If the system is broken, we should throw it away and try a new one, right? But what if systems are meant to be broken because breaking is always happening? The breakdown of structures redistributes their energy and materials, making these available for the growth of new bodies and behaviors. Let’s compost our system.

When I was little, I dreamed about receiving a mysterious box in the mail full of silky ribbons, lace and dresses. In my memory, the scene is something like the moment in A Little Princess where the main character comes back to her attic garret and finds it transformed into an rhapsody of oriental carpets and silk. Such spontaneous emanations of pleasure can wake us up to whole new realms of possibility. 

I was recently asked to participated in the “Plus/minus 2020” virtual exhibition hosted by Artilade Magazine! In which I did a livestream showcasing and working through one of my latest paintings, titled “Map of Qualities”. “Map of Qualities” is a new painting based on my experience practicing Lama Tsultrim Allione‘s Dakini Mandala meditation. The practice invites the practitioner to experience both the encumbered and liberated patterns of each of five Buddha families.

In this one hour workshop we will mend your broken garments as a ritual practice. Bring one garment in need of mending. We will provide thread, needles and assorted buttons. Together, we will enter into sensory relationship with our garments, allowing ourselves to be permeated by their material and energetic qualities and conducting physical and metaphysical repairs in relationship with our garments, ourselves and each other.

In this video I talk about my current practice, and some of the backgrounds and origins that are within my new work!

I won the grand prize for ANTE Mag’s recent open call for artists as alchemists, curated by Douglas Turner, founder of Wedge Studio, AOT Project Salon and Moart NY. The prize allows me to take the reins of ANTE Mag’s instagram for one week! A full Alexandra Hammond takeover, or what I like to call, “Alexchemy.” Follow along as I open the world of my studio and beyond. I’ll be exploring the theme of alchemy, and more broadly transformation, as it appears in works of art, the art world, and New York City itself.

It has been amazing and challenging to work on such a big project with my own mom. It was a unique opportunity to stay connected during the pandemic with our weekly zoom meetings and many calls. It has been a privilege to help her shape her ideas into a piece that is accessible for parents, teachers and those who interact with children of all ages.

I created this piece to make my art accessible and wearable. It was inspired by the coast foothills of California where I grew up, and where there are lots of rattlesnakes. Each time a rattlesnake sheds its skin, it gets a new rattle. Transformation isn’t comfortable, but it contains the feminine power of creation.

A being traversing the surface of the Möbius strip travels on the surface and the underside of the strip, yet the moment of transition from one side to the other is impossible to determine. The figure becomes a frame for all-encompassing spaciousness at the center of the wheel, the sweet spot of stillness that enables motion.

Rattlesnakes populate my subconscious. They are not mine alone: They live in American culture, and are mediated through that in my own imagination, and in yours.

The artists of SourMILK uncovered and manifested, as Bachelard puts it, the “psychology of the house”, it’s simultaneous solidity as a sheltering body, its remimagintation through shifting occupants, and its impending dissolution.

Why do we suffer? Is my suffering unique? Is there a set amount of suffering in the world so that if one escapes suffering, a heavier amount must befall another? Why are there some materials that are polished by the grindstone and others that break with the friction?

In Tantric buddhist philosophy there’s a concept called “Lila”, which can be interpreted by saying that consciousness, which is the common ground of being from which all things arise, creates individuation and suffering for its own entertainment. It wants to see itself. In this construct, consciousness is ultimately playful -- it wants to see itself seeing and feel itself being.

The Sublime and the Truth of Uncertainty

The core of my work and ideas for the past five years has been the belief that what we imagine creates our sense of reality and in turn, our world.