16 April 12 Circling

"Circling" Copyright Lauren T. Meyer 2016

I was heading into the YMCA when I saw a close friend.  She invited me to join her for a "Circling" get together.   I had never heard of it, yet she glowed as she spoke  and I figured I'd skip a swim and experience something  different. And it was unlike anything I'd experienced before.  There were about 30 people in a large living room  already sitting on various chairs in a circle.   One  person volunteers to be questioned.  They answer  while trying to stay present with themselves without  going off into explanation or story.   Every word matters. The challenge is to experience this moment and  acknowledge, name, and share feelings that come  up while relating to another... waaay harder than it seems, and so Berkeley.

A Gift of Reflection: Essential Wafers

Balance Dark and Light.  2016 Copyright Lauren T. Meyer

I have wonderful exchanges with people who see my art, and I want to share their reflections with others who enjoy my imagery. Tonight at Dance Jam Berkeley I took 3 paintings and taped them to the wall behind the check-in table.

I also put a bowl of "Essence Wafers" to select from before one stepped into the dance room.

The Essence Wafers are 2" dia watercolor paintings.  They reflect peoples essence back to them.  I asked what they want to call into their lives in the new year.  A woman told me "articulation" and I ask her how that would feel and she says,  she wanted to feel in the flow intensely, so I wrote "Acuity" on her wafer.  When asked about the coming year, a man said he wants to bring compassion to the world through music.  I wrote "Ignite Intention" on his wafer.  Reading that surprised him and his face lit up thinking about it that way.  It was a lot of fun. I AM an artist and have "Permission" (what I wrote on my wafer) to be as big in the world as I care to be.

Standing in Movement

I met a lovely man as I was taking a walk in the neighborhood.  He is a professor of comparative literature at Cal. We walked together enjoying the beautiful plants in people's yards.  We walked to my house and I showed him my paintings.  His response was beautiful...."the roundness calls me, there are no edges in your paintings. Circular things have no beginnings and no ends. they are constantly in movement, the eye can't stay anywhere, the paintings are dynamic, not static.  They are open ended and up to the imagination for the viewer."
What a treat.

Reflections of the Divine

We see images of beautiful, young, thin women in magazines and media. 

 I'm offering paintings of women that reflect our divine nature.  

If we are alive, life force energy flows through us, it does not care what size you are.

 To remember or acknowledge this fact, is to feel our own divinity.

Experimentation

Spending time in my studio is a luxury. 

To experiment and explore what happens with pigment on the paper intrigues me. 

To stand back and consider what imagery has emerged thrills me.

This painting makes me think of the horizon and distant mountains to climb, while the foreground reminds me of the present, with issues that need to be addressed and tasks that need to be completed.  Please let me know what you see or feel about this one.  Thanks.

Looking through the lattice of the present into the horizon of the future

Sometimes I get so caught up in the present,

I can't imagine the future 

or vice versa:

Sometimes I get so caught up in thinking about the future,

 I am not present in the present.

2015 is here! Time to....

May 2015 allow you:

Time to dance

Time to love

Time to live

Time to be....

Thank you for supporting my art practice and sharing your time with me.  

Happy New Year!

Hoʻoponopono

Hoʻoponopono (ho-o-pono-pono) is an ancient Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness. 

For the past few times that I have swam at the Y, I pick someone in my life, repeat their name over and over to see them in my mind's eye, then say the Ho'oponopono.  It feels like I am swimming more slowly, yet the time goes by more quickly...how can that be?  The clock reflects I'm swimming at my usual pace... strange.  It is a lovely meditation to offer my family, my friends, and myself. 

I had a painting that was not working, and the paper was getting too wet to paint on. There was so much pigment on the paper, that I took the syringe my dental hygienist gave me, and filled it with water and started to write with the water blast, washing away the pigment and revealing the first layer of color on the paper.  It was fun and satisfying.

Vesta: Goddess of Fire in the Hearth (and Womb)

My Wiccan friend, Neala, has offered to send guidance in following the phases of the moon phases.

The Goddess in You

Creative dates: June 2 - 15

Moon phase: new moon waxing to full on 6/12

As the Sun grows stronger and the days grow longer, we move into the full strength of the sun. The high spring rites of Beltaine have recently past (May 1) and the magic of Litha or Midsummer's Eve (June 21) approaches. 

The fruit is on the vine, on the branches, and awaits the ripening kiss of summer days. It is a time of growth and bringing things to fruition. 

For this two week period we bring our focus to Vesta, the the Goddess of Fire.

She is the Goddess of the hearth in every facet: the hearths of our Hearts, our Homes and our communities. She dwells in the flames of every altar and fireplace. Vesta means simply “hearth” and comes from the same root meaning “to shine”. 

Vesta is the Goddess of the hearth and home - the central Fire that sustains human life with heat and food. She is a Goddess of nourishment and warmth; of the home, womyn and family. 

Find your self amidst the flow and eddies in the river of life

May 28, 2014

When I arrived with painting in hand, again, the altar design was perfect for my painting, as if we had planned ahead.  The Theme was to come back to your self, and what a challenge that can be with the river of life flowing so quickly.  When I take a moment to find my self, it's as if I'm caught in an eddy to catch my breath as life continues it's frantic pace.  Yet it is the eddies that give my life meaning and moments of connection and joy.

Essence (sold)

Let your Essence out of it's confines.  The theme was "baggage"  Eva brought luggage and boxes labeled with feelings and notions that weigh us down.  She had paper and markers so we could write what our personal confines are and "release" them.  I had imagined a trunk, but the box I painted looks somewhat like a coffin, which suggests the ultimate release of one's essence....death!

Beyond the Veil

My painting practice before dance continues to surprise me.  I was overtired and painting alone, thinking of a friend's boyfriend who has surrendered to the stomach cancer killing him from the inside out.  We had just been chatting that to be by his side as he gets closer to the "veil" is a first row seat to a process we don't have much experience with or words for.  So I painted bright colors of life and then painted the dark on top, in the shapes of flower petals.  Overtime, the darkness will overtake his life force, but for now, his process is unfolding beautifully.

When I arrived at the dance hall, the only place for the painting was "behind the veil", which seemed perfect to hide the imperfect painting.  And again, the colors of the altar were in concert with the colors of the painting, including a touch of red to match the velvet buddha.  Quantum Collaboration made visible!

After the dance, the veil was lowered and the painting was revealed. 

The Honey surrounding the flower

Open the window to the west and disappear into the air inside you. 

Near your breastbone there is an open flower. 

Drink the honey that is all around that flower.

(Kabir)

Riding the Dragon

The Altar design by Kathleen was perfect. The flowing gold fabric suggesting flow and journey. It was draped along the wall creating space for our paintings as if we had planned it, but we all know now that it is Quantum Collaboration...no verbal or written communication necessary :)

We danced with John Vigran in our hearts, (our dance teacher, Eva's, husband) as he had emergency triple bypass open heart surgery last week. Suzanne's painting is on the left, titled Dragon's Breath, as the theme from Eva that morning was Riding the Dragon...with gratitude for the support of their friends who rode the dragon with them through this death defying-life affirming journey.

≈

Washed Ashore

I love to do washes, and washed ashore took all of 8-10 minutes..super fast.  And the Altar was perfect for it...again!

All together Now...a series

The yellow wall of my office is messing with the color registration, sorry about that.  They all have gold dripping in them that reflects from different angles of the light.  Any one have a wall big enough to do these justice?

More Rain...Sun Peaking Through

We've had more wonderful rain, but the weekend coming is supposed to be sunny and beautiful.  This is the third in a series that I've done within a week. All 21x21"  I'm in love with them.

Rainy Days 2

More rainy days here.  Can't stop dropping paint on paper.

Rainy Days

Eva's theme last night was robotics, the opposite of fluidity.  But the day was rainy and I let the paint do it's thing...drip down, drip down, down.  Suzanne brought a painting done by a 10 yr old elephant in Thailand when she was there last month.  Nothing robotic about elephants!

Uniqueness

The Altar designed by Kathleen, with Suzanne's painting on the left and mine on the right.  The theme was Uniqueness

Eva took some of my cards and pasted "invitations to dance" on the back, like "Dance as if your eyes are closed" and "Dance as if gravity doesn't apply to you" and "Dance as if you are tethered to the center of earth wherever you step"

I'm thankful for her initiative. She's requested more cards so she can take them to Canada and Switzterland for her international dance sessions. What an honor.

This was my painting last night, although not quite unique as I had painted "in the beginning" a few weeks ago. But that painting was promptly sold and I wanted to see what else would emerge in the same vein.  Sunset wash behind the flow of fire and the grounding of the Lotus petals.

Permission Granted to Love your Self

I hadn't painted a Goddess in a long time, and what better occasion than Valentine's Day?  I titled it "Love Collector", as if the big headdress was a dish and could catch all the love waves flying around that day, and absorb them with permission granted to... Love your Self.

Many Layers Wide

It still thrills me to wash the paper with a big horizon and then let more paint drip slowly down.

Sunburst

The theme was "threshold" and I was ruminating about crossing over. What emerged was crossing the sea to follow the light.

Cactus painting becomes party theme!

I did this Cactus painting at Jenny's birthday party at Beth's studio back in November. I had it printed up as gift wrap and cut into placemats that we then used for my sister Debbie's wedding party in Arizona.  I was thrilled how great they looked.  We used the same painting on the thank you cards, gift labels, and more. Very fun.

Roots (Sold)

Welcome to 2014!

Happy New Year 2014

As I started this painting, I had in mind 3 qualities to cultivate this coming year: Confidence, Discipline and Patience...the latter of which was running thin as the painting was becoming an ugly mess. So I washed everything out with a big brush, scraped into the wet paint with the end of a plastic fork, and let the notion of branches growing out of a place of Trust, emerge.
Finding that zone, where I move quickly without much thought, keeping my attention on the tip of the brush, pays off with a unique painting that surprises even me, as if I were just a conduit.

That's why it's so fun!  Thanks for looking.

In The Beginning... (sold)

My favorite element in this painting is the gold circle above the horizon.  It is Eternity, Calm, Patient, always there. The sunset sky on the first layer pokes through the action and excitement of daily living, yet reminds me that the one constant is the rotation of the earth around the sun.
Suzanne's painting is on the left, another fabulous stepping out!   So worthy to imagine starting all over from scratch.

Radiance Dec 4, 2013

In the Darkness

As the sun set yesterday at 4:57pm with an incredible display of wispy clouds and swaths of intense colors, I entered my studio and painted my heart and emotion in the deep colors of the season.

When I arrived at the hall, Kathleen's altar was white and wispy, with no color, as if the darkness drained it all away. And yet may of the dancers were wearing the colors in the painting, and it all came together beautifully, yet again.

Birds of Paradise (sold)

 I was in Long Beach this weekend and had a couple of hours to ride a bike along the beach. These striking plants love the Southern California climate, and I remembered having them in our yard growing up. Their heads poke up from a mass of leaves with their nose in the air and a fantastic blue antennae probing forward.  

The Magician

May you conjour up Magic to delight and surprise

Trust Myself

I didn't have time to paint on Wednesday, so I offered to bring a painting from "stock".  My teacher wrote back, "Bring what you have.. One big one would be great. The Hierophant... The one who walks the mystical path with practical feet."

I looked at paintings from years back, and selected two that struck me as hierophants.  When I parked the car at dance, I hesitated bringing both paintings in, as I was supposed to bring only one, but I figured since I them I'll take both in.  As always, it was uncanny, Kathleen had created a beautiful Altar set up ideally for two paintings!

The one on the left is,

"Dial a new attitude"

The one on the right is

 "The one who walks the mystical path with practical feet, 

always tethered to the center of the earth for grounding and sustenance" 

Listening

               To myself, and

To my surroundings,

To the song that rises from this moment

   in which I am contained -

These dances rise up inside of me

    and spin out beneath me,

And it's as if I stand back, inside myself

               and observe....

Available to constant flow and change,

I can balance

                   at the edge of the unknown,

               and experience fearlessness.

Eva Karczag (dancer, choreographer, teacher)

What IS

Sometimes things are hard, they just don't flow easily, as was the case with this painting.  But now, a week later, I can see that this painting has a lot of depth. Life is like that. Difficult things can be a gift.

The Fool

The theme for dance last week was the archetype of "The Fool." In some esoteric Tarot decks, the Fool is shown as a young man, walking unknowingly toward the brink of a precipice, which is what I had intended.  The image presented itself on the edge, grazed by the fire, but with the help of many arms, is securely balanced, using the energy from above and the tether below.

Sweetness

May you find serenity even when everything seems to be falling apart

UP Close and FAR Away (sold)

 Tomorrow we are taking my son to Montana State University in Bozeman.  Time to leave the nest.  The hard part will be leaving him there and driving 926 miles away.