Yearly Archives: 2014

The Evolution of Pele

I’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 →

I contemplate the reasons my partner and I have no conflict

Armand Della Volpe made me contemplate why my guy and I have no conflict. The short version: We don’t have to deal with lots of stuff others deal with. We have no kids or grandkids, we each have our own residence, income and transportation. We’re both workaholics with similar backgrounds, lifestyles, likes and dislikes. Most importantly, we both meditate daily and we’re each more committed to staying conscious and connected to God/Source than we are to maintaining a status quo with any particular person, place, circumstance or event. That’s an invaluable shared goal to have. Continue reading →

I dream of grotesque looking people in service hallways

I had an interesting dream last night. I’ve had a head cold this weekend and been pretty fuzzy from Benadryl and sleeping a lot. I turned on the tv just as the movie Shutter Island came on. I am not sure how much I slept through or might have heard unconsciously as it was on, as I was also scrolling through Facebook and half the time the sound was muted. If some of my dream scenes are from the movie, I’m unaware of it. I turned it off 10 minutes before the ending. In the dream, I am walking in a large building, like a huge old manor house. I’m aware that it’s the middle of the night and “after hours.” I’m walking through the service hallways, and every so often I encounter a service person walking past on their nightly duties. It begins to be apparent to me that every one I see has a physical deformity, and some are quite grotesque. I think, “how cool they have employed so many that may be unable to get employed otherwise.” Continue reading →

You can hold a vision and help train friends into a better feeling thought

… Holding the vision…

Part of my spiritual practice is being a vision keeper. My experience is if even one person can contemplate a scene and have faith in a successful outcome, that can entrain the consciousness of everyone who was aware of it. Last month, I wasn’t the only one –> Holding the vision. A Facebook friend commented: “I have a few I’d like to forget… That’s the brain’s biggest flaw. It never forgets. Might not remember it, but the mind can not forget. I wish it could.” I understand what he’s saying. The mind’s biggest benefit is that you can recall something painful and then train yourself into a better feeling thought. In this practice, you do it over and over and eventually the thought is not gone but the pain of it leaves you. About half of my session work is helping people re-frame past events in order to see the lesson in it and discover their new and improved place in the world AFTER that painful event. It’s been said that when just 1% of the population meditates upon peace and lovingkindness, the effect spreads to the other 99% – and it works even if they don’t believe it.

In front of the tv again at midnight with the munchies?

If you’re a slave to the nightly hand to mouth rhythm, keep bags of spinach and salad on hand and eat the greens one leaf at a time. Get thru the night by looking forward to a yummy healthy breakfast. Food always tastes best to me if I’m hungry. I like being a little bit empty. I was 50 when I decided it was time to start eating healthy and get into the gym. Working out as soon as I wake up works best for me. When I don’t do that, it’s too easy to get busy with work and blow it off. Like I’ve done all month. I don’t beat myself up for it, though. I do yoga every day and I eat healthy foods. I just feel better when I’m working out 3-4 times a week. And when I get lazy and the midnight munchies hit, I’ve always got a bag of spinach or kale on hand to get me thru the night

I love being inspired to art by friends’ happy pics

I get inspiration for art every time I see something that expresses joy to me. This week, I was inspired by my friend Eileen A. Jacobs’ profile pic. In it, she radiates such joy that, even though I was in the midst of another painting project, I wanted to stop and create a happy muse of my own. Here it is in progress. I I edited out half her hair to show more ocean, and may edit out more to make room for a jumping dolphin and maybe a sea turtle in the water. (I did.) I’m not good with hands, so it takes me awhile to get them down to size and shape. They all start out as mitts, then get whittled down to man hands, then painted down to final fingers. On the left is the arm and hand as originally drawn, and on the right I’ve begun defining the finger joints and resizing the arm. I’ll go find a tutorial on painting the ocean since I’ve never done that. Right now, though, I’m going to thin her hair down a little more to make room for that dolphin and sea turtle. The final version is shown here on the right. I realize now why I had to stick the turtle in there. The series of paintings I am doing have to do with the moon’s energy, even though the sun appears in this one. Turtle as a totem has special medicine. They carry the Moon’s cycles on their back: 28 sections for the 28 days and 13 plates for the 13 moons.

Nothing brings me back to center like a physical workout

I mowed the lawn and sneaked in a little yard work this morning before it got hot and humid. It’s so satisfying when I haven’t weeded in months to see the tall pile of pulled weeds. It included about a hundred loquat seedlings and miles of wedelia. I’ve let the north entrance to the firepit in the west woods grow over during spring and summer, so it will be fun hacking the new trail. I usually do that the first cool day of fall. I did the gym yesterday for the first time in a couple of weeks. Ugh, I can never wait that long again, no matter HOW busy I think I am or pretend to be. The elliptical machine crumbles me, that tells me I need to keep doing it since I’m working muscles that need it. I’m so sore I could… whimper. What a lightweight I am.

When you’re connected, $$ flow in from all over

I love it when the man and I are just idly chatting and he comes up with $$ making ideas for stuff we’re already doing for fun. That’s a product of being connected to Source. Who’s the man? He’s the man!

Social Security: Yay, unless you worked off the books. SS Can Garnish your Student Loan

Some friends and I reached 62 this year and are comparing notes on Social Security. I worked for employers for 22 years, so I’ve paid in my share. Friends who’ve made income off the books for much of their life won’t receive much benefit. A galpal reached 62 and worked for employers for 30 years with good income but can’t collect because she’s got student loans. Another can’t collect because she co-signed a student loan for a grandson who she has no idea where he even is anymore. Yowza.

Don’t take score too soon. How often do I depend on feedback to stay motivated?

Some things I am being reminded of as painting, like: don’t take score too soon. I always do an underpainting and then paint up in layers. When I do that, it goes through some pretty scary stages, sometimes where I think I should scrap the whole project. I take a photo at every stage so I can see my progress. This also lets me see if I did a better version before and if I’ve goofed it up, I can use the better version as a reference to fix it. I’m currently working on something that is a little small, so I am waiting for some art pens to arrive so I can do the face and fine details like the fingernails. I usually do the eyes first on a painting so that I can have somebody to look at and talk to me as I’m doing it. It’s a little disconcerting to just have a blank face staring back at me giving me no feedback as I paint. It makes me wonder how often do I depend on feedback to stay motivated?

Andrea de Michaelis – Creating my own reality, one thought at a time

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