NOMADIC SONGLINES
Chloe Garcia Ponce
"I am a curandera, a nomad at heart, traveling, dreaming, and painting my reality."
A woman of knowledge; if trained in traditional Native ways and serving her native community, a medicine woman. Chloe's multicultural upbringing shaped her life and Nomadic Songlines, her healing practice.
I met Chloe a long time ago through my best friend, and her energy was contagious and warm right away.
A creative spirit, deeply intuitive. I felt she got me immediately, and she talked about things most people do not talk about when they first meet you. That is rare, and it tells you everything about how she moves through the world.
Over the years I have watched her develop her creative life into a spiritual one, and manage to do it with a somewhat nomadic life: born in Mexico, raised in Geneva and Paris where her father was the Mexican ambassador, then New York when he was appointed to the UN. NYU for painting, intaglio printing, and French, Italian, and Latin American literature. Sotheby's Latin American department, fashion with Tracy Feith, buying for Matta. Travel was never a hobby for her; it was the first language she learned. Her practice as a curandera, and her journal Nomadic Songlines, are where all those roads finally meet.
Leila
"We are born with a dream and a song. The paths are recorded through stories, dance, painting and music. Songlines, called dream tracks, are invisible pathways across the land and sky; they connect communities to a sacred land. The songs must be sung to keep the land alive, passing the secrets of the past. Our ancestors wandered over the continent singing the name of everything they crossed, plants, birds, animals, water, and rocks, singing the world into creation. A nomad is a person moving from one place to another, finding his songline, his dream track. Nomadic Songlines is a place to share music, art, journeys of wisdom and healing from all over the world."
Chloe Garcia Ponce · nomadicsonglines.comArt runs through the family like a current. Both her uncles were part of the Ruptura movement in Mexico City: Fernando García Ponce, a painter among those breaking away from the Muralists, and Juan García Ponce, the celebrated writer who belonged to the same circle as Gabriel García Márquez. Chloe herself has met an almost surreal roll call of masters: Leonora Carrington, Octavio Paz, Gabriel García Márquez, Rufino Tamayo, Francisco Toledo, Álvarez Bravo.
The family thread extends to Haiti, where her relatives run the wonderful Galerie Monnin, one of the island's great art houses. Mexico and Haiti: the two countries André Breton declared naturally surreal, both of them home.
Why did you start Nomadic Songlines?
I started Nomadic Songlines as a journal, to digest all the beautiful things that I was witnessing. I wanted to share these beautiful treasures with people. My love for travel, meeting beautiful souls with so much talent and art, kept me inspired. I nurture my soul this way; I wanted to share a little bit of magic with whoever wanted to experience it.
I am still the buyer for Matta, traveling and bringing pieces back to sell to the store, incorporating them with Cristina Gitti's beautiful collection. I usually have trunk shows in my house after I come back from my travels, sharing my unique finds with friends. My passion for textiles and color has transcended from my painting background. I am a nomad at heart, traveling, connecting with the magic of the world. I love to discover the mystery of different civilizations, and remembering their wisdom and knowledge.
Greatest inspirations?
The person that has inspired me the most in my life is my Grandmother Hazel. She was Cherokee, and she taught me everything about my connection with the Earth and her medicine. I have been studying plants for the past five years, making oils, salves, tinctures, understanding their healing properties. Hopefully one day I will come out with my own brand of remedies! I am a work in progress, following my heart, living by my truth, honoring life's beauty.
Favorite artists?
Frida Kahlo, Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo: strong female artists that have touched me tremendously. My favorite period in art is Surrealism. André Breton wrote the Surrealist manifesto and declared Mexico and Haiti the only two countries that were naturally surreal.
Favorite authors?
Gabriel García Márquez, I love magical surrealism, as well as Italo Calvino and Isabel Allende. Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha changed my life. I read it when I was 13 years old, along with Khalil Gibran's The Prophet.
Music?
Keith Jarrett and Pat Metheny.
Where do you love to go in New York?
These are the places that inspire me in New York.
Favorite blogs and sites?
My friend Anouchka Blatnik has an amazing blog called Vision of Splendor, which I follow and love, as well as Mysticmamma.
"Words I live by: be kind and compassionate with yourself and others."Chloe Garcia Ponce
Listen: Chloe in conversation, on Spotify
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