06.2025
I began this journey two and a half years ago. Even though the production of this series of originals is complete, I feel like my story with “Becoming > Being” has just begun. Last month I applied to an alumni show at my former university in Greeley, CO. I will find out in a couple weeks if any of my pieces were accepted. I never have a problem making something, but getting my creations into the world professionally, beyond souvenirs and coffee shops, is still quite new to me. I am excited to learn and continue to build my high art goals.
I have never spent this amount of time with such intention before on any body of work. This series is profound for my artist career. I cannot express this enough. It was cathartic, gluing the last two pieces down, which happened to be two hands in a position of receiving. I felt relief, joy, and a bit of sadness. These past couple years I wasn’t always putting paint or pencil to paper. Much of my process was internal. I spent a lot of my time creating in my head, considering as many aspects as possible. I let the lessons of my life influence the direction of each piece. Sahasrara may have been the most difficult, as I often felt disconnected from the spiritual. When I am living day to day, protecting my energy, paying bills, working, and ultimately surviving in a capitalist world, the spiritual will sometimes take a step onto the back burner, or off the stove entirely. It took a serious effort to recognize the need to invite the divine back in.
When I began to design the crown chakra, I was lost. I was sure I wanted to paint a jeweled crown. Beyond that was an absolute mystery. I percolated ideas for maybe a year? Leave it to me to always think about the end goal and then struggle to separate the steps to make it there. Sahasrara is the energy that connects us with the unknown, the universe, to infinity and beyond. How could someone possibly create something visually to represent that? A friend of mine suggested the beautiful idea of bees! After some explanation it was decided. Bumble bees, especially, have some pretty seemingly magic powers. Just to name a couple, when flying their wings rotate in a figure eight shape (infinity ya’ll!)They have magnetoreception abilities, they are an active part of their community, and they contribute to the survival of our natural world in a major way. We are lucky to have the gift of bees on this planet. My conception of Sahasrara is intended to be playful with texture, repetition, and symmetry. Black and white communicates concepts of balance, opposition, light and dark, within without, as above so below, etc. Another wise friend of mine told me to look up the deity “Indra” and his jeweled net. What an epic visual to supplement my process! “Indra’s Net is a metaphor originating from Hindu and Buddhist cosmology, representing the interconnectedness of all things. It depicts a vast net, with a jewel at each intersection, where each jewel reflects all other jewels, creating an infinite pattern of reflections. This illustrates the concept that everything in the universe is interrelated and interdependent.” (Wikipedia said it better than I could). I spent extra time and energy on the reflective qualities of the crown in this piece.
Element: Thought
Color: White
My title: “Divinity”
Sahasrara is located at the top of the chakra system. Hovering just above the crown of the head, it connects us with the divine, the sacred, the void. The crown chakra is our right to understand, to think beyond ourselves and the physical realm. It is our universal identity. I honestly don’t think any words that I write will do this energy center justice. To me it is the most elusive and alluring of them all. I trust that the story THE ALCHEMIST, by Paulo Coelho, is true for me in this life. The universe is indeed conspiring to help me achieve my personal legend. It is so.
Listen to my Sahasrara playlist here.
