Going into the uncomfortableness of chaos…

Going into the uncomfortableness of chaos…

“You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid right now.

No one can advise or help you – no one.

There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself.”

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Letters to a Young Poet

I’m diving deep into uncomfortable territory today.

Truthfully, my breath is a bit squeezed and shallow. Trying new techniques.

Using a different type of palette that I’m not used to and finding it’s really not conducive to our northern climate.

Into the ugly phase now… the most challenging place to be as an artist, especially when trying something new.

Do I pause? Breathe… contemplate… trust in the process… Keeping going until it becomes something with a glimmer of hope, revealing the way forward?

No fear! That’s what I hear. If it stinks, so what! Begin again. Or be pleasantly surprised with flash of genius to bring it home.

I often put way too much pressure on myself, do you?

Kiernan

“Try to be like the turtle –

at ease in your own shell.”

~ Bill Copeland

 

A sneak peak update on the passion project…

A sneak peak update on the passion project…

“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.”

~ Angela Davis

A calling is a calling is a calling. It’s practically beyond understanding – the why’s and wherefore’s of it all.

What are we borne with that makes us special…

What is our most cherished ideal of life…

What we really truly value almost beyond our ability to breathe in and out…

What does it take to say ENOUGH! Enough of believing the story we tell ourselves for why we keep putting off our dreams… for the unconscious ways in which we sabotage ourselves when we’re right on the cusp of reaching out and grabbing IT… when it is so close, but feels so far that we can’t see it is a millisecond away, if only we can have the fortitude to keep going, to push through that barrier…


Launching my Toronto Passion Project is an act of stepping outside myself and serving something greater. It began with an idea and has blossomed into an adventure and an experience. Letting go of my ideals and thoughts, I’m following the impulses the project seeks me to explore.

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who participated in my call for help!

Your comments inspired my muse and I’ve been exploring the history of Toronto and discovering some fun facts I didn’t know. Like archeological finds of First Nation settlements artifacts date back several thousand years! And, we were once under France’s rule. In the 1700’s we were known as York and renamed as Toronto in 1834.

Here’s some photos of our history.

I’ve also been learning about some of our local heroes and socially conscious entrepreneurs – people doing really amazing things in our city!

Of course, being outed as the most multicultural city in the world, diversity has become our claim to fame and it is even in our city’s crest.

So, what am I doing with all the comments I received? Well, I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but I can let you know that I’ve put them all on index cards, and then take the key phrases and written them on the panel for the Toronto painting.

Your celebratory thoughts of our fair city are infused into the foundation now, and together our energy will fill the painting with our hopes and dreams and will intentionally radiate with our light out into the hearts and minds of Toronto.

I know it’s possible.

I believe,

in the vision that

came into my heart.

Do you… can you… will you… believe it too?

With love,

Kiernan

On Wings of Love…

On Wings of Love…

“Soul of this world,

no life, no world remain,

no beautiful men and women longing.

Only this ancient love

circling the holy black stone of nothing, where the lover is the love,

the horizon and everything within it.”

~ Rumi

It’s the oddest thing, after all this time living, breathing and painting with vibrant colour, to suddenly find comfort, inspiration, grace, mystery, and awe in tones of black and white… in the contrast… there must lie something… some element of life and all it encompasses.

Can I describe it? It’s like I look upon the painting and in the gentle blends, the swooping strokes and scratched in markings that something enters my heart. It is gentle. It is peace. Yet it is also alive with movement and energy.

There seems to be an elegance about it too, somehow.

I’ve become obsessed with exploring it, which I will until it fills me to the brim and then empties me out.

Wings of Love | 30 x 30in | Acrylic on Gallery Wood Panel

What do you think of the black and white? What does it reveal to you, or does it speak of mystery? I would love to hear, please leave me a comment below.

Kiernan xo

“Don’t become a mere recorder of facts, but try to penetrate the mystery of their origin.”
~ Ivan Pavlov

 

Will you join my passion project?

Will you join my passion project?

A BIG ASK for all my TORONTO FRIENDS! Will you help me?

I am a born and raised Torontonian. It’s a great place to live and has even been rated one of the best cities in the world.

I am also a socially conscious abstract artist and I pour my heart and soul into my paintings. Art and writing have literally saved me and they make up a huge aspect of my dharma or my sacred calling.

My experiences with my art and life have brought me to this moment.

This flash of inspiration that I knew was mine to act on.

You see, I’m on a mission to bring light, beauty, peace and harmony to the world through art, and I figure the best place to begin to effect social change is right here in my home city, Toronto.

This city has been the ground beneath my feet, it’s alive with creative energy and I want to create a painting that celebrates this bountiful presence of our city and its place in the world.

I want to pour my hopes and dreams into how it can grow into an even more evolved place to live. A city that leads the way in putting people first and proving that there is strength in diversity and creative thinking.

And, I want YOUR HELP in creating this piece!

I would so love to hear what YOU think is awesome about Toronto or YOUR HOPES and DREAMS for our city!

So, will you say YES? Will you join me in this passion project? Click here to learn more about how you can add your voice to my Toronto Passion Project!

If you’d like, you can also share the word, feeling, or short inspiring story, poem or quote that comes to mind when thinking about Toronto in a comment below. You can make it as long or as short as you want.

Submissions received by October 5th at 8pm EST will be gathered together and incorporated into the painting as energy infused through prayer and paint onto a work of art to celebrate our fair city.

I do hope that you’ll feel INSPIRED to INSPIRE!

With love and appreciation,

Kiernan xo

P.S. By submitting your comments you agree to release any claim to copyright on the finished artwork and acknowledge that © Copyright 2016 belongs to Kiernan Antares. All rights reserved.

Swishing and swirling and rising up…

Swishing and swirling and rising up…

“It is the soul’s duty to be loyal to its own desires. It must abandon itself to its master passion.”

~ Rebecca West

Caught up in the swirling waves of the sea, with patterns clashing and colliding, I find my inner walls of resistance are crumbling down in rapid succession.

All the while, a passion project idea has been steadily growing and taking hold of my heart in an undeniable way. It’s shining a light on a path of great expansion, one I am feeling more and more ready (excited) to undertake.

What about you? Is there something calling, urging you to grow into a bigger you? Is there a swirling mass of YOU ready to rise from the sea?

Rumi, beloved Rumi, never fails to create moments of awe as I call upon him for his thoughts on each new painting.

“Light again, and the one who brings light.
Change the way you live.

From the ocean-vat, wine-fire in each cup.
Two or three of the long-dead wake up.
Two or three drunks become lion hunters.

Sunlight washes a dark face.
The flower of what is true opens in the face.
Meadow grass and garden ground grow damp again.
A strong light like fingers massages our heads.
No dividing these fingers from those.

Draw back the lockbolt.
One level flows into another.
Heat seeps into everything.
The passionate pots boil.
Clothing tears into the air.
Poets fume shreds of steam,
never so happy as out in the light.”

~ Rumi

Can you see it? Can you feel it?

Kiernan xo