long often enters the person being painted into a trance state. The only thing that is required is focused, relaxed attention… so people get into anything from a light to deep trance. Everyone is different. For Anna, she toggled through different levels through out the process.

There are moments when I feel moved to say something in particular. With her, I felt moved to inform her that I was nothing without her. A body painter without a canvas is only a dreamer… I needed her to make my dreams come true. Tears welled up and exploded out of her… It was just the right thing to say.

This happened four times over the course of body painting her. She’s not the only one that this happened to. I would say about 80% of the time this happens in my one-on-one sessions.

Anna revealed to me that she had never felt comfortable in her own skin her whole life. After being painted and seeing herself in the pictures we took Anna saw and felt herself in a whole new way. She now FEELS beautiful.

I had told her, or rather warned her, that her body would change because her mind had changed. I told her that it would change shape and it would be effortless. One week later she informed me that she had lost about 8 pounds. Before when she went to workout, it was a chore. Forty-five minutes on the treadmill. Now it’s like, wow! Forty-five minutes is over already???

When you change the core, the center of how you feel about yourself then it changes a million things. Most of the time, people try to change a million things, hoping it will change the core. It is how marketing in the USA works. They hope that no one will catch on.

This is Laura.

Today I got a comment about this body-painting piece I did. It was simply, “Not your best.” Fortunately my self worth and value isn’t wrapped up in his comment. What I know is that he’s looking at my little hand held camera shot, and doesn’t know Laura, or what the body painting meant to her. He only sees the surface. He can’t see the invisible work I did on and with her. Her relationship to her body is different. Her self-acceptance is more. Her relationship to cameras has gotten better. She felt more relaxed than any massage she’s ever had, and that was in the first five minutes. There is an assumption that my work is only what can be seen. That is why I wrote this… My work is more than just painting a body; it’s about touching and forever changing a soul.

Namaste’

Mythica

Friday: February 3

First Fridy Artwalk

Enjoy the latest exhibits, music, entertainment and refreshments at more than 20 St. Augustine art galleries.  Don’t miss potter Worley Faver and painter Russ Wilson, along with painters Claire Kendrick, Kristin Hosbein and  Wendy Norton who will display a stunning collection of their work at the Worley Faver Gallery, 11A Aviles Street.  Park for free at the San Sebastian Winery, 157 King Street, where sightseeing trains and trolleys offer free round-trips to the heart of the art district – or go on your own self-guided art walk.  Galleries are open from 5 to 9 p.m.  For more information, call 904.829.0065 or visit www.artgalleriesofstaugustine.com.

Canvas, Clay Collage & Cutting Edge Art Exhibit

Stop in the St. Augustine Art Association Gallery to see this captivating juried art exhibit. ”C”-ing is believing when four themes combine in one exhibit setting. Cutting Edge is defined as work that pushes the boundaries of ideas and/or materials. The St. Augustine Art Association Gallery is located at 22 Marine Street in St. Augustine. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, visit http://www.staaa.org or call 904-824-2310.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday:  February 3, 4, & 5

As part of Megacon’s “Indie Film Expo” program, a panel discussion on filmmaking will be hosted by “Students of the Unusual” publisher Terry Cronin on Saturday March 26th. This will feature guest filmmakers and actors including Andrew Allan, Julio Alvarez, Lear Bunda, Anthony Dones, Andy Lalino, Katharine Leis, Pat Martin, Juan Navarro, Brian Pulido, Steven Shea, Robby Sparks, Todd Thompson, John Ulloa, and Bill Williams(Florida Independent Filmmakers). Special guests include Michael Bailey Smith and Brennan Elliott supporting their new feature film Blood Shot. The spectacular Blood Shot directed by Dietrich Johnston will have it’s Florida Premiere at Megacon on Saturday night at 7:30pm in Room 222.

Film Expo program chairman Terry Cronin states that “this is a unique opportunity to meet, network, and discuss independent filmmaking with the filmmakers themselves.”

For more info on MEGACON go to http://www.megaconvention.com

…

I asked about Suicide Girls © on my website because a photographer wants to hire me to paint a potential girl… Prior to being asked I had never heard of them other than in passing. I thought they were a band honestly. Turns out they started out as a women owned alternative edgy, tattooed & pierced pinup site. Either way, everyone has an opinion on it.

This question brought up quite a discussion on models, beauty, and the industry in general. Several of my friends are models on the local level. I also happen to have some very international friends who are open about sharing their opinions. One of them shared her opinion on “real” models, and their ability to stop a room. While I understand the quality they are talking about, she is talking about a very small percentage of the entire industry. It’s called the fashion WORLD for a reason… this lead to talking about what was “real”, what was “beautiful” and so on.

I also have an opinion. I also have my own column. I share when I have something to say. So here it is.

I stand by my original response to the opinion that lashing out about Suicide Girls as being models who can’t hack it (in a nutshell) as a comment that at its core is a self reflection of insecurity. I was asked to explain. I am not a quick wit so I am taking my time here.

When we (I mean us girls) are little inevitably something happens on the playground, or in school, playing with other kids. Someone is mean to us. We get our feelings hurt, someone fights with or over a toy… brothers or sisters, hit, punch, bite, scratch… there comes this defining moment, to be or get sad, or mad. It is one of the seeds that form the core and end up defining personality. In those beginnings comes the moment of learning one of two ways to be a girl… being a bitch, or being a doormat. On the one hand, getting angry can be a powerfully good thing. In either case it is the soft underbelly, of a wounded child carried into adulthood that remains.

As a woman we are fighting either the image of being mean or trying to make sure we are not seen that way. There are more t-shirts about the line between being a bitch and being an angel than you can throw a stick at. The former often will tell you that they are far happier than the latter. Often women who have a hard time with intimacy do so because they are always either defensive or offensive… vulnerable bitch is not often a combination we see as a healthy role model. The only exception I know of is the rock pop star Pink. But like my friend said, not everyone can be a rock star.

What it boils down to, is healthy boundaries, and a healthy self image that doesn’t required putting anyone down in the first place. There are rock stars and famous Hollywood personalities who are stopped by someone in the room. They are people like me, and another friend of mine. He is friends with Johnny Depp, he’s partied with Angelina Jolie, and he’s close friends with Amy Lee of Evanescence. The reason he is friends with these people is because he treats them like human beings. There is a tier parallel with these people where others aren’t affected by the glamour and see the human being.

While I see the difference in levels in the modeling world I don’t feel the need to point out that one group is real, and the rest just need to grow up. I see a spectrum. I see people learning about themselves, and humanity. Some of those lessons are hard, and harsh. Some of those lessons are life changing, and rewarding beyond recognition. The modeling world can either be great for your self-esteem, or horrible. Bad and good experiences can be found at every level.

All I did was ask a question about the Suicide Girls. What I got was that even if my friend is a bitch, it was because life experiences lead her to a place where that was necessary. But what is true for her doesn’t have to be true for anyone else. I’d rather live in my world, where I body paint models to help them heal from all the terrible things people like her have said to them along the way.

At the heart of any interaction, is either love, or it’s not… making the world a better place, or not… building up, or tearing down, … some people have the job of showing the ugly side of humanity, so that the good ones can shine… in the end I see different kinds of beauty everywhere. I just happen to be lucky enough to paint them too.

Namaste’

Mythica

2) Art Develops the Whole Brain. Art strengthens focus and increases attention, develops hand-eye coordination, requires practice and strategic thinking, and involves interacting with the material world through different tools and art mediums.

3) Art Prepares Kids for the Future. Creative, open-minded people are highly desired in all career paths. Art and creative education increases the future quality of the local and global community. Being creative is a life long skill and can be used in every day situations.

4) Art Teaches Problem Solving. Making art teaches that there is more than one solution to the same problem. Art challenges our beliefs and encourages open-ended thinking that creates an environment of questions rather than answers.

5) Art Supports Emotional Intelligence. Art supports the expression of complex feelings that help kids feel better about them selves and helps them understand others by “seeing” what they have expressed and created. Art supports personal meaning in life, discovering joy in one’s own self, often being surprised, and then eliciting it in others.

6) Art Builds Community. Art reaches across racial stereotypes, religious barriers, and socio-economical levels and prejudices. Seeing other culture’s creative expression allows everyone to be more connected and less isolated – “see how we are all related.” Art creates a sense of belonging.

7) Art Improves Holistic Health. Art builds self-esteem, increases motivation and student attendance, improves grades and communications, nurtures teamwork, and strengthens our relationship to the environment.

8) Art is Big Business. At the core of the multi-billion dollar film and video game industry are artists creating images and stories. Every commercial product is designed by artists from chairs to cars, space stations to iPods. A Van Gogh painting sold for 83 million dollars.

9) Art Awakens the Senses. Art opens the heart and mind to possibilities and fuels the imagination. Art is a process of learning to create ourselves and experience the world in new ways. Arts support the bigger picture view of life: beauty, symbols, spirituality, storytelling, it also helps us step out of time allowing one to be present in the moment. Art keeps the magic alive.

10) Art is Eternal. Creativity and self-expression has always been essential to our humanity. Our earliest creative expressions were recorded in petroglyphs, cave paintings, and ancient sculptures. One of the first things kids do is draw, paint, and use their imaginations to play.

NEW SPORT TO OVERTAKE PRO WRESTLING AND MMA
Armed With A Pillow and Dangerous!

Columbus, OH, January 24, 2012
Move over UFC, step aside WWF, and Girls Gone Wild has nothing on this!
A new sport is going viral, Saturday Night Pillow Fights. This new league is quickly gaining popularity with its mix of raw beauty, tremendous fight technique, and colorful characters.
This isn’t your “girl’s sleep-over pillow tussle”…it’s an all-out battle in an MMA octagon. Throw in the fact that these beautiful fighters are adorned in lingerie with the occasional wardrobe malfunction and you have every mans viewing entertainment dream!

The organizers of the league, MadShiva Entertainment recently recorded a live uncensored event. The response has been tremendous. Their Saturday Night Pillow Fights DVD is now available on Amazon.com and through their website www.saturdaynightpillowfights.com. Additional worldwide distribution is being sought.

MadShiva Co-Owner and event organizer Mike Neider said “The event was a huge success. The girls fought great. The crowd absolutely loved it. Having celebrities Chuck “Dead Body Guy” Lamb and Ryan Francis (both starred in the cult classic movie Thankskilling) here made it all that more entertaining”.

Neider went on “Chuck Lamb provided insanely comedic play by play announcing alongside Producer Rick Hills, who was methodical in his analysis. Ryan Francis did an awesome job refereeing the matches, even though he took a few lumps himself during the course of the night.”

With names like Alexis Capone, Babe Ruthless, Syster Syn, Goddess Luna and others, the fans will be able to identify them easily. They can then root and cheer for their favorite character. Many of the ‘fights’ are set with the classic good versus evil premise.

MadShiva Ent. plans to have many more events. They plan on recording them as well in order to provide DVD viewers the opportunity to catch all of the action.

Saturday Night Pillow Fights is listed on IMDB.com. They also have a page on Facebook where fans can friend their favorite fighters and keep up to date with all the leagues events.
For additional information or interviews, please contact:
Chuck Lamb, (614)870-8889 or email
saturdaynightpillowfights@yahoo.com

Disclaimer…Saturday Night Pillow Fights is not affiiated, in any way, with WWF, UFC, or Girls Gone Wild

“On The Sea” with Ben Harrison

Jack Kerouac is the name that comes to mind when speaking about ‘life on the road.’  He wrote about friends, places, and people he met along the way, and his mannerisms have been described as everything from dark to poetic jazz; a man who simply propelled his words on a sheet of paper that lingered in readers’ minds long after they’d moved on.

For many weeks we have been speaking about a man by the name of Ben Harrison.  From musician to writer to art gallery owner – the one thing that has always stood out about Mr. Harrison is his ability to tell a tale, and lead readers or listeners into another world for a while.  And, yes, his words are remembered long after the book or the CD is put down, as well.

Two weeks ago I brought to everyone’s attention a new book that Ben Harrison has been writing, a book about a journey through life.  This is a book that follows the author and his family as they hit – in this case, the sea – and travel to unknown places while meeting up with friends and enemies along the way.  From excitement to thrills to humor to hardship, Ben Harrison offers up the mental photographs of all he and his family had been a part of during their Costa Rican Adventure, and the story is much like Kerouac’s in the fact that the reader is brought along on a brilliant ride.

Recently I received the full copy of this book and it brought about all those emotions I’ve described.  Why is that?  Because it was real.  This is the very real adventure of Ben Harrison’s life.  The journey that was taken at sea, after building his own boat and setting sail with his wife and Irish setter, draws readers in as much as Kerouac’s books did.  In fact, as a writer I was completely attracted to the writing style, and his capacity to transform everyday events into sacred moments of beauty.  The writing is honest, and conveys stories with a style that employs spontaneity.

For a brief recap, it was in 1974 that Ben Harrison, his wife, Helen and Ralph, their Irish setter, left San Francisco and drove to Costa Rica in a ‘67 Pontiac Executive.  Upon arrival, they took on the extraordinary job of constructing a thirty-eight-foot sailboat that became their home for the next eleven years.

From the very beginning I felt as if I was in the car with Ben Harrison and family when he brought me to the “Border Crossing.”  I was driving down Highway 1 in California wearing my own jacket, as I watched the seagulls soaring against a backdrop of the deep, blue Pacific Ocean foaming and surging hundreds of feet below.  This is when they were headed to their final visit with marine architect W.I.B. “Bill” Crealock.  I could almost see this man in my mind’s eye, the impeccable British accent, and the skill and talent that he owned in spades when it came to everything from hull extensions to an aft-cockpit cutter with a hull extension of two feet.

As a reader, I truly felt that I was in:

The night of a new moon, the only illumination on this dark, dark night came from fluorescent light that spilled from the open doors of two stark one-room cantinas and the glow of outdoor fires.  Spanish music from speakers set out in front of one of the bars played loudly. 

Encircled by smiling Mexicans speaking rapidly trying to sell us something, it was impossible for me not to imagine what had to be going through Helen’s mind because the same thoughts were going through mine.  It’s one thing to conjure up exotic images of foreign lands and romantic Latin American moonlit nights in a cozy living room in California, and quite another to experience it close up.  Not far from us was a rat, almost as big as some of the scrawny dogs begging for food, who waddled nonchalantly into a pile of garbage.

Writing is an art; it’s a form of beauty that can either be stunning, terrifying, seductive, or everything all at the same time.  And early on with Costa Rican Adventure I learned that Ben Harrison was a man who owned that beauty and the ability to make note of all things around him – even the most miniscule detail that would go unnoticed by many.

But the ‘travel’ is not all that this book will be remembered for after it has its ‘time in the sun’ one day soon.  Ben Harrison does a brilliant job of allowing each and every reader to stay by his side during the most personal moments of his journey.  From Chapter Two where he speaks about his wedding and how they were indeed, on top of the world; to bringing the Royal Irish Ralph into readers’ sights and making them feel so at home with the ever-vigilant guard that they feel as if they are sitting beside him in the back seat keeping watch over the family and eyeing the scenery rolling on by.

Every step of the journey is highlighted with memorable words, as well as emotions that many will place in their personal Hall of Fame for years to come.  Places once completely unfamiliar to me, such as Costa Rica, now feel as if they’re locations I was born in.  When I went with Ben Harrison to Panama for a stamp I, too, felt the temperature change from the seventy-degree mountainous to the brutal ninety-degree tropical weather.  I could feel the boat that had once overlooked Alajuela, steady as a rock, begin rocking with the waves, and I could hear the water slapping against the hull at night in anchorages where disaster seemed always to be lurking.  Isla Providencia, Colombia, Roatán, Honduras, up the Río Dulce in Guatemala, and on to Cozumel…I was there.

For a long time Kerouac was kept hidden in the subterranean catacombs of American Literature, until it was slowly realized that his creative force – whether you liked it or not – was up into the realms of Capote.  On The Road is now listed among the top one hundred notable books of all time, and people flocked to see the near mythical “On The Road Scroll” that toured the country.  Using a manual typewriter in a New York City loft, Jack Kerouac produced the original manuscript of On the Road during a three-week period in the spring of 1951.  Kerouac produced this continuous scroll by taping pages of semi-translucent paper together to feed the typewriter in order to write without interruption.

Thankfully, when it comes to Ben Harrison and his work, Costa Rican Adventure, technology has improved a great deal.  What no one will ever be able to debate is the fact that both of the men I refer to in this article were committed to telling their story – and both are truly unforgettable.  Writing commitment is seen, heard and felt – and Ben Harrison’s very own “On The Road” could well be the masterpiece that’s noted when the next committed scribe comes along.

Until Next Time, Everybody.

For More Information Go To:

www.benharrisonkeywest.com

www.harrison-gallery.com

St. Augustine’s 1^st Annual Academy Awards Party

At the Historic Casablanca Inn

   If you’re a devoted movie fan, come to the Casablanca Inn on Sunday evening, February 26 and ‘walk the red carpet’ to one of Northeast Florida’s parties where you can enjoy Hollywood’s Academy Awards from 7:00pm – Midnight.

Casablanca Inn’s Tini Martini Bar is THE place to watch the 2012 Hollywood festivities on big screens TV’s.  Be our guest and enjoy canapés and hors d’eouvres on the Inn’s waterfront verandah. It will feel like a wonderful ‘private party’ to enjoy Hollywood’s favorite stars, directors, costume designers, cinematographers and filmmakers.\

WHAT:      1^st Annual Academy Awards Party at the Casablanca Inn

WHEN:      Sunday, February 26 at 7:00pm

INCLUDES: Complimentary canapés and hors d’oeuvres

ATTIRE:   Hollywood attire OPTIONAL

COST:       Free!

OPTIONAL to Stay Overnight:   If you care to stay overnight, accommodations on Sunday, February 26 are available at $99 + tax.

For MEDIA information and interviews, contact: Leigh Cort Publicity.

NOTE: The Oscars 2012 celebrates the legendary film industry awards that began in May, 1929 at a private brunch at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. At that time, fifteen statuettes were awarded honoring artists, directors and personalities of the filmmaking industry of the time, for their works during the 1927-1928 periods. The formal ceremony at which the Awards of Merit are presented is one of the most prominent award ceremonies in the world, televised live in more than 100 countries annually. It’s the oldest award ceremony in the media.

CASABLANCA INN

24 Avenida Menendez

St. Augustine, Florida

904-829-0928

www.CasablancaInn.com