Happy Light In Everybody - AdiDa Samraj

May all humans become aware of the immense negative consequences of any kind of warfare.  May war become completely unacceptable to all humans everywhere. 

May we settle our differences with tolerance.

May all humans feel their heart connection to all life and become unwilling to hurt or destroy any non-humans.

May we all celebrate the Light in Everybody, Everything, Everywhere.

All art requires courage. ~Anne Tucker

I watched a wonderful video today about three female artists: http://www.folkstreams.net/pub/FilmPage.php?title=37

All three women in this video understand a lot about art and how it flows through them.  They are all accomplished artists.  They also each express some of the struggles being a woman and an artist embody.  They all understand beauty and the value of beauty in their lives.  They understand the ceremony of art, the communication and heartstream of art.  They are sister artists who have never met and yet are part of a single woven tapestry of art in the world. 

"I am not interested in art as a means of making a living, but I am interested in art as a means of living a life." Robert Henri

The object of painting a picture is not to make a picture--however unreasonable this may sound.  The picture, if a picture results, is a by-product and may be useful, valuable, interesting as a sign of what has past.  The object, which is back of every true work of art, is the attainment of a state of being, a state of high functioning, a more than ordinary moment of existence.  In such moments activity is inevitable, and whether this activity is with brush, pen, chisel, or tongue, its result is but a by-product of the state, a trance, a footprint of this state.
These results, however crude, become dear to the artist who made them because they are records of states of being which he has enjoyed and which he would regain.  They are likewise interesting to others because they are to some extent readable and reveal the possibilities of greater existence.

by Chief Seattle, "We did not weave the web of life, we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves."

This painting was inspired by visiting the beautiful island of Kauai.  As lucky as I was to be able to see the incredible sea turtles, fish, coral reefs, and stunning views, will future generations see any of this? 
We must be a voice for the voiceless. 
For the sea turtles caught in nets, for the fish swimming in polluted water, for future generations not born yet.
Whatever your art form, and be assured you have one, use your art to speak for the voiceless:
Sing the beauty of bird songs and wake up  muffled ears,
Write of the strength of trees and stir human thoughts to greatness,
Paint the colors of ocean fish and move the eye to see,
Sew with the gift of cotton, silk, and linen and show hands how to share,
Pray for all the voiceless and move the heart to love
We are all one, all connected,
May we all care.

Got Game?

Now the game. Your game. The one that only you was meant to play. The one that was given to you when you came into this world. You ready? Take your stance. Don't hold nothing back. Give it everything.

- The Legend of Bagger Vance (movie)

We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden.

"Now I was suddenly made aware of another world of beauty and mystery such as I had never imagined to exist, except in poetry...I experienced an overwhelming emotion in the presence of nature, especially at evening. It began to wear a kind of sacramental character for me. I approached it with a sense of almost religious awe, and in the hush which comes before sunset, I felt again the presence of an unfathomable mystery. The song of the birds, the shapes of the trees, the colors of the sunset, were so many signs of this presence, which seemed to be drawing me to itself. " - Bede Griffiths

"Eyes that look are common. Eyes that see are rare." - J. Oswald Sanders

Would you be able to maintain your sense that a painting was good even if ten or more people vehemently disagreed with you?

Do you have the internal strength to follow your own hunches?

If you don't, I can make some guesses as to why.

1.  You have been wrong before.  It is not that you lack passion and conviction it is that you respect the fact that emotion can cloud vision.  I cannot count how many times I have been caught up in some aspect of a painting without being able to see that the whole painting didn't work.  For years I had to get help to decide if something was good enough to mat! 

2.  There are too many art forms to be good at them all.  If the time is not taken to master the basics in any art form then there is no solid foundation upon which to build true mastery.

3.  Intimidation.  You have been bullied by someone with strong opinions, made fun of for a perspective that was different from others, or been shunned by someone who was jealous...etc. 

Nevertheless, if you think something is good have the courage to say so even though you will run the risk of being intimidated, uninformed or wrong.

The consequence of a life lived in suppression is a far greater loss.