Beautiful videos I have set to music with my paintings.
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I recall so clearly my very first visit to the high desert over twenty years ago. I thought it was the most desolate, brownest, most stark and barren land I had ever seen. I couldn’t understand why or how people would choose to live here. Yet, I continued to come back to this barren land, again and again. On a cool September evening while walking up Canyon Road in Santa Fe, the light was pouring down on a sweet flowering trumpet vine that was cascading over and along an old adobe wall. In that moment, I heard a voice that told me one day this would be my home. It wasn’t long after that I began my passion for painting the southwest landscape while living back in Virginia. But it would be another ten years before that prophetic voice came to pass.
They call New Mexico the Land of Enchantment. I never understood why until after I had moved here, and began my explorations across and around this mysterious state. The first thing that is so unique is the incredible diversity in the landscape. No matter which direction you go, from any place here, within fifty miles the landscape changes drastically. From Santa Fe to the east, you will find forested wilderness and high mountain meadows; to the west, the verdant valleys along the Rio Grande river; to the south, wide open mesas stretched between mountain ranges and wildlife bosques; and to the north, the deep river canyons, wide open grasslands and big mountains. Yet, incredibly, even more canyons, lush valleys, forests and meadows could be found within fifty miles from each of these places. I was starting to understand the meaning of this enchantment.
Then there is the magic of the vast open spaces and the big sky. You can truly see forever here. You can watch storms roll in a hundred miles away. There is something that happens to the way your brain functions here with all this far reaching space. Your perceptions are altered, expanded, intensified and accelerated. Your world is bigger somehow as you take everything in within that huge scope and vision of space. It’s so completely different from living back east where your vision is usually limited to just the fields and hills within the immediate area. Here in the high desert, your vision is endless.
Then there is the light. So many artists are drawn here by the quality of this extraordinary light. There is just no place like this. The infinite open spaces of both land and sky at altitude create an exceptional experience. The light is very bright, and the sun is strong up here at 7000 feet. There is that magical time of the day when that strong sun is getting lower in the sky, and starts to beam a softer radiance that casts a spell over everything. The gift of an electric sunset is assured when the evening sky is dotted with clouds. And the night sky? I thought I had seen stars until I came here. You don’t just gaze at the stars here. You are pulled beyond them into the cosmos where there are a zillion more stars. There is a clarity and crispness at altitude that is unlike life at sea level. My sources for inspiration to create southwest paintings is also an endless vision.
In spite of modern conveniences, it is still really the wild west when it comes to being out in nature here. The land here is raw, rugged, untamed and like the ocean, commands respect. You don’t dare take off into the mountains or deserts here for a long trek, even in the height of summer, without serious gear. A thunderstorm can roll in unexpectedly, and drop the temperature by 15-20 degrees in a matter of minutes. And the dry arroyos, creek beds and canyons can become flash floods just as fast.
All land seems to have its people who live and work the land intimately. The high desert here is rich with the diversity of its people. The Native American Indians recognize the sacred qualities of this land, and have honorably maintained this with their traditions of ceremony, dance and prayer. Their traditions are woven into these lands like a beautiful blanket. The sacred reverence of these lands produces an energy that you will inevitably come to feel and know. No matter whether you are a transplanted gringo, a local Hispanic or Native American, this enchanted land will call you as it has so many southwest artists . Many, who were never artists, become artists here. It is an artist haven, rich with culture, expansive views, magnificent landscapes and magical light. You will find this enchanting spell hard to resist, so don’t. Become enchanted with this land.
I have often heard it said that we are closest to God in the garden. It is a different connection in the garden than when we experience God out in the wilds of nature. The garden allows us to intimately participate in, and become co-creators, with the cycles of life. Though we may gaze in awe at a meadow on fire with red and orange wildflowers, our spiritual and emotional connections are more deeply sustained when we are the creators of some natural beauty. When we create our own sacred garden, we create a sanctuary in which to nourish our souls connection to nature. I have a passion as a painter for flowers in the garden. Claude Monet says it all for me when he stated, ” I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.” Creating the garden paradise is one experience; eternalizing the paradise with floral painting is another.
Why do we love flowers so much? I think there are many reasons. The combination of their many colorful shades, textures and diversity of species simply make us happy. On a more subtle level, we are moved by all this extraordinary, diverse beauty that connects us to the power of creative potential, to the cycles of nature and to the sacred, symbolic meaning of life.
Science has now confirmed that our moods and emotions are directly affected by color. So whether we are creating a garden, or a floral painting, we can influence our viewers with our choice of colors. The use of warm colors will excite and engage us while cool colors will quiet and calm us. Color is also very personal. It seems most people resonate with a favorite color. As well, many cultural and spiritual traditions around the world designate certain colors with symbols, energies, deities, animals, rituals, celebrations, meanings and myths. Magically, color speaks to us.
The many numerous shades of colors in nature so amazes me, yet challenges me as a painter to express. Once when I was driving through the countryside of Virginia at the height of an Appalachian spring, I pulled off the road to literally catch my breath in response to all the beauty I was experiencing. I started counting all the shades of green I saw, but there were more than I could count or name. A similar experience occurred later when our family garden was exploding with summertime floral colors. I attempted to give every shade I saw a name, but there were many more than I could even name. Back in the studio, there was no way my floral artwork could even begin to touch all the subtle variations of tone and shade in every color that I had witnessed in the garden. I could only aspire to paint as beautifully as nature.
The multitude of shapes, textures and colors all woven together create endless varieties of flowers. Much like us as a unique, individual person, every flower has something to say, a sacred story to tell. The exquisite lotus that speaks of spiritual fulfillment as it rises from the water towards the heavens; the rose that reflects the sweet scent and soft complexity of romantic love; the sunflower that mirrors our radiant sun from which all life is given; the iris that symbolize our bridge between heaven and earth and the aromatic flowering vines that call to us of regeneration and the gift of life. Flowers have spoken to all people throughout time, and share their message of the divine that is in all life and all around us.
Alice Walker reminds us that, ” The true nature of This Flower is to bloom.” We are reminded by the unique beauty of each flower about our own beautiful uniqueness. We are all like the flowers, each one of us with a destiny to bloom, and a sacred story to tell along the way. We are empowered to live fully while connecting to the mysterious cycles on life and death through flowers and all of nature. For the path of growth is fragile, and full of challenges to overcome. I like to surround myself with lots of flowers, and to create my flower art paintings, whenever I feel resistance and struggle on my path. For a flower does not complicate its destiny with doubt and question. It knows with calm certainty that its blossoms are inevitable.
A vase full of lovely flowers is destined to become a painting in my home. Or that I do not park and paint in a newly discovered abundant floral garden. For few things can uplift and feed my soul as sweetly as flowers. I side with Emma Goldman when she said, ” I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.”
Artists live on the edge with a sensitivity, a receptivity to those golden, unexpected moments when inspiration reveals itself. We cannot force nor make inspiration happen. It arrives as a gift from Spirit, and effortlessly flows into our being. I aspire to live my life from this place. It is the still peace and calm in the eye of the storm while everything else is in chaos around you. Inspiration is at home in peaceful calm where it can rest, and give birth to all things new and possible. It was here I discovered the moon roses.
I strolled one summer evening in our lovely family garden in Virginia where roses grew in abundance. The moon was full, and still hanging low in the sky. I walked in a receptive, meditative state all around the roses until I was facing a large pink rose in full blossom with the full moon as a backdrop. The rose was perfectly centered in the middle of the moon with stars twinkling around it in the deep indigo night sky. The moment was magical beyond words. I was haunted beautifully with this image for days before I simply had to express it on canvas.
I painted a pink rose with splashes of soft green in it, and placed it in the middle of the moon. The stars came to life from bits of gold leaf that I sprinkled into the night sky. I studied the finished painting on the easel for days wondering if this was it. Would this little painting stand alone, or would it become part of a series? And if so, what was this painting trying to say, and what more could be said? One early morning while viewing this painting, I journeyed back to an inner vision I had once with an energy healer. I was guided to heal my broken heart with an image that would sustain my healing. The image that came to me was a rose. Now, I saw that I had painted the Anahata chakra, known as the heart chakra. And a series of chakra art was born.
I was filled with the inspiration for my love of roses, the night, the moon and the chakras. I had worked with a chakra energy healer for many years, and found it to be one of the few healing modalities with which I deeply resonated. So what are chakras? Chakras are the body’s energy centers through which our life force flows. These energy centers are the hub for our emotional, mental, physical and spiritual well being and balance. Their energy spins like a wheel from the base of the spine all the way up and out the top of the head. The word chakra is a Sanskrit term that means wheel or circle. Our life force is in constant motion, spinning like a wheel, to keep our energy moving and in balance.
One of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves for healing is to embrace and work with the energies of our own chakras. The chakras are intimately connected to everything going on around us because they reflect energy. In a way, they are our energy filters for either taking in or protecting from the endless energies we experience all the time. We will maintain our balance when we have strong boundaries with clarity about what supports and sustains us. If we are stuck in old repetitive patterns, or we have taken in and held unhealthy energies, we will find ourselves out of balance. Chakra energy work provides tremendous relief when we are out of balance. This deep, and fast, work can strengthen our boundaries, provide protection and move old energy so we can bring in the new. Traditional therapy is often limited to healing through the mind that can take a long time, where energy healing can move patterns instantly.
There are seven major chakras in the body though many experts propose more. I have made a list for you below that defines the chakras with their Sanskrit names, their colors and descriptive essence.
Sahasrara chakra- crown- white, pink, gold- divine, pure, love, nurturing, wisdom
Ajna chakra- third-eye- violet- intuition, meditative, introspection, gentle
Vishuddha chakra- throat- blue- calm, clear, communication, truth
Anahata chakra- heart- green- heart, balance, harmony, healing, compassion
Manipura chakra- solar plexus- yellow- power, emotions, sense of self, vulnerable
Swadistana chakra- sacral- orange- creative, sexual, excitement, pleasure, joy
Muladhara chakra- root- red- grounded, security, survival, earth, passion
Though the chakras are unseen, invisible energies, do not under estimate their power and influence. Just like the moon, though it is visible, it has the power to affect us in ways we may not always understand. If the moon has the power over the ebb and flow of the ocean’s tides, then it most definitely has the power for our moods to come and go. The energy of all life is circular, not linear, as the seasons, the moons, the roses and the chakras reveal to us. To hold the vision of our chakras as beautiful roses illuminated by the moonlight, is to see ourselves as the vibrational light beings that we truly are in these bodies. We are each a garden full of roses that needs to be loved and nurtured so that we may bring our beauty and our gifts into the world in full bloom.
Water in the high desert of New Mexico where I live is a precious, non-abundant resource. It is for me a necessity to get to the ocean whenever possible to get my water fix. I have been heading south of the border in winter since 1997 when I first landed in Baja. I recall thinking as I was seeing it from the air for the first time how it looked just like the high desert except it had an ocean. I knew I would love it here, and couldn’t wait to create a series of original art paintings of Baja.
Baja is not the lush, tropical part of Mexico. It is very much desert with areas near water that are more lush and fertile. It is a long narrow peninsula with the Pacific ocean on the west side, and the Sea of Cortez on the east side. Running down the middle between these two coasts are the huge Sierra de La Laguna mountains. I would park for as long as possible in the small coastal village of Todos Santos, which means All Saints. It was founded in 1724 as a Jesuit mission, and in the late 1800′s became a prosperous cane-milling town producing a dark sugar called “panocha.” Todos Santos is a charming village rich in history and culture that attracts many artists, and an ideal place to buy Baja art. You will find all the wonderful art and crafts made by the Mexican people as well as beautiful paintings of Baja by the local artists. I always brought an extra bag that came home stuffed full with Mexican blankets, pottery and assorted colorful textiles.
I am a total fan of Mexican culture, food, art and the people. They are warm, family oriented and always have a smile for you. They always seem to be celebrating something(lots of Saints) with music, dance and food. Todos Santos is big on art festivals that include both the locals and the many transplanted gringos. Attending one of these festivals is fun with a great atmosphere, and a perfect place to buy artwork of Mexico. Mexicans are very open to negotiating prices with you, but it is important to be respectful and not offer bottom dollar. They are hard working people who take much pride in all the beautiful arts and crafts they have made. Even if you pay the full price asking price, it is always less than what you would pay in the USA. There are numerous working studios set up by both Americans and Mexicans where you can stroll in and meet the artist at work. Most of these artists are living there because they truly love the area, and this passion shows in their work. You will pay more if you want to buy original art from these artists, but you will get something special.
Life in this small coastal fishing village is so utterly sweet and simple. Life in America has become so stressed and complicated, and you forget how sweet a simple life can be. I was extremely content being surrounded by beautiful colors, good, simple food and the ocean. I often wondered why I ever wanted anything more.
Baja is wonderful because of all the diversity between the mountains, and the differences on both coasts. You can drive across Baja in a few hours, and explore some mountain villages along the way that are famous for their crafts. The west coast with the Pacific ocean beckons to surfers and wave lovers while the east coast appeals to wind-surfers and deep sea fishermen. All of this fabulous diversity is a paradise for any painter or photographer. The open air markets are paintings waiting to happen with all their colorful food and products, while old painted doors, framed in cascading bougainvillea, lead to lush tropical gardens, and the dusty roads take you past giant cactus to the tops of mountains for electric sunsets over the ocean. In short, there is no lack of inspiration here from which to create Baja art. I still have piles of sketches and photos so that I can continue to paint Baja even when I cannot be there. It is a magical place that will keep calling you back.
I grew up in the foothills of the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains. The Appalachian Trail runs right along the top of the Blue Ridge. The mountains of Appalachia are some of the oldest in the world. I always under estimated the age of these mountains just because they were not as notorious as the likes of the Himalayas. They possess a gentle spirit in comparison. This part of the world is truly some of the most beautiful country you will ever see. The beauty of an Appalachian spring will simply take your breath away…daily. I couldn’t create landscape oil paintings fast enough. I would be overwhelmed by all the beauty.The shades of green are so abundant here in spring that you are hard pressed to even name them or count them. I often painted a lot of acrylic landscape paintings in spring just so I could paint faster, and try to capture all that beauty before it was gone.
There is no doubt that all this beauty influenced my path as a painter. I often felt I was living in a painting. I had no choice but to change my major from Environmental Science to Art, and I started painting in 1976. Despite how much I wanted to have a career working with the environment, fate had other plans when I failed to pass calculus. So, I guess creating landscape artwork of the environment was what I was supposed to do instead. Art became my destiny as really it chose me. It wasn’t long that I was drawn to the beauty of Appalachian landscapes everywhere I turned. There is great satisfaction in painting nature as it serves to remind you of the beauty that surrounds you. You start to embrace beauty in everything with your eyes, the windows of your soul. Sometimes an ordinary scene I always perceived as nothing much became extraordinary, and something worthy of becoming an original landscape.
I painted with acrylics over oils when I wanted immediate gratification. Large oil paintings can take months to complete, and I was short on patience. My focus to landscape oil paintings arrived with that patience after twenty years passed. Painting with oils becomes a journey to your destination instead of an immediate outcome when painting with acrylics. Sometimes I love the fact that I don’t really know where I am going on this journey with a painting. Then it becomes a mystery ride. An extraordinary outcome inevitably comes from my ability to flow…much the way life often flows.
Much to my surprise, I stumbled upon aqua oils about eight years ago. I paid a visit to an artist’s working studio one day, and the smell of oils was not noticeable. The artist willingly shared with me his secret of aqua oil paints with me. I had become sensitive to the smell of oils and turpentine so had stopped working with them, but I missed using them. I was getting frustrated when working on canvas using acrylics. Aqua oils opened up a whole new world for me with landscape paintings. I could now blend beautiful skies and fields without having to worry about how fast my paint was drying. Your vision of the world around you is incredibly expanded just by the knowledge of your working medium. Now, I would study at length a landscape vista while thinking and seeing how I would blend the colors to create an affect. This is when my journey would begin, at the moment I felt inspired by a scene to capture it using color and form. I have often been asked why I chose to paint one scene over another. It is a challenge to describe this to others. There is a sudden moment in which your soul is simply satisfied with what it sees, and your eyes are content. All the pieces come together, and you see the original landscape in your mind where it rests until you give it life as a painting.
The Appalachian mountains and land are my native homeland, and dear to my heart. For most of my life I was fed and nurtured by it’s beauty. If any of my Appalachian landscape oil paintings arouse in you a yearning for these mountains and fields, then I have managed to paint these without losing sight of their gifts.
In June of 2004, the planet Venus made one of it’s rare transits across the face of the sun, passing between the sun and the Earth. No one alive on Earth had ever witnessed this event since the last pair of Venus transits took place in 1874 and 1882, a hundred and twenty-two years prior. The next transit, which is the pair to the June 2004 transit, will occur on June 5th-6th, 2012. It was believed that this transit of Venus would significantly affect all feminine energy on our planet. As we all know now, this divine feminine influence is much needed in our world today to offset the powers of greed, dominance and war so that we may begin to care more consciously for the well being of our planet, nature and one another.
Though women throughout history have always taken the lead in being the care takers of others, the planet and those less fortunate, I believe this transit did inspire many women to do and be more. Women making a difference do not always make headline news, but I can assure you they are out there creating positive change. Many more women now than ever before are stepping up to the plate in politics; traveling to impoverished countries; speaking out for living green, caring for the planet and endangered species; assisting less fortunate women and children globally and creating non-profit organizations to help every living being and creature. I am an artist, and my journey as a painter did not escape this Venus influence. It came to me in a rather unexpected way in the fall of 2004.
I had just moved out of town to a beautiful, secluded ranch outside Santa Fe, New Mexico in the high desert. The property came with a real working art studio that had been built by a well known woman painter here. Though I can make do painting in almost any space, I am always more inspired when I am able to work in a “real” studio space. I had been staring at a big blank canvas for days, and decided to take a long walk in the hills for inspiration. I hiked a long distance, and decided to take a short rest under a Juniper in the shade. I fell asleep, and when I opened my eyes, five coyotes surrounded me. Three of them were laying there very intently, one was sitting and the other was pacing restlessly behind me. I didn’t completely flip out right away as I had never heard of anyone being attacked by coyotes. But then again, my mind didn’t rule out the possibility. I didn’t know what to do. Do I even look them in the eye? Do I just say hello and then head for the hills? Or do I run like hell? I pondered all this for some time. It appeared that these coyotes were content to stay a while. We were clearly going to have a waiting game on our hands. So out of nowhere, I started to sing. I had memorized many songs while singing and painting. So I started in with Eric Clapton and Layla, then Bonnie Raitt with Nick of Time and Angel from Montgomery and on down the line with songs from Everything But The Girl, Gregg Brown, David Gray, James Taylor, Beth Orton and Patty Griffin. I just sang my heart out, all the while keeping an eye on this restless coyote behind me. I have no idea how long I sang, but suddenly the big coyote in front of me got up, approached me with a long, deep stare, then turned away and off they all went…just like that. Feeling relieved, but somewhat shocked, I ran all the way home. I dug through my kitchen cabinets to find a half bottle of Tequila, and spent the next few hours nursing that in the hot tub.
That night I had a dream, and saw a painting where I was singing to the coyotes. I was up at sunrise, and in the studio, brush in hand. “She Sings To The Coyotes” was born. I left shortly after finishing that painting for a trip to Ireland with my two sons and a sister. I was going to a family reunion to meet relatives unknown to me, and to return to my roots. I had the opportunity to speak at length with an Irish relative where we discussed the role of women in Pagan rituals and Celtic traditions. I told her my coyote story, and she commented on what a feminine response I had to what was a potentially threatening situation. And that conversation opened the door to a journey I would take into the sacred feminine through visionary art.
So what is the sacred, or divine, feminine, and why is it important? The divine feminine is a mysterious, creative force that gives birth to all Life. It is the symbol for Oneness, and includes both male and female principles. It is the nurturing and sustaining energy in the Universe that enables us to maintain balance. It embodies the laws of Spirit: forgiveness, compassion, faith, love, peace and kindness. We become people and a world out of balance without these influences. It is no secret that the male principle, and man’s laws, have been the dominating influence for the last seven thousand years. And today, we are indeed a world out of balance. The female energy is one of response to the actions initiated by the male energy. Without respect for the need of the feminine response, our actions will inevitably lead to imbalance whereby we fail to nurture ourselves, one another and our planet.
Some would say it calls for the return of the Goddess. It is possible that many of the problems we face in the world today are a result of our vision and faith in a God to whom we solely attribute masculine principles. Who is not to say the Goddess is right there next to God, and they are One. Every man I know on this planet embodies a feminine side so why not God. Maybe we need to inquire, and take a deeper look into our vision of God as only a He. We can restore the gifts of the divine feminine on the planet by creating a new vision for humanity that welcomes the feminine image of God, the Goddess, back into our lives. The sacred feminine influence is vital to the successful evolution of us as a people and as a planet. She has been quietly singing her songs and prayers for all life for a long time…and I know for sure the coyotes have been listening.
