The art of soulful living.  Art making as an inward listening.

Artworks as “objects to experience”. Landscaping the soul.

 

 

 

  I am collecting the motions, movements, movings. The stirrings, life flow reverberations, reflections and expressions. In a book. Collecting a series of drawings which came into being from the end of august, after my 78th birthday, and with the start of the month Elul 2024 (September), moving into “the Jewish new year”, during the month of October, culminating in the harvest, autumn mood. Notice the atmosphere of end of summer: the reddening, goldening and becoming more transparent.

 

Art making as an inward listening. No right or wrong, listening to the rhythm of the moment.

Exploring heart spaces and the wisdom of the body. Letting my hand move, moving thoughts, feelings, physical sensations.

 

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My surroundings are draped as a beautiful mantel around me. I am, not ego-centered,

I am eco-centered. Absorbing and appreciating. Loving life as it is.

 

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This September this month of Elul, this year 2024, was full of intensity. A very dear friend, a very intimate soul friend died. Moved on. Into the mystery, leaving this earthly realm. Unconditional Love surrounded her, the family, me. Another old dear friend/co-worker died, and another dear friend, teacher, mentor died. All this dying, this remembering, this eternally loving, this not departing from my heart, while the times are changing. Worlds are ending. Over, done, fully done. But, can I let go? Move on too?

I am beginning a new year in a new place. This new place is full of beauty and stillness, safe and comfortable. Full of possibility. At the same time my body is aging too. Pain and Beauty live together. Oh, auu and wow.

 

This practice of “Presencing”, just allowing “loving awareness” to be, is very real.

Seeing all appearances, inner and outer, coming and going, opening, lovingly cutting through memories, stories and questions. Experiencing a timelessness in every moment.

It is hard to speak about. I do not know if my drawings carry this depth, maybe I just scratch the surface, may be the love/light shines through nonetheless. May be.

 

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Internalizing the sunlight. Becoming fertile seeds.

Releasing into Being. Daring a true seeing to come into being too.

 

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What is becoming very clear for me, is the reality of LIVING SOULFULLY.

It is not a concept, or a naming/labeling.

My artmaking is a process of deep listening/seeing/showing. Showing “a felt-sense”.

In lines, in colors, in compositions. These are moods, energy-writings.

 

They speak, they show, they cry out or call in. In love with life as it is.

 

Signs of life. Just that. I am alive!

 

While the world around me falls apart, is full of dark tragedies. And this dying, ending, transitioning into the not-knowing is happening each day, evening, sleep, waking up, starting a new, again and again. I go on beautifying the pains and fallings and failings.

Tearing apart, looking inside.

 

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Marianne Werefkin says: “Artworks are not about objects. They are not objects.

They are experiences.

They need to express experiences”.

 

 

 

I draw inner landscapes, movements in the body. IN MY BODY DIRECT EXPERIENCE SPACE. Shaping, reshaping. Embodying. Grounding the sacred feminine. I am “calm abiding”. I pause,

 

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I receive, I am nurtured. I cry. I am grateful, I deeply feel sorrow. I breath with and through

my sensations, into a not knowing space.

 

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I am watering the Tree of life “through me”, surrendering in Mercy. Great Mercy.

While drawing and dialoging with my “image” appearing on paper I often chant a prayer, a mantra, a song. This calls in divine wisdom, infuses my body/mind with soul.

 

 

My art making is calling in soul. Tracing myself, the many selves, back into Self.

It is strengthening my longing for a more compassionate way of living.

This is a Creative act. To bring about another way to live.

 

 

 

From the inside out. Letting opinions, ideas, concepts, the thinking mind subside. No story telling or creating scenes and drama dynamics. Releasing the story lines. Listening underneath and beyond. Unraveling. Letting the flow of life be restored (softening rigidity, control moves, judgements). And I pray: may dark emotions turn into wisdoms.  May pains and fears and reactivities reveal their Life- giving potentials.

 

 

These 15 drawings are a choice out of a book with more drawings, in the making.

Inner landscapes. Landscaping the soul.

Composed November 2024