Sleeping at the art studio while making art every day, getting into a bit of a manic state after day 2. Starting off with picking cards to use as inspiration for paintings, something I do when I want to push myself further to try new shapes, patterns, and colour waves.
The first 3 paintings I made were all made from the same few local plants,
St. John’s Wort
Dandelion
Blackberry Leaves
Plum Leaves
Elderberries
As my last blog post spoke to one of the cards I picked said ‘don’t dim to fit in’ and the woman had her eyes covered and she wore a beautifully patterned cloak. I painted my version of this card and also decided to do a close-up of the woman’s face. This is an idea I had from books that review people’s paintings where they do a close-up of a part of the bigger picture to narrow in on something and then possibly speak about it. I started playing with this technique a few years ago. Also in herbal medicine books when they show a photo of a plant they will put a key photo on the side of the page sometimes, zoomed in to give you more information. similar idea.
So why the eyes closed?
I personally want at times to walk through this phase of life with my eyes closed. I’d rather not witness the violence and division of people due to the media’s perception of COVID-19. It breaks my heart – though that has been broken for ages- it’s so hard for me to watch.
The other thought behind the eyes is that the woman has her hands over her eyes. In Reiki the first position that we use when practicing Reiki is with hands over the eyes. From my understanding of this position it is effective and used as the first position because it creates a bunch of darkness for the person to fall deeply into the safe womb space of the treatment. It mimicks a dark night, or being fast asleep. Sending Reiki to your head first, a place that is often working too hard and too fast. We slow down the mind and help to create a sacred healing container for the person receiving Reiki to embrace on their healing journey.
I practice and teach Reiki level one and two, I am a Reiki Master and Reiki has changed my life in ways I am unable to even find words to describe. I often come back to the Reiki positions for personal healing and with my children.
Here is the small one.
Here is the painting after a few more layers of wax and dye.
Finished painting
Live Ta Dye 