Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts

Friday, April 22, 2011

Fire inspires...

In my dream, a fire raged through a beautiful old house, eagerly consuming the structure once called "home" by an unknown someone. My companions and I later took in the aftermath, saddened by the senseless loss. Next to the charred, skeletal remains was an unkempt, empty lot. In the center was a mound of dried grass. Curious, I brushed at the brittle, loose clippings and discovered a huge pile of money. I was ecstatic and called to my companions to witness our good fortune, declaring that there was enough money to rebuild the devastated dwelling.


Upon waking, I sleepily recalled my dream and then began my morning meditation. At the end of my meditation, I traditionally treat myself to a random page from the collection entitled Love Poems From God. As I flip, with eyes closed, my thumb senses where it needs to be. Here is where it landed. Page 326.


"Dig Here," the Angel Said by Saint John of the Cross


She caught me off gaurd when my soul said to me,

"Have we met?"


So surprised I was to hear her speak like that

I chuckled.


She began to sing a tale: "There once was a hardworking man

who used to worry so much because he could

not feed and clothe his children and

wife the way he wanted.


There was a beautiful little chapel in the village

where the man lived and one day while

he was praying, an angel

appeared.


The angel said, 'Follow me.' And he did out into an ancient forest.

'Now dig here,' the angel said. And the man felt strength in

his limbs he had not known since youth and with just

his bare hands he dug deep and found a

lost treasure, and his relationship

with the world changed."


Finding our soul's lost beauty does that-gives us

tremendous freedom

from worry.


"Dig here," the angel said-

"in your soul,

in your

soul."


When things like this happen, I am filled with wonder and find myself looking for buried treasure all around me.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Painting Sketchbook

I have decided to start a painting sketchbook...
small...treasures...
pieces...of torn...



canvas...inviting play...


embellishment and experimentation.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Why Do I Do This?

In the film Louise Bourgeois by Camille Guichard, Bourgeois states that she creates because her emotions are too big for her body to contain them. Indeed.

Lately, as I have begun a rather daunting project, I have been asking myself again and again, "Why do I do this?" It is impractical. It is often time and labor intensive. I ache. I have no time. The conversation with my artist self winds and I have come up with many different answers at different times. Basically, what it all comes down to is that I can't help it. This is who I am. I am a person who sees the potential of the grand idea and then uses that as momentum to take the first step, even though I might be fearful and do not know if it is really going to work.

In his Letters to a Young Poet, Maria Ranier Rilke said, "Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself that you would have to die if you were forbidden to write." There was a time when I did not know this for certain about myself and art. But I know now. I know that if I don't listen to this voice inside me that says "make this," I will exist only as vapor...easily blown away by the four winds...invisible.

For me, saying "yes" to this compulsion is essential. It is loving myself.