Christmas Greeting 2008, 5.5 x 4 in, linoleum block print with mica glitter

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
- T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”

I always make my Christmas cards if I can. This year’s design was partly inspired by the work of Masaru Emoto. I made these cards with a lot of love, and made sure that intuitively I was “on” and present during each step of the process. I wanted to literally send love to others without just writing about it inside the card.

As exciting and magical as this holiday season can be, part of me is always glad when Christmas is over. For some reason an unappealing stress can creep in — making plans, breaking routines, too much socializing, buying presents and trying to figure out how to please other people. This year I avoided most of that, phew. I’ve found that no matter what time of year it is or what is going on around you, if you can follow your perfect intuitive wisdom, you’re going to be better off and so is everyone who comes in contact with you.

I’m excited that the days are getting longer and 2009 rapidly approaches. To celebrate it, I have ordered some new garments for keeping warm in winter weather. Being active outdoors is something I sometimes struggle with in winter. Especially living in the city with snowbanks taking over all the sidewalks and nightfall coming on before the workday is even over. But this year I get to spend part of winter in the Upper Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico with my sweetie. I’m told the snowshoeing is fantastic and I’m ready!

Listen carefully to your inner guidance and enter into the realm of true wisdom

Christiane Northrup, M.D.

All fall I’ve been exploring a newly-uncovered massive spaciousness within. Dis-covery has been the name of the game. I’ve managed to thwart the attempts of my thinking mind to fill the emptiness, thereby freeing the still beauty of just being. Loving as an active state of being. Seeing the world through non-dualistic glasses.

Haven’t been in my studio at all. Only the coziest rooms are attractive right now. Fabric and color have become inviting to me. Because I’ve been enjoying (and hoarding) fabric for 20+ years, when I finally unpacked all the bags and boxes, I found a huge array of beautiful pieces! I folded each one into a little pile, ordered them by color and value, and began an intuitively-pieced quilt to put over myself while I rest, read, meditate, ruminate.

These are the squares I’ve made. There is no deadline, timeline, framework, pattern or scheme here. There is only a delightful inner awareness of each little part, as it relates to and turns into a whole. The Tao Te Ching says that a journey of a thousand (?) miles starts with one step. Well, the creation of this queen (?) sized quilt started and progresses by choosing and measuring each single square of fabric.

Red Maple Leaf

Today, like every other day,
we wake up empty and scared.
Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading.
Take down the dulcimer.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways
to kneel
and kiss the ground.

Rumi

It’s turned cold in Maine, but this is balmy and bright compared to what is ahead. I wish I forgot the thing called winter every year. Really forgot it. Because once I see the red maple leaves fallen onto the ground a little part of me thinks, “the end”.

This leaf was brand new and opening out into a tender yellow-green state just 5 months ago. It’s easy to get sucked into feeling sorry for ourselves. Will we have to wait 7 months for our inner spirit to rejoice again? This leaf turned flaming red and has blown down onto the ground, but it’s not the end, it’s simply a transformation. Cycles must involve deaths in order to bring about new life and that’s a wonderful thing. The joy will keep coming every day, all we have to do is be awake and keep our selves open for it. This leaf in particular just got to experience being scanned! And at some point it will join the pile of compost outside and be broken down, nuzzled by some worms and eventually help grow flowers and tomatoes next summer.

helicopter seeds

Let the beauty we love be what we do! After picking up the red leaf today, I found some helicopter seeds hanging like lacy blossums from a leafless tree.  This is the cycle. The tree has produced its seeds and it doesn’t worry ahead to the idea of freezing temperatures and snow. It’s just being a tree. The aliveness is going down into it’s roots now in preparation for another highly energetic growth spurt next spring.

We are like that tree, and we can stop thinking and worrying and feeling sad and just welcome this part of our cycle.

Welcome to the season of inner restoration. The tides are out and we can breathe a huge sigh of relief as we hunker down under the covers for a long restful retreat.

Blue and Brown, watercolor, 4 x 6 inche

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.

Leo Buscaglia

Do you ever find yourself worrying about imagined threats? It is the worst feeling, especially if you are a particularly imaginative person. Luckily, because you are imaginative, you are just as good at recovering from this anxiousness as you are at attracting it! It can be chased away by celebrating your capacity for life, right here, right now. For you that might mean getting up and doing a jig to diffuse its hold on you… Or maybe it means writing down all those pointless worries on the page to get them out of your head. For me, getting out some paints and putting my joy onto the paper where I can see it feels really great…. Whatever you can think of to do to comfort your tender inner self, it is the life-force center of your universe and you are worth the effort!

I made this painting at my desk today. Taking 30 minutes to lose myself in my bliss was just what the doctor ordered. I felt better afterwards. Ahhhh. What a relief to claim the space that is needed.

Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.

Benjamin Franklin

Like Water For Mountains, watercolor, 3.75 x 4 inches

It’s my private mountain, It belongs to me. God told me if I painted it enough, I could have it.

Georgia O’Keeffe

Another pretty painting for another pretty day.  There is a great peaceful space around you, and angels are flying all around your head.  Take a deep breath in and enjoy it!

mixed media, 4,25 x 5.5 inches

Pema Chodron

Start where you are, pick up the beautiful glimmering objects you find in your path every day. You are exactly where you need to be and you are free to take steps in whatever direction you choose.

The mica at Harvard Quarry looked like disco ball wreckage strewn all over the place. It was like walking on mirror shards, broken bottles and diamonds. I sat down in it and allowed myself to be taken in by the exotic twinkles and warm sunshine. I brought some home with me and ground it down and these mineral sprinkles stick beautifully to printing ink. Difficult to photograph, but dazzling to the eye and totally fun to play with!

Glittering Mica

Black Mesa (in progress), acrylic on canvas, 9 x 11 inch

And the water tastes funny
When you’re far from your home
But it’s only the thirsty
That hunger to roam

John Prine

It’s colder now and we have to turn up the heat in the house. But yesterday we went to an amazing place north of here where there was an old mine and we collected lots of gorgeous mica and quartz.  That place stirred the soul.

Today I’m wearing layers indoors. Summer is definitely over….  And if all goes well I will not spend the entire winter here in Maine. But whatever part I do spend here will be good solidarity time, me shining my best light and living life to its fullest for nobody but me.

I long to be where the sky is enormous and full of sun again, so I’ll keep making paintings of that place until I see it again.

Spirit of Ghost Ranch, watercolor, 4 x 6 inches

Enlightenment doesn’t occur from sitting around visualizing images of light, but from integrating the darker aspects of the Self into the conscious personality.

Carl Jung

I’m not exactly sure what Jung means by this, but I do know that there are natural cycles of ups and downs, ins and outs, and you can’t have one without the other. I often tell myself to “go with the flow”, but what about the ebbing? It’s just as important and often it uncovers hidden gifts.

The monthly reproductive cycle is a very literal ebbing and flowing of creative energy. On the first day or two, my entire life force seems totally drained and I am reduced to my most basic functions. It is a deeply introspective time. Everything I shoved down all month becomes exposed making it a fantastic time to meditate, rest and discover new insights.

This watercolor had exciting moments along the way but I managed to cover most of them up by the time it was “finished”. But it helped me figure out some of the visual problems that come when trying to depict something that looks so unreal to begin with — the landscape in Abiquiu, NM. This is the first time I made a watercolor without brushes! All you need are watercolor pencils, some drinking water, and a finger for puddling the two together.

]]> http://heartstorms.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/go-with-the-ebb/feed/ 0 Heart Storm Studio spirit-of-ghost-ranch-001 http://heartstorms.wordpress.com/2008/09/29/having-a-good-tim/ http://heartstorms.wordpress.com/2008/09/29/having-a-good-tim/#comments Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:02:45 +0000 Meg http://heartstorms.wordpress.com/?p=326 ]]>

Go With the Flow, acrylic on paper, 4 x 5.25 inches

For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much – the wheel, New York, wars and so on – whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man – for precisely the same reasons.

Douglass Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Isn’t that what making art is all about? A wise woman recently told me that we’re allowed to enjoy ourselves now “more than ever before” and that sounds like great news to me!

Get some paper out and make some quick, expressive paintings. Mix a color you like, get out your favorite brush. Go! Go! Have yourself a really enjoyable time.

Black Mesa, Charcoal on paper, 18 x 24

The buzzing yellow arc lamps of the city were soon left behind, and the air began turning bold and sweet with the smells of melting earth. I thought I’d drive straight through the night, cleaving the soft wet silence with my peacefulness. I thought I would never quit driving it felt so good.

Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine

Today the reflection in the mirror showed a happy person lost in play.

After traveling in New Mexico and falling in love with the landscape there, I considered purchasing a reproduction of one of Georgia O’Keeffe’s mesa paintings, but then realized what I really wanted to do was make some of my own. Three or five, I think. The more you make, the more likely it is that one will really be inspired and exciting.

Commencing project! It was good to study the outcroppings of rock and gentle swerving shapes that make up this mesa, and I had that spacious feeling of being transported out of this drizzly city day and into the fragrant, warm desert.