A Tree of Life Created by the Sea
With roots, trunk & canopy of leaves.
The Artist’s North Star:
From the Fingers of Sedna
Taking 11,400 years to cycle with the Sun, the coldest, most distant trans-Neptunian object in our solar system was named Sedna to honor the Inuit Goddess who is thought to live at the bottom of the frigid Arctic Ocean.
Betrayed by her husband and her father, who cut off all her fingers to save his own life when his boat capsized, Sedna sinks to the bottom of the sea. From her finger stumps, Sedna creates a bounty of sea creatures to provide the Inuit with food. And so, Sedna became the immortal sea goddess they celebrate each year.
This goddess archetype symbolizes creation from betrayal & dissection. Sedna affirms that if we delve into the darkest, coldest, loneliest place we fear most, we will return enriched, as we are worthy of love & respect and have every right to expect that others treat us well despite our shortcomings.
Classical Ballerina & Pianist
Vanessa began her artistic career at 15, performing on The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. & The Auditorium in Chicago with The Zurich Ballet under the artistic direction of Rudolf Nureyev. She trained on full merit scholarship at The American Ballet Theatre School in NYC.
During her Smith College years, she studied architecture, historic preservation, urban planning, music theory & piano performance.
International Photographer
At age 10, her father showed her how to develop negatives in his dark room. In 2010, she used the Digital SLR Canon EOS 7D to photograph one subject for over 365 consecutive days.
In 2011, Vanessa published her book. and Getty Images, Avanti Press, and a small press in the U.K. licensed her photographs.
Vivi's Ballerina Dream
The series, “Vivi's Ballerina Dream" became the campaign posters for Dancers Love Dogs, a not-for-profit organization in South Africa.
While visiting Ms. Kirkland in her dressing room after her performance, the ballerina gifted her pointe shoes to Vanessa. This magical gift keeps on giving: Dancers Love Dogs has assisted over 26,000 homeless dogs in Cape Town, Durban & Johannesburg since 2012.
In the series, the artist wears the historical pointe shoes that Gelsey Kirkland wore in her 1976 American Ballet Theatre performance of "La Sylphide" at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, New York.
Dance Photographer
Vanessa also photographed the dancers she coached. One student joined the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet in New York and another joined the Kirov Ballet Academy in D.C.
Other Works
Using A.I. in 2024, Vanessa began producing her Venus Geist Portraits derived from women’s portrait selfies. She has also practiced calligraphy, painting & model building (at Robert A.M. Stern Architects & Skidmore Owings & Merrill in NYC). From 2005-2010, she was a senior executive assistant at Booz Allen Hamilton. Her favorite interest is astrology.
Throughout the 1990's, Vanessa traveled to archaeological sites across the countries of Old Europe including Malta, Sardinia & the Greek islands Santorini & Crete, which inspired her studies in Hellenistic Astrology. Upon returning to the States in 2000, she discovered Evolutionary Astrology. By 2012, the artist met Zsuzsanna Griga, a Transcendental Karmic Astrologer. Vanessa’s natal chart contains two astrological patterns: the Trawler & the Yod.
The artist has also invented a navigation tool for astrologers: a clock that tells phasal time by putting natives & time-stamped subjects into a chosen cyclical context.
Float a message:
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