AEDM 11-15 :: Synchronous Gifts

As I move through this month of my daily commitment to creativity for Art Every Day Month, I am struck every day, more and more, by how much better I feel when I stop the rest of my life, put down the to-do list and gently hush my busybrain to just Be with the energy of creative flow at whatever frequency I am able.

11-12-11. marker and oil pastel

I'm also meeting this with my new intention of slowing down in my painting practice - slowing down just enough to meet myself at a pace of truer ease and awareness.

This is allowing me to explore some curiosities in my process that I might have shrugged off at my previous pace... like how the free association or stream of consciousness in my writing and the words in my mind inform my paintings and visa versa...

11-13-11. writing and painting, detail of an in progress exercise

11-14-11. detail of same... inside panel. in progress

I've found myself reflecting on the layers of being a woman in this exercise pictured above.

It's almost as if I'm seeing my own story unfold - the story of all that is and all that is not in my life as a creative creature.

This week, I even found a piece of my writing from almost 10 years ago - a letter to all women - about the very things on my mind as I move through this trifold painting I'm playing with. I thought I had lost my copy for good, but it fell out of a book I decided to get rid of 2 days ago.

So now, here it is, like a gift to me from my past Self as I try to simply let my process unfold... these things don't just happen in movies.

And I am always amazed at how the same interests and insights within us resurface at different times on this spiral path of life... each encounter building upon the previous while revealing even more.

Feeling called to, I decided to incorporate those words right into the piece in honor of the synchronicity at work...

11-15-11. words and painting, detail, in progress.

I'm enjoying the discovery in making this piece. I'm reveling in the layers as I listen a little closer.

The piece is no masterpiece - I may not even like it visually when finished - but it is a living metaphor of the very layers of my Self, my Life and my Process in a way that speaks poetry to my soul and my learning. I'm infatuated.

And because I am open to allowing it to be just what it is, nothing more, nothing less... a dance of process and exploration... it... She... is showing me her synchronous pulse in my life.

Like finding that writing from ten years ago - not during one of the countless times I've searched my things for it over the past year - but right when it makes the most perfect harmony with what I am feeling and creating, with what I'm trying to voice in my movements and decisions.

It is what I need to hear. It is also what I believe I am here to say.

These synchronicities catch my attention, and it seems important to honor them by exploring where they might lead.

SOOOOO, Were you wondering about the creative effort I made on 11-11-11???

In honor of AEDM on 11-11-11, I decided where to hang a painting that came into my life by synchronous design, I believe.

The painting you see to the right was created by Lisa Wilson of Life Unity.  She is participating in Art Every Day Month as well.

She is also a Fearless Painter, dedicated to Awareness. Her blog has filled my life with beautiful insights on a regular basis for many months now, and she finds words for ideas and experiences that are difficult to express.

This painting, "Faith and Love", was created by Lisa in honor and memory of her father, and as a testimony to all who have been touched by suicide - a reminder to make a conscious effort to not take life or anyone for granted.

This is a message dear to my heart in a very real way - a way that is still raw to the pains and lessons of my own family's loss just over a year ago, when my aunt took her own life.

It is a raw awareness that I imagine will never go away - that, indeed, I don't want to go away because it has shifted my complete outlook on what is truly important in life.

It is even a huge catalyst that has led me back into my own creative life... a gratitude rich with the pain and wonder of awareness. A gratitude never to forget.

Lisa offered this painting in a drawing in a post where she told her own story as part of her healing process and in united effort with her sister to raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

I won the drawing. And I still get chills thinking about it, sitting here writing this...

I heard once a long time ago from an Elder that 11:11 was a time of day when Angels sing blessings of light and love down upon the Earth from the Heavens. 

So, in honor of 11-11-11, I chose to hang this painting gift just above the mirror I look in everyday.

In honor of everyone trying to live their lives in greater creative awareness of the gifts inherent in every moment shared and experienced every day. We hold this choice.

You hold this choice.

And You are held in Love and Light.

-hali