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While I search for the different colored pigments, I release layers of stress and I slow down. As I walk on the earth and balance myself with nature, I attune to the sounds and smells, to the frequencies and vibrations emanating all around me and especially under my feet. My personality slowly dissolves from action and direction orientation to just listening, allowing, taking it all in.

I prefer to spend the night at the location where I plan to paint, especially lying on the earth in my tent. I dream and commune with the ancestors of the area. I feel—and feel more deeply—our connection to mother earth and the inner and inter- dependence of all life within the animal and mineral kingdoms.

Prior to commencing, I call on the spirits and energies of the area. I give thanks for the opportunity to create, express the joy I feel, allow my spirit to tune into what wants to be communicated in the area. The earth pigments, themselves, demand to be spread in certain designs, circles. I consciously slow and even stop my left critical brain and open my right side to my intuition and creativity. While painting I lose myself into total focus on the task—feeling the colors, how they wish to be spread on the canvas. I tune into my soul/spirit and into the energies all around me, and my past—it all comes together in sensual expressions on canvas. I am always amazed at the finished art piece when I finally step back and walk around the earth painting.

EXPERIENCE – What I feel when I’m painting

(click here to go to full photo essay of the painting process.)