by janbetts | May 27, 2011
Wow! The photo of this painting, done many years ago, was just sent to me. Interesting that some of my recent posts have also been about “tears”. Much of my art reflects the images of inner realms of the human condition…both heaven and hell….and its journey of transformation. I see this painting as another reflection of the profound and essential un-doing of the dense false self, and the resistance to that process ( ie….pain and suffering )…and the subsequent opening and freeing ( surrender ) once the resistance is released …. an indispensable part of my own process of awakening from the “dream”. This painting shows at the top, two somewhat abstract faces, masks. As they face away from each other, they are experiencing their own personal hell inside, lost and in pain, crying. When they face each other ( mirrors )….there is conflict and sorrow…projection….perhaps they see the other as the “cause” of this suffering? ( click on painting to enlarge ) As tears from their depths fall, they transform, like alchemy …to sun and moon, to crystals, into a sea of transformed tears at the bottom, out of which grows a huge crystal, and two hands reaching out, holding more crystals. There is a vine growing up out of this rich liquid as well, and it sustains and embraces a huge crystal ball. Within this crystal ball is a vision of peace, harmony, these faces transformed, and a connection/reflection of these two in spirit, and the eagle flies its noble freedom….and Heyoka, the sacred clown/jester/fool, of the Lakota tradition, joyfully dances the cosmic joke. None of it...
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by janbetts | May 18, 2011
Woah….This is a totally different approach to a canvas for me. What an experience! I want to be able to explain it….but it is not possible. The title describes it….to fling out the dense visceral stuff still taking up precious inner space in my would be Pureness. I flung it with paint…passionately….i loved the experience…i had no attachment to what this painting might look like…it was completely spontaneous…almost like a dance…a nuanced allowing. Then….to my surprise, i went to the blog of my dear friend, and an amazingly inspired, world class ekphrastic poet….and lo!! she had posted this painting, and written one of her stunning poems! What the painting inspired in her poem blew me away. This is the link to her poem, “Abstraction of Heart”, by Karima Hoisan: http://karimahoisan.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/abstraction-of-heart/ (She includes in her blog a link to music chosen to listen to, as you read it. The haunting music she chose enhances the journey. I highly recommend it.) Share on...
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by janbetts | May 8, 2011
Here is a painting of one of my dogs, my beautiful Lab, Maya. One early morning i was pondering …”Truth.” We can and do make things true in our minds all the time, and do so repeatedly in an almost steady stream, we even make lies true…whether we see it or not. But there is a Universal Truth…underlying it all. It is way beyond any little mind and all its dramas, emotions, and “I”stories… stuff that i have identified with, that parades through my mind. False me. I shudder….as more and more i See this. The collection of inner rubbish that keeps fundamental Truth from being experienced. So on that early morning, i asked the Angels to show me something true. And almost immediately i looked into my dogs sparkling eyes….and i experienced a glimmer of that Truth. I did! A true heart reaching out in that very alive moment with love and trust. Simple, pure and uncontaminated. No mind. Abiding, unconditional love, incapable of guile or betrayal, or even a bad mood! She touched that part of me. And so i painted her. Share on...
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