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Reflections

Category: Art and Spirituality

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Pilgrimage Staff

One day while walking along the shores of the Hood Canal near my hermitage I found a great big wooden stick. It was sturdy and the right height so I brought it back to sit with it for a while and ask how it wanted me to embellish it.  Often when I lead art programs I talk about art as being both tabernacle and pilgrimage — a sacred container and a sacred journey of discovery.  It holds the power of both.  I have wanted to have a staff and a small box as symbols of these energies of art.  At

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kindness of strangers, embracing the unexpected

I was driving down to the Priory yesterday morning for my Advent Oblate retreat when about 20 miles down I-5 my car started vibrating and I saw smoke pluming from the rear. I was able to get off to the side of the road and slowly drove off the next exit. I thought there was something wrong with the engine, but relieved to see it was just the tire that was flat.  However my cell phone was out of power and I had forgotten my AAA card, so I got out of the car and began to look in back to

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Self-Portrait

The photo in the piece of art above was taken of me at age nineteen, during my junior year in college. I had a boyfriend at the time who was into photography, especially black and white, and I still have several of the photos he took of me.  I think I find them striking because at the time I was struggling with my self-image and yet I remember feeling beautiful while those photos were being taken. For this creation I began with a piece of canvas paper and had painted it with some blue and silver acrylic similarly to yesterday’s stamp

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Divided

This photo is of my grandmother on my mother’s side.  The baby is my uncle and the little girl is my mother. My uncle is the only one left alive from this image. I can see a theme developing in my art already — I used a wooden board as a base, adhered white tissue paper with gel medium (I really like the texture), then cut the image up in pieces — I wanted to experiment with dividing a photo into separate parts.  This technique fits my grandmother well, as she was never a happy person.  In this photo I

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Waiting

Loving Advent Christmas is coming but Advent is here. A time of waiting – Not for gifts to open but for our very selves. Our hearts open slowly. We must wait and wonder. Something new will come out of the darkness. Let yourself sink into the unknowing. Bring a pillow, get comfortable. Waiting in Advent is like planting bulbs for the spring. -Pamela McCauley Pam was one of the participants at our Awakening the Creative Spirit program last month and a longtime reader of this blog and poetry contributor.  I love her poem about the waiting of Advent — “Not for gifts

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Beauty of Broken Things (continued)

For the last Poetry Party I invited you to reflect on the theme of the “beauty of broken things.”  Your poetic responses were marvelous, spanning a wide spectrum of possibility and exploration.  Many of the images moved me, such as “I am the hidden underside of things” and “ice so cold it is also fire” from Tess, “fierce winds sprung from God’s deep lungs” from Rich, and “swampy depths of truth” from Kievas, or the stark simplicity of Kayce‘s poem: “dark / broken / desperate… / still / i reach for the heavens.” Many of the poems offered probing questions

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Artists Speaking About Their Art

I am honored to be included in this compilation of quotes by artists speaking about their art as a part of a grant project to explore creativity and spirituality.  Some intriguing words for reflection found there, not to mention links to some fabulous artists’ websites.  Click on over to find some inspiration. How would you articulate the connection between your creativity (whether visual, literary, movement, music, etc.) and your spirituality?  Feel free to answer in the comments below or provide a link back to your blog if you post a response there.  I’d really love to hear your responses. -Christine

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