Author: Alicia Bay Laurel

Alicia’s Posters! Buy one, get one free, until April 22nd, 2024.

Posted on by in Art by Alicia Bay Laurel, Blog, Shop, Swag and tagged , , , .

“I have always loved your visions. Your wonderful utopian imagery changed the perceptions of an entire generation.”

Author/Journalist Alastair Gordon
Visiting Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design, Contributing editor at WSJ Magazine, Architecture Critic at Miami Herald, Distinguished Fellow at Miami Beach Urban Studio

Movie poster for Alicia’s 2021 film, Living on the Earth: The Musical, which is her live performance on November 13, 2016 of her storytelling/music show by the same name. You can view the movie here.



2024 New Year Poster, which is Alicia’s vision of an oncoming year, including the astrological signs and ancient Celtic holy days, plus a prayer for peace.


Woman/cat/plant illustration, part of a series of possible drawings for the cover of the 2010 novel, Another World, by beloved Japanese novelist, Yoshimoto Banana


Raw Food Recipes from the Tropics page from Winter 1975 CoEvolution Quarterly



“Behold the world with compassion, transforming darkness into light.” Also known as Peace Girl.
Possible cover for her upcoming book, How to Make Peace.


Herb and spice chart from Living on the Earth



Living on the Earth 2000 Road Tour Poster, a 8 month journey during which Alicia drove coast to coast in the USA doing 75 performances of her story/song one-woman show, Living on the Earth: The Musical




2021 Single Page Calendar, originally published by Alicia as a 1971 calendar, just before the Bookworks 1970 first edition of Living on the Earth was published.



Herb and spice chart from French edition of Living on the Earth (Vivre sur la Terre), published in 2022 by Editions Ulmer in Paris.



The in-store special for the month of Aries (March 21 to April 22) at the Indigo with Stars online store:
Buy one poster, get one free (the same poster or two different posters).
There are nine of them.

Lovingly packaged and shipped in a protective triangular mailing tube.

Please see https://indigowithstars.com/collections/alicia-bay-laurel-art-prints for more details about the posters, including their sizes, and to purchase the posters.

Free kittens to good homes

Posted on by in Art by Alicia Bay Laurel, Shop.

March 1 to March 21 – it’s almost springtime, and I am giving away free kittens to good homes.

If you come to my online store and add this poster (in the art prints section), plus anything else you like, totaling $25 or more, to your cart, you get this 13″ x 18″ Woman, Cat, Plant poster for free.

This drawing was one of a series that I drew as possible covers for the novel Another World by beloved Japanese author, Yoshimoto Banana. Two other drawings in the series were chosen as the covers for the hardcover and paperback editions, so I was free to make this one into an art print.

If you’d like it signed, please note this at check-out.

Namasté!

Ginger and Pau D’Arco Tea

Posted on by in Recipes and tagged , , .

It’s getting chilly here in the desert – low of 29 degrees F tonight, high of 55 F tomorrow. Lots of colds and flu going around, these days. So, an immunity-boosting, warming cup of herb tea is called for.

This one is pretty simple: Obtain some fresh ginger root, preferably organically grown, rinse well to clean it, and cut it into small pieces. Don’t peel it, but do remove any parts that are damaged. Place three tablespoonsful of diced ginger in a stainless steel or ceramic pot, add a quart of pure water, and bring the water to a boil. Then remove the pot from the heat and add a tablespoonful of pau d’arco bark. Let it steep, covered, for 30 minutes, and then strain the tea into a teapot or mugs. Optionally sweeten to taste with stevia extract, honey or your sweetener of choice.

Baked Apples Stuffed with Cranberry Sauce, Cinnamon and Raisins

Posted on by in Recipes and tagged , , , .

While this fragrant and flavorful dessert needs no excuse appear on your menu, if you are in the USA, the weekend after Thanksgiving is an ideal time to make it, to use up whatever cranberry side dish you might have left over. This particular batch was made with the last of the Cranberry Relish á la Persephone that I had concocted on November 22, 2023.

Step One: Line a baking pan (or a cast iron skillet) with baking parchment. Wash and dry some sound (firm and unbruised) organically raised apples, core them, and place them on the parchment. Figure one small apple for each two tablespoonsful of cranberry sauce, relish, etc. that you have on hand. If you will be baking big apples, figure 3 tablespoonsful per apple.

Then pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.





Step Two: Make the filling and fill the apples. The amount of sweetner depends on what sort of cranberry side dish you are using. If it’s a cranberry sauce that is already sweetened, you might not need to add any sweetner at all. The trick is to balance the natural sourness of the cranberries with enough sweetness to make a satisfying dessert. In the case of my cranberry relish, made with cooked whole cranberries, I kept mixing in half-droppers-full of stevia liquid extract until the sweet/sour balance was pleasing to my palate. You might prefer using another sweetner – say, maple syrup, honey, brown sugar, agave syrup or monk fruit.

Then I add raisins and powdered cinnamon (also to taste), and let the mixture rest so the cinnamon and raisins soak up some of the liquid.

Then I use a narrow spoon to transport the filling into the cores of the apples, pushing it down as I fill.




Step 3: Bake the apples. First trim the excess baking parchment, so that it does not stand above the sides of the baking dish.

Bake until the apples are soft enough that you can easily insert a fork.


Step 4: Cool the apples (at least to the point that no one will burn themselves taking the first bite!) Fresh from the oven is when they are the most fragrant, but they are also delicious at room temperature, and can be accompanied by scoop of vanilla ice cream, a whipped cream topping, or a glass of eggnog.




Step 5: Serve the apples. The sweet, spicy syrup generated in the bottom of the pan during baking can be drizzled over the apples once they are plated.




What’s new in winter 2023-2024 at the Indigo with Stars online store?

Posted on by in Blog, Shop and tagged , , , .

Behold: the latest offerings in our cache of gifts for the bohemians, wiccans, peaceniks, nature worshippers, ferals, wizards, neo-hippies, avant-jazz fans, and utopian preppers in your life.


We’re open 24/7 at the Indigo with Stars online store. The easiest way to find what interests you in the store is to click on “Shop by Category.” For customer service, please go to https://aliciabaylaurel.com and click on “Contact.”


From now through January 6th, we are offering your choice of 15 free gifts if you spend more than $15 in the store. Also, Alicia will personally inscribe books upon request at checkout.

First of all, we are pleased to be offering LOVE CRY WANT, the new vinyl LP version of a recording made at an anti-war rally in Washington DC in 1972, featuring the band of the same name, with liner notes and cover graphics by Alicia Bay Laurel, who enjoyed collaborating on this project with her partner, Joe Gallivan, a band member of Love Cry Want.



A giant-sized print on stretched canvas of one of the nine drawings Alicia created as possible covers for Yoshimoto Banana’s novel, Another World. Several of this print were recently sold at a duo exhibition of Alicia’s drawings along with ceramics by Yoko Hijioka at Sison Gallery in Shibuya, Tokyo. (photo above)


Inspired by the recent posting of scans all of the pages of the Whole Earth Catalog and its related publications at https://wholeearth.info, Alicia created a print-on-demand poster of her opening illustration for her article in The CoEvolution Quarterly from Winter 1975.




We’ve only got a precious few of these books containing Michael Fleck’s astonishing script blending Shakespeare’s masterpiece with the modern drama of real estate developers versus environmental activists and Hawaiian native resistence, lavishly staged as a theatrical production in 1977, and now an artifact of counterculture history in the Hawaiian Islands.





We found a small stack of the late artist Stefanie Farago‘s wonderful bumper stickers and thought we would offer them here – while supplies last!






And finally, we now have the organic cotton Living on the Earth t-shirt available in not only size XL, but also in a size XXL.

This cheerful man is James Cook Loomis, mathematician, athlete, author, activist, musician, father, friend, lover and denizen of Maui. He played Gonzalo in Michael Fleck’s version of The Tempest.





Winter Solstice Season Gifting

Posted on by in Blog, Shop, Swag and tagged , , , .



For the past dozen years, I’ve have an online store from which I offer my books, art prints, musical recordings and clothing printed with my drawings. I carry five of Joe Gallivan’s avant-jazz recordings and his swag as well.

I’ve never done a Black Friday-Cyber Monday sale, but, now that I have my merchandise in my house again (after 6 hair-raising years of keeping my illustrated books and other fragile merchandise in fulfillment warehouses while I traveled abroad), I decided to try this.

I’m calling it my Winter Solstice Season Gifting, and it will last from now until January 6th.

So, if you buy any combination of merch that totals $15 or more at https://indigowithstars.com, I’ll gift you with your choice of one of 15 gifts from my online store.

Here are your choices:

My rave-reviewed jazz and blues CD, What Living’s All About, optionally inscribed with silver ink (you can message me with names of recipients).



The generously sized (14″ x 23″) Living on the Earth 2000 Tour poster – printed on thick, earth-toned 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper with dark brown vegetable-based ink. Happy to inscribe this as well, upon request.



An mp3 digital download of all the tracks of any of my 8 albums (the whole albums are the first 8 items on this page. Everything else is single track downloads).

I’m also offering downloads of the 5 amazing Joe Gallivan avant-jazz recordings in my store.



Applicable postage, taxes and/or import duty will be charged for the two physical items (no postage for digital downloads 🙂)

I’ve got an automation set up in my store so that, if you have at least $15 worth of merchandise in your cart, as well as one of the 15 gifts, the price of the gift will be deducted at check-out.


Sending Sparkling Solstice Blessings to You,

Alicia

SISON GALLERy Joint Exhibition – Drawings by Alicia Bay Laurel and Ceramics by Yoko Hijioka

Posted on by in Art Exhibition, Blog and tagged , , , , .


The joint exhibition of my drawings and the beautiful ceramic vessels of Yoko Hijioka at SISON GALLERy in Daikanyama, Shibuya, Tokyo has just opened!

Here is the page on SISON GALLERy’s website about the show.

Fabulous fashion designer and artist Aya Noguchi, the owner and director of SISON GALLERy, kindly took these photos sent them to me!

If you are in Japan, please come and see our show!

The address of SISON GALLERy is:

3-18 Sarugaku-cho
Shibuya-ku
Tokyo
150-0033

Here is a link to the SISON GALLERy Facebook page.

This slip-cast ceramic Hanukkah menorah was designed by my late mother,Verna Lebow Norman. After she passed on, I found ten bisque fired and unglazed copies of the menorah on the shelves next to her kiln, plus a big container of shiny white glaze.

Thanks to my friend since infancy, Benida Solow, who is also a ceramic artist with a kiln at home, I was able to glaze all of the menorahs white, and then illustrate them with overglaze paint – each one is unique.

The menorah depicts a Jewish family – left to right: mother holding baby, grandfather, father, grandmother, little girl and little boy. My mother designed and had the brass wine goblet-shaped candle holders made for her menorahs.

On the wall behind is a framed original page layout from Living on the Earth, surrounded by a white mat board that I illustrated with line drawings. Yuji Kamioka, a wood craftsman, made one-of-a-kind driftwood frames for the Living on the Earth page layouts.


A drawing I made for the cover of the program notes for an elaborate “new age” production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest staged on Maui, Hawaii in 1976. It was also silk screen printed onto the cast’s t-shirts.

In 1978, when Michael Fleck’s marvelous script was published as a book, I made a color overlay for the drawing to print on the book cover, and about a dozen ink line illustrations interspersed with the text of the play.

The nude woman standing in water is an ink line drawing I made in the 1970s.

Here’s the book cover.




Inside SISON GALLERy, tables full of elegant ceramic vessels made by Yoko Hijioka, all watched over by one of the nine cats I drew as possible covers for Yoshimoto Banana’s novel Another World. This cat did not make the book cover, but artist Kei Tsunoda requested a giant canvas print of it from me a few years ago, and I decided to produce more of them.


Here is the hardcover edition of Another World:

And here is the paperback edition:




Quite a few of the original (created in 1969 and 1970 at Wheeler Ranch commune in northern California) hand-lettered page layouts with drawings from Living on the Earth are also hanging in the show, in custom driftwood frames created by craftsman Yuji Kamioka. In preparation for the first of the exhibitions of these works in Japan, in 2008, I illustrated a number of white matboards to add visual richness to the frames and the original works.


The Whole Earth Catalog’s publications are now available online

Posted on by in Blog, Living on the Earth book.

The Whole Earth Catalog’s first review of Living on the Earth, in its Fall 1970 edition, on page 18.
https://wholeearth.info/p/whole-earth-catalog-fall-1970

A four-page raw food recipe article in the Winter 1975 issue of Co-Evolution Quarterly.



Everything ever published by the Whole Earth Catalog’s extended family is scanned and posted here: https://wholeearth.info/

Alicia Bay Laurel and Yoko Hijioka joint art exhibition at SISON GALLERy

Posted on by in Art Exhibition and tagged , , .

Ceramics by Yoko Hijioka with Drawings & Paintings by Alicia Bay Laurel

(Text in English and in Japanese)

Joint exhibition at Aya Noguchi’s SISON GALLERy, in Daikanyama, Shibuya, Tokyo. November 10 ~ 19, 2023 (closed on Tuesday)

Yoko Hijioka, a potter in Kagoshima, Japan, creates pottery with a texture that blends with nature, sometimes using a gold paint that shines softly, and warm white pieces that showcase her gentle and warm personality.

Alicia Bay Laurel is an artist who wrote, illustrated and designed Living on the Earth, a guide to living with nature in a hippie commune, which was first published in 1970, and which has had a worldwide readership. She continues to advocate an organic lifestyle, and to share her ideas through art and music. SISON GALLERy held a solo exhibition of her work in 2018.

“I came across Alicia’s book, Living on the Earth, when I was beginning to create vessels. I was raised in the city, and the world of Alicia’s book seemed like a fairy tale to me. However, it inspired a yearning to make things by hand that would be part of my daily life, which led me to create ceramic dishes. I am very honored to be exhibiting with Alicia.” Yoko Hijioka

“I would like to thank Aya Noguchi for inviting me to present a two-person exhibition with ceramic artist Yoko Hijioka at SISON GALLERy. I really wish I could come to Japan to be with my beloved friends there, but my partner needs care, and I will not be able to go. All of you, please accept my best wishes for a wonderful winter season!”

Alicia Bay Laurel

“I have been a big fan and friend of Alicia for 20 years, and Yoko Hijioka is a favorite of mine. I felt that their underlying thoughts and the texture of their work resonate beautifully with each other. This is also the first joint exhibition of two artists at SISON GALLERy.” Aya Noguchi, SISON GALLERy

We hope you will take this precious opportunity to visit our gallery.

We look forward to welcoming you.

Aya Noguchi
SISON GALLERy


鹿児島で作陶する比地岡陽子さんは、自然に溶け込むような質感、時折鈍く光る金彩使い、温かみのある白い作品など、比地岡さんのやさしくあたたかな人柄が感じられる器を作っています。

アリシアベイローレルは、ヒッピーコミューンでの生活の中で自然とともに生きる指南書「地球の上に生きる」（Living On The Earth）を1970年に出版、世界中に愛読者を持つアーティスト。オーガニックライフを提唱する姿勢は現在も変わらず、アートや音楽でその思想を伝え続けています。

シソンギャラリーでは、2018年に個展を開催しています。

「器を創る側になり始めた頃に出会ったアリシアの本「地球の上に生きる」。都会育ちの私には、おとぎ話の世界に思えたその世界観。以来憧れを秘めながら、日々の暮らしに寄り添う器を作りたいという、今の思いにつながっていると思います。この度、ご一緒できることをとても光栄に思っています。」

比地岡陽子

「シソンギャラリーでの陶芸家の比地岡陽子さんとの2人展を開催できること、皆様に感謝します。本当は日本に来て皆さんとご一緒したいのですが、パートナーの看病で日本に行けません。どうか皆様にとって、素敵な冬の季節となりますように！」

アリシア・ベイ・ローレル

「20年来のファンであり友人であるアリシアと、普段から愛用している器作家の比地岡さん、このお2人の作品作りの根底にある思いや作品の質感などが美しく共鳴しあうと感じて、今回の展示開催の運びとなりました。また、今回はシソンギャラリー初の2人展（合同展）となります。」

シソンギャラリー　野口アヤ

今回の貴重なこの機会にぜひお運びくださいませ。

皆様のお越しをお待ちしております。*

Warm and Vivid Autumnal Soup

Posted on by in Recipes and tagged , , .

I took a day off from setting up my online store, and made an vivid and warm autumnal soup.

Then, I poured some into a bowl and took this photo, with two indigenous folk art spoons from the town of Pasto in the southern central Andes in Colombia. I bought them as a gift for my mother in 1972, who displayed them on the wall of her dining room until she transitioned in 2007, after which they resumed their duties, watching over the dining rooms I have used since then.

This recipe was improvised as I went, but inspired by recipes I had tried previously. I am fortunate to live where I can easily obtain organically grown ingredients, and I used them here exclusively.

I soaked a cup of red lentils overnight in four cups of purified water. The next day I rinsed off the white foam they had produced, placed them in a large pot and added water that stood twice as high as the lentils. I brought them to a boil, then removed the lid of the pot and turned the flame down to the minimum, and kept them simmering, stirring occasionally until the lentils were cooked soft. When the water was about to get low enough that the lentils might stick to the pot, I added a can of coconut cream, and stirred it frequently while it simmered another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, I sliced and seeded a small butternut squash and steamed the pieces until they were soft. When they were cool enough to handle, I scooped the cooked squash out of the skins and into the jar of the food processor/high speed blender. I added a cup of the water from steaming the squash, and liquified them.

Then I blended the lentil/coconut cream mixture and a small can of tomato paste into the squash puree.

Finally, I chopped small and sauteed in coconut oil at low heat three cloves of garlic and a half of a red onion. While they were softening and releasing their aromas, I added two teaspoons of cumin seed powder, a teaspoon of a good-smelling masala blend, and two teaspoons of powdered tumeric root. When it was all fragrant and soft, I added the entire contents of the sautee pan to the rest of the ingredients in the food processor, and blended it until it was smooth.