A life in art: drawing and painting from life & inner need

To create is only to reveal what essentially is. It is the vivid recollection of the as-yet-unknown in the known. ~ Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala

Nothing is less real than realism. Details are confusing. It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis that we get at the real meaning of things. ~ Georgia O'Keefe, The Poetry of Things

Unlike Georgia O'Keefe, my own still life drawings are filled with detail. Life is in the details. Details can be infinitely small, often go unnoticed and are over-looked, which is something I care about in relation to objects and to people.

My current series of nature drawings were created with the hard line of pencils, pastels and occasionally with watercolors (when I'm around water). I often choose subjects so filled with minute detail that they become a thing of abstraction. Details are confusing, which is my intention. I appreciate and value the ambiguity, metaphor and poetry that accompanies abstraction. My large paintings are also abstract, but without a lot of detail which acts as a sort of counter balance to the hyper realism of my nature drawings.

Elimination and editing is key, as it is in life. By releasing detail from my paintings I can focus on the essentials which are often spiritual and symbolic. There are hard choices to be made and discipline to be followed (not a popular concept I realize) in the building of a structure and a firm foundation for a life in art.

The drawings in this post and on my art website capture my wild surroundings in the Southern California inland desert valleys, but so too does "My My My Precious Love" pictured at the top, but in a different way. I am at a time and a place in my life (my mid forties) where abstraction calls to me louder than anything else.

The artist must be blind to the distinction between 'recognized' or 'unrecognized' conventions of form, deaf to the transitory teaching and demands of his particular age. He must watch only the trend of the inner need and harken to it's words alone.

Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, published 1911.

P.S. Select drawings are now available for purchase on my website on a private page. To view these drawings please email me for the password.

How to envision a new reality: Tips from the ancient dreamers

While reading the Seth Material (printed below) please be aware that this is channeled information received by Jane Roberts from Seth, “an energy personality essence no longer focused in physical form”. Many people find this kind of writing transports them creatively into other worlds and dimensions.

The text below about the ancient dreamers clicked with me instantly so I'd like to share with you how it relates to my work. When I began my current series of paintings, Journey into Intimacy I too radically slowed my pace of living; editing and simplifying, putting my painting and drawing at the forefront. My inner compass has always been guided by my dreams and I feel a natural affinity with the ancient cave painters, and with vedic scribes and medieval monks; creators of the illuminated manuscripts. I also believe that we can heal and create our reality using our thoughts, dreams and visions as a starting point. But now, with my current work I am expanding that personal vision, just as the ancient dreamers and cave painters did, into the external world. My dreams are my paintings and, like the ancient dreamers, invite you to step into a new world and envision a new reality.

My first painting on canvas from the Journey into Intimacy series is titled "Take me to your playground" (see above) which quite literally is an invitation, but an invitation to what sort of playground is unclear, leaving room for imagination - that part is up to you. Please feel free to share your thoughts, comments and visions below.

Notes from the Seth Material by Jane Roberts

There is a great underlying unity in all of man's so-called early cultures - cave drawings and religions - because they were all fed by that common source, as man tried to transpose inner knowledge into physical actuality.

The body learned to maintain its stability, its strength and agility, to achieve a state of balance in complementary response to the weather and elements, to dream computations that the conscious mind alone could not hold. The body learned to heal itself in sleep in its dreams - and at certain levels in that state even now each portion of consciousness contributes to the health and stability of all other portions. Far from the claw-and-dagger universe, you have one whose very foundation is based upon the loving cooperation of all of its parts.

These ancient dreams were shared to some extent by each consciousness that was embarked upon the earthly venture, so that creatures and environment together formed great environmental realities. Valleys and mountains, and their inhabitants, together dreamed themselves into being and coexistence.

The species - from your viewpoint - lived at a much slower pace in those terms. The blood, for example did not need to course so quickly through the veins, the heart did not need to beat so fast.

Gravity itself did not carry its all pervasive sway, so that the air was more buoyant. Man was aware of its support in a luxurious, intimate fashion. He was aware of himself in a different way, so that, for example, his identification with the self did not stop where his skin stopped: He could follow it outward into the space about his form, and feel it merge with the atmosphere with a primal sense-experience that you have forgotten.

In a fashion those ancient dreams, through their immense creativity, dreamed all of life's creatures in all of their pasts, presents, and futures - that is, their dreams opened up the doors of space and time to entities that otherwise would not have been released into actualization, even as, for example, the units of consciousness were once released from the mind of All That Is.

Dreams, "Evolution," and Value Fulfillment Vol. 1, A Seth Book by Jane Roberts

Today's black orchid

Today I sketched a black orchid 'cause my buddy James wanted a photo, so of course I didn't listen (as my husband tells me fairly often!) and sketched and photographed my black orchid instead. I really like how this photo turned out; very moody. Perhaps like watching a movie filmed with late '60's Russian Lomo lenses?

So, this is how my week started out. Later I worked on a weird, spacey, possibly deep lagoon creature that I painted on a black gessoed canvas. After going as far as I could with that piece I started a new painting; not sure what to tell you about it yet, but here is the palette I was using.

For more drawings please check out my art site: KathrynVCrabbe.com

I'm BACK and ready for Soul Reading!

It's been a few months since I've posted here due to some intense painting and printmaking which can be viewed on my fine art website: http://www.KathrynVCrabbe.com plus I've been partaking in quite a few exhibits of my work at local museums and college galleries.

But my Soul Reading/Astrology biz is calling me back ever so surely and I'm very happy about that! I've made a few changes here on my site also: I've changed my eClass to a self study eBook and I have found another newsletter provider (Mail Chimp) which is free!

My creative explorations have taken the upper hand over the past few months and I've joined a bunch of artist groups: PAAR (Plein Air Painters of Riverside), PNET (Printmaker's Network), the Haggus Society (L.A.), The Women's Caucus for Art, and I am also volunteering at the Dorland Arts Colony in Temecula.

I begin my day by drawing from life, mainly landscapes and still lives of my neighbour's water-wise cactus and native California plant garden. After drawing, I lift weights and sun tan - it's almost always sunny here in the Southern California valley desert plus it's my change to fill up on all that Vitamin D! I paint large abstracts and work on printmaking after that; all part of my Journey Into Intimacy Series and my BodyPrint Healing Series.  You can read more about what they mean here in my bio.

It has been a nice change to get out of my studio and my meditation space to kibbutz with live people at art openings, meetups and plein air painting dates. Next on the agenda is offering you, my dear reader a chance to purchase high quality reproductions of my new paintings as well as a chance to purchase my originals which are all large (4 foot by 4 foot) and are painted on silk, masonite and canvas. So stay tuned, I'll be keeping you posted through my Museletter, my blog and on Facebook.

Transmuting Radiation through Creativity

"Radiation is the central creative life force of stars...The timing of the defusing of radiation is in symbiotic relationship with the clearance of your emotional bodies. If you follow the reintroduction of radiation into your environment, it is in direct proportion to the pollution of your emotional bodies...there is a whole technology on your planet of yoga, mudras, and physical body postures, because as you move into light, these will be what will keep you in your body.

Radiation is an insertion of chaotic material into 3D for exploring immortality...Uranium can be balanced in your hearts, and it can teach you a lot. Your heart has the capacity, through compassion and love, to love all energies.

The purpose of radiation at the 8D level is to quicken energies and to open up densities...How can you judge radiation negatively when it is the central heart of your own Sun?

Radiation is being held in your third dimensional reality by the pollution of your emotional bodies. Yet, you must understand that there is no real pollution once you honour your own feelings. Radiation has increased in direct proportion to emotional pollution...

The degree to which the World Management Team gets way with murder on your planet is in direct proportion to the degree to which you do not trust yourselves to be creative. The World Management Team cannot do anything to people on Earth who trust their own powers. You are in a balancing act now, which will empower your creativity. This will break down the control. You are on the verge of a creative renaissance that will be like a supernova"

~ Excerpted from Barbara Hand Clow's awesome book, The Pleiadian Agenda.

Welcome to My Supernova

I committed myself to a week of morning painting ie. pop out of bed, paint... as part of my Moon Musing Group's Full Moon in Virgo Shared Focus Meditation revolving around self- nurturing.

This morning was unlike any other because I had just come back from a journey into the Pleidian Star System during my Spring Equinox Meditation where I felt myself enveloped in a dark, blue starry nite surrounded by the Seven Sisters. This was a life changing vision. Why? Because of how I felt...my heart opened and everything was different, in just one second.

So, this morning when I began, I channeled that energy into my painting, becoming one with the core of my being and with the work I was doing. My intention: to flow in harmony with the Divine Feminine, spreading my message through the stars, shining upon all, opening hearts, and entering the darkness in celebration of the light - THIS IS BALANCE...Welcome to my SuperNova.