Becoming truly alive…

Becoming truly alive…

I had recently completed my first passion project painting—something that became so much more than I imagined it could be. It was a very intense experience over several weeks, but it was also incredibly rewarding—liberating in fact. Creating a life changing epiphany, revealing that only by living in full appreciation of each and every day do we experience true happiness. A happiness not dependent on some future desired outcome.

Becoming Truly Alive—is an ecstatic expression of living joyfully, celebrating the freedom that comes when you free yourself of worries and live in the moment. Wake up! Make right now the most wonderful moment of your life!

“This is now. Now is.

Do not postpone till then.

Spend the spark of iron on stone.

Sit at the head of the table.

Dip your spoon in the bowl.

 

Seat yourself next to your joy,

and have your awakened soul pour wine.

 

Branches in the spring wind,

easy dance of jasmine and cypress.

 

Cloth for green robes

has been cut from pure absence.

 

You are the tailor,

settled among his shop goods, quietly sewing.”

~ Rumi

Becoming Truly Alive by Kiernan Antares

Becoming Truly Alive 30×30 in by Kiernan Antares

 

Live the story you want to tell…

Live the story you want to tell…

“The Buddha and Jesus taught exactly the same thing: you create a beautiful life by creating fertile conditions, not by asking for anything. In my own words, what I hear them saying is this: You can have anything you want – why, you can have things you don’t know you want – but not by focusing on them. Instead put your undivided attention on your connection with the vibrant presence of the Divine within, and your life will change.”

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~ Janet Conner

Author, The Lotus and the Lily

Last year I completed Janet Conner’s 30-Day Soul Writing Program in the Lotus and the Lily and it was so very powerful and life affirming. It brought home to me a depth and focus that has carried me through this year.

This is the basis of it:

There are thirty experiences, one each day. The first twenty-eight are divided into four week-long explorations:

Week 1 Prepare – step into your natural spiritual power, set your intention, and create your own ritual and prayer

Week 2: Look Back – uncover all the gifts in the life you’ve created to date

Week 3: Create Space – make room for the new by releasing and forgiving the old

Week 4: Look forward – identify what you want in alignment with your soul’s desires

After twenty-eight days of rich exploration, you will spend Day 29 setting up your Soul Day. And then, on Day 30, you will give yourself something precious – a day alone with your soul.”

~ Janet Conner, The Lotus and the Lily

What it helped me do was get out of my head and my ‘thoughts’ of my life and life’s work, and helped me to receive a wonderful vision of what I am creating through my art and writing.

And, because I had this foundation as my North Star, I’ve been able, in a more focused and intentional way, to take the next real steps in creating a body of work that comes from a calling that serves something greater than me.

I sat down with her book this week to decide if I would do the full program once again this year, to close out the year and refocus for 2017.

Three pages in and that was it… decision made.

In particular, the aha moment that sunk in was that it’s not really the thing we want, it’s the feeling behind it that we crave. And, that when we live in alignment with that feeling, which has nothing to do with resisting life, but instead understand that how we live, whether from fearful or loving thoughts and beliefs creates the conditions of our lives, then we can consciously choose love over fear, in every moment.

And, that when we live with love as our core driving force, the conditions of our life will organically become that of Beauty. Every moment dictates the next. Am I expressing love or fear? Am I living love or fear? Am I reacting with love or fear?  The more we can move into living and being love with every opportunity that comes our way… the more Beauty we experience.

So, off I went to search for a beautiful journal to inspire me and this is the one that seemed to seemed to have something to say to me. It is the one that wanted to be a part of my intention setting for 2017…

Gorgeous, isn’t it?

Here’s to living from the heart and soul… and, living the story you want to tell…

Kiernan

xo

Lightly child, lightly…

Lightly child, lightly…

“It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. I was so preposterously serious in those days…Lightly, lightly—it’s the best advice ever given me. So throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly, my darling.”

~ Aldous Huxley

I could write on this, but why really? It is enough. It speaks volumes.

It is perfect for this exploding passion I have discovered in the simple contrast of shades of black and white – blended and bold. Well, actually it is Payne’s Gray, but who would know.

I anticipated diving into the glorious deep rich colours of Autumn, instead I feel drawn to experimenting in a lighter touch of colours, contrasts and composition…at least for now.

The Maker

Kiernan

 

Exploring the Realms of Self Love

Exploring the Realms of Self Love

“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Too much time wasted trying to change. Believing this is wrong, that is wrong. Too this. Too that.

Too big. Too small. Too much. Too little… never enough.

The truth of it is, all the things we’re criticized over are really the foundation for our gifts and talents. What makes us special.

Be the joyful hummingbird, if you are, because you bring light to the hearts of others.

 

 Be the soft waters, if you are, because you bring light to the flow of change.

 

Be the fierce fearless one, if you are, because you bring light to the masses.

 

Be the deep thinker, if you are, because you bring light to the minds of others.

 

The piece I am currently working on explores the concept that to love oneself is the kindest and greatest act and gift to ourselves and the world. To love oneself is to KNOW oneself – intimately.

It is to practice forgiveness and compassion. It is the foundation to be right with self and others.

It is the basis to live in harmony and to know the type of happiness and joy that is specific for your true nature.

Not quite finished yet… but close… I think.

Kiernan

“You are the light of my heart and the comfort of my soul”

~ Rumi

Journey to Love with the Stars of Egypt’s Embrace

Journey to Love with the Stars of Egypt’s Embrace

“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”

~ Oscar Wilde

And a new one begins…

The heart ashore… the stars above… the temples within…

My parents are ailing and now more than ever I am becoming aware of the cries of healing of the past, from generations before to the present. Where things are both mine and not mine, yet often feel like they are more than mine… Mine to alchemize.

To transform from lead into gold. The task is both easy and not… it is all in the willingness to become aware, to accept rather than deny, and then love all that is and was.

Painting and writing are becoming my best friends, for it is through the taking it from the inside to expressing it on the outside, in colour, in strokes, in words that may not make sense to anyone else, that I become more whole than I was.

Today, I take to the panel the desire to practice the act of self-love, because it is only through LOVE that we can liberate our hearts… and creative expression is the way.

I wonder if our longing to touch the divine is really our need to fully love ourselves – beauty and warts, light and shadow – all of it in its entirety?

“Nothing is wrong, nothing is wasted, nothing is neurotic, nothing is disowned, everything is possible in art”

~ Julia Cameron

I had a burning desire this morning to collage onto this newly primed panel some papyrus sheets I’ve had for years. I don’t know how much, if any, of the texture will be noticeable as the piece progresses because I paint with thick layers… but it’s there… the ancient Egyptian Goddesses and their temples have been invited to play with us…

Papyrus is a thick type of paper material originally prepared in ancient Egypt from the pithy stem of a water plant, used in sheets throughout the ancient Mediterranean world for writing or painting on and also for making rope, sandals, and boats.

With my handmade Tibetan singing bowl I call in the angels…

The layers of paint begin…

Scraping… blending… scratching… scraping.

Some of the papyrus is still visible.

May love be the journey,

Kiernan