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Sacred Artist Interview: Bill Hughlett

I first met Bill Hughlett because of my friendship with his wife Kayce, aka the delightful lucy.  I fell in love with his photography before I ever met him and then have had the chance to sit at dinner on a few occasions now and get to know him a bit better.  He is a really engaging person who speaks passionately about both his spiritual journey and his creative expression.  I am excited to share his insights into the connection between the two, so on to Bill’s responses: A brief introduction of yourself — faith tradition (if you have one), spiritual practice,

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January 24, 2008

Snowbow: Visual Meditation

When we were in Whistler over Christmas we had the delight of seeing two different rainbows, which I realized were actually “snowbows.”  One of them looked like a traditional arc (top and bottom image), the other hung suspended in the air upside-down (middle image). -Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts

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January 18, 2008

Sacred Artist Interview: Eileen Miller

Eileen Miller is another wonderful artist I discovered through blogging.  Her primary art medium is acrylic painting, and then pen and ink.  She is a lover of art, appreciating all forms of styles and is influenced by Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O’Keeffe, Rodin, and Gustav Klimt.  She roots herself in the Roman Catholic tradition, after what she describes as a full circle religious journey.  Her Higher Power is The Trinity and The Blessed Mother.   I am grateful to Eileen for taking the time to share with us here: ***** How do you experience the connection between spirituality and creativity? For me, the connection

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January 17, 2008

Sacred Arts Ring

I am pretty exhausted from a weekend full of teaching a wonderful group of students, so I share here a small selection of offerings from the Sacred Arts Ring: Gifts of poetry at Snow on Roses and Pilgrim Path.  Lisa shares some of her inspiring SoulCollage cards here.  I love this piece from Kate.  Melissa always takes beautiful photos of her daughters, my favorites are the two in the middle reflected in the glass.  Bette shares an image accompanied by poetry of luminaries. Blessings on the week ahead! -Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts

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January 14, 2008

Winter Evening Pilgrimage: Visual Meditation

 -Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts (photos taken along the shore of the Hood Canal) The winner of this week’s Poetry Party drawing will be announced later today! There’s still time to add your poem — currently up to 23 participants which is a wonderful outpouring of creative energy.

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January 11, 2008

Sacred Artist Interview: Bette Norcross Wappner

I am really excited about this new weekly feature on my blog for 2008 — I will be interviewing artists who keep an awareness of the sacred at the heart of their creative work.  I want to explore how others merge their art and spirituality and give you, my dear readers, some more insights into this connection. I am especially delighted to begin this series by interviewing Bette Norcross Wappner or b’oki as she is known by her poet’s pen name.  Bette found my blog not too long after I started writing one, about a year and a half ago.  She is a great example

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January 10, 2008

Call for Art Submissions and Art Marketing Conference

Call for Art Submissions  For the last two issues of Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction I have been serving as the Interim Art Editor.   It has been a lot of fun, so I have now accepted the job on a more permanent basis. For each issue of the journal (published quarterly), my task is to find visual artwork that complements the subject of each article as well as a cover image.  I am especially encouraged to find a wide variety of media (not just photos) as well as art from the global community (all inhabited continents). So I am using my readership here to put out a

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January 5, 2008

Winter Wonders: Visual Meditation

                         -Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts (photos taken over the Christmas holiday while at Whistler, British Columbia)

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January 4, 2008

The Feast of Birth

The Earth will be going on a long time Before it finally freezes; Men will be on it; they will take names, Give their deeds reasons. We will be here only As chemical constituents- A small franchise indeed. Right now we have lives, Corpuscles, Ambitions, Caresses, Like everybody had once- Here at the year’s end, at the feast Of birth, let us bring to each other The gifts brought once west through deserts- The precious metal of our mingled hair, The frankincense of enraptured arms and legs, The myrrh of desperate, invincible kisses- Let us celebrate the daily Recurrent nativity

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January 2, 2008

Order a 2008 Calendar

As I mentioned the other day, Waverly Fitzgerald has created a French Revolutionary Wall Calendar which features my nature photographs illustrating the seasonal theme of the particular month in the French Revolutionary calendar, for instance, January is Snowy/Rainy, and each day is marked with the item meant to be honored on that day. Usually these are plants and trees; every day ending in 5 honors an animal and every day ending in 0, a tool. She will be shipping the first orders out the last week of this year.  The calendar costs $16 for the print version including shipping ($10 if you want to

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December 20, 2007