Welcome
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| Gaia: water drop in water lily |
Welcome to Maya Fair. If you have an interest in Mother Nature, Mystery and Magic, you may find pleasure mingling here.
This is the official web site for artist Lesley Walker-Fitzpatrick; photographer, writer, performer. Explore the galleries and ideas. Learn about new and future projects. Contact Maya Fair to order archival photographic prints and books or to engage Lesley as a speaker and/or workshop leader.
The name ‘Maya Fair’ was conceived by photographer Dave Heath ( A Dialogue with Solitude, Dave Heath’s Art Show). It is a combination of ‘Maya, The Goddess of Magic’ a character performed by Lesley, from Doug Henning’s original rock magic show “Spellbound” (Royal Alex Theatre, Toronto) and Lesley’s Educational Entertainment Company “Fair Play Works”.
Maya: means illusion or the veil that covers our eyes so we don’t see true reality. What is true reality? What role the imagination? Maya represents the material universe, the mother of creation, the weaver of the web of life.
Fair: is a word of beauty that encompasses multiple meanings; Justice and Honesty. Unprejudiced and free from Discrimination. Clear and Open. A sense of Rightness. Equitable. Unbiased. Reasonable. It also signals a bazaar, pageant, carnival.
On these pages, an exhibition of photographs, a gathering of writings, an exposition of ideas.
Fair winds as we set sail on the global internet seas.
2013 A year until the 100th anniversary of The First World War where young men were mowed down unmercifully. Where are we now? Whole environments and species are being destroyed. Did we learn anything from the horror of WW1? No mercy? No wisdom? No Compassion? No Empathy? What will guide us in a better direction?
FIGHT for OUR EARTH: For 2012 “It’s the Planet, stupid” Without a healthy planet there is no hope for a strong economy. Fight for our Mother, Earth … we are on this beautiful blue green jewel at the edge of the milky way in the unimaginable vastness of universe upon universe….why are we allowing the spread of Mordor, destruction and death in the Garden, our Eden?
FOCUS 2011: International Year of Forests. Native tradition calls trees ‘The Standing People’ and in their wisdom, trees are considered to be a species developmentally higher than humans. Trees are patient. Trees give so many gifts including clean air and water. They hold earth and sky together. Food, shelter, heat for birds and beasts as well as humans. If humans were as giving, beautiful and selfless as trees, we would all be living on a kinder and healthier peaceful planet.
http://www.un.org/en/events/iyof2011/index.shtml
FEATURED in 2010: Preventing and Healing ‘mauled’ lands. ‘The Geography of Nowhere’ by James Howard Kunstler is an excellent analysis of what is going wrong with our landscapes and by environmental influence therefore our lives. Stratford had to defend it’s own official plan amendment (OPA 10) at the Ontario Municipal Board from Avonwood (Wal-mart). Stratford City Council voted and approved this amendment which directed future commercial development to a three node structure that protects the downtown core. Avonwood wants to ignore democracy and impose their selfish narrow interest commercial development on the city. CHECK OUT THE NEW BLOG:
>http://ifyoulovestratford.blogspot.com
Featured in 2009: Caregiving; the giving of care; caring to give. We all have to become caregivers of the Earth and each other. View a clip of ‘A Fragile Tree has Roots’ on this website go to Workshops – Disarming Disability – scroll to the middle of the page.
Compassion and Care Giving
“… His hypnotic eyes (the lion’s) held me motionless in a prison of golden energy. Beams of charged light ricocheted between us increasing in strength until they appeared solid. I was held in thrall…” excerpt from ‘One Bone’ see under Writing and Poetry. The experience of being attacked by this magnificent being taught me that Mother Nature is compassionate. In this environmentally degraded era we must change our understanding of ‘nature in the raw’. ”Survival of the fittest” where the ‘fittest’ are violent, cruel and physically dominating is wrong; the ‘fittest’ are wise, giving, caring and … compassionate.
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Featured in 2008: This was the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War 1914 – 1918; ‘the war to end all war”. World War One is a clear example of the horror and utter futility of war. Developments in technology then and now provide increasingly effective tools of terror and killing. War on terror? War is terror.
Let us finally learn the lesson of the First World War.
Let the restless spirits of the soldiers who suffered, fought and died in ‘the great war’ finally rest.
Let us remember they fought “the war to end all war.”
Let the nightmare brutality of those bloody battles stand as a clear warning and plea to prevent future violent conflicts.
Let us fulfill the WW1 mandate “to end all war”.
The poppy is a symbol of war. It was first observed after battles of the Napoleonic War that previously barren land would suddenly blossom with blood red poppies after a battle. This is because dormant seeds are stirred to life after the tumult of violent conflict. Canadian Dr. John McCrea popularized this phenomenon in his famous World War One poem ‘In Flanders Fields’.
I photograph these miraculous flowers to see beyond the stereotypical view of poppies representing ‘violent addictions’ but instead as a hope for peace.
Maya Fair supports Creative Commons. Some rights are reserved including all commercial rights. Non-derivative and give credit, please.
