Intuitive Painting - interview with Chris Zydel
sustenance and life
Sunday June 30th
Today's painting session is brought to you by the earth, by the rich green of plant life reaching its roots deep into the dirt and reaching its leaves high up into the sky – a bridge between soil and air. The heart chakra, rich, life giving green. The green of the summer solstice, the green of nourishment, sustenance and life.
It is brought to you by abundance and plentitude, the mysterious transformation of sunlight, water and air into that which feeds our bodies. It is brought to you be mitochondria and power, life force and chi. Rooted and rising, old and newborn. Whole – fully whole. Always and in all ways
It is brought to you by the fullness of the hot afternoon. The sun fierce, the trees still, dark clouds moving across the mountains, slowly making their way into the valley to cool things off.
It is brought to you by oak and ponderosa, chokecherry and alder, cottonwood and juniper, spruce and fir. It is brought to you by penny cress and horehound, thistle and yarrow, salsify and dandelion, lupine and larkspur. The earth, the earth, the earth and what she grows.
Fall to your knees in gratitude. I fall to my knees in gratitude and love.
Meditation of Deep Support
join me for a mediation of deep support. if you would like to work with me to know more deeply the support that is always here, please email me.
relaxation meditation
enjoy & let me know your experience with this.
Chama Diffendoofer Day #6 - Fun with Paint
“Fun with Paint” - an abundantly fun and exhausting collaboration that took place last Saturday morning. It was sponsored by the Chama library and coordinated by Bruce McIntosh and Anita Massari - with me as guest artist. Over forty people showed up from the community and raged in age from 2 to over 70! It was wonderful seeing parents and grandparents paint with children and seeing the excitement in everyone’s faces as they created just for the fun of it, just to experiment, just to see what wanted to be made. The theme was, of course, “It is about the process, not the product”.
what is left
This morning’s painting session is brought to you by the double helix weaving its way through all existence, connecting, dividing, finding itself over and over. Remembering the divinity, playing hide and seek as our true nature.
It is brought to you by a tightness in the solar plexus, a desire to fix and resolve what is here. A desire to know, to land, to avoid this freefall of truly surrendering as this life force that moves this body, writes these words, puts paint on the canvas.
As awareness drops in to the tightness, the desire to find secure footing anywhere dissolves, unfurls its grip and what is left? Nothing, no thing, no one at all. No feet to land, no place to land, nothing to resolve. Pure energy of chaos and unknowing. And even those words are too much, too dense, to solid to describe what breathes each breath. what is left when the story dies, falls in on itself from its own heaviness. Ahhhh…..
Today’s painting session is brought to you by what is left when the story falls in on itself from its own heaviness:
love.
the flowering of consciousness
today’s painting session is brought to you by the flowering of consciousness
bursting forth from the rich soil of longing. ripe and open
warmed by the sun, the love, the sky, the earth, the water
all its own self
unfolding, blossoming
embracing, dissolving
again and again and
again
Honoring the divine through poetry
The beautiful poetry that moved through Mary Oliver is a profound gift of creativity. The heart says “yes, yes!” when I read her words, and the mind says, “ah, you don’t need me here, I can rest”. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
creating without agenda or expectation
what does it mean to create art without expectation or agenda? what does it mean to live without expectation or agenda? to move without expectation or agenda? to breathe without expectation or agenda?
it is to rest and allow what comes to come, to allow what moves through you to move through without interpretation, mental contraction, judgement, analysis. it is to rest and allow what moves through to move through without connecting to the past or the future, without context or meaning. and even if judgement, interpretation, and mental contraction appear, rest in the space in which they appear. no judgement, interpretation or mental contraction about the judgement, interpretation or mental contraction in necessary. curious about where it all comes from, this space it is all moving through. noticing that it all passes away and something remains.
it is to give up control that was never had in the first place. it is to rest deeper than the illusion of you as doer and see what comes. see what breathes you, what thinks your thoughts, what pulls you to one color of paint over another. what lifts the arm to create a shape, what sends an image into mind with a gentle nudge that says, "make this".
it is to trust what is profoundly trustworthy and needs no interference from a small story of who you think you are. trust and see, rest as the body is breathed and moved, as thoughts come and go, as impulse and inspiration arise. rest and delight as a painting appears on the canvas before you. rest and delight as the untouchable, unmovable space in which it all happens.
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local business supporting artists
The newly opened Adrenaline Designs Art gallery in downtown Pagosa Springs, Colorado is showcasing the work of many local artists. They are carrying prints of my original paintings. Please support them if you can :)
the leela school
I recently completed the first year of the Leela School with Eli Jaxon Bear who teaches in the lineage of Papaji and Ramana Maharshi. Beautiful work that serves the awakening of all beings. I am now offering one-on-one sessions called Open Heart Sessions.
An Open Heart Session is for anyone who wants support on their journey of self-discovery – who wants to bring more peace and clarity into their life, awaken to the truth of who they are, and deepen this awakening. In Open Heart sessions we join together one-on-one using the tools of inquiry, journeying, energy work and the Enneagram of Liberation to discover your deepest desires and to discover what has gotten in the way. Email me for more information.
Check out this link to learn more about The Leela School: https://leelaschool.org/about/
Beautiful Gangaji Video - The Need to Heal
Chama Valley Studio Tour
Come join me September 1st and 2nd during the Chama Valley Studio Tour. I will have paintings and prints for sale at La Luz Studio, Elk Drive, Chama. There will also be beautiful glasswork for sale by Alan Feia.
https://www.chamavalleystudiotour.com/
New painting from the barN wall - Vigilance/ The Beauty of the Night Sky
Today's painting session is brought to you by the word "flow". By curves and loops and allowing the brush to effortlessly dance its way down the canvas. It is brought to you by the liquid pouring of the paint - red and gold - gushing, dripping out into the world.
It is brought to you by a sense of abandon, surrender, who cares how it all turns out. It is brought to you by the great relief of not being in charge of anything, of stopping, everything. It is brought to you by the endless chasm of space that opens up when the mind stops. The silence. The peace.
It is brought to you by the stillness.
Vigilance/ The Beauty of the Night Sky 63"w x 73"h
Art in Public Places - Pagosa Senior Center
Rebecca helped me hang more paintings at the Senior Center in Pagosa Springs last week. Some that had not been up there before, and one that was up last year. I love the relationship that has developed with the folks at the center - both staff and regular customers. They offer me space to hang some pretty large paintings, the paintings get a chance to spread their love and healing energy to more people, and whoever comes to the Senior Center gets a chance to enjoy them. Win, win, win. There were some special requests for paintings that had been up in the past and sweet comments about the new paintings we put up. Thanks so much to Marya for setting up this program, Cheryl for being open and welcoming, Rebecca for help putting the paintings up and taking them down - definitely a two person job! http://www.psseniors.org/
The show continues.....
Some new paintings and glasswork will be up at the Abiquiu Inn until July 15th. Maybe longer....
Galeria Arriba - Abiquiu Inn
The paintings are hung along with beautiful glasswork by Alan Feia of La Luz Studio in Chama.
Exhibit for the month of June
My paintings will be hanging at Galeria Arriba upstairs at the Abiquiu Inn for the entire month of June. Reception on 6/16 from 4-6.
www.abiquiuinn.com
creative juices arts - how this painting process got started
This body/ mind has always loved creating - through sculpture, photography, dance, and theater. Painting and drawing seemed more intimidating due to a cascade of thoughts - "I can't draw." "That doesn't look like I wanted it to." "What a mess!" "No one will want to look at this." etc. In 2005 I was brought into the circle of Chris Zydel's "Painting from the Wild Heart" retreat at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico, and that all changed. An abundance of paper and tempera paints - the same materials we used when we were four - were spread out along with permission to create anything. Anything at all. I tore a piece of paper in half because one sheet seemed too large - I didn't know what to put on it. Through the course of that first week, "I" got out of the way and let whatever wanted to be created end up on the paper. By the end of the week the paintings had grown to cover most of a wall - the dam had broken open and a flood of creative juice poured out. I am forever grateful to Chris for providing the sanctuary and the push to allow this freedom of expression to come forth. Her website is:
https://creativejuicesarts.com/
