Shadow and Light

For the past while my own personal artwork has led me into a reflection of shadow and light. I have been drawing free form mandalas with a black Sharpie marker and use either color pencils or watercolors to complete them. This has been my regular Art Journaling practice for about 2 years.

After completing a drawing, I always photograph my work. About six months ago I began using my photo editor to make a negative image of the original to explore the shadow of what I had drawn. The work has been powerful. This spring will begin incorporating it into one of my workshops.  Here is a collage of today's mandala. The central image is the original drawing.  It is surrounded by different versions of its shadow.  How does each one evoke a different feeling for you?

I will be doing a 3 session training on this process this Spring in Davidson, NC. Let me know if you live in the area and are interested in attending.

For the past year and a half I have been exploring the mandala as a symbol for wholeness.  In the process I have found that the wholeness of who I am includes many faces some readily seen and some obscured and in the shadows,  I continue to work in the round, the symbol of the circle providing a sacred vessel in which to continue to explore myself.  Lately I have found myself working in an unfolding process.  First I draw the image intuitively using a black Sharpie marker and making peace with the imperfection that arises in the image as it unfolds itself on the page.  Then I pull out my watercolors and again release my expectations and let the paint have its way.  Finally I take my drawn and painted image to the photographic process and use my camera editing software to transform the image again.  The image above has actually had the hue shifted and has been flipped from the positive image to the negative.  What emerged from the digging into the shifting nature of the photograph and then exploring its shadow side is immensely more pleasing than the original image.

My continuing lesson from this process is not to judge as things unfold.  If I can shift my perspective I can find beauty even in what appears to be the negative side of things.

You must give birth to your images.

They are the future waiting to be born.

Fear not the strangeness you feel.

The future must enter you long before it happens.

Just wait for the birth,

for the hour of the new clarity.”   

Rainer Maria Rilke

Body Movement Meditation

Take a few minutes each day for a body meditation based on the teachings of St. Julian of Norwich.

Await
Allow
Accept
Attend

Here is a brief video demonstrating the movements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdGf3aJ64Po

The Web of Life

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle

Rooted

The ground washes away underfoot

Clinging to the side of the hill
Roots burrow deeply into the crumbling bank

Mother Earth grabs hold

Providing the sustenance needed to hang on
 Perhaps even to grow in this unlikely place

Rooting, spreading, seeking the center

Drawing upon the wisdom rooted deep within
 Weaving themselves into a mandala of wholeness

Spring comes with the sprouting of new leaves

~Karen Perrell Campbell

Art is an act of the soul...