• Spring 18

KellyFramel.World

  • Spring 18
NATALIE BERGMAN 35mm, San Bartolo Coyotepec, Oaxaca, April 2018

NATALIE BERGMAN

35mm, San Bartolo Coyotepec, Oaxaca, April 2018
 
DEATH IS HOLY 🕯 My art practice was born out of the phrase ‘sometimes we destroy ourselves’ — and exploring what that means is at the core of everything I do. Throughout this investigation, I have found death to be an ally, the great transformer, a friend. Last year in preparation for #DiaDeLosMuertos, I spent months building #myownsantamesa — a grueling endeavor which taught me that the gods require sacrifice still. The months spent making it helped bond me to my ancestors, and with the energies of this idyllic place I’ve made my home. I learned that art work, for me, is spirit work, and the best stuff comes when I get out of the way and let some higher source flow through me. This year their instruction was clear: burn it to the ground. Every end is a beginning & it’s always transmutation time. #sometimeswedestroyourselvesbykellyframel @i.am.keli.ma
A weekend in wonderland with my magical @thematfinish 🦄🎨🇲🇽 #sweethomeoaxaca #campkeli
Skip the distractions I’m the main attraction
I’ve been trawling antique markets with my mom for as long as I could walk — they’re where I learned that history is long, that the world is wondrous, that human hands were made to create, and that love always awaits us in the unlikeliest of places ✨
When I left a flourishing career + life in NYC to start over as an artist in rural Oaxaca, I wrote in my journal a promise to myself: I will be more powerful in this place than ever before. A year and a half later, it’s proven true. Not in the societal sense — certainly, I have less money and ‘influence’ than ever — but in the personal sense. The inquisitive, expressive, imaginative sense. The intuitive sense. The sense of embodying my wild individuality, unafraid of all the strength and strangeness and shadows that includes. Funny thing is, the more I explore and evolve and grow, the more I spiral right back home to my own center, where all these gifts have been all along — tugging at my soul, waiting to be remembered. As a talisman of acknowledgement and gratitude, lately I’ve been wearing this @monicarichkosann pendant close to my heart. Inspired by the Wizard of Oz, it states: you had the power all along my dear. And it’s true. We all do.