Pair of bright spots

"Treasure Chest", 14x14 inches, patchwork pillow case

"Shinto Shrine", 14x14 inches, patchwork pillow case

I just completed a pair of pillow cases. I am really pleased how they turned out. One of them is going to be auctioned off on Saturday. I have a hard time deciding which one. They do look good together.

I am planning to make more, as I think they look good in set of two's or threes. Any thoughts on this?

The "Treasure Chest" sold at the auction for $100. Great!!!

The fifth pillow completes the set

I have been very busy. The fifth pillow is large: 20x30 inches. It took quite a while to get all the paper piecing together. The weather was beautiful as well and so it was more important to take walks outside. I got to actually rediscover some wonderful trails in the neighboring state park and walked about an hour almost every day.

Studio time at this point is non-existent. I am so preoccupied with patch-working. After completing the pillows to re-invent the forty year old sectional, I had loads of scraps of fabric and so I began to sew these together without a plan. What fun!!! and what freedom to do whatever I wanted to:

I need to make a donation to a fundraising auction  and so I took the lower right medallion and began to enlarge it to make a pillow case for a 14x14 inches pillow. I just finished the front panel and all I need to do is finish the back and insert the zipper into the lower seam line. I have learned a great deal about constructing this pillow case and I think that I am getting the gestalt of how it all goes together.  I wanted it well finished inside, with no raw edges showing:

Winter Spirit coming

Winter Spirit coming, 11"x15" watercolor and colored pencils

I had just completed, or so I think, this little piece. I had lot of fun with it, as it evolved slowly. Mostly, 

I was really intrigued by the contrast of temperature and thus the title. The hot and the cold contrasts of day and night temperatures, the vegetation changing in appearance, the slow shutting down of vital functions I am witnessing as Autumn progresses, all speak of winter arriving. I am finding lot of beauty in this transition. Creating this piece got me to really appreciate the vitality that continues even through the dark and cold months to come.

Here is a progression of this piece:

The Eye of Spirit immanent and transcendent, question of point of view

Playing with shapes and glazes, initially, I had come to an interesting problem of wanting to have more capacity to work the colors in opaque, layering way. I did not know how to achieve an overlay with watercolors and so I used color pencils first. Because the paper had some texture (Arches CP 140 lb), The pencil did not work the way I envisioned. Luckily, I have a set of Conte pastel pencils and so I used them. I got a better result and was still able to preserve the watercolor effects.

Above, "Eye of Spirit immanent, the "I" of new life within the universal womb of life: the endless potentiality to be birthed, is the Spirit embodied. If I turn it around, then it evokes for me the "Eye of Spirit transcendent", the unseen, the intuited realm of being. Both are One appearing as two. Yet only the point of view is shifted.

Late summer grove: completed

14" x 21" watercolor and colored pencil

I think that for now I am done. I used color pencils in the "grove area, to sharpen up contrasts in the red and blue areas and to define the trunks a little more. I do have difficulty with capturing the colors of the painting in their true appearance. The process of the painting has been valuable, as I want to touch into what is it exactly that drives the energy of laying colors. What is it that I love about it? I am aware of one quality I love: discovery.

Here are the previous photos of work in progress:

Late summer grove

I worked on the watercolor more. you can see the initial layers below. It was quite blue dominant. I added layers and warmed it up. The colors are reminding me of end of summer dryness. they are all around me. I do not know if it is really finished. I wanted to use colored pencils the sharpen the grove, but then stopped myself. Was I afraid or am I really done? I do not know at this point.

Awareness of Heart and being Real, reflection from meditation group I am leading

To be real is a process of showing up. It means to be transparent in the sense of being genuine, not hidden by the various images, concepts, or ideas of who we. We just are, present, open, and vulnerable to sensing our experience moment by moment. Our consciousness is clear; the mental structures of the mind are seen through for what they are: representations of past experiences that obscure our awareness of the Heart, the innermost part of us, our vitality and essence that we could call “True Nature”, or consciousness.

When we begin to look at our life as a flow of experience, when we begin to self-reflect on what is happening and start to ask questions about who we are and what we are experiencing, we enter into a territory we are not that familiar with. We are beginning to examine with our awareness the substrate of our experience, out of which the world as we experience it by the mind emerges: our consciousness.

What consciousness is or is not is difficult to explain from a scientific point of view because it cannot be measured. It can be felt, as many meditators present and past have reported. For the purpose of examining our subjective experience, we assume that consciousness is an invisible medium that allows us to “know our experience”. Those who have become intimate with consciousness report it to be a dynamic presence, and a source of life enhancing qualities that are able to influence the mind to dissolve its rigid structures and expand our awareness.  We can assume that as human beings we have the potential to live “beyond to boundary of our conditioned mind” and that we can have life from this expanded awareness and express the innate qualities available to us to enhance life for us and others.

The process of learning to be real is not about justification of our mind and it’s sense of self.  The content of the mind, the thoughts and judgments we have about our experience is looked at as an obscuration, or a veil, that distorts our ability to experience our consciousness without conditioning, our Heart. 

To be real requires love that is very interested in what is happening along with healthy dose of self-honesty: truth. The combination of our curious, open, accepting and loving awareness that is focused to find what has Heart and meaning within our experience is what buddhists call “Wisdom of discrimination”. The capacity to discriminate with love and honesty separates illusion from truth. 

As you inquire into and discriminate your experience, you could reach a boundary where the knowing of the mind meets the mystery of not knowing what is beyond it. If you can be in this place, you could rest in what christian mystics speak of as “Cloud of Unknowing”. We are then sensing into the Heart, our essence within us. And as we sense with our  awareness this innermost essence, we could begin to discover its life giving  Heart qualities that are always available to us. We could feel the flow of presence, peace, love, inner guidance,  meaning, preciousness, and many other qualities to pour into our awareness and affect our mind to follow the Heart.

Usually we touch into this inner place in meditations when the mind is quiet, or when involved in something relaxing, but it usually is not long lasting. The mind returns to its habitual pathways. But with an intent to inquire into the habits of the mind through the practice of being real, this inner Heart can be experienced for longer periods of time and become the source of our sense of self in a deeply transformed and immediate way. What happens is that “Being Real” and “True Nature” coalesce and we feel undivided in our experience and in our presence.  We feel whole.