That I May Receive

That I May Receive
encaustic
8x8 inches


Back to my bowls again. Does it seem like I am all over the place with my art? Well, that's alright if it does. I've come to terms with this. I used to worry about how I am drawn to different media and depending on the media, my work shifts. I've discussed it with other artist friends, asked for advice, written about it my own journal and I've come to the conclusion that I am a multi-faceted person and my art reflects that.

And I've also come to realize that whether I am working on book art, encaustic painting, or acrylics, or journal mixed media covers- they all speak to my communion with the natural world, with myself, and with my Maker.

I've been thinking a lot about how often my paintings feel like meditations or prayers, while I am working on them. How art-making can be at times like a spiritual practice. I've been re-reading Madeleine L'Engle's book Walking On Water: Reflections on Faith and Art. I read this book in my very early 20s and it's interesting to re-read this now, in my mid-30s and as a practicing artist. Things I underlined and wrote notes in the margins 15 or so years ago, still speak to me. But with different significance. Here is one that was underlined and starred, and if I were reading this for the first time today, I would do the same:

"There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation" -Madeleine L'Engle