Art Heals day 2 :: Prayer Art Invitation

acrylic, watercolor and neocolor prayer art in my journal.

Today, we begin the monthly Prayer Art invitations again, as part of our ART HEALS celebration.

I took a break from the public invitations for a few months to check in with my own creative practice and center into the core intention behind them. I honestly wasn't sure if I'd continue them at all.

Then, as I was prayer-painting at an herbalism conference a few weeks ago, I knew it was time to begin again when I felt a familiar wave of sensation come over me that whispers, Yes, This.

For this month, in honor of our ART HEALS celebration, I invite you to bring this contemplation to your creative practice and awareness ::

Trust Your Body

This is not a little thing, by any means. Just begin by noticing where you are with this, and then moving your awareness into what it would feellike - and what your life might look like - if you offered complete TRUST to the miraculous vessel that allows you to experience LIFE in this way, as a dynamic, vibrant, transforming human being. Listen to your Body - what does she have to say to you today?

Then, move some color around, collage a vision of this, chase the light upon your body with your camera, weave words, offer a ritual of love toward your body by bath, massage, or wholesome nurturing foods.

If you are participating in any of the other beautiful invitations that are flying around this month - like Art Every Day Month, or NaNoWriMo, or any of the number of daily Gratitude invitations that are floating around (like Kyeli Smith's below) - consider how you can integrate this Prayer Art Invitation into one of those practices, or any other practice you already have established.

Let it be easy, not just another thing to do, but a way to let your practice become even richer, and your awareness move into the creative wisdom of your own embodied experience. How can you ground yourself in your own skin this month - and bring this to creative expression?

Our bodies ache to be heard and moved, loved and trusted for their truth - and they LOVE creative methods of doing this.

I will be making art from this invitation solely for this whole month, and sharing glimpses along the way.

I would love to see and share in your process, as well - and invite you to share thoughts and images over at my facebook page or in the Sacred Art of Women group. On instagram, I use the tag #prayerart or #prayerpainting - and would love to have you join in sharing there, as well.

~~~

As mentioned above, Kyeli Smith is holding a Gratitude celebration purely for  shooting photographs this month. I love the way she captures her life with her pure, intuitive creative process through her images. Below shows each daily theme. Kyeli has an organic way of reminding us to keep this creative practice do-able and tangible - and how, in that, we will be filled up with our own truth and vision. Talk about Trust!

To participate and see the images from others, use the hashtag #gratitudefor30days on instagram or facebook.

Kyeli Smith's Daily Gratitude Invitation for November