EXPERIENCING BEAUTY

Beauty soothes the mind by releasing awareness of all things that detract from oneness. Artists are inspired by "oneness". They work with paper or paint or light or sound to capture the harmonizing qualities of a thought in one's mind and bring it into the physical plane of apparent reality so others can experience it too.

When I start a painting, I usually choose one object from nature for my focal point. Then, I choose the colors that I feel reflect the essence of the beauty I feel when I focus on the object. I connect my feelings with the colors and the canvas and the ephemeral thought that is present in my mind. 

It is most exciting to begin a painting because I am drawn into a space that transcends my outer reality. I am experiencing creativity by giving shape and form, limits and order to the space on the blank canvas in front of me.

In the beginning, I just start by bringing paint to the canvas. I let my feelings guide the brush and choose the placement of colors and shapes. Out of the nothingness space on the canvas surface, a something begins to emerge. It is malleable and subject to transformation as more and more paint reaches the canvas. I don't know what ought to be at this point, I just let it sprout and grow like a seedling popping its head out of the soil in early Spring.

Then, the moment comes when the painting takes on its own identity. My role as the painter now shifts to the one who listens to the Inner Voice as the painting now guides me in capturing its essence:what it wants to be. I see with the Inner Eye and watch how my skilled hands bring this essence into being.

And whether the painting evokes a feeling of calmness or strife in me, I eventually arrive a point where the painting tells me "I am finished." 

I step back and see the pattern of order and unspoken knowing-ness that has emerged before my eyes. A feeling a completeness that is beautiful in its oneness fills my Inner Being. I feel whole and well in my creative process, in a way that resonates with cultivating my garden. I am the experience. I am not in my body. I am not in my rational mind. I am not in my memories. I am the creator/participant of beauty itself. I am in "oneness" with what is.

May you also celebrate beauty through experience,

Melinda Ann

May 2023