This is a month of celebration in our family as we welcome

our new grandson, Noah James Belt.

My art is the musing of a long distance grandmother,

waiting for news of the birth and dancing in the miracle of new life.

I listen to the stories of our son and daughter in law and recognize anew

our children as our teachers.

Unconditional love.

Surrendering to what is.

Oneness.

Holding a baby affirms these things we once knew as our birthright.

Lotz to Celebrate! (curva.me.com)

My art has always served as a means to discernment.  After my mother died a few years ago, I noticed an attraction to the innocent knowing in children’s faces. They called to me from the New York Times magazine, from a Global Fund for Children book called Faith (celebrating children of different religious traditions), and from the compelling photography of Steve McCurry. Each day in my studio, I would clip a fresh piece of paper onto my easel and then allow a face to come forward. I would begin my drawing by looking at the paper only occasionally, allowing distortions to express themselves. Standing back, I would find eyes uneven, hands too big, heads outsized.

Each of these children invited me to feel complete in my own sensing, confident in my own path to grieving. I look at these portraits now and recognize a child who connects to inner knowing through prayer, and another who finds peace in surrender, just as another expresses her wholeness through defiance. Some find balance through non-attachment, while others find their grounding in the working of the earth.

There are as many perfect journeys as there are people.

I invite viewers to contemplate the knowing they are called to as they view these children, recognizing them as mirrors to their own wisdom and healing.

This month I have been meeting twice a week with dream groups.  As we dive into our dreams, it is with an awareness that every aspect of the dream is a reflection of ourselves.  This is true in our imagining, and in our art, as well.  If it doesn’t appear first in your subconscious, you won’t day dream it into being.

So it is that I ask myself about these two guides that appeared in my art this month.  Who are these parts of myself and what would they say if I gave them words to speak?  I notice an invitation in their expressions that invites me to look past my story line to what lies beyond.

If you could give up your story lines, what would you spot in the distance?  What would you willingly put down to gain peace?

I welcome you to visit SpiritWorks this First Friday and answer those questions for yourself.

This makes me think about the intensity of change in our lives right now, and how it calls for us to exhibit powers we don’t normally use. Our wings so often tucked around us for protection, are also capable of moving us great distances in quick order.

I encourage you to re-connect with your soul’s nesting ground.  What is required to lift you above reacting to moving with intention toward where you choose to roost?  That shift is what allows you to find your power to manifest the life you seek.

Know that your spirit revels as you rise above the forces that carry you, witnessing your rediscovery of the in-born gifts that connect you with your birthright.

All is well.

As I work, I resist refining.  I do what I can with a spatula of molding paste, scraping to create eyes and ears and lifted chin.  I pray that I might lift my face to all that comes, seeing every person and event as a gift for my learning.

By keeping my heart open, my shoulders are unburdened.  Wings grow where weariness once resided.  My prayer is to resist fixing, making pretty, accommodating…  I am here to allow it all in, so that I walk in wholeness.  The messiness, the wonder, the grace.

I am grateful to learn and re-learn my true nature, one creative prayer after the next.

I find that swan is one of the most ancient and powerful totems, recognized as integrating spiritual sensing (in the head that is held high above the body) with grounding in the current of emotions (often linked with water.)  She tells me to flow with what comes, while keeping my head above the feelings I may notice arising.

The swan can see the inner beauty in others, even when they can’t yet see it themselves.  She is the totem of artists, mystics and dreamers.

I am grateful to call on this image as I go forward.

I’m grateful this month for the surprise of new beginnings.  Just a month after my father’s passing, I’m amazed at the grace and light that shine through my dreams and waking hours as I learn to recognize his transformed presence.  It seems to me that this is the greatest gift we can be given, to realize first hand that what at first appears to be loss or hurt is simply an invitation to dive deeper, cleaner, lighter into calm waters that close gently around any change.

When I returned from sitting with my dad, I was greeted by Bill Beatty of Stepping Stone Studio (www.stepping-stone-studio.com), who surprised me by creating archival quality, fine art prints of my work, beautifully photographed by Steve Coad (stevecoad.pitchmediagallery.com).

Come to see my new cards, my new art, and to stop in to see Bill and Steve in their Carter Building studios. (There are many new studios including Studio 21, a new clothing boutique (where the acupuncture practitioner was), Live It Promote It social media, and of course, old favorites like No Borders.)

Also stay tuned for details of a new SpiritWorks workshop series, DREAM GUIDANCE. My dreams have provided me with so much comfort and clarity that I feel called to sit with others as they too recognize the unique guidance that comes through their dream images.

May you be blessed with the knowing that you are minutely loved and supported in every moment!

It was only in recent days that I returned to my studio to give her legs and complete her dress.  All the while, I wondered about her.  She seemed to be a guide, but what could I learn from her?

I believe she speaks for my father.  Follow me. Take courage, even though you go into the dark.  It is there that you will meet yourself, apart from the story lines that have defined who you are.  

It is death that teaches us about how to live.  I am grateful for her strength and resilience that remind me that my dad’s love will never die.  He is a part of me.

May you all sit with the darkness and gold in your lives in this holiday season, knowing the grace that comes through both.

Facing a black gessoed surface, I make my first pass with molding paste and see what suggests itself.  This is like peering into the subconscious and noticing what rises to the surface.

Today is an easy day.  The angel who arises is feeling the energy of this 11-11-11 phase,  a jackpot of 1′s coming into alignment.

To me, this speaks of ease.  It’s a time when simple, direct setting of intention carries extra weight.

Be careful what you ask for, because it’s on its way.  Be ready to grow and change, in step with your soul.  Your job is to hold the hand of your perhaps fearful little child, so they get to come along with you to the ball.

Each month when I sit down to write my invitation to FF, I look at my art and I’m surprised at how it reflects where I am.  It often serves as an affirmation of the meaning that transcends what is happening on the surface of my days.  In October, I joined a group of artists (tippingpaintartists.com) who are working with downtown residents (raleighdla.com) and city government (godowntownraleigh.com) to put community art into empty storefronts.

My sense is that we are very guided in this effort, acting as voices for all who inhabit the streets of downtown.  The angelic figure (above) whose gesture leads us forward makes room for all of us within her cloak, inviting us with all our yearnings and concerns.  As in the second picture, we find ourselves surrendering together to the greater good that expresses through each of us.  Already I am grateful for the connections with people whose passion for service and activism inspire me to move from contemplation to informed action.

Also at this FF’s opening, I invite local author Kim Gibney, who will be signing her new mystery novel, Over the Edge.  When I asked Kim about her creative path, she answered:

I was first published for poems I wrote in the 4th grade and felt the rush when I saw my work in print.  My inspiration for my book came from ideas that I had collected for years.  Through lots of work and several editions I was able to craft those ideas into my first novel, Over the Edge.  I love to loose myself in a good story and I think I have accomplished that with this book.  Over the Edge combines love, suspense, and murder into the perfect package.  I hope the readers will enjoy reading it as much as I have loved writing it.

Kim and I look forward to seeing you on November 4.  I suspect that this is a time when you may also be experiencing an emerging in your life.  Know that you are loved, guided and safe as you find expression for what calls you forward.