An Artist's Quest for "Soul" in a Chaotic World—by InnerSpirit

This is my InnerSpirit blog page...a page of reflection...inquiry...
and artistic questions about myself, my life, and the world around me. A place for my own personal contemplation of my emotions, my actions, my art, my spiritual journey and how they all intertwine and influence each other. I hope that you check it out, think a little about your life and the many creative things that you might be engaged in...how do those fit into your life and impact the various aspects of your own life? Let's reflect together!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

What Does Playing Do For The Soul?


I have been working over the past two days on my Art Every Day Month Challenge piece that is shown here. It is my offering for both Day #16 and #17. I drew in the big shapes with the colored markers on Day #16 and I managed to finish up the many details while I drank my coffee and sat in the sun that was streaming into my dining room this morning. It seemed deceivingly warm to me, but I was forced back into a midwestern Fall reality when I took my dog out and I realized that it was quite brisk and windy. Once I was back inside, I was pleased that I could feed two important needs at once, my creative "innerspirit" and my physical and emotional need for sunshine. More and more is being found out about the importance of adequate vitamin D in our bodies and the sun is a great source of that in a natural form. This time of year in Michigan it is a little too cold for me to enjoy being outside drawing for a couple of hours, so sitting inside at the table was a good way to still benefit from the warm sun.

A Planetary Mandala Drawing Emerges
I just allowed myself to play with the shapes and lines again today with this Mandala since it is also part of my Circles In Time Mandala series. I did try today to stretch the series a bit by doing a mixed media Mandala. After playing with the watercolor Mandala on Day #13, (see the previous post if you would like to see this image) I felt that I could take some artistic liberty and use whatever I wanted on this Mandala and it still would be part of the same series since it was the same size, I approached it the same way, and it was still being used for the prayer/meditation time that it was intended to create for me. I really became quite involved in the intricate line work in this piece and it ended up looking like something from outer space, maybe a really cool planet that is yet to be discovered with many circling moons or suns? I listened to several soothing, contemporary Christian music selections, while I created, and I thought a lot about how God manifests himself in my life. I began wondering why it is so hard to see God sometimes in my life, and other times it seems that he is so very close that I can actually almost touch him...I felt closer to my creative source when I was done, which I believe for me, is God.

Missing AEDM Days Creations?
Those of you that are following this blog might wonder, what happened to Day #14 and #15? Well, I have to admit, Day #14 did not consist of any art, but I was excited that I did manage to do a little artistic "playing" in the way of incorporating music into my Day #15. I have not played my guitar much over the last year, it seems this goes in cycles for me. Sometimes I play a lot, and other times I move away from it and into other things. I enjoyed playing and singing a few songs, but I soon regretted having let it go so long when my un-calloused finger tips started hurting after only a few short songs...this should be reason enough to not let this pleasure go so far between music sessions. Singing and strumming the old familiar songs was a soothing and relaxing way to feed my creative and artistic soul. I find that music in all forms can really move quickly into my heart and it makes me feel alive.

What types of things do you do to feed your artistic soul? Do you take the time to "eat" regularly from this "soul food"? It is easy for us to push time for ourselves down to the bottom of our "To Do" list, even society would tell you that art and artistic endeavors are "frivolous", especially if they do not make money. Don't buy into it, our soul needs the time and the honor of being "fed" and "cultivated", and in return, it will feed and cultivate us in many abundant ways.

Blessings and Love,
D.

11 comments:

  1. What a gorgeous mandala! It's true, the preparing and posting is super time consuming, but I think it helps keep us going, this sharing, so it's worth it.

    Love that you incorporated some music into your aedm journey!

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  2. wowowow- that mandala is absolutely awesome!!!
    I love the colors and the way it turned out - just fabulous - it is inspiring~!~

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  3. i was drawn in from FB, wanting to get a better pic of your finished mandala. i love the colors and the contrast of angles and waves and whatever those shapes are that remind me of sperm...new growth?
    here's to vitamin D!

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  4. Leah-yes, it is helping to see what everyone is doing this month and to have all the support. I have been living without many artist friends so this is great.

    Ellie..thanks for the wonderfully supportive thoughts. You are very sweet! You Rock!

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  5. Sue...I went to you site too. Lovely work. I am glad you made it all the way over here from facebook just to look at my Mandala. Funny that some shapes reminded you of sperm, I did not see that...but I guess that is new growth too. Come back again.

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  6. Diane,
    I love your mandela. Wow! Great colors and movement. The composition rocks. It seems like this challenge is working for you. Keep it up.

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  7. Diane-
    Your work is so beautiful and really draws me in. It seems that you and I have so much in common. Let's stay connected...and thanks for sharing the mandala series. AWESOME!

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  8. Diana, Good to hear from you. Glad you think my composition rocks, since it was unplanned, you never know what you are going to get. Unlike traditional art schooling thought of planning the composition ahead of time etc. I spend a lot of my days lately UNLEARNING some things about art school and trusting my "creative source".

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  9. Shannon—
    Thank you so much for visiting me here. Yes, I would agree we have a lot in common. I am hoping that the artist/creative people that I have met this month with AEDM will continue to be my friends after the challenge is over. I think supporting each other as artists is very important.

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  10. I keep meaning to tell you that your mandalas are just striking, too! You really got me thinking with ones like this one -- where there is the inner most circle, but you also break beyond the line of it with more circles. It just is so striking... Thanks for sharing them with all of us! miracles, k-

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  11. Kara...thank you so much for your compliment on my Mandalas. I appreciate it. Well, it is good to mix it up some I think...you know "break out the the lines" as they say. Why should Mandalas be any different? It just seemed to evolve that way on this day and I went with it. I really like doing this series. I don't know what I am going to do with it, but for now I am just doing them.

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