Hours after I decided to include Notre Dame’s Rose Window in this painting, I heard about the devastating fire in Paris. Two weeks before that, I’d been inspired to study the design of cathedral rose windows.
There are more than just layers of paint in “Communing With Community”. There are layers of connection and re-connection through time, space, and experience as I co-created this piece live in Carbonear, NL.
In the 26-minute video below, you’ll get to share in some of that co-creative energy that brought this painting into being.
It all started when I was writing my grant proposal for the Re-Connecting Art Project.
I knew that the theme for the 7th piece would be community. The idea of creating a painting on community alone in my studio didn’t feel right.
So I reached out to Tammy Wrice Paetkau of Ocean View Gallery in Carbonear to see if she’d be open to my coming to spend a week there during my scheduled “Communion” exhibition.
She was!
Tammy and her business partner Michelle Penney-Rowe opened their businesses and their hearts to what I was moved to offer & create there.
They housed me, fed me, and made me feel right at home. I stayed at Tammy’s house with her beautiful family and borrowed her truck for my early morning trips to the studio.
From April 14-19, I offered 7am Tune-In Meditations followed by an 8am walk in the community. Then, I painted until closing time. On the 20th, I offered an intuitive painting workshop that was as much about painting as the personal spiritual process behind visionary art.
What an amazing week! It took me out of my studio and out of my comfort zone, but once I was there, it was the most natural dance of giving and receiving that resulted in the birthing of this painting.
A month later, what I remember most are my heart to heart interactions with those of all generations who came to be a part of the experience.
- the timing of two visitors from St. John’s who joined me in infusing the first layer with community words
- the young boy who asked me so many questions about my art, choice of music, prices, process, etc. for half an hour before settling in to draw quietly in the space
- the teen who was surprised to find me there and was visibly taken aback by the energy in the room and came back to give me a few names to pray for during the dotting stage
- those who came in to hug me and thank me after having experienced the exhibition before my arrival
- the conversations with those touched by the work
- the fellow artist and her husband who had never experienced anything like this exhibition and called back the next day to purchase a piece
- the love, tears, and openings that occurred during the channeled meditations
- my time with Tammy & her family
- And, of course, the whole story of the Notre Dame fire.
Watch this 26-minute video to see the painting evolve and to share in my community experience.
Part of the intuitive painting process is trusting inspiration.
I’d received guidance to study Rose Window designs two weeks prior to going to Carbonear.
I didn’t know if it was for the background I started in the studio or some other painting in the collection. I just followed the flow.
Then, in Carbonear, when an empty circle appeared at the top of the canvas, I knew it was time. I would include one of Notre Dame’s Rose Window patterns at the top.
Later in the day, as I was posting progress photos to Facebook, I came across a post about the fire.
It hit me like a kick in the solar plexus.
Yes, it was personal. I’d visited the cathedral as a child, adolescent, and adult.
But it was much deeper than that.
I felt like I was connecting to communities all around the world – those in the present who were impacted by the news, and those throughout history who built the cathedral, worshipped there, or simply visited it.
I knew without knowing the details, that my being called to paint this window at this time was somehow helping support something greater. Was it a planetary shift or healing?
I didn’t need to know the details. I just needed to paint & pray, connecting to community on a grand scale. But it was local too!
Many conversations ensued with visitors – about their time there, the impact of the fire on them, etc.
A day or so after I’d started painting the window, I found out that Michelle’s son, 11-year-old Liam, had been scheduled to sing at the Notre Dame Cathedral in 2 weeks with the Atlantic BoyChoir.
This was no coincidence. It was a moving example of how I may have been inspired to be there that week for him … or him for me.
On Friday night, after closing time, Michelle found Liam in the gallery standing in front of the completed painting singing the solo he had been meant to sing in the cathedral.
I had tears in my eyes when she messaged me to tell me – and still now as I write about it.
Liam’s song is now infused in this painting. And the energy of “Communing with Community” is now part of his journey.
Who knows what other layers of meaning and purpose may reveal themselves in time.
I’m just grateful I turned intuition into action – bringing me to Carbonear in April to paint the Rose Window at the time of the fire.
I’m so grateful for it all.
A week before going to Carbonear, I asked my Facebook audiences what words described the best of community to them.
A couple of visitors and I used liquid acrylic paint markers to cover the blank canvas with these words and more, infusing that energy into its foundation, You can’t see them anymore, but their energy still emanates from the painting.
The most popular word was “inclusive”.
This was then covered in layers and hours of mark-making, symbolizing the diversity within communities and between them.
Liquid paints in higher chakra colours were then poured on top of these to add harmony to the apparent chaos through communication, self-expression, and connection to the Oneness of all that is.
The diversity in texture is still there, but so is the flow of unity.
Then came 10 hours of dotting puzzle pieces in the outside frame.
Each white dot represents a person, a member of our human communities. Each iridescent violet dot represents a Divine helper standing by our side.
Each piece is then a community within the greater whole of all communities.
I spent many of these hours reflecting on and connecting to the waves of energy that the fire at Notre Dame cathedral stirred around the world.
I also spent a few hours praying for family, friends, and prayer requests that came through Facebook and gallery visitors.
Some were intrigued or surprised about this part of my process. But after I explained how I do energy work as I paint, they gladly offered a few names.
Praying for community while dotting became an integral part of my process when working on # 1 in this series, “Every Dot a Prayer“. It’s one of my ways to commune with community, even when I’m alone.
When I asked my Team of Divine Helpers what might evolve in the centre of this painting, I was given a vision of an arrow with a circle. This was in the early stages of painting.
I had a few layers to go before needing to know more, but the word ‘arrow’ was in my consciousness when my father emailed me to say the windows of Notre Dame may have survived but the arrow had collapsed.
I’d never heard the term ‘arrow’ used for a church before. When I googled it, I found out that Notre Dame’s arrow is more than a steeple. It held 3 sacred relics and acted as “a veritable spiritual lightning rod protecting all those who work for the praise of God”.
My attention was also grabbed when one of my visitors, local yoga teacher Brent Denney took off his coat, revealing a tattoo of an arrow with several circles on his forearm.
It represented the cosmos and earth’s position in it (the little blue dot).
Wow! The meaning of community became much broader when contemplating the design of this tattoo in the context of what I’d been called to co-create.
In my design, I saw the arrow pointing up, aiming community higher, bringing our prayers to the Universe. It represented our planet’s ascension to higher consciousness and Divine Oneness.
As for the circle, I didn’t want to copy another artist’s design. As I tuned in, my initial inspiration of 1 circle became the vesica pisces – my favourite sacred geometry shape.
The Vesica Pisces & Tree of Life
The vesica pisces is a symbol I use a lot in my art.
It’s sacred geometry that’s been used in religion and spirituality for thousands of years to represent a source of immense power and energy.
The Vesica Pisces is the two becoming one.
It’s also
* an opening into the mysteries of higher consciousness
* the seed of the tree of life and basic motif for the flower of life,
* the intersection of spiritual and physical,
* creation/ birthing/ yoni/ Goddess
* a symbol for Jesus Christ (the fish shape in the middle).
At the heart of this vesica pisces I saw planet Earth. I purposefully chose to paint the facade that featured Europe to honour the international attention it was getting due to the fire. Again, it’s like this fire represented a shift that is so much greater than that of a burning building.
Our sacred planet, however, wasn’t just floating in space. It turned with the trunk of the Spirit Tree of Life at its core.
We’re connected here on Earth to both the spiritual and physical.
Roots through time and space nourish our existence.
Branches bearing the fruits of all we are and all we’re doing here connect us to a greater picture, a mystery, our place within the divinity of all that is.
Around these two circles, holding hands, is both our human family & spirit family – of all colours, shapes, and sizes, including a few in wheel chairs.
We’re in this together!
Our pain comes from separation – from ourselves, each other, and God (or whatever term you’re comfortable using).
This painting is to help re-connect us to our True Self and All that Is.
It’s time to ‘burn’ whatever doesn’t serve us – whatever keeps us separate from ourselves and each other.
The last touch on this painting was adding 4 dragonflies in the corners of the ultraviolet light beam, some heading towards the planet and some away from it.
Dragonfly energy helps us to let go of illusions and delusions to get to the deeper truth.
They’re here to help us truly commune with community.
May it be so.
“Communing with Community”
24″ x 48″
(acrylics on canvas)
Original – SOLD
Prints – order yours here.
You’ can order prints of many of my paintings in the size and medium you want from the Print-on-Demand link under my Art/Shop tab.
I’ve only shared some of the insights from my experience here.
There are so many more layers of meaning and energy that I am unaware of.
Are there any that come up for you? Please share in the comments below.
Namaste (the Spirit in me honours the Spirit in you).
We’re not alone. We’re all part of the Divine Oneness. So let’s connect to the flow of love & light that’s always available to us – that’s a part of us.
It’s too easy to get caught up in the details of our dramas or the busy-ness in our every day lives.
