Seven veils.

Seven veils., originally uploaded by kaliji.

One of the best perks about working in a library, especially a collegiate library, is book discards. When books are decommisioned only staff are allowed to take them. I wonder what happens to the ones I don't ferret away in my desk and are left unclaimed. Most of the books are old and would be great for altering, but I haven't gotten around to trying my hand at altered books yet. I jump on anything written in another language or that has great pictures. When I saw a copy of Mata Hari with magestic black and white images I was barely able to contain myself. The image on the left is an experiment in gel medium transfers of one of the plates in Mata Hari.  It is my favorite image in the book with the woman's royal stance and her stomach protruding proudly. What I love about belly dancing is that it looks best with a little "jelly"--otherwise there is not much to undulate. This page is about loving and accepting your body. Most of us have jiggly parts, stretchmarks, and cellulite in a milieu where the natural female form is no longer considered beautiful and augmentation is commonplace. Corporations make billions from making us hate ourselves and we tend to buy the hype and in turn their products that promise to make us worthy and happy with our bodies. No product can do this but we can. If we spent half the energy turned inward in self-criticism and turned it outward, towards advancing the causes of women, we could affect real change.

xo Lara