Happy New Year and last painting of 2011.

I spent New Year's Eve day trying to finish my Psyche.  I started her a few weeks back, and I felt like she needed to be done before 2012.  So I barely got her finished before it was time to start ringing in the New Year.     So here she is:

"Psyche's Abandonment"

24x36 acrylic on canvas

$600.00

I think this painting sums up my 2011 in some ways.  It was a year that on some levels seemed uneventful.  I often felt like I was just going through the motions this year, and have often felt very unconnected to my spiritual self.  I almost felt like my psyche (or soul) had abandoned me.  But as 2012 approached and as I was working on this painting a new light is being birthed in me.  I can not really described it, but I know there is something re-awakening in me that has been hibernating for awhile.  

I am excited for the New Year and the direction that I want to take my art in.  I am being drawn to a lot of Christian/Gnostic imagery right now and I plan to mix it up with Pagan myth like I did in this Psyche painting.  I have some big plans for paintings, and yet I am going to have less time to paint.  I am now working at a Law office part time to make some extra money.  I am not happy about the loss of painting time, and yet I feel that making some steady money will take some pressure off of me with my art.  I do think when you are a professional artist it is easy to fall into a trap of "painting what you think will sell".  I look forward to creating out of a space of love instead out of space of survival issues this year.  

I hope you all find that Creative space of love this year.  Happy 2012!

New WIP, The Siren's call

Started a new painting a few days ago, just haven't gotten very far with her yet. This one is going to be similar to The Bridge in many ways. I am thinking about the siren and her haunting call. In myth she calls men and/or sailors to their deaths with her song. Of course mythical beings associated with water are always connected to the feminine consciousness and the subconcious mind. Water is like the void or the womb, where all of creation springs from.
I think that the siren's call is the call that beckons us onto the spiritual path. It calls for us to begin the journey into our subconscious, the journey of unpeeling our issues and facing our egos. The problem comes when we are not quite ready to deal with these issues.
Many people have a constant yearning for something that they can never define. In a sense, that yearning is the siren's call. Many people also choose to try and distinguish that yearning with the proverbial sex, drugs, and rock n' roll. The things that they think will get them closest to union with god/goddess, without having to face their ego. I think this is the destruction that the siren leads most men too, but she can also lead you to the destruction of your ego.
I have included an egret because they are a bird, along with other herons, that are always on the edge of the two worlds (water and land, physical and spiritual). Also there is a loon because they have a haunting call just like the siren. Here is what I have so far:





I have been struggling a lot with the background on this one. It just doesn't want to show itself fully to me yet, but I think it is starting too.