NIGHT BATS! MOURNING DOVES!

We’ve crossed over to the Scorpio side of spooky season and I’ve got some time-sensitive art updates to share (below). But first, some sun-sensitive reflections. Shame puts crybaby in the corner, but I shout “EMPATHS TO THE FRONT!”

The past weeks have been tough. I know we’re all feeling it. But me and Snoop Dogg celebrated our solar returns on October 20 and I got to see one of my fave musicians, Molly Nilsson, perform hits off her brave new album Un-American Activities. Between songs she’d reflect genuinely on the rise of fascistic global threats… including the escalating genocide in Palestine and Lebanon.

HOW is there room for further escalation? The dynamite of hatred blows through rock bottom, boring so forcefully, it shakes this side of earth. Molly Nilsson sings Palestine (Somewhere Over the Rainbow), Mahdi Felafel screens To A Land Unknown, and we show our colors daily. CATerpillars raze the plants and their stewards on so-called homelands and our own indigenous protectors remind us how close to home these bombs were made. PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATORS (currently in their home states) to support S.J. Res 111 and block over $20 billion in support of these weapons. And if you’re committed to voting for a “lesser of two evils” I hope you’ll be the first to pick up the phone.

After each reflection, Molly would add self-consciously “but, I hope everyone’s having fun?” And I was. Just what I needed for my birthday. It’s relieving and liberating to be at a party where “the black list is the guest list.” Dance is life-giving, and I’ve been finding I only have room for positive feelings if I can be open about the rest. My dear partner Flora gifted me a massive copy of Eva Hesse’s diaries. (I’ve been close with Eva’s ghost ever since her former assistant, Martha, who was with her as she was dying, applied to be my artist assistant). I felt such gratitude to receive her end-of-life writings, a present that resonates with my heaviness rather than pressuring me to “cheer up.” When I feel joy, I want it to feel genuine and full, not avoidant or performed.

I turned 41 and felt angsty as 16. I shared some reflections about the emotional bravery of an Aries Moon. An excerpt that resonated for people:

If I stunt my ability to express difficult feelings- whether rage, disappointment, sorrow- I also limit my access to joy, freedom, and hope… Capacity for one makes space for the other… The exchange rate of what you gain for remaining silent when you really should speak is net loss.

If you revel in b-day gift giving, I invite you to toss coins into wells of despair, disgust, determination, and desire: Contribute to the “Build a well in Gaza” campaign through Cactus Mutual Aid and/or the two mutual aid campaigns I’ve posted to my new “Special Offers” page on my site.

Hawk-Eye painting and La Leonessence fundraisers support devastated communities in Appalachia + Palestine. Click here to learn more!

SPOOKY SEASON REMINDERS

BEAUTIFUL SEVEN @ SLOMA (CA) CLOSES NOVEMBER 4!

In my last newsletter, I shared that my first two museum solo shows had opened this year - one on the West Coast (San Luis Obispo) and one on the East Coast (Soft Score at Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA). I’m very lucky each was up for more than a month, but I can’t believe Beautiful Seven comes down soon!

The full statement + photos can be found here, but scroll down for some playful highlights on this double, triple, quadruple entendre of an ode to the magical number 7. Featuring the first set of handmade brooms I made from sticks found in spirited forests, my full Stelle Scopa deck of cards, and hand cast stone-rosary beads suspended between Marian palms, this is a charmed show. I couldn't be more pleased that it’s sandwiched, geographically and chronologically, between two very magical events in California.

On November 2nd many of my friends will be presenting at the Modern Witches Confluence in San Francisco. My show in SLO closes a few hours south of SF on November 4th. About a week later, on November 12, Golden Dome - of which I’ve been a board member for the last couple of years- will host its very last annual Resurrection of Care ceremony at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles.

I’m bummed I can’t afford to attend the full scope of events, but I’m doing my best to swing the Resurrection of Care, a communal resistance ritual that’s meant a lot to me and so many over the years.

I’m happy to say that we just received word from the Rose Kennedy Greenway that Gateway to Infinity (An Anti-Monument) gets to stay, at least through the end of 2024. We’d signed an 18 month contract and, while my groundworks are painted (by hand, by moi!) to last for years, this one is on top of slick granite and I was asked to make it durable but not permanent. We’re going to see how it holds up into 2025 and powerwash it off sometime before spring. We’ll be in touch about a possible closing ritual or film screening that might be open to the public. Happy to say that you can keep walking it’s labyrinthine coils until then!

And stay tuned for a very special Samhain episode of Missing Witches about the collaborative magic that Ash Capachione, Vin Caponigro and Laura Campagna and I cooked up together in several mercurial mediums. If you want to nerd out ahead of time, feel free to listen to my solo interview from 2022, I Believe That Art Is Magic, when I launched Stelle Scopa.

Or read up on our project zine MEDUSA ~ MYTH, MEMORY, ANTI-MONUMENT which are still for sale in my shop and present queer perspectives on the historic and present-day spotlight on “Columbus Day” for Italian Americans. The black and white PDF continues to be linked through the project page and was recently included in the Center for Liberatory Practice’s Resource Library!

TRISKELE & THE MONSTER’S TOOLS: A SOLSTICE INVOCATION OF MEDUSA CONSCIOUSNESS remains viewable online and will continue to screen in festivals and exhibitions (reach out if you’d like to show the film!)

Finally, a small gift for those who could use some materials. Click the image above for a free printable PDF of the Free Palestine / Stop Cop City cards. I cut them in half to fold like a gift card or cut all 4 like postcards them however you like. Print and distribute as you like- if you post to the internet or forward to others, please credit me for the design <3

Thanks for following along and being interested in what I’m up to.

With love under the stars,

❤️‍🔥 Maria 🌹