I have been painting for 12 years. I started with oils one sunny summer day on a front porch.
Painting is an effort to listen more closely to the teacher within. It is like any relationship, a gradual unfolding that changes over time. The paintings feel to me like wise, loving and compassionate teachers. Whatever it is that is with us, cares for us and reaches through to help us understand.
It’s certainly not just me, this is us. This is human.
The sacred and spiritual practice of living a story within a greater story, connected by concepts, symbols and languages pointing to things unspeakable are enacted continuously and able to be done with some kind of disciplined effort and grace.
The gold streams through and I feel enlivened.
Often, I see robed figures traveling together sometimes symbolized by loops joined together.
Great & wise birds appear leading me out of something to somewhere else. Masked beings speak to me while I am painting them. They tell me of great mysteries including that of how peace and understanding will rule the world one day, much more than now. The good news will come of our righteous and holy plight we find ourselves in.
I often paint an orange sun, and in some paintings, many orange suns. Maybe it’s the passing of time. A level appears at times and tells me to get my life in order.
The moon appears too and seems to keep me company with vast oceans of energy pouring through. The open sky shows up, and I feel just like that. In the sky is the feeling of God’s presence and it felt really hard won and thrilling to discover that.
The earth shows itself too when I need to take in the magnitude of our existence. I feel I am being taught about a passion for the earth and its inhabitants. All these energies working so hard for grand and deeply important reasons. It feels like the Holy Spirit that moves through the world. Something very alive and working its way through people in every moment.
There are often open windows, stairways, green fields and treasures all teaching of gifts we give each other and of a place beyond this place. Dimensions and steps to take for further development. A pearl shows itself often. Maybe a symbol of the soul. A pearl of great price. It feels as though I have discovered the precious value of it and the still point of a person. Knowing mine, I know yours.
There are Buddhas that teach of hard lessons to learn due to the vast nature of suffering and to simply breathe and feel at peace with our nature. Jesus and Mary are there too. They console and comfort. They offer friendship and faith.
There are often teachings of life force energy coursing through the body. The way it unlocks and opens with intent. The energy of positive caring towards self and others.
We are alive and here with everyone else. What is of this suffering that so many people experience? What comes of helping each other and discovering once and for all that we can let go of our differences and instead learn of our similar desires for happiness and peace. We come and go and in it is beauty and terror. How can we live on together in peace and togetherness with the bright brilliance of what we all are made of?