Elijah (30″x40″ mixed media on linen) was one of many paintings exhibited at The Highland Galerie in Columbus, Georgia this spring. Immersing in creating this painting was a very mystical experience for me (please see the Judaica page here on this website to read about it).
This recent painting explores the notion that while alive on earth, everything and everyone is infused with light and an essence of love. Earthbound, yet of pure love (heaven). Actually, this not just a concept or a notion, but rather something we can sense and generate, expand upon. To choose to see love more than to see angst, for example, and to celebrate the glow of light in everyone and in ourselves is to be as if in a garden of bliss that we tend to ourselves. Recently this painting was at The Highland Galerie in Columbus, Georgia and one viewer said the area of red clay (mid right side) reminded her of the moment just before God created Adam out of clay (humans being of the earth with all its conditions but created in a divine image of the Creator).
Between Heaven and Earth 36″x40″ mixed media on linen
I was meditating on family themes that are passed down through generations. I started painting not knowing where it would take me and realized my aunt (or what she may have looked like as a child) appeared. I felt that the emotional energy of the concept I was dwelling on so intensely had come through and perhaps the ancestors heard me.
The South is full of light and floral beauty, it inspires and lulls me into day dreams. There is harmony in nature, even with the chaotic wildness and I find myself painting the feelings I get when out in my courtyard, meandering around to see what new buds have appeared over night. This piece exhibited in the Funding Future Artists exhibit recently and is now with a private collector.
My first book for children was on conflict resolution and then as a visiting author and artist in schools, libraries and museums, with public and private groups I taught a drawing technique to children for the purpose of developing empathy and working well with peers as a result. That lead to a deep meditation drawing practice that I teach mainly to adults (kids already know naturally) and found it to be a joyous way to recapture creative empowerment (an essential for being human) and empathic, intuitive “quiet knowing”. This is something we all have and need to develop more since imagination, creativity and spiritual sensing are all in one place (not just the right side of the brain, but in our hearts, too).
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Last night I taught stream drawing to a large group of young adults at Covenant House. I was so moved by not just their creative expressiveness, but the depth and insightful reflections they had based on their stream drawings. I was able to hear them explain profound and meaningful associations and emotions they had based on their imagery. I can’t say enough how wonderful this experience was, and how important it is for us to draw freely with open hearts and minds, and embrace one another while supporting the creative genius within ourselves and others.
