Spring Cleaning – Art Sale

Yellow Flower Mandala

I’m cleaning house and studio.  It’s time to move older work which I still own out into the world by offering a great price.

Yellow Flower Mandala shows The Seed of Life, sacred geometry’s symbol of the first emergence from the spirit world into the physical world. It’s an oil on canvas, 23″ x 28″.

Originally $1200  – Now yours for only $400 (plus shipping)- sale on for the month of March.

If interested just leave a comment to that effect and we’ll work it out from there.

Oneness

I am one with the sea, floating in her blue green softness, hair streaming out like seaweed.
The sun, lights my mind’s eye, while casting honeycombed patterns on the sea floor.

The Mysterious Art of Painting and the Tree of Life

Sometimes I  wonder how the paintings I paint finally emerge into the world.  It’s a back and a forth, a finding and a losing; ultimately there’s an image that remains. Later I ask myself  “Where did that come from?”  At times I feel I’m a channel through which these images flow.  I always have to remind myself to sign my paintings, as I’m never sure that they are truly “mine”.

I recently finished a painting which illustrates the mystery in which a painter can find herself.  After the painting, The Olive Tree, sold I went into mini-mourning, feeling it’s absence in my home.  A new tree called to me, the Tree of Life.

I dove into this painting.  Not sure what form it would take, I first envisioned it as full, full, full of foliage. And so it started .  But soon after, I felt the need to lose much of the foliage, anguishing that I was letting go of painting a tree of life.  Then I added the Seed of Life embedded underneath the middle of the tree

More foliage was lost and the stylized leaves made their appearance.  By this time I was in an unstoppable rhythm.  With each new color or form I added to the painting, it spoke to me, telling me what was needed next.  Once again the thought “what would would make this a Tree of Life” surfaced within my rhythm.

The Tree of Life is one of the most ancient symbols of the awareness of the one source, the descent of the divine into the manifest world, and methods by which the divine union may be attained in this life.  It symbolizes unity and love. The structure of the Tree of Life is connected to the sacred teachings of the Jewish Kabbalah but can be seen 3,000 years earlier in Egypt, as well as being found in Christianity, Hermeticism and Paganism.

I decided to do an internet search for a Sacred Geometry symbol for the Tree of Life.

Flower of Life

Seed of Life

Kabbalah Tree of Life

The symbol of the Tree of Life is derived from the Flower of Life. It is composed by highlighting ten  centers of the circles of the Flower of Life and the Seed of Life.  Along with the Seed of Life, it is believed to be part of the geometry that parallels the cycle of the fruit tree. This relationship is implied when these two forms are superimposed onto each other.

A quick sketch of these two forms together and I was back at my easel.  I added the circles that make up the Tree of Life in the correct places on the Seed of Life, whose further expansion implies the Flower of Life.   I stepped back from my canvas in amazement.  The branches of the tree in my painting were crossing intersection points, the circle centers, on the Seed of Life, exactly where the Tree of Life circles were added.

Once again I asked myself, who is really in charge here.  Without consciously knowing what I was doing I had already positioned this tree correctly to be a true Sacred Geometry Tree of Life.  Very mysterious, wouldn’t you say?

We’re All Connected

Today is Tuesday May 17 and at this moment my art project is 33% funded with  only 33 hours left to reach my goal.  I’m still expecting a miracle but am willing to accept that miracle in whatever form it arrives.

I have three small paintings finished on Seed.  I decided to use the Seed of Life as the underlying sacred geometry for the element of seed – I guess that’s a no-brainer of a choice.

I’ll get started on the large Seed painting this week.

I think the large one will go in a more abstract direction like this small one.

I’m getting ahead of myself though w/visions of a painting of a tree and a person and a bird, energy swirling around them all – We’re All Connected.

Be part of my miracle – visit my project page here –   With only 102 more supporters at the level of $25 I’ll reach my goal;  or 2 at the level of $1500 does it too.

Seeds and the Seed of Life

Apple Seed in Vesica Piscis, pencil

I’m beginning a new project.  It’s a big vision which brings all of the elements I’ve been exploring during my artistic life into one cohesive whole.

The vision: our world in unbroken wholeness. This project uses sacred geometry patterns, as symbol for the quantum field, embedded with visual symbols of life; the flora and fauna. The form – an exhibit of paintings, tied together with mixed media image poems, all suggesting an interconnection of body, mind and spirit.

Apple Seeds/hexagon/seeds of life, pencil

Quantum field theory speculates that an individual entity is transient and insubstantial; particles cannot be separated from the empty space around them.  Mystics have experienced the universe as a dynamic web of interconnection since ancient times.  My project peers into this ineffable web of interconnection inherent in the universe.  Using symbolic language, I strive to show the uniqueness of each separate being, who yet remains part of, within, and connected to the whole.

My first area of exploration is the Seed as the beginning point of the emergence of life.  Seems like a good place to begin as I’ve been fascinated with sacred geometry’s Seed of Life for many years.

Seed Pod in Vesica Piscis, watercolor

So I’m just getting started with preliminary sketches.   I’ve actually never approached my work like this before.  I usually just jump right into painting, letting the inspiration of the moment guide me.  I’m excited about trying out a new method of developing my ideas.

Seed Cluster, pencil

The final form of this project is as an exhibit, consisting of 12 paintings tied together by 12 mixed media image poems.  I’ll keep you posted on this journey.

An Artist’s Musing – At One with the Sea – 1/24/2010

I am one with the Sea, floating in Her bluegreen softness, my hair streaming out like seaweed.
The sun, lighting my mind’s eye, while casting honeycombed patterns on the Sea floor.

New Year Intentions

It’s hard to believe that it’s a new year and a new decade!    On one hand it seems like just yesterday we were beginning 2009 and then on the other hand so much has happened that it seems like long ago.  Time is a strange concept for sure.

First I want to send everyone positive intentions for a year full of love, harmony, prosperity and adventure.   We certainly face many challenges right now, but we each can choose how we react to whatever situation we find ourselves in.  May we all find the strength to choose love over fear.

It’s my intention to pay more attention to my blog this year.  In addition to longer reflections on art related topics I plan to post “An Artist’s Musings” – something like an online sketchbook/journal.

Plus I invite you to join me on a painting journey, which for me is a spiritual journey.   As my process almost always becomes a courtship between control and letting go, I’ll share it with you by posting images of paintings in progress.  On this journey you’ll discover that there are no mistakes; that painting, like life, unfolds magically as we open ourselves to the flow of the source.

And so here’s my first of
An Artist’s Musing

The sun shines in my mind’s eye
Creating
The ever present pattern of glowing interlocking circles
The Seed of Life becomes
the Flower of Life

The Transformative Power of Art

In his book, The Mission of Art, Alex Grey speaks of the spiritually transformative potential of art.  I feel deeply the truth of this, both in the transformative power of creating art and the transformative power possible through the act of viewing art.

The process of painting keeps me connected to the source, the mystery, the one, from which we come.  And on good days, some how or other magic happens, the images flow, and a painting appears.  Time stops as I exist in the moment and the power of color and form flows through me and out onto the canvas.

I remember the first time I saw Mark Rothko’s work live and in person, so to speak.   It was many years ago at the Whitney Museum in NY.   There was a room dedicated to Rothko’s color field paintings.  I spent a very long time sitting in the room, looking and looking at the paintings.   I felt transformed to a place of peace and harmony.   I felt a deep connection to the source- a feeling beyond words – a feeling which gave me a momentary glimpse into the deep mystery we call life.

Art created from the heart has the power to produce feelings of love, beauty, joy, and harmony. It has the power to heal and to bless us.  It can be a portal to the timeless dimension of  the sacred.

I recently finished this painting, The Seed Becomes the Rose.  My fascination with the Seed of Life pattern continues as it is the seed from which the Flower of Life grows.   The is a visual expression of the connections life weaves through all of creation.

Have  you had a transformative experience with art?

The Seed of Life

In recent years I have become fascinated with sacred geometry. It all began after I participated in a Feng Shui pilgrimage in China. We visited many amazing sites including lots of Buddhist temples. At the time I was aware of seeing many, many beautiful statues of the Buddha and other enlightened beings. When I returned home this painting, Yellow Flower Mandala burst forth from some mysterious internal place. Upon seeing this painting at an exhibition of my work, a man said to me, “You must study the work of Drunvalo Melchizedik.” I said, “No, who is he?” So he informed me that he has written some amazing books on sacred geometry in particular focusing on the Flower of Life.

Of course I went out and got Melchezedek’s books and others on sacred geometry. It always amazes me how, as artists, we can access images without being aware of their significance. My experiences as an artist continue to fuel my belief that everything is connected and that everything comes from one source.

The pattern shown in this painting is the Seed of Life and is the basic component of the Flower of Life. The Seed of Life is a symbol of creation and is the core of the Flower of Life. The Flower of Life then flows into the Fruit of Life, which is the blueprint of the universe. The Fruit of Life contains every atom, molecule, cell, life form – basically everything in existence. So the Seed of Life is correctly named as it is the first and original shape from which all existence springs forth. This pattern is now making its voice heard in many of my paintings.

Have you seen this pattern elsewhere? Does it resonate with you as a primal force in the universe?

Here’s a good website with information on Sacred Geometry and the Flower of Life: http://www.world-mysteries.com/sar_sage1.htm