Monthly Archives: August 2014

Why I Paint in the Silence

Watching painting tutorials this week, I notice they often have music in the background.  It’s interesting to note the different types of music.  some classical, some rock, some heavy metal.  One said, “Painting without music is like trying to work in total darkness. Music is the light that switches me on in my work.” I can see how that that can be so, but I much prefer to work in the soft, subtle nuanced world which is silence.
Silence for me is not empty, it is full of Presence.  By Presence I don’t mean a rambling chain-of-consciousness babblespeak of hurried thoughts about daily doings.  I mean simply thoughts of observing what is in front of me, and letting myself be carried away by the beauty of that. I spend so much time each day thinking thoughts that I have to think for work, that I look forward to having thought time to think my own thoughts, to contemplate my own life. After I’ve done enough of that, I like simply steeping in the silence and observing what Inner Guidance reveals to me.

As I paint in the silence, thoughts and images come to me to help me create each piece.  One reason I paint is to allow the different facets of me to reveal themselves to me.  They do this by impressing upon my mind the imagery of elements and totem animals. In the researching, Googling and contemplation of the meaning of the words and images that come to mind, I discover the metaphor relative to me and learn a lot about myself.
For instance, I’m doing a painting of Pele, the Hawaiian Fire and Volcano Goddess and she’s sitting in a lava flow.  Never having felt compelled to paint lava before, I didn’t know much about it.  Researching lava taught me a lot about facets of my own personality. Where lava flows, there is complete destruction, yet it forms the foundation for new life, indeed it forms the very ground the islands exist on.  The message is that renewal is constant.

Listen to music while painting? My choice is time alone in my own beautiful world with my own thoughts, with my own beloved Self.

Andrea’s Art Gallery here
Painting is a daily meditation for me
Painting as a method of altering consciousness
Doing a series of paintings as a form of shamanic soul retrieval

Don’t weigh yourself down with unnecessaries

It makes me laugh to see someone with a big honking keychain locked to a belt loop when they only have one real key. The extra keys they carry around for the look. The older I get, the less excess weight I want to carry around to maintain some image of who I think I should portray other than who I really Am right now. The more pretense I let fall away, the more I float to the surface in sweet relief.

I love it when it costs so little to upgrade someone’s life experience

A galpal who’s had low income and no car for years reached age 62 and I told her last month to sign up online for social security. When I saw her today, she hadn’t done it yet, saying she wanted to wait until she had her own computer, she didn’t want to enter all that info into a public computer.  With no transportation, she didn’t know when she could get around to shopping for one. I called my computer guru and asked if he had a basic computer she could go online with and he has a decent desktop computer for her for $60. I’ll pay him and pick it up next week and she can pay me back.  I love it when it costs so little to upgrade someone’s life experience. Especially someone who is always doing for others.

The kitty and the bunny are the same creature

bunnykittenThe kitty and the bunny are the same creature, you know.

Take a kitty, tug his ears and his tail goes in — poof, he’s a bunny.

Take a bunny, pull his tail and his ears go in, poof, he’s a kitty.  Same animal.

This is how I know I can do what I love and the dollars will find me

red background chick 8-7-14 3pmIsn’t this always how it is?  I was just going along my merry way, having fun painting, and friends who saw me share my art on Facebook began requesting prints. This is how fun becomes work and work becomes fun. I didn’t set out to create art to sell, I do it for personal enjoyment and evolution.  While it does take my time away from income producing projects, it is fun and makes me feel purposeful and content.  I know I’ll make up the dollars somewhere else.  And I am. When the Universe saw me having fun, it sent friends asking to buy prints from me.  I’m going to order some 5 x 7 cards as well, and on the back I’ll explain the symbolism for each image. I’ve done this recent series of paintings for the purpose of  soul retrieval, showing the spirit version of the various fragmented parts of myself.  Each image depicts a part of me, a facet of my personality or character.  I meditate upon the image to discover what gifts each part of my soul is handing back to me. It’s such evidence to me when the Universe responds as it does, supporting what I am doing without me even having to ask.  Continue reading

Benny sucks

cat sucking blanket copyI think Benny the Cat was weaned too soon. His new trick is to climb around under the lap blanket in the recliner with me, then dig around nosing and patty pawing up and down my leg, making smurfy sounds. He ends up suckling the blanket.

Doors close in your face for a reason

When doors close in your face, it's because you are not supposed to enter.  Your soul only leads you to safety  - Jurne Azubiah

When doors close in your face, it’s because you are not supposed to enter. Your soul only leads you to safety – Jurne Azubiah

A friend is upset, citing “once again life has slammed a door in my face.” I told her it’s important to remember that it’s no biggie when that happens, that something else will replace it soon enough. Where one door closes another will open, but you won’t see the door if you’re stuck in the grieving process of what you feel you lost.  But what if  you feel you lost your purpose in life? Your purpose in life is just morphing into new butterflies72forms of expression is all, and you’re in the stage of “oh, the caterpillar is dying”. That’s all. After the caterpillar dies, the butterfly emerges. All it is doing is morphing. What a caterpillar calls death, we call a butterfly.  You feel negative emotion when you’re looking in the wrong place.  If you’re looking in the right place but carry unresolved baggage from the past, you won’t see it.  How clearly you see what is right in front of you is up to you. When you begin fulfilling your soul’s purpose, you will see doors fly open all around you and it will become easy to attract the people who want what you have to offer.

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If We Don’t Let Go of What We Carry, We Won’t Move an Inch
When you begin fulfilling your soul’s purpose, it will become easy to attract the people who want what you have to offer.

When we fail to recognize who our spiritual family is

The person next to you is part of your spiritual family, like it or not -- or they wouldn't be there.

The person next to you is part of your spiritual family, like it or not — or they wouldn’t be there.

I’m always coming across friends who are scoping out locations to open a new healing center, a place for like minded folks to gather and come to circle.  I’ve seen it often: a new group begins and soon enough personality conflicts split it apart and each party goes off to start their own group.  Twenty years later, there are a dozen groups, each with just a handful of attendees.  Everyone wants to start their own group rather than attend where someone rubs them the wrong way.  What they fail to see is that each person in the group — especially if they rub you the wrong way — are there reflecting back to you facets of your personality that you are unaware of.  When you are triggered by something or someone, that shows you where you have emotional work to do.   Continue reading

The Evolution of Pele

evolution of Pele copyI’ve never been particularly drawn to Pele, of the Hawaiian-goddess-of-the-volcano-and-fire fame. I’ve never studied the mythology and I’ve only just now looked her up, after it came to me to paint a version of her . I’ve been working on a series of paintings depicting archetypal women as a form of shamanic soul retrieval.    It came to me during meditation yesterday that I wanted someone who would sit in the coals of the fire and burn up the dross.  As gold is heated to burn away impurities so its essential character can be revealed, just so the intent of my soul retrieval project was to do the same with me.  I saw someone sitting in the coals of a fire, with fire all around her, laughing.  The image of molten lava came to me and a volcano appeared behind her.  The name Pele came to me, so I began adding her to the series.  I’ve learned that Pele’s fires and lava are what builds and rebuilds the island she sits on.  Through volcanic activity, it is always being renewed.  Just so, this creat-ive force comes into our lives to cleanse, transform and rebuild.    I’m still working on this one, she’s now sitting in a lava flow.  Who knew lava would be so hard to paint 🙂 Continue reading