This is an ink drawing (with colored pencil) from one of my many, many sketchbooks. Allowing for time to draw everyday in a playful way opens us up to our creative power and serves as a portal to the unexpected in the way of ideas, realizations and higher consciousness. Really, being playful while drawing does that? Yes, it does. The issue is most people don’t feel playful while drawing because they feel like the drawing has to be “good” and so they are listening to an inner critic who stops that process from unfolding. This is why I teach people to draw freely, a method I call “stream drawing”, a way of accessing stream of consciousness while drawing. It is very simple, and fun and well worth trying! For example, look at this stream drawing below. I saw in it a penguin w/ an egg, and colored it in (not shown). You might see something different–maybe it is a hummingbird hovering near a flower? Turning it around, there is many other ways to see this image.
This new painting in the series is currently at Art/Place Gallery in Fairfield, CT. In the meditative state I entered painting it, I felt that swell of momentum reminding me of great ocean waves. Even stepping just a few feet into the breaking waves, there is a power so tremendous, so epic. And when we are subjected to the tide, we succumb to it. We may play with it, but it is with the understanding that the force within each crashing arc of salt water, there is incomprehensible power. We in your physical form are but a moment of time upon a shore that raged thousands of years before we were present, and this same rising and falling, according to its attraction to the moon and the sun, will breathe in and breathe out long after we are all gone in our current form. White horses run toward us, crashing at our feet, as we stand in “the tide of time and light” as it says in the Siddur. Our time is upon us with each wave, our choices and destiny.
Detail of a painting in progress/Earth Changes Series
Listening to an Ekhart Tolle meditation, he spoke of the way we allow our thoughts to define our sense of self, which usually involves incompleteness: “I will be happy when…” etc. The future seems to hold everything we think would somehow make us okay, yet the future never arrives.
For a meditation, imagine your thoughts as one with time. Close your eyes and “be there”–be in and with whatever you love, whatever you like–in your thoughts. Don’t imagine yourself withheld from that which you desire or idealize. Embody it to bring the energy of it unto yourself now. We don’t have to give the illusion of future all our power.
Detail of a recent intuitive stream drawing done on behalf of a client
The reason why I do intuitive stream drawing sessions is because this creative stream-of-consciousness method supports an inner dialogue, not the loop of endless worries or pain-filled memories, but an awareness of why we do what we do, and in becoming more conscious, we are more likely to strike out doing what is best for us, what our “soul purpose” is. In other words, to live abundantly and fully the life we would most like to live. In this detail of a recent stream drawing I did for a client, I saw the infinity symbol (#8 on its side) and when I see that, for me that drawn line configuration is the symbol of soul purpose. I saw a large central #8 and then (to the right) a smaller one zooming in as if to say, “Time to start that NEW purpose” and I communicated this to the client. Over and over in this drawing there were similar messages with the theme: “It is time to start doing what you’d most love to do. Seek it, find it, create it! What you’ve done so far you’ve done well and it taught you well, but it is now time for that NEW thing that allows you to actually express the creative you that you are.” I urged her to start looking on line for corporations more open to her artistic background and essential creative streak which had suffered somewhat amongst people who could not and never would appreciate her unique expressions. (We often choose jobs that mirror a lack of acceptance we felt at home in early life, unconsciously trying to heal that old wound). She left saying she’d start looking. She called the next day to say she’d had a shock–her job was terminated. She did not need to be reminded that her spiritual knowing already had that insight, the new new was upon her and she didn’t really need me to tell her, life was telling her. But the fact that she came to me for help with it, for me, is a sacred privilege. (see MAKING MARKS: Discover the Art of Intuitive Drawing)
A recent painting from the Earth Changes Series (recently on exhibition at Art/Place Gallery)
The seer and healer, Edgar Cayce, spoke of extreme changes in our climate that would include storms, fires, floods, earth quakes and volcanic eruptions. In his trance state, he saw such drastic weather patterns and events that until somewhat recently seemed predictions of the future. Our poles would shift, he warned, and they are, which brings with it a lot of chaos. I see it in the way people are interacting (we are very polarized politically, for example) as well as in nature. I hope that within this chaos we manage to find harmony. These paintings seek to allow harmony, to well wish us to ride out the storm of extremes with a sense of peace.
I’m here with Arctic Tsunami on the left and Amplitude II, both from the Earth Changes Series: Pole Shift–all new work now on display at Art/Place Gallery in Fairfield.
In other news, the book event for A LITTLE BIT of FAIRIES and A LITTLE BIT of ANGELS (Sterling 2018) at Barnes and Noble, Westport, was very successful and so much fun. I will return for another signing, date to be announced!
From the Earth Changes painting series, Pole Shift/Amplitude acrylic on canvas 36″x36″
This painting recently sold at Art/Place Gallery in Fairfield, CT. The series of work is based on our changing and turbulent times, as foretold by Native Americans (long before “white man” came to shore) and more recently, Edgar Cayce, known as “The Sleeping Prophet” in the early to mid-20th century. My intention with creating these paintings is to envision our polarized society closer to harmony, even while extreme weather and events in nature suggest the magnetic pole shift is heavily underway. Can humans harmonize, demonstrate compassion and conscious action, even when nature is extreme and dangerous? Do we effect nature just as much as it may impact us? To learn more about pole shift, which Cayce predicted long before the idea of it was taken seriously, go to NASA.
Join us at Westport Arts Center on Wednesday evening, November 15 at 6:00 for a reception celebrating the latest Westport Arts Collective Pop-up Show featuring many of the member’s work (including a few from my new series, Earth Changes).
Stream drawing is the act of drawing freely (with eyes closed and using non-dominant hand) to connect with the stream-of-consciousness flow. It is an act that was at one time in our lives not separate from our immediate practice as we spontaneously drew on walls or other surfaces without any inhibition. This practice generally gradually developed into drawing on paper with the intention of creating what we most loved or dreamed of, such as castles, unicorns, magical friends or anything else we had a desire to create or express. This way of drawing (which is actually a way of meditating, manifesting, creating) is such a powerful act of self-determination and creative will power, it is truly tragic that for most of us, it was lost completely as we matured into adulthood.
Reclaim your natural instinct to feel, express feeling and generate options out of those feelings. These options are possible choices, choices on how to live, what to experience and how to go about it. Without being in touch with our natural creative drive, how are we to make choices that resonate with our best judgement and desires? Often clients will say to me, “What should I do with my life?” And this is a sacred question, but one that can only be answered by an individual as he or she connects with that original, unique and powerful inner creative wellspring that guides and informs us to our truest purpose and fulfillment. Nobody else can do this for you/me or anyone else. Stream drawing is an immediate and deeply emotive way to begin to reconnect, playfully, with your purpose through your creative spirit and unique ability to make things happen.
*The stream drawing above was done as a way to start the day in a meditative but creatively active state. After closing my eyes and drawing with non-dominant hand (so as not to be inhibited by trying to control the marks made in ways that might stop the process) the next stage of engagement is “gazing”. This is a playful time of seeing with imagination, the lines and forms as they become all kinds of things. This act opens the empathic senses and creative flow. It is meant to inspire reflection and surprise, a sense of wonderment. It is with wonder that our best feelings and ideas are born.
A new hospice is opening in Stamford and there was a ribbon cutting gala ceremony last night, with Governor Malloy and many others there to celebrate. I am honored to have my art work at this hospice, especially since my art is done with the intention to bring harmony to the viewer.
