EKG Series

During the first wave of the 2020 Pandemic, I sat down to capture the brokenness and failures of an American Healthcare system that would purge mass numbers of citizens from their insurance in a pandemic as they lost their jobs. And for those of us who have no choice but to try to make the private for-profit healthcare system work for us, it feels like a battle for every little thing. The image of a tiny, delicate flower, trying to bloom in an impossible environment of cracked cement came to mind. The fissures in the cement are modeled on electrocardiogram readings.

This gave way to further electrocardiogram experimentation, combined with with cityscape imagery, during a time when the pandemic raged in New York and Boston, while politicians in Washington D.C. refused to take action.

 

Broken Healthcare

Prints available

 

NYC on Life Support

Prints available

Boston on Life Support

Prints available

Love Chelsea

Prints available

 

Broken Democracy

Prints available

 

Henna

 

Here at Henna Inspired, we only use safe, natural, homemade henna paste. Our paste includes dried henna leaves, lemon juice, water, cajeput essential oil, and molasses, and that's it! There are no preservatives or other additives of any kind, and definitely no PPD (a.k.a. black henna). 

 

What is henna?

Henna is a plant dye that naturally stains skin and hair a reddish-brown color.  Made from the ground leaves of the henna plant, henna has been used for body art for thousands of years. Traditions of decorating the body with henna paste are most associated with areas of India, the Middle East, and parts of Africa. Traditionally, henna is done for wedding ceremonies, during important rites of passage, and in times of joyous celebration. The paste is applied to the skin in intricate designs, and when the paste is removed several hours later, designs can remain on the skin for up to three weeks (typically around 7-10 days), gradually fading over time. 

 

What We Do

Henna Inspired will bring henna services to all types of invents including:

PUBLIC EVENTS

Festivals, farmers' markets, outdoor fairs, renaissance festivals, concerts, open houses, art gallery receptions

PRIVATE EVENTS

Corporate events, parties of all kinds (birthday parties, graduations, ladies night, bridal/baby showers, just for fun), community organization events (libraries, clubs, high schools, colleges), small business events (art galleries, yoga studios, salons)

Private appointments: henna crowns, prenatal henna, vacation preparation, burning man, prom, or henna just because!

SCHOOL EVENTS

Prom after parties, graduations, cultural events, field days, after-school enrichment programs

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Send us a message through our Contact Form to see if we can add henna inspiration to your event!

About the Artist

Karyn is a fully insured henna artist who has been practicing henna throughout the Greater Boston area since 2012. She holds a great respect for the traditions of henna and has devoted much of her time to learning about and guiding others to honor the artwork style and cultural traditions surrounding henna and its use. 

Caring for your henna design

Once you have gotten henna, the goal is to help a dark, long-lasting stain develop! Here are some tips to remember:

  • Henna loves heat! For the best color, stay nice and warm while your henna paste is on and as it darkens overnight.

  • Leave henna paste on for at least an hour. For an even darker, longer-lasting stain, leave paste on for 4-8 hours.

  • When you are ready to remove the dried paste, gently scrape or brush it off. Do not use water. Also, do not go to bed with henna paste on, or you risk transferring the stain to your face, sheets, etc.

  • Try to keep your henna stain dry for up to 12 hours after the paste has been removed for best results.

  • The design will appear as a bright orange stain that will darken to a reddish-brown color over the next 2-3 days. Good henna takes time! If anyone offers you "henna" that will show up as a dark stain immediately, they are definitely NOT offering natural henna!

 

Education

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Here at Henna Inspired, we also love sharing our knowledge. Karyn has extensive experience in education, having spent almost a decade as an elementary classroom music teacher prior to her career as an artist, and she can make almost any subject accessible, enlightening, and fun, even for beginners!

Karyn can share her expertise through artist talks, classes, workshops, and demonstrations in henna, henna-style bleaching, memorial flower petal beads and more.

Contact us about taking a class or setting up a private workshop.

 
Henna workshop and demonstration

Henna workshop and demonstration

 

2020 Everett Pride Participatory Banner

Henna Inspired will be teaming up with Love is Love Everett to do a participatory Pride banner for 2020.

We had hopes of having a live, in-person Pride event in Everett, but you know, it seems the universe had other plans. But we thought we could take some time to make something together and to honor our LGBTQ+ community. And then when next year rolls around (or whenever we get out of this quarantine), we’ll have a fantastic community-made Pride flag to unfurl.


Here’s how it will work:

We’re asking people to decorate a surface (canvas, cardboard, paper, or anything really) with one (or predominately one) of the colors in the Pride flag: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or purple. Take a photo of it and send it in, and we’ll combine all of your images into a unique Pride flag collage. And the next time we can get together to celebrate Pride in Everett, we’ll come with a printed banner, made from a collage of YOUR submissions. 

We’ll be accepting submissions throughout the entire month of June and will update here with the final image when it’s ready.

What to do:

  • Choose a color from the Pride flag: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or purple. We’ll be using these images to form the actual flag image itself, so it’s important to choose predominately ONE color. 

  • Find a sheet of paper, or cardboard, or canvas, or cardboard, or anything really 

  • Paint, draw, attach things, or otherwise decorate your surface in your chosen color on the surface however you want. Make a collage, do a painting, or just gather up a collection of items from your home that fit the color scheme you’ve chosen.

  • It doesn’t have to be professional or anything fancy! We’d LOVE to receive submissions from all ages and ability levels. We truly want the banner that we make to be a reflection of our diverse community.

  • Take a photograph of your work, send it to Henna Inspired, and your fearless organizers here at Love is Love Everett and Henna Inspired will make all of your images into our own community Pride Flag collage. 


Check out some of these fantastic ones submitted (mostly) by Love is Love Everett founder Gabriela Crinigan to give you some ideas and get you started:

We can’t wait to see what you will send to us!

Photo advice:

You want to be sure to take the best photo of your work possible. This means: making sure there aren’t any shadows on the surface, taking the photo straight on and not at an angle, and removing distractions from the background. Also, try taking your piece out of a glass frame to cut down on reflections and outside into natural light for better results. Cloudy overcast days are perfect lighting for photos! Your phone or whatever device you commonly use to take photos will definitely be suitable for this project. Please don’t let your equipment stop you from sending something to us!

COVID-19 Memorial Beads Project

 
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Memorial jewelry made from funeral flowers is a common way to remember and honor the memory of someone lost, at least in my own cultural traditions. I’m embarking on a project to make a single bead in memory of each COVID-19 death to memorialize our collective loss here in the US. Each bead is made with red rose petals and has been rolled by hand with care. I have made over 1600 beads so far and plan to keep making as many as I can.

Here is a video that explains more about the project:

I’ll be hosting videoconference sessions, where anyone who has lost someone will be welcome to tell me about their loved one while I work the clay and form the beads, infusing the spirit of our conversation into the materials.

 
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If you would like to tell me about your lost loved one while I work the clay and form the beads, drop your email here and I’ll be in touch with when the next session will be.

Also, feel free to leave memories or stories about your loved one in the comments below so I can read them aloud while I work. I’d be honored to get to know something about them.

If you would like to sponsor the making of a bead or support the continuation of this project please donate so that I can keep working.

If you make beads like this with flower petals and would like to assist in this project, please contact me. Many hands make light work.

DiscoSkype

 
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In the age of isolation and social distancing, it’s important to continue to connect in as many ways as we can. 

At the start of the emergency declaration, Alzayer curated short weekly playlists (approximately 30 minutes in length) to facilitate connection through dance, offer a fun way to exercise, and provide an uplifting space to focus attention away from our collective uncertainty. Participants are invited to dress for the theme (if they desire), join a  public call on Skype, and immediately transform their living room into their own dance floor. 

DiscoSkype is not only a tool for connection, but a statement on the pathways in which we find to connect. In addition to facilitating the framework for connection, Alzayer set out to draw attention to the fact that many of these platforms were developed and meant for meetings that take place in the business world, not for performers, musicians, dancers, theater performances, open mic nights, etc. Tools like Skype, Zoom, FaceTime, GoToMeeting, and Google Hangouts were originally meant to facilitate videoconferencing. They were not built with performing arts in mind, yet they are overwhelmingly being used by arts professionals in times like this. These types of platforms can be cumbersome for performing arts and artists, because they were not developed with these types of uses in mind. 

DiscoSkype is an ephemeral space. Dance sessions are not recorded so as to offer participants the freedom to be as unabashed as they please. A curated video playlist is shared with participants who are invited to dance along. 

DiscoSkype took place weekly for ten weeks and may return at a later date.

For now, feel free to enjoy past DiscoSkype themes:

  • 70s Night

  • 80s Night

  • 90s Night

  • Ladies of the 80s

  • Animal Party

  • Coronavirus Parodies Night

  • Broadway Singalong

  • Millennial Jamz Night

  • Ladies Night

  • K-pop Night