'From the Same Family - Video Still,' 1999, photo by Catherine Herrera - Flor de Miel Fotos 1999

There is so much talk about 2012.

2012 has long been on my mind. Well, since about 1999, to be exact.

I had a wonderful opportunity to learn about the Mayan calendar and met practitioners who shared the philosophy and history, and attempted to help me delve into a way of seeing the world that I had not known before. I stumbled around, and more learning, and over time, I came to better understand, again from those learned masters who had dedicated their lives, generations of their families, to understanding the cosmology of the Mayan people.

Recently, I learned from a visiting teacher from Guatemala even more.

I’ve known for many years that the world – nor the Mayan Calender – ends in 2012. I know that a period of time, a Baktun, is ending. So many people are making money off the doom and gloom predictions the master teacher lamented. In fact, it’s why the elders councils sent out people to share the information. Too much fear. The last thing we need is more fear.

What the teacher shared about this upcoming time captivated me. I found myself weeping silently to hear the time is coming when humanity will stretch itself to live to its highest ideals, and a different world will come. I found myself joyful to know that my child, and grandchildren, great-grandchildren and on, will live in a world working at a different human frequency. One that brings a lot more harmony, love and peaceful co-existence than at any other time.

Not a utopia, this coming era will require lots of hard work. Nor, is there precluded cataclysmic changes in our land, air and water. Changes will come. It is that change that will be required to make it to the next step. In fact, it already has. I think back to the mind-boggling shifts that already happened in these last 12 years.

The Mayan calendar – well, one of many – extends well into the year 4,000. So, we have a long way to go before things are ‘over.’

As we start the New Year, it’s a good time to put forth in energy the kind of world you hope this new change will bring. Consider it. In what ways would the world have to change to be able to bring you to tears of joy for your children and grandchildren?

'From the Same Family: An Intimate View of Globalization,' Video Still, 1999, Catherine Herrera and Flor de Miel Media 1999

Right now, Flor de Miel Media is making available for online viewing ‘World Walkers,’ a short film I made about 2012, following a ceremony and later, the ceremony’s leader, in an attempt to better understand what the change in 2012 is all about, and in the process, learn more about self-discovery. ‘World Walkers,’ is a short film that developed from the ‘Bridge Walkers’ Installation.

‘Bridge Walkers’ Installation will be exhibited at the de Young Museum in San Francisco in 2012. All proceeds from the ‘World Walkers’ programming will go towards supporting the ‘Bridge Walkers’ Installation. You can see watch for free the Bridge Walkers short documentary by following the Flor de Miel Media link. If you like what you see, please consider clicking on the Fractured Atlas link to make a tax-deductible donation in support of our programming.

Today, more than ever, artists are able to move ahead with the contributions of supporters like you!

Flor de Miel Media, 1999

I’ve also released my short film, From the Same Family, which can also be purchased today for online viewing today!

You can link to more work at www.flordemielfilms.com for additional free and paid programming! Sign up to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and to receive our periodic newsletters announcing upcoming exhibitions, releases and preferred client discounts!

I am working on two projects currently: ‘Open Doors,’ a new multi-media installation for exhibition in 2013, and, writing a script set in 3 different eras in California history. ‘Homebound by Sea,’ shares the story of one California Native American family and is being filmed on the beautiful Northern California coast in 2013.

THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT IN 2011! I have been so grateful for the ways the films and installations are reaching audiences and having an impact thanks to your sharing our work, and, for the financial contributions that makes media reflecting diverse experiences possible!

LOOKING FORWARD TO A GLORIOUSLY SUCCESSFUL 2012 FOR FLOR DE MIEL MEDIA, OUR CLIENTS, FRIENDS, SUPPORTERS AND INDEPENDENT MEDIA!

'Winter Skies #3, Near Coyote Hills, Fremont, December 2011, photo by Catherine Herrera - Flor de Miel Fotos 2011

This short documentary shares the history and cultural importance today of Sacred Shellmounds to the Ohlone people of San Francisco. Tribal elder Ann Marie Sayers, Sacred Sites Walk co-founder, Corrina Gould, and, artist L. Frank Manriquez offer a unique vantage to better understand efforts today to protect and preserve Sacred Sites. Collaborations between the Ohlone and local parks, museums, archeologists, and environmental stewards has led to increasing protection for these vital sites. Learn more at www.ohlonenation.org, www.indiancanyon.org, www.saveglencove.org.

Bridge Walkers Full Text,' 2011. Photo by Catherine Herrera

I recently returned from a screening of Bridge Walkers documentary which shares the history and importance of Sacred Sites to the Ohlone people of the Bay Area. It was a spectacular day! Warm and sunny, the largest gathering of Ohlone people in Northern California, is a wonderful opportunity to see dear friends, and, in the case of the screening, to finally share Bridge Walkers with elders, the community, and particularly, those who are in the film! The Bridge Walkers documentary grew out of the WIP Bridge Walkers Installation shown at the de Young Museum Cultural Encounters as part of the Olmec exhibit in March 2011. The film made possible the sharing of the history of the Sacred Sites and gave the elders and activists an opportunity to share in their own words the wishes of the community to preserve and protect Sacred Sites.

I was invited to speak at the end of October on a panel about Sacred Sites at the Earth Medicine Conference – Honoring Spirits of Place. There is a great group of people on the panel, and I feel honored to be able to participate. Find out more information here at the Earth Medicine Conference site.

Nitza Agam's Scent of Jasmine, Photography Catherine Herrera Flor de Miel Fotos 2011

This week, the book ‘Scent of Jasmine’ was completed. This beautiful story of love, loss and the search for self, written by Nitza Agam, journeys through historical and present-day Isreal and the United States to tell a story about a woman thrust onto a path of self-discovery after her fiance is killed in the war. I was invited to collaborate with the author on the cover photo for the book. Here is the galley proof of the book, ‘Scent of Jasmine.’

I really enjoyed collaborating on the book cover, and I welcome projects of this type. It was a blast creating the essence of the story in photo, and capturing the spirit of the author’s vision for the book and the story. Contact me if you are interested in collaborating. I also produce Author Videos!

Lastly, take a look at my photos from the start of Fleet Week as published on All Voices at www.allvoices.com/FDMNews!

Delivering Happiness

I’ve written before about how I experienced business school, which, outside of the Entrepreneur Program, pretty much felt foreign, and I, but an alien inside.

Yet, I didn’t understand why.

I love business, how it brings together people, regardless of anything, for a good product. A need fulfilled.

Some people might say I am anti-capitalist because I think our world has suffered by a balance sheet that doesn’t take into account so many aspects of life not measured in dollars. Not measured, not that it can’t be measured.

As a young woman listening to my grandfather and great grandfather talk over dinner about business, I found the authority by which they spoke exciting and exhilarating. Later, with courage, I found myself one night over dinner asking ‘why?’ when I heard something that kinda shocked me. Some executive decision had to be made, and it was going to hurt a lot of people’s livelihoods. I asked why it wasn’t possible to take a different approach, maybe looking more long term, that didn’t require one side to lose while one side won, because somehow, it seemed everyone ultimately lost.

They laughed. Now, I understand why. It was a very naive question, but it was heart felt.

Later, when I was in business school, I felt proud to talk at the table about business now – I had been able to show I could do it too. I had shown and proven that I had gotten over my emotions and left behind the childish caring, that I had become a bonafide business woman.

When I went to law school, I was even more proud, because I had learned how to remove emotion from the conversation, to have an objective, fact-based discussion.

I had been refined from my emotional self, and embraced the ‘real world.’

Yet, I found myself having more and more uncomfortable dinner conversations, now, with professional colleagues, and I figured, either I was to shut up or start searching for whatever it was that kept propelling me to believe that business itself could be more than what the ‘real world’ said it could be.

Obviously, art and film turned out to be the way forward for me, and, I’ve continued to grapple with business as an owner. Over the last year, through meditation to heal a nerve injury in my right arm, I have grown to see how my own understanding of business was narrow, so I’ve looked to mediation on my business as an important tool to increasing sustainability.

About six years ago, I recognized that my professional life had become so removed from this ‘emotional’ part of me that I had to find a way to incorporate more heart into the assignments I accepted as an artist, photography and filmmaker. My recent installation Bridge Walkers is the latest of the Flor de Miel – Sweet Entertainment projects completed.

I spend time each year reviewing and considering the business plan for Flor de Miel Media, what is working, what is not, setting goals down for the upcoming year.

This year, I am taking an even deeper look and working with coaches to move beyond my limitations.

Last night, as I was shifting through numbers, an interview with Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, on Stephan Colbert’s program caught my eye. (watch it here.)

Tony was speaking about Happiness. Yep, a CEO.

Happiness is something Tony and his team built into the Zappo’s brand.

What was so inspiring for me about Tony Hsieh is that he turned his vision into a business model that is now a New York Times #1 Best Selling book, Delivering Happiness.  There is a website where you can order the book and take a look to learn more.

I was inspired to add Happiness into my business review this year. How happy are my Clients with the work I produce for them, how happy are my employees?

Thinking of my most recent assignment, a book cover, I am happy to say everyone was happy with the process and results. I sent the final Lightbox to the client this morning, and she was sending it along to the editor for a final selection.

Not to say, money is not important. A company must still fulfill a customer need, compensated with money in exchange. We all need it to eat.

Right, the real world.

Well, Delivering Happiness asks why we can’t have both. Why did these things have to be mutually exclusive? As Stephan poses, does business have to cause suffering? If so, why?

How much happiness can the business community generate?

What other benefits can we reap? Some benefits might even be down right economic.

Consider this example. Great company, Canon, from whom I purchased the Canon Prisma MX340. Its been wonderful in every way as a printer and scanner. When problems started two weeks ago, I called Canon, we did a tech check, and then, seeing the machine was broken, I was told Canon would be sending out a free exchange as part of the warranty I purchased. Happy, Happy.

Canon sends the replacement to UPS. I called UPS because I’ve had problems with UPS once before, about needing to call me since I do not have a working buzzer. (Yeah, the landlord’s been called, and called, can called – no happiness). I tell UPS I do not have a working buzzer. Next day, they send out a driver 2x, who doesn’t call, but rings the non working buzzer. No answer. UPS ships the 26 pound printer back to Canon, even though I call to ask them to please not send it back and to please try again by calling when they deliver, but to no rational avail. Unhappiness for me, for Canon. Do you think UPS has followed up on the email? How much time have I spent now on this? How much lost work time? How much wasted gas? Lots of Unhappiness.

No more UPS for me.

So, I decided to learn more about this Delivering Happiness business model. Below is a video with Tony Hsieh, explaining a bit more about the business model philosophy. I look forward to reading the book.

Perhaps Happiness can be a new business model, and a wave of happiness will swim back the tidal overflow of complaints in recent years about the challenge of getting good customer service overall, and even, at the level one would not expect, in trusted institutions.

I wonder how many people consider how those many conversations add up, steal time, and really add up in other ways.

Of course, it’s not all about always making the customer right, it’s about adding in the elements to the balance sheet that are left out.

And, honestly, what is the harm in that,? asks the young girl at the dinner table?

I was taught that when I add a shell to a necklace I am making, whether for myself or someone else, it is a prayer. Ever since my work began with the de Young, having the opportunity and space to work over time, slowly depending on my physical limitations, for the first time, I was able to see my work as a filmmaker in the same way. Each finished work, a shell of prayer for greater understanding, which is ultimately my goal as an artist, to dialogue within, and facilitate conversation in community.

In working on Bridge Walkers, I brought together many shells, some were from Mexico, others from right here at home in California. I am deeply grateful to those people who gifted me shells on this journey, bringing forth this work is as much your prayer for good as my own.

I do pray Bridge Walkers can do some good.

Below is the 20 min. WIP Bridge Walkers Short Documentary, for medium download speeds. You will find following a low band with version to facilitate viewing at a range of speeds.

Not interested in 20 minutes? How about 10 minutes? Click here to view a 10 min. Bridge Walkers sample on YouTube.

Like what you see? Please consider making a tax-deductible donation by clicking on the Fractured Atlas button on the right. Donations will fund a sound sweetening and color correction session to prepare Bridge Walkers for a broader distribution.

Please support Indian People Organizing for Change, Indian Canyon and the work of Ohlone people across the regions of the Bay Area as Ohlone preservation and cultural revitalization efforts are going on throughout the Bay Area.

Thank you!

Editing continues as I try to negotiate with Mercury Retrograde to tighten the sound, fix color on the short film and compress for sharing.

As soon as its ready and out of the oven, I will post it here.

Apologies to those who have left messages, sent emails, I will be in touch soon. Back to editing!

I learned so much through the process, and I am deeply grateful to those supporters, and the de Young Museum, for guiding, and helping me grow as an artist. I hope the reward will be an enjoyable second installation for the audience and, as some have mentioned, perhaps the Bridge Walkers Installation can travel to share more about Sacred Sites, the Ohlone and California.

The Bridge Walkers Installation has ambient sound, and the sounds of 3 different video monitors – the goal to create a symphony that will in the end, audibly lead the viewer through the four directions in which each piece of the installation is set – so that in the process of viewing, the audience are in fact participating in a creative and spiritual circle. The East is occupied by a Shellmound replica.

I have been back in the editing room, and 3 weeks ago, realized, wait, what was tripping me up a bit were the interviews, in a good way. The two interviews with Ann Marie Sayers, Mutsun Ohlone, and Corrina Gould, Chochenyo Ohlone, offer so much information about Shellmounds, and why the Ohlone work so tirelessly to preserve these ancient sites. I have created a short Bridge Walkers documentary that shares these interviews. I will be posting a WIP cut of the short Bridge Walkers documentary.

Here is a short, 1- minute trailer for Bridge Walkers.

BRIDGE WALKERS DOCUMENTARY

The short Bridge Walkers documentary shares important information about Ohlone Shellmounds, and current efforts by local Ohlone people and supporters to preserve sacred sites. I will post the video here as soon as it is ready.

What has been amazing in working on the Bridge Walkers project is learning about all the Ohlone Sacred Sites right here in the San Francisco and Bay Region that are currently being developed upon or facing development.

This week, in California, the City of Vallejo is threatening to trample upon a 3,500 year old site. Ironically, this particular site in Vallejo is already located within a park. Instead of leaving the space undisturbed, the City of Vallejo has decided to ‘build’ trails over the site. As if the Bay Area were lacking in emergency trails that just haaaave to be made today!

Its frankly very sad that, after years of Ohlone and supporters seeking a resolution with the City of Vallejo, the local government has decided to take a Stand, adding portable toilets on top of the sacred Vallejo Ohlone site as if to add insult to injury.

I pray the Bridge Walkers short can illuminate a larger audience as to the issues that such Sacred Sites represent. Often, the media will portray Native people as Protesters, with little time to cover the incredibly long history involved in and leading up to a ‘protest.’

In fact, the Ohlone have been incredibly peaceful in their protests and have tried hard to educate, and provide the missing information so good people can understand each other.

After all, the Shellmound Peace Walks started several years ago are designed to educate the larger public about these sites, and to correct misinformation about Shellmounds, and their purpose for Ohlone people.

As Corrina Gould, c0-founder of the Shellmound Walk states in the Bridge Walkers documentary, ‘we don’t go into other people’s cemeteries, and people should stop digging up our ancestors just for things to move forward.’

I hope to have the WIP cut up by tomorrow to serve the community by providing a different perspective on this important topic, so that positive, knowledgeable, and skillful discussions can be had between the Ohlone/Sacred Site Protection Community and the City of Vallejo.

Honestly, with a park, there are probably, oh, about a hundred different ways this can be resolved positively.

As Ann Marie Sayers explains in the Bridge Walkers documentary, ‘with communication, a beautiful sharing can be had that benefits education, preservation, and, respecting the original peoples.’