I am so excited to release Book 2! I hope you will see yourself in the picture story in this book.
The mystery of why a pastel painting from 1978 still hung around my studio in 2017 ~ even though the original painting was sold nearly forty years ago. Clues came in the form of sketches, journal entries, and paintings ~ each with a piece of the puzzle. When assembled they created a vision of divine purpose of soul sisters’ relationship. I hope you will find it inspirational, uplifting, and thought provoking.
New Release
A painting called Two Sisters stayed on my mind for forty years. Why was I still thinking about it? And why was it titled, ‘Two Sisters?’
Two Sister pastel, collection City University of New York
I think you’ll enjoy seeing how subtle and gently messages from the Creator nudged me into discovering my life purpose. My mother played such a critical role, yet she’d been gone for nearly thirty years.
My mother, Pauline, was an advocate for health and wellness. She read everything she could get her hands on. She bought vitamins for the whole family, long after we’d all moved to our homes and were raising children of our own!
When she was 56, she had a massive seizure. We all held our breath as she underwent brain surgery for a tumor. The prognosis was not the one we’d hoped for. She fought hard. After she passed, she still fought to complete what she’d started in life.
And I learned to listen to her differently than I did as a young woman.
Unraveling our relationship, our shared divine purpose, felt like piecing together a jig saw puzzle, where the pieces were all turned up-side down.
I hope my story will show you how I turned them over, and a new way of looking at your relationship with your mom.
Up at 4:45 this morning … writing. Two headlines caught my eye, ire.
‘Stress is the Enemy’ was the headline on an email in my inbox. NO!@ NONONO! Stress is an indicator of creativity needing to be converted into energy!
Take it in. It’s the truth about creativity that no one is telling you.
What we call ‘stress’ is your body’s way of signaling to you that it’s time to release stored up creative energy. Release doesn’t have to be painting. It could be singing in the shower. Or cooking, or walking, or yodeling!
When we stop thinking of that feeling we call ‘stress’ as a bad thing ~ something to make go away ~ we begin to accept the Creator’s messages. Creative gifts and messages are strung throughout your day.
Recognize them for what they are. For example, this is the third morning I’ve awakened at 4:30. One could easily make the case that I am stressed and don’t sleep well. Or NOT! I COULD turn over and try to go back to sleep. Or I could listen to the urge to get up and make coffee.
Awake at last, I can see beauty in every brush stroke. Each moment, precious, honored Creator.
In the studio, coffee in hand, the Creator’s pings have somewhere to go. Jot down the flow of thoughts. If I’d laid in bed trying to go back to sleep, the same pings would be still bounding around in my head.
There are not always words for the feelings. Sometimes the ‘stress’ just feels like unrest, sometimes questions unformulated. Let it out.
No journal handy, just a piece of paper will do in a pinch!
Let it out on paper, on canvas, or work it out by walking, yoga, whatever. A human being’s ‘job’ is to bring the Creator’s pings into the physical realm. Stop trying to hold them in!
Let them out in a safe, secure, responsible way. Make some good with them.
This morning the Creator gave me the power to accept all the paintings for my ‘Muses of Tuscany’ book as perfect. I’d been holding out for perfect paintings, separating stacks of canvases into junk, fixable, hopeless, why did I even try to paint that, piles. Tweaking oil paintings countless hours, twelve hours yesterday, twelve hours the day before, three years and three trips to Italy.
Previously ‘rejected’ paintings, show the complete creative process including all variations of hue and intensity, sketches and refined, whole only by inclusion with the entire body of works.
Countless sketches, paintings, and journal entries with no idea if or when I’d be able to write the book, this morning the Creator gifted me the introduction for the book, along with hundreds of perfect paintings. No wonder I’ve been feeling so exhausted lately. Like a mouse on a fly wheel, a workaholic creates as much work as possible, never looking to see if enough is enough. If I feel tired this afternoon, perhaps I’ll take a nap. Right now I feel energized.
That’s my point about converting the ‘stress’ into energy. It’s not bad! It’s an indicator that it’s time to release the build up. Flush the system.
As I logged in to write this blog post, I read a comment on yesterday’s post, ‘your paintings remind me of Grandma Moses.’ What?
I could easily be insulted. But what would be the point? If I distract myself with that, I’ll not get the book out, ever! And I’d have missed out on the Creator’s cue to energize this blog post.
Allowing myself to get caught up in being insulted over something someone said ~ that’s a misuse of the Creator’s intent. Use the energy for good and let the rest go.
Grandma Moses
“A primitive artist is an amateur whose work sells.”
“A strange thing is memory, and hope; one looks backward, the other forward; one is of today, the other of tomorrow.”
“Life if what you make it, always has been, always will.” Grandma Moses
One Peaked Late. The Other Peaked Early. Both Were Artistic Geniuses.
“Creativity takes courage,” at least according to Henri Matisse. If that’s the case, then at what point in their lives are artists most creative? When they’re young, bold, and taking risks? Or does creativity blossom over time, with practice and life experience? READ MORE ON>Zocalo
