Hello again dear reader:
The season has most definitely turned in Calgary and I once again have three sweaters while I’m painting in the basement. In the basement there are no windows where I paint and it is chilly and silent. There is something very magical about the isolation though and something symbolic about going down underground to do my creative work and re-emerging to engage in the rest of my life. For those of you that may know astrology the symbolic correlation of my natal Pluto (in Virgo in the fourth house 6 degrees off my IC) to my soul enhances the metaphor, describing a soul that has incarnated naturally retreating to the depths of personal space and experience-like painting in my basement perhaps? Remind me sometime, though, to tell you about the one small creative companion I have down there-So this week was busy and very satisfying. I think that last week I suggested that I had been discovering some exciting creative experiences. The week has culminated in me having done one of the most satisfying paintings ever that has inspired expansion in what I believe is possible in paint. For some time now I have been aware of an emerging theme in my creative work that has direct correlation to my spiritual practice and study. It had been for some time that I didn’t understand the relationship of my painting practice to my deep desire for spiritual development and experience. I knew somehow that the two were related in my life, but experientially painting was less satisfying than the meditation, prayer and study that I engaged in. Over the past year I have witnessed the two disciplines in my life merging as I have realized that many of the spiritual truths I have studied are perfectly adaptable to being expressed in paint with meaning and purpose and that the practice of painting itself for me is an opportunity for great conscious meditation and connection with the divine. As painting becomes more spiritually satisfying I am gaining the courage to follow the creative urges that I would have questioned before. So, then, I believe I am beginning to experience the prime purpose of a creative life which is to experience connection with the divine and to bring that experience to an audience.
Technically what I have discovered this week is a way to use color and texture of the paint to describe matter and spirit and the relationship of them to each other. While painting on “Compass” as I was painting the mundane objects on the desk I stopped to follow an urge to paint a face. I let myself be completely free and present to the image emerging and in the resulting work is a perfect combination of color, luminosity and texture for my purposes. It is 8X12" oil on board titled Message From the Blind King-the title has no particular meaning for me but does suggest another theme emerging of sound, silence and messaging and that is for discussion another time when your patience is fresh. There is an energetic presence here which I have perceived as missing from my work, although as I look around at the most recent things I have done I see that there is indeed evidence of these elements emerging if I really look.So, back to the studio, back to "Compass" and to the portrait commission I have just begun. I have much to accomplish in the coming months and years. I return to the studio very inspired and I look forward to writing again next week.Grateful as always for your time and attention dear reader,Janine