Turning over a new Leaf (or maybe that should be snowball)

I've be berating myself for not posting anything lately. You know the whole story the best laid plans ..... something about not hatching. At least I started a few and well they will find there way and get posted I'm sure. But I have come to the discovery of one truly important thing in my life, and that is of course my daughter.

Now I'm sure if you have read a previous post you would know that my daughter was finally assessed with Dyslexia, of course to be politically correct and to not want to put a label on anyone of course they didn't exactly use those terms. So for the sake of political correctness she has some learning disabilities. Hmmmm....... I don't know I think I would rather people know I'm dyslexic than well just make things even more difficult and make it even broader by not giving people a clue. Just my two cents. The thing is it's been a bit of a roller coaster not only for my daughter but for me. Which was a shock for me. I am surprised by my reaction and discovery that I really truly don't know much about learning disabilities or dyslexia or the such. However, this has given me the opportunity to - in support of my daughter - learn.

There are a few amazing facts that I am learning, one is that roughly 20% of the population is affected by some type of learning disability. My assumption would be though that this would be of those tested. So in a population of 32 million people that would mean that 6.4 million people have some form of learning difficulties.

Now one thing I have learned and learned very quickly is that learning disabilities are not really disabilities if anything it is the common learners that indeed have the disability in not being able to view a different perspective. So it turns out, it really should be viewed as a gift. For instance dyslexics are three dimensional viewers. Imagine if you can when you look at something, anything that in order for you to actually process the information it would be much easier for your brain if it would literally jump right off the page such as a 3 dimensional hologram.

Now the number one most difficult issue I have as well as I'm sure most parents of these types of learners has is wanting to see them learn, seeing them accomplish good grades and many other things what we would call regular everyday normal childhood experiences. I think as common thinkers we have lost sight of the fact that indeed we are the ones who have much to learn here and really why is it that we must put people in a box and label it in order to make ourselves feel better. It's very unenlightened. Especially if you take into consideration that there have been many great wonderful outside of the box thinkers in history, not to mention the ones we don't know about. For a list of famous dyslexics all you have to do is just Google, but for me the most impressive of them would be Da Vinci mostly I would think for the reason he would see no barriers in terms of his thinking. Anything was Possible!

The challenge as i see it is to be able to learn as much from the dyslexic and learning challenged point of perspective and to employ more three dimensional type learning into everyday life. And though most people would have to say "why?" my response would inevitably be that the world is changing, faster than we truly know and it could very well be that 3 dimensional thinkers would be the ones to lead us forward in leaps and bounds. Instead of making everything conform for our own comfort why not take the challenge.

Let's face it I've gotten a little ahead of myself. not unusual for me, there is no massive millions of disposable income rattling around me at the moment to ensure this kind of change. A catalyst maybe, inspiring change would be a joy. And this is in fact one of the reasons I am writing this and that would be to raise money which is something I can do.


Thanks with much love.
Lily

The new world

So here it is......... haven't been doing much art lately. Yeah it's true sometimes we get sidetracked. Well not art in the terms of me being in that specific mind space.

Truthfully if you think about it, all of life is art and art is life. We are forever creating in everything we do. There is a plan in place for me to get into that space but right now my mind is on energy. And energy is definitely leaving it wide open.

Wide open to the fact that just as life is art, all is energy, creativity is the manipulation of energy to achieve a specific goal. All thought requires energy to have a thought, and the energy that is applied to that thought results in a reaction, action and ultimately creation of an outcome.

I could go even further. For instance humans possess something even greater than our minds. Our Spirits, which is the one thing that connects us to everything, and everyone. It is the network of the unseen that intuitive knowing, where all answers to all questions exist. It's just a matter of us being able to tap into it. It's also what could be considered the human dilemma.
And the only reason I say this I would have to give you an example. (be patient this is all being automatically written)
It is our spirits nature to only do what is for our best interest, however, in saying that and knowing human nature that isn't always the case. The decisions that humans make are egocentric, that's one of the easily identifying characteristics of our species. Taking this into consideration it makes it hard for us to tap into that intuitive knowing easily unless possibly faced with a very traumatic situation.

It's in my opinion that our brains are just much to busy in thought to truly quiet itself to hear, or in the case our intuition to feel what is best. There is a lot written about these very things in many different ways for many different people. It should seem very easy, but than why isn't it easy. What is it about our human nature that just absolutely has to get in the way. For some would say it's conditioning and some would have you think it's your beliefs. Ultimately we are perfect and we have the tools to tap into this. The things is we live busy lives, we do what we must to survive and that in itself is proving that we don't believe, we don't believe that we will be provided for. It's our fear of the unknown that stops us for if we truly believed there would be a safe place a safe space for us to be able to learn and achieve mastery in these tools without the fear of knowing where our next meal will be coming from or whether we have a roof over our heads.

I do believe there is a solution out there and yes I haven't felt it yet, but I do feel it exists. I do believe that one of the reasons we don't accept these solutions is because our own egos get in the way. We are too proud. In a lot of instances we were taught pride where indeed we should have been taught humbleness and gratitude. In our brightly painted and marketed world can gratitude be real. Do we even know what to be grateful for. As humans separate themselves from each other more and more and cause drama and trauma in each other lives can we truly feel the gratitude.

It's with this in mind I ask - who do you have to be grateful for?
What scenarios in your life do you have to be grateful for? Yes even in the bad scenarios or what you might be considered to be bad or traumatic, what can you be grateful for there too? It's often there we uncover our innermost gratitude and that would be for our courage, our faith, our hope in what we believe to be good.

I am grateful to you, for having read this, and if I could gift to you anything it would be to ask questions and explore.
Turn off the automatic pilot, take a deep breath and jump in.

With love always
Lily

Universal Language

Okay so I haven't blogged in a bit about art. Mostly because I have been absorbing information. A lot of information, mostly to do with Quantum Physics and Ecology and Energy. There's more to come on this down the road I'm sure. Maybe even some art generated with this in mind. There really is no forethought given to my paintings as I paint. Realism isn't my thing in painting and of course there is more to that than meets the eye. Ultimately to me painting is like a language, and painting something that is realistic - is painting something that exists in the physical. So we're not talking about anything new, where's the creativity in that?

I started really pondering language and one of the reasons why is because my daughter has difficulty reading. She has the pleasure of seeing things differently, three dimensionally. Which as a parent until recently has kind of boggled my mind - and not necessarily in the best of ways and mostly because I didn't understand how she thinks. A friend who is also challenged with this same type of thinking described it for me. Now I just think it's kind of cool, and well it challenges me to look at things differently.

So in my exploration into the science of existence and energy a thought literally burst into my head. Something my daughter would always say to me and that is 'I like math better than reading or writing'. Imagine that! I think I figured out some of the reasons why she likes numbers more so than words. One: numbers are numbers there is no need to translate. It is a Universal language. It would be the same in English, French, Swahili, Russian......... you name it it's the same everywhere. Two is energy, oddly enough numbers are the language of energy. All energy is measured by numbers.

In my quest of trying to understand 3rd dimensional thinking I started coming across things and that is many of this world's geniuses all had learning difficulties. Numbers seem to be the common language. I actually kind of look forward to see how the world unfolds for my daughter. In all ways I am certain it will be perfect and adventurous. The biggest obstacle is to unlock the curiosity and energy of how she see's things and having the courage and disassociation of what others think to pave the way to a brighter future.

The one thing I ultimately would love to see happen is for the mentors and teachers who I know exist out there to become present in her life.

So you're probably wondering what all this has to do with art, and I will say simply Leonardo Da Vinci.

I will be back soon........ on more about my Art.

Life is Art unfolding in every moment. Enjoy!

Lily

Deep into the Shadows

Shadow & Light

23" x 15"

Watercolor and pencil on Paper

Today's painting is entitled Shadow and Light. This in short I claim to be my 'ode' to George W. Bush. This painting came to me just as George was rallying support to go to war in Iraq. The constant convincing on his part that there were indeed 'weapons of mass destruction', and the only thing I know is was what I felt at the time 'my gut feeling' as he would plead again and again on National Television. What I saw as he was speaking was a man lying and as he kept doing it to rally support he definitely got better at it. In fact I would pretty well say he's become very good at it.

Now I'm not here to bash Bush, my take is that he in fact is a puppet on a string, it's impractical to think that Mr. Bush really has that much power when there are so many around him advising and strategizing on his behalf. In fact Mr. Bush is just the face behind the machine 'The republican machine'. Now that is his choice of course or maybe it was truly a choice made for him by interpersonal influences, only he knows.

With that in mind the painting actually depicts something that we all struggle with and that is our shadow selves. This painting is of a figure with two faces, two sides. It is a internal struggle that we all deal with. We as human beings have free will to make our own choices. We are constantly faced with wanting to do the right thing, and sometimes we slip and do what we think is the right thing but for the wrong reasons and so on. The variables are endless but the struggle is the same. 

If you, like myself are on a spiritual path, you will definitely have come face to face with this struggle and probably still do from time to time. It's not always cut and dry, but we do get better at it and ultimately we must regain our intuitive power as to what is right, really right in any situation that we come to face. This alone can be very challenging with all the outside distractions and obligations that we have. In fact it gets down right unsettling when what the situation calls for you to do what makes you entirely uncomfortable even though it really is the right thing to do. It is I believe in those situations we have the most spiritual growth, and by this I mean the realization that we truly are only responsible to ourselves. Now that is not to say that we should not indeed be loving to others, in fact quite the opposite by being loving to ourselves first and foremost we are able to be more loving to others. And of course on the plus side we will attract the same into our lives.

The shadows may seem scary but they don't have to be if you enter them with love. 

The Genesis of creation

Have you ever wanted a do over. You know the kind. Maybe there is a burning desire in you to just chuck it all and go someplace where know one knows your name and just start from scratch. For some this is a right of passage, for some this is a necessity, for some just a longing.

I do, I do often feel like just removing myself from the life I know and create a completely new life. Than I come to my senses, or should I say all the little voices start talking to me in my head. It's not that I don't like my life, hey things could always be better, but truthfully I am one grateful person for everything so far.

It's that mid-life thing. I want a little flare and excitement added to my life, but I would like it sans drama. Hee hee hee, maybe that's seems a little unrealistic. No DRAMA!!! No DRAMA!!!

I'm just thinking back and trying to remember moments in life with no drama, funny how they just don't jump out at you, and of course the dramatic moments come........ whoosh! Smack!

Maybe the trick is to be still ....... be quiet, in reflection or would that be more like contemplation? Which is exactly the state I'm in while I paint, actually I would it goes much more deeper than that. Much more deeper. Now I can't possibly tell you what other go through while they paint but for me it is completely serene, a place where I feel completed connected, to everything and nothing all at once. It is a two-way communication, like it says above 'at some point one must listen and respond'........... 'it's in the responding that we create magic'. So it's the listening that is the 'big deal', when we listen take note what it is your listening to. Is it your mind/ego, or your heart/intuition. It is my intuition that I listen to when it comes to my paintings.

And so that brings me to my next painting, entitled 'Genesis'. No, not the book of Genesis, but from the simple fact that from nothing comes creation. It's important to listen to one's intuition if you wish to create. In there lies your 'Magic'.

It's a small World after all

Well in the continuing series of community pieces I have to come clean. There was actually 5 pieces. The fifth piece which is hanging in South Carolina. Sadly I don't have a picture of that piece. It was reminiscent of the nativity scene. So I guess it could be connected to the other four in a way. I mean after all it takes a village to raise a child, isn't that what we always say.

And well after 9/11 and all the lives lost it really would take the village to raise the children of those whose sadly never came home. I will have to try to get a copy of that painting. For now it is the mysteriously missing link. (Duh-duh-duh)

Now as I am new to all this and you may come in a little late, this is the continuation of the exploration of my spirit through my art. Just a word of note here. Most of favorite pieces, ahhhh.... heck I should say all of my pieces I really didn't like them at all at first. They grow on you. Sort of like, they say it takes 7 times to share an idea or to sell somebody something before they bite. Apparently that's true in art too. 

The next community piece was aptly entitled Marketplace II. Believe it or not I don't think of the names as I'm painting that comes much later. 

A collage of different groups gathering. Now the groundwork for the series was all laid out at the same time which explains the same colors and tone. The featureless figures and and simple lines too. But that brings me to this. Growing up I would have been the first person to shun, walk away or just plain old not give abstract the time of day. 

Here's what I learned from letting go. In order to truly let go, you need to accept even honor the organic shapes. The thing is it's kind of fitting that they don't have specific features and here's the reason why. We live in a world where we separate, you have people with blonde hair and brunette and black and so on. There are people of many different skin tones too. No the people suggested in my paintings are what I would call spirit people and in this I mean truly we are all the same regardless of color and placement or by whatever means we choose to separate ourselves, we all have spirit.

We as forgiving, loving beings of conscience are united by an invisible thread that makes us all the same in more ways than we could possibly imagine. We come together in community for many different reasons, and ultimately we choose who we surround ourselves by. The important thing to remember and that is often forgotten is that out of need there is always a community there that is willing to help, accept, support and love. This is what comes across in the above painting, that there is many different types of community. 

This is a hopeful and inspirational image, a reminder that when one feels isolated, is looking for answers, support, or just plain someone to talk to it is never too far. All that is truly needed is the courage to ask for what is needed. In times of need we sometimes are too caught up in our own thoughts and worry in order to reach out. So be willing, willing to hear, willing to see, willing to believe in miracles no matter how big or small they may seem at the time. Be willing to receive.

With this in mind I encourage you to look around your life in reflection of the different types of community there is in your life.

It's a small world after all.

Is a blade of grass really green?

Ok, so this is all new to me this blogger thing, and I've even recommended to other people to do it. I do blog in Myspace but find their web apps very challenging for me being on a Mac. But regardless of that my blogs here will all be about my art, and creativity in general. And by this I might link you to someone else's blog, because of their creativity. 

So first off, the name of this blog and my web space is First Nature Media - and here is the reason for the name. Humans being first and foremost are creative beings, although we are conditioned and taught to be otherwise, if truth be told and we were to follow our instincts than humans really would not, could not do anything but create. It is what drives us, it is what keeps us up at night, it is our way to express who we are, right here right now.

It is through school that we are being trained to think a certain way. To view things in a specific way - but I ask you, do you think people like DaVinci or Einstein could hack being told to think a certain way? No way, and both had difficulties with schooling, considered somewhat eccentric, maybe a little bit insane, social misfits and both geniuses.  

What can I say I took to my schooling as a child quite harmoniously, looking for the approval of elders. I mean after all we are living in their world, or at least the one they create for us. A part of me always unsatisfied and melancholy. Approval never really being enough, where was my inner genius. 

I was taught well by linear thinkers, taught to appreciate realism. Now realism and art/creativity really don't mix, because realistically to become an artist is like branding yourself to be an outsider, the eccentric, the slightly insane person who just won't toe the line and follow the masses of people who have given in. So what was my most realistic move. To become a Graphic Designer - a marketer. 

Now here it is, the best of both worlds right. Think again. If I had a dollar for every time someone has said to me "ooooo you must love your job you get to be so creative?" I would be filthy rich. The fact is clients just aren't risk takers. 'I have a vision follow me if you want to get paid' - and so the dance begins. Now I'm not saying all clients are like that. In fact the best kind of clients for me are the ones that really just let me do my thing and somewhere in between there is creation. 

Plus I have no desire to make something look oddly out of place, no the goal to a designer is to find a creative way to communicate the client's message. In other words to push the envelope and think outside the box, but not so far as to alienate your audience.

I could go on about my experience in the corporate world, but I won't this is about art. However the above description would help in explaining my state of mind or the absolute desire to let anything linear go, leaving me feeling a somewhat uncomfortable being. Now realistic art is fine, it has had it's place in history documenting events before there was photography and video or any other type of recording method. Now a days you can take your pick or even pick all of them. 

So in all this discovery of me and in order to let go, my art has become an experimentation in the abstract. A conquest and now I'm glad to say victory into all things not necessarily realistic and of all things huge exploration into my spirit.

Let the fun begin...............