Gift! Portrait of me by Miss Holly Bliss!

My birthday was October 5th and my boyfriend, Jeremy Harrison, gave me one of the most amazing birthday presents ever! He gave me many but this one in particular was so spectacular and meaningful.

He gave me an original portrait of me by Miss Holly Bliss!

She is an amazing artist that we first learned about while in California by a friend, Stephanie Williamson. Stefanie had a couple prints by Miss Holly Bliss and we both fell in love with them… Then we found her on Facebook and have been lovers and supporters of her art. What made me love her work so much is that she mainly does portraits of women who are actually quite amazing, from the amazing mother, daughter, teacher to amazing famous women. She does an amazing job at capturing their unique essence and uses a fun and fresh collage style with real magazine cut out words that fit with that individual. She is quite an amazing woman herself, following her dreams and making them a reality! And while she is doing it, she and her art have brought much happiness to others… It has brought much happiness to me! She did an amazing, touching job at capturing me and the love that Jeremy and I share.

This is her biography which is found on her Facebook Page, which I find to be beautiful and inspiring!

“Hello! My name is Holly Bliss Rogers and this is my shop-a place for you to feel safe, inspired, and loved. I am on a mission to celebrate our beautiful existence. I am here to celebrate YOU. As a young woman who has personally struggled with low self -esteem and depression in the past, I know the incredible power of self-love and compassion. It was loving myself unconditionally and embracing all my imperfections that has allowed me to grow and flourish to be the person I am today- ME-beautiful in my uniqueness, perfect in my own design. Brave, vulnerable, honest, ME. It was self-love that has allowed me to truly love others. Now I’m on a mission to help others find, embrace, and love their “ME.” I hope my art reminds you of your beauty. I hope it brings you peace when life gets stormy. I hope it inspires you to nurture your inner child, to dream big, and feel powerful. Every life is precious. You are important. You are beautiful. You have the power to make a difference. Thank you for existing. Believe it or not, the world is a better place because YOU ARE.”

And this is a poem that she left at the bottom of her biography:

“In your light I learn how to love.
In your beauty, how to make poems.
You dance inside my chest,
where no one sees you,
but sometimes I do,
and that sight becomes this art”
-Rumi

Here are some more pictures!  See the full album on my Ponder Tree Facebook Page. Check out Miss Holly Bliss’s page for yourself, you might fall in love with her and might consider buying and supporting her art! This is her Facebook Page and this is her Etsy Page.

Quick Update!

Hello everyone! The past few weeks have been very busy and filled with great news. If you have been checking in to my Ponder Tree Facebook page, then you will be up to date with my news, so I encourage you to like it if you haven’t yet!

• Editing in progress: Deep Roots II – Days and Nights on the Farm (Meei Ling)
• Birthday gift from Jeremy by Miss Holly Bliss!
• Editing video for Temple Contemporary (Temple University’s Art Gallery)

First of all, “Deep Roots II – Days and Nights on the Farm” on October 6th and 7th were amazing. (See “Deep Roots I” here.)”Deep Roots II” was a multi-media art installation by Meei Ling in collaboration with Weavers Way’s Mort Brooks Memorial Farm and their Farm Festival and in conjunction with the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours(POST) and lighting designer Jackson Kay. The key messages of this event were to raise awareness and appreciation for the farmer and for the gifts of nature and the danger that they’re in, such as bees. Also a key theme was collaboration.

I am passionate about all of these messages but collaboration, I feel, was what made this event so amazing. Meei Ling collaborated with many people… from light designer Jackson Kay to Farmer Rick, farm educators to high school students, Anna the director of POST to photographer Sang Cun and myself, the videographer. This amazing collaboration resulted in a great turn out of people, an amazing art installation that everyone enjoyed and learned from, many became interested about becoming a part of Weavers Way Co-op

and we met new friends while eating and enjoying music. It would have been impossible if it wasn’t for everyone collaborating in the name of something they believe in…

Secondly, Jeremy got me one of the most amazing gifts ever… A portrait of me by Miss Holly Bliss! She did an absolutely amazing job and I will soon be sharing photos of it. It is a collage full of such meaningful things that Jeremy and I share. Thank you to the both of you…

…

And Finally, I have started working for Temple Contemporary (Temple University’s Art Gallery) editing the videos of their weekly events. So you’ll get to see what cool things take place there and you might even want to attend some of their events afterwards…

That is all for now, and following this post I’ll share some images of the news I have told you about! Thank you and stay tuned!