“After all, the goal is not to make art, but to be in that wonderful state that makes art inevitable.” -Robert Henri from The Art Spirit
“I don’t believe in it. . .Plumbers don’t get plumbers block, and doctor’s don’t get doctor’s block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to […]

Posted in Creativity, Art and Spirituality | 5 Comments »

I am back from several days on Vancouver Island where my husband and I took a Celtic Art and Design class together.  When we were in Ireland in June I was captivated by the woven strands and spirals in the art everywhere, so it was a gift to learn how to do this.  I thoroughly […]

Posted in Art and Spirituality, Praying with the Elements, Celtic spirituality | 6 Comments »

The other essay in the Theological Aesthetics book I am reading that has especially moved me is by the liberation theologian Leonardo Boff from his book Liberating Grace:
“The poet, the musician, and the writer feel overtaken by inspiration.  On the one hand, it is they who do the work. Their energy and their deepest selves […]

Posted in Creativity, Art and Spirituality | 7 Comments »

I have been reading Theological Aesthetics: A Reader for a book proposal I am working on for a publisher. It is going to be a book about beauty and aesthetic spirituality inspired by an article I wrote once and I am very excited about this project.
The book is a reader which means many of the […]

Posted in Art and Spirituality, Aesthetic Spirituality | 4 Comments »

 
Both photos are by Jack Finch from the Science Photo Library
In the first few days of our trip through Ireland I had this dream:
My husband and I are on a cruise through Alaska and go up on the top deck in the middle of the night. The sky is black with a thousand stars glittering across it. Then suddenly I […]

Posted in Dreams, Art and Spirituality | 3 Comments »

In the fall the editor of the UCLA Spirituality and Higher Education Newsletter found my website through a search and asked me to write an article for their upcoming issue on spirituality and artistic expression. The article is titled “The Relationship Between Spirituality and Artistic Expression: Cultivating the Capacity for Imagining” and you can […]

Posted in Resources, Art and Spirituality | 8 Comments »

I spent some of my time away over Christmas reflecting on the year ahead and what direction I want to take some of my creative work.  I am not much into goal-setting, because my spiritual path tends to be much more organic, focused on listening to what is emerging and unfolding in me in a particular […]

Posted in Art and Spirituality, Monastic Spirituality | 15 Comments »

**I added some information below on the tools I used for the stamp carving
I have been really captivated by rubber stamp carving these days.  Bette got me started and now I keep thinking of things I want to carve.  I love making a design and then carving away the excess until only the form remains.  […]

Posted in Advent, Art and Spirituality | 12 Comments »

This is now.  Now is,
all there is.  Don’t wait for Then;
strike the spark, light the fire.
Sit at the Beloved’s table,
feast with gusto, drink your fill
then dance
the way branches
of jasmine and cypress
dance in a spring wind.
The green earth
is your cloth;
tailor your robe
with dignity and grace.
-Rumi
I feel my creative fires continuing to kindle and spark.  How lovely […]

Posted in Advent, Art and Spirituality | 9 Comments »

The window above is from the Shafer Baillie Mansion and the window below is from the Conservatory in Volunteer Park (this photo is turned on its side and then duplicated in mirror image to create a mandala).  I walk by both of these lovely buildings almost every time I go for a walk in my neighborhood and I have never […]

Posted in Photos, Advent, Art and Spirituality | 5 Comments »