journey into self awareness....

Jill Bolte Taylor's astonishing journey into self awareness....

are you open to the possibilities of self awareness beyond your norm? would it take a massive stroke to bring you to this kind of openness? would your creativity come from a different place?

the limitless universe, the space of our limitless spirit...

The message of Jesus reaches into the depths of our humanity...into those spaces of life where we create and imagine, dance and sing, write and envision, laugh and cry, mourn and despair, hope and love, and where everything deeply human dwells within us.

"spirit dancer" - 2008

This message reaches into our art. I believe that our art is another message of eternal life as it lives and reaches beyond us. It is a bridge between heaven and earth and experiencing the oneness with all.

Every human being has a light, a radiant spark of God's divine nature, installed in his/her own nature. The idea of opening this light to the world is what all artists and craftspeople have been doing since the birth of time. And I will venture to say that opening up our light will be most important in the third millennium as people search for a spiritual connection.  For an artist, our art is the portal to our souls.

I believe that all of us are called to co-create in the universe together with God. Everyone, if willing, can open up their divine origin, hidden within the depths of our human souls, and give something of value to the universe.

"repose" 2008

Finding your radiant spark, tapping in to the divine inspiration, and then allowing it to flow through you into the limitless universe is your charge in this life. Finding that space of your limitless spirit is a lifelong quest.

Spiritually advanced human souls have already set forth on their journey... can you be far behind? Afterall, you were led to this place today... Have you set forth on your journey or are you afraid to take that first, necessary step?

Millions of enlightened souls have entered their own dark night of the soul. This is where the journey first leads you. It is uncomfortable and, at times, frightening but very necessary to grow into our spiritual maturity. Once in spiritual maturity you are free to co-create with God and the universe with the gift that is uniquely your own.

We are challenged not to become so immersed in the illusory existence of the manifested universe that we forgot our divine nature. 

the energy of incomplete work...

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here are some paintings that are incomplete..or so i thought when i started this post...but the more i look at this top image the more sure that i am it is finished...so it is...

'a single tear' - 2009 acrylic, plaster on canvas

back to the topic...do you know the energy of incomplete work...

how many incomplete, half finished, or unstarted works are stealing your energy?

everything has energy...and things undone are thieves of creativity...they steal little bits of your energy by remaining in a state of limbo..subtly leaking energy...and the more little bits of energy that are being taken from you, the less creative energy you have to devote to the present works begging to be born...

i took a walk around my studio yesterday...i noticed several pieces that i have begun, with great intentions, yet abandoned somewhere along the way...they call to me every time i enter the space..."remember me?"..."help me" ..."finish me"...

if you have left some things unfinished in your life or your studio, perhaps they are using energy that could be better used in your present...for the present IS your life...

how to spot your energy stealers...attune your senses, mentally take orientations, be alert to negativity and energy stealers in your personal space...

then neutralize them by taking an action toward finalizing them or repurposing them or omitting them..undertake a mental and physical spring energy cleaning...

sometimes i even pick these unfinished works up and remember the moment that image came to me...the need to create it...other times i actually take it to my table and work at it...then put it away again...

i have come to understand that, if i did not stick with it until it was finished, perhaps it should be abandoned entirely...repurposed, reconditioned, reinvented...the materials used in another way...and when i do this i often find a remarkable work that developed out of fragments of other work from other times in my life...

so i am starting a series called 'fragments' that will use these old, unfinished works...in a different way, a new way...with new energy...i am also clearing away, simplifying my life...starting tomorrow i will begin selling my collection of art making supplies...please bookmark the blog or favorite it so you can see when new thing are added...it could be just what you need to finish a work...

Today's Intention...uncover the unfinished work in my life that is leaking energy...and finish or repurpose it...

Art Preserves Spiritual Possibilities...

"Art is a conservative power, the strongest of all; it preserves spiritual possibilities that without it--perhaps--would die out." Thomas Mann, Reflections of an Unpolitical Man

"spiritual being"rebecca e. parsons 2007 graphite on paper...acrylic...computer enhanced
Einstein and Spirituality


Spirituality is a concept that is difficult to pin down, so to avoid being ambiguous let’s look to science for some direction. The famous physicist Albert Einstein was very clear that he didn’t believe in a personal God or any accepted theology. He denied any belief in the immortality of the individual, and considered ethics to be an exclusively human concern without any superhuman authority behind it. However, he did have a spiritual side, which he often expressed. To him it was characterised thus:

To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness. In this sense I am religious.

The letter Einstein wrote late in his life to the Queen of Belgium, who was suffering a great grief, is full of this sense of spirituality.

And yet, as always the spring-time sun brings forth new life, and we may rejoice because of this new life and contribute to its unfolding, and Mozart remains as beautiful and tender as he always was and always will be. There is after all something eternal that lies beyond the hand of fate and all human delusions, and such eternals lie closer to an older person than to a younger one oscillating between fear and hope. For us there remains the privilege of experiencing beauty and truth in their purest forms.

Einstein’s spiritual side often expressed itself in his love of music. After hearing the 13-year-old Yehudi Menuhin with the Berlin Philharmonic he was heard to exclaim ‘Now I know that there is a God in heaven.’ He once said, ‘I often think about music, I live my daydreams in music, I see my life in the form of music’. He particularly worshiped WA Mozart and JS Bach: ‘I have this to say about Bach’s works: listen, play, love, revere - and keep your trap shut.’

The Unifying Principle of Spirituality

A final quote from Einstein might help to clarify this mysterious unifying principle. In 1930 Einstein published an essay on Religion and Science in the New York Times magazine, in which he described his own inclination towards a ‘cosmic’ religious sense, and discerned kindred glimpses of this feeling in such diverse figures as the prophets and psalmists of the Hebrew Bible, St Francis of Assisi and the Buddha. In this he said the following:

It is very difficult to elucidate this feeling to anyone who does not experience it. The individual feels the vanity of human desires and aims, and the nobility and marvellous order which are revealed in nature and in the world of thought. Individual existence strikes him as a sort of prison, and he wants to experience the universe as a single significant whole. The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling. In my view it is the most important function of art and science, to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are receptive to it.

Art for me, and for those receptive to it, preserves the spiritual possibilities...keeps them alive for the artist as well as for those who view or hear the artwork...what are your spiritual possibilities?

Blessings Today...Rebecca

article from: http://thecultureclub.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/js-bachs-mass-in-b-minor-albert-einstein-and-universal-spirituality/
photo from: http://thecultureclub.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/albert-einstein-mechanics-1.jpg

Spirit-knowledge...Intuitivity

intuitive painting "trio" - 2007 - acrylic, watercolor and marmarino plaster on heavy paper
Have you ever just known exactly what to do? Has the paint just flowed from your brush without thought? Have the words just written themselves? Have you just danced with joy to a piece of music you have never heard before? These bursts of creativity are what I call Spiirit-knowledge...where creativity and intuition come together to form Intuitivity...

intuitive painting "Spirit kmowledge" 2007 - Acrylic and molding paste on heavy paper
Spirit-knowledge is the sense and knowledge of faith in a power beyond self that is alive in your heart. Spirit-knowledge is present in prayer and in art, whether the artist or craftsman believes it or not.

intuitive painting "Alone in a Crowd" 2007 - Acrylic and molding paste on heavy paper
I have always thought of my Art as Prayer -moments of openness to the Spirit of God. I intentionally open and invite this connection before I begin to create - a ritual of sorts. I center myself with a few deep breaths. When I am ready (I do not rush this time), I ask God simply, "Give success to the work of my hands."

intuitive painting "Bella Luna" 2007 - Acrylic and molding paste on heavy paper
What I know and discover in my art prayer is often difficult to share or prove to another - my sense of God, my delight in being a creative child of God and my intuitive feelings born in prayer. The paintings in this post reflect what happens when you are open to intuitivity... So I invite you to explore your intuitivity and Spirit knowledge this week.

intuitive painting "Wings" 2007 - Acrylic and molding paste on heavy paper board

Exploratory Expedition... Before you create this week, invite the Holy Spirit to guide you and be with you. Then open yourself to work intuitively, without editing or correcting as you go. Experience where this takes your art. Allow the time to open your heart to what the Spirit of God teaches in art prayer.