kimi eisele

Every year I participate in Tucson’s All Souls’ Procession, a community event commemorating life and death. Organized by artists and arts organization, this event gives me (and others) the opportunity to express gratitude for what I have, let go of things that no longer serve me, honor those who came before me, remember and pay homage to my losses, and commune with the past and present. I view the creation of my costume or contribution as a spiritual act and a creative challenge.

Here are some of my contributions over the years:

Hold My Heart (with Movement Salon), 2009

In the fall of 2009, my dear friend and mentor Katherine Ferrier had a minor stroke caused by a congenital hole in her heart. She underwent a hi-tech laser surgery and healed up good and quick, just in time for a visit to Tucson to work with Movement Salon. Her stay here coincided with the Procession. A lot of heart power was going on then–Jen and JC were about to be married, Amanda was newly in love and was soon to move to Portland to be with Jeff, and I was, well…my heart was broken. So it seemed fitting to commemorate the heart…the organ that keeps us alive and in love. What a lovely thing it was to build it and carry it among so many people.

 

 

 

Bee Remembered, 2008

This was the year of the honeybee for me. Part of the courtship process for me and a sweetie was learning how to work with bees. I became enamored with them and wanted to pay tribute to their industriousness and their mystery as well as to commemorate the loss of so many honeybees in the misunderstood colony collapses. I made a bee bonnet and processed with Brad Lancaster. We gave out honey to processors. The project was so successful that I expanded the idea and took it to Burning Man. I made a bee bike and perfected the honey dispensing system with the help of my friend and artist, Janet K. Miller, who engraved over 100 spoons, which I then hung from a spinning spoon rack I made with bike parts and welding assistance from BICAS community bike co-op.

 

Persephone, 2007

I was really into pomegranates, which come into season in the fall in the desert. So it was natural to explore the story of Persephone, the Greek goddess of the Underworld. The story goes that Hades abducted Persephone to the Underworld, which outraged her parents, Demeter and Zeus. Demeter made the earth dark and barren in protest. Eventually Hades had to release her, but before doing so, he made her eat pomegranate seeds, thus sealing her fate to return underground for part of the year. The story explains the seasons. When Persephone was released, Demeter restored life and color to the earth. Upon her return to the underworld, the world again becomes barren. Cycles, seasons. Life, death. I made my own Persephone goddess. She had glowing, open heart (fashioned from a split pomegranate).

Jizo, 2006
This year I went as the “Last Barrel of Oil.” I wore a black vinyl dress and pulled an oil barrel on a bike trailer. I don’t have any photos of it. More significantly, though, I wanted to mark the miscarriage I had that September. I contributed this to the “Ancestors’ Project,” a multimedia installation of images of people’s ancestors and deceased loved ones, shown during the Procession. The Jizo bodhisattva, in Japanese Buddism, is the protector of deceased children, including miscarried, aborted or stillborn infants. He is said to keep these young ones safe, hiding them in his ropes and keeping the demons from them.

 

 

Hovering Carrion (2004)

Ian Johnson and I made ravens and vultures out of paper mache. We lit their eyes with red LED lights. Using frame backs and someone’s old baby backpack, we rigged up a way for them to circle above us.

Yemaya, 2001

This is the first year I really participated in the Procession. I was still having a love affair with Cuba and Cuban music and wanted to commemorate the water, so I chose the Yorbuan/Cuban diety, Yemaya, the goddess of the ocean. I found a dress at Saver’s and altered the back with silver string and over 50 grommets. Fishes and shells and seaweed hung from my white gloves. Kephart Taiz helped me make the headdress of molded leather and Catherine Eyde did my amazing make-up.