Welcome!
Join me in my explorations and musings of how spirituality can be creative fuel for visual art as well as allowing you to live a more authentic life!
Is your art ‘worthy’?
Choosing art to frame and sell is hard work! The hardest part is choosing which of my many art pieces was ‘worthy’ of investing in matting and framing to ready it for the world.
And that set up a whole inner dialogue about what is worthy and who gets to decide and what does it mean to paint what is true. Maybe you have these voices in your head too?
God’s enormous walk-in closet
What was God wearing last time you noticed?
What form does God take?
Who or what is on the other end of the line when you call on God in prayer?
God wants to get your attention, so God will show up in whatever way you will be able to understand. Just so you can see how much you are loved, God empties Godself of any form of divinity and takes on a form that you can understand.
I don’t have to see it. I can feel it!
What do you feel when you look at the art hanging in your space? I want to be more intentional about creating art that invites the viewer to feel something. In these troubled times, creating has become an essential act, whether you create art, or poetry, or make your own corner of the world a bit more beautiful. Art that brings us to a place of calmness or joy becomes an act of resistance because noticing the beauty around us keeps us from falling into despair.
On living a creatively spiritual life
This is what I want for you: As your art guide, I want you to be able to express your truest self freely, boldly and in living color.
As your cheerleader-in-chief, I want to encourage you to follow your artist soul.
As your spiritual guide, I want you to find your way to connecting to a good and loving force that envelopes and energizes the whole universe.
You are fully resourced, part 1
Sharing two fabulous resources: For the Celtic Curious, an introduction to the Céile Dé spiritual tradition on November 8th and an invitation to the Sunday Sanctuary, a place to find balance and harmony through Vedic teachings and guided meditations.
Part one of my resources for you!
Three Treasures for You
I come to you dear reader in a whisper.
There is so much noise in the world. I unfold my hand slowly, offering you a few small treasures to place on your altar.
Choose the one you need the most today: an invitation to be present; a permission slip to do what bring you joy; a reminder that you are worthy now!
The Power of Iteration
Join me as I experiment and iterate my way to a lovely watercolor scene of a heron standing watch on a sailboat. Being open to the leading of your soul is to dance with mystery.
Make a Declaration!
Let me (re-)introduce you to a special powerful cluster of neurons in your brain stem that take the shape of a short magic wand, called your Reticular Activating System or RAS. It filters your sensory inputs and decides what information is allowed to enter your conscious awareness.
The good news is that the RAS prevents the brain from becoming overwhelmed. The bad news is that for many of us, the RAS is working on autopilot.
Stop Apologizing!
Give yourself permission to create art even if it is messy, or ugly, or inconvenient, or takes up too much space. If anyone objects, that says more about them than you. You don’t have to pick up that energy. You don’t have to apologize. You don’t even have to defend yourself or prove you’re right. Just keep doing your creative thing. Create art anyway.
What do you want permission to do? Now is the perfect time to give yourself that permission, without apology!!
Lessons from Iona
Some things I learned on my recent visit to Iona, Scotland: Rocks teach about silence and steadfastness. Waves crashing against those silent rocks teach about the ebb and flow of life. Solitude teaches the value of stepping away from the crazy and the busy so you can hear your soul speak.
On getting lost and being found
The ‘pathless path’ is the way of every seeker.
There will be obstacles: thorny vines that snag you; footing that is rocky and steep, boggy ground that grabs hold of your boot and won’t let go. Your feet will get muddy. The wind will whip and slap. The way forward will be veiled from your eyes. There will be dead-ends and not-what-you-thoughts and you will have to retrace your steps.
But every now and then, you will catch a glimpse of where you want to go, though you can not see the way clearly. Though the road is rough and uncertain, trust that you are never unaccompanied on your path.
You do not walk alone.
Does this belong to who I am now?
Does this belong to who you are now? Is it time to own what is no longer working for you? Boldly asserting what no longer fits or does not work risks disapproval or disappointment or outright rejection. It requires you to find out whether you’ll survive not being liked, or being thought of as needy, or rocking the boat and upsetting the status quo. Sitting with that discomfort, and surviving it, has emboldened me to carry on, and continue to create a life that facilitates my full flourishing.
Learning to Stay
Stay when the art is weird. Stay when the external voices say run away. Stay even when you don’t know what to start. Stay when you don’t know what to do next. Stay when you don’t know how to finish.
Stay present and listen to the voice of your Artist Soul - she speaks so softly, waiting for you to pay attention to her voice, instead of the noise all around you.
Who are you listening to?
You do have the power to choose who you listen to. You get to decide what to let in.
I’m learning to pay more attention to my artist soul, and less attention to outer noise. I’ve been pausing and listening, noticing and releasing. And learning to trust my deeper truth.
Dancing with Curiosity
Curiosity is the opposite of certainty on the risk tolerance spectrum. Where is the fun in knowing exactly how a creative adventure will turn out?
Who are your antagonists?
Do you struggle to get to your creative practice? Maybe there’s not enough time in the day. Maybe your plate is already overflowing. Maybe you’re not sure where to begin.
You’re in good company because every great artist has a powerful antagonist.
Learning to trust the brush
Are you good at listening for your inner guidance? Or are you listening to the old programming and loud noise coming from outside. Learning to trust your artist soul, the one directing the brush, is essential because she is a skilled guide through the unknown. That she knows intuitively, unconsciously what my conscious self can’t see yet, what it hasn’t woken up to yet.
Open - Present - Aligned
Practicing being Open to the unfolding of the mystery of this new year; being Present to the moment right here and less distracted by the noise out there; and living in alignment with my true self noticing what feeds my soul and what makes me come alive.