Devotion

Passion

Ra Paulette has been carving out man-made caves from the sandstone hills of New Mexico, for 25 years, and then sculpting these spaces into works of art he calls wilderness shrines.

** Feel free to visit our new FORUM Page - to discuss or comment anything on your mind . . . 

The Work

Enjoy Sarah and Colin Walsh's animated home made video on what it takes to become the artist you might long to be:

http://unicornpoo.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-leopard-can-indeed-change-his.html

How does your Creative process work?

The main thing I’ve learned at this point about my creative process is that the overarching theme is EBB AND FLOW. I used to think I could only call myself an artist if I made art every day, or near enough. But I don’t, and guess what, I reckon I’m still an artist. ;) Sometimes many weeks can go by with no contact between brush and canvas, and while I like to keep a skeleton practice going in my sketchbook during those times, even that doesn’t always happen.

So when the inspiration is there, I will make art with an intensity that by its nature cannot last. During that time ideas breed ideas, the inspiration is constant, and it’s tiring in the best possible way – the way that leaves you feeling full after, rather than drained. And then the cycle will turn and there will be a pause. I don’t fight the pause, although I will poke at it from time to time to see if it’s over yet, like when you test a bruise to see if it still hurts. {Everyone does that, right?}

During the pause I don’t stop being creative, I just stop making art. I’ll read a lot, bake a lot, write, work on other creative projects like creating courses or taking classes, I’ll spend more time outdoors, and more time contemplating. In a way it seems like an imbalance, this on/off/on/off passionate romance with paint, but I don’t see it that way. I am not only an artist, or perhaps more accurately I don’t confine that word to making marks with paint or other media.

I’m going to say it, even though it sounds cheesy. Life is an art. We are all artists. Everything we do is part of the creative process.

http://taraleaver.com/2014/10/creative-process-blog-hop/

Nobel-winning physicist Richard Feynman - was a surprisingly gifted semi-secret artist. He started drawing at the age of 44. 

"I wanted very much to learn to draw, for a reason that I kept to myself: I wanted to convey an emotion I have about the beauty of the world. It’s difficult to describe because it’s an emotion. It’s analogous to the feeling one has in religion that has to do with a god that controls everything in the universe: there’s a generality aspect that you feel when you think about how things that appear so different and behave so differently are all run ‘behind the scenes’ by the same organization, the same physical laws. It’s an appreciation of the mathematical beauty of nature, of how she works inside; a realization that the phenomena we see result from the complexity of the inner workings between atoms; a feeling of how dramatic and wonderful it is. It’s a feeling of awe — of scientific awe — which I felt could be communicated through a drawing to someone who had also had that emotion. I could remind him, for a moment, of this feeling about the glories of the universe."  - Richard Feynman, physicist

Here's a beautiful inner journey by Sabrina Page . . . showing us how "to let go" . . . 

NONLOCALITY: CELL AND COSMOS

by Sabrina Page

March 18, 2015 

I have always been fascinated with the cells of my body, ever since the mid 80s when I first read Sat Prem's book on the Mother's cellular explorations, The Mind of the Cells.  I talk with them, be with them, and see them as a portal to the cosmos or to interconnection within nature.  I can experience consciousness within my own cells and know that all that is around me and within me is arising from that consciousness.

The other day I had a particularly vivid experience when I was feeling the stars within my own cells.  Usually I feel them as lighting up the waters within my cells, the cell as a still pool of water reflecting their light. But this time my awareness telescoped to being within one cell, as if I were sitting in a cozy little space looking at the night sky all around me, deep blue and brilliant with stars.  

Then, instantaneously I became the skin or edge of the entire cosmos, galaxies and universes inside me, one giant cell, finite and infinite together.

I love this non local aspect of consciousness, seeing the Universe in a grain of sand, as Blake so eloquently described.  For me, exploring deeper levels of embodiment has revealed so many possibilities.

This non local ability is also deeply relational, we develop compassion and empathy as it can enable us to see from another's perspective, to understand the world from their bodily position, whether it is a loved one or a plant or bird. I can feel the plant trapped in the pot needing water, or my mother's suffering vividly.  My heart opens and I become the Heart that is holding us all.

When it is my own suffering I can expand to be the Heart that holds my aching body.  I am both at the same time, not escaping my own feeling but mother and child together.  The mind expands and the heart grows, this is the joy of going deeper into consciousness. I share this to stimulate your own explorations and welcome hearing your adventures into conscious exploration.

Suzanne and Grant had a discussion on "Line" during a recent skype call . . . just wanted to share with all of you  . . . 

Slideshow on "Line" (in progress)

I wanted to share with you all how resonance with something can bring us to a place of love, growth and inspiration in our lives and art.  This artist Nice Cave describes his finding of simplicity quite beautifully.  From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Art Project.

http://artistproject.metmuseum.org/1/nick-cave/