Painted prayers for 11-11-11

I was asked to paint live at a worship event last night, by an amazing woman named Linda Schreurs.  Eleven symbolizes transition, and I knew that painting at this event was going to be transitional for me personally as well.  Just thinking about the symbolism of (3x) transition, I began to gear up.  It's time to start stepping into the dreams that I've had inside of me for a long time.  It's like my dreams have been growing and growing, and last night I was going to purposefully give expression to everything that wanted to come out.  I decided to trust that this was not only for me but for everyone!  My friend, Erin has a quote on her photo website that says, "no one alive can be youer than you."  It's sooo true, and I love that I'm daring more and more to embrace and step into "being my be", as my friend Carla would say.

My brave new expression today - is that I'm going to start attempting to describe my painting process in words.  Painting is how I pray, and describing a process that isn't a mental process but a spiritual one (that's not in English) is a whole new monkey indeed.

Let's back up to my preparation for this event.  I decided to watch this Jonas Gerard video about 5 times.  He gives language to some things that I intentionally do when I paint.  He says that he doesn't know where he's going, but he knows  how to get there.  I relate to this so much while painting.  It's very rare, when I paint, that I start with a theme or a picture.  I just grab the colors that I'm attracted to at that moment and go.  Last night, I packed up my supplies, expecting to be surprised.  Jonas Gerard also touches on something "so key" to powerful expression - "trust and saying no to fear".  In art school I learned, "do it with confidence, or even you won't believe you."  It shows.  I knew that for my painting to be a powerful prayer (from the heart-not pre-conceived in my head),  I had to tell my mind to be quiet, so I could really paint without "my inner critique" interfering.

Last night, I started by opening all of my jars of paint and started smearing on the paint.  I used palette knives to push the paint one direction, then would pull another color through it.  As I did this, the whole painting would shift.  I was working on two canvases at the same time.  After working on the paintings for about 10  minutes,  I looked at the painting on my right and decided to turn the canvas upside down.  It turned it upside down, LOL.

I painted magenta and carmine on both of the canvases.  The colors shoot up and out, almost as if something is "jumping out from the inside with arms wide open".

I grabbed the cadmium yellow paint jar, and a good size brush.   The yellow really lightened the whole mood of the painting.  The yellow is fresh and happy, and as I painted I was also dancing and grooving.  I used up my whole pot of yellow.  (note to self:  time to order more paint online).

Gold paint came next.  I couldn't get enough of the gold. The gold is super duper thick, and I applied it with the palette knife.  I pulled some of the reds through the gold, which is beautiful up close.  At this point in the evening, I went and sat down.

I couldn't see the paintings from where I was sitting, and had no idea if the canvases were done or not.  A friend of mine was sitting in the back, so I went and sat by her.  As Linda talked, I was thinking of spiritual awakening.  I imagine myself yelling upstairs to the girls, "it's time to wake up!" but not only to my girlies - all of creation.  Imagining all of creation being restored and thriving.  Why pray small, when you can pray really big?  I got excited and jumped up to paint again.

I mixed up a really bright blue ink, and paint with water.  Then I used my blue splatter brush to splatter, splatter, splatter!  It was like refreshing crazy rain.  Oh how fun that was.  Then I sat down again.

Two parts of my painting started bugging me, they were too gray.  It looked like gray people standing in two doorways.  They needed a life infusion and a whole lot of happy.  I went and grabbed the light pink and the biggest brush I had.  I started adding pink, more pink, and more pink.  As I painted the pink, I sensed healing and new life, like it was time for something new, now.  I knew I was done, because I just got happy when I saw the paintings.

As I sat down, I knew Linda was going to ask me what the paintings meant.  So, I prayed.  What am I saying with these paintings?  Two words - "Arise and Shine".  Earlier in the evening, I had talked to friends about the word Heartland being two words: "heart" and "land".  I prayed "From the Heartland to the nations, Arise and Shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has dawned."

Later , I looked at the paintings with a friend, she agreed that these paintings look like they're from the heart.  Yay!  Other people saw completely different things in the painting.  I love that!  They really saw stories unfold as I painted.  I loved hearing what they experienced while watching.  What do you see when you look at these paintings?

I talked to the videographer who was documenting the event.  He said he'd get some footage of me painting.  I think it would be so fun if I could post some of the process on video.  Heeheee.  We'll see.