The Connection between the Moon, Fear and Shadow Work in my Art

This morning "The Moon" card was at the top of my Tarot Spread, and some insights came to me about my work, starting with one of my most recent paintings "Moonlight Portal".

I was first interested in this night scene about a year ago, drawn to the architecture, the colors, and the challenge to try a nocturne.  I took some photos.  About ten months later, in August of this year, I decided to paint the scene and had the opportunity to visit this pool again.  I started the piece in my studio, and then took it with me to the location to continue the work.  It happened to be the week of the full moon, and I instantly knew I had to include the moon in my painting.  

It was very hot that week... actually 111 degrees at night.  Floating on my back under the moon and the stars, cradled by the water while the wind rustled the palms, it felt safe to tap more deeply into my subconscious.

I was compelled to place the moon between the two palms in my piece, and suddenly noticed that my painting was creating a pathway, a portal.  What struck me this morning is that in the Rider Waite deck, Pixie Smith did much the same with "The Moon" card by placing the moon between two towers or pillars.  In both cases we are being invited into the darkness to face our shadows, examining our fears, shame, and regret, so we can embrace and heal them under the calming presence of the moon.

My sun sign is Cancer, who is ruled by the Moon, and this is definitely not the first time the moon has appeared in my work. 

Another piece comes to mind that I painted in 2022 called "I Face My Shadows with an Open Heart".   I painted this at a time when I was knee deep in my own darkness, triggered by a spiritual awakening in 2020.  One of the final pieces in my Mermaid series, I depicted her with her heart chakra open wide, much the same way mine always seems to look when I have my aura report done at psychic faires.  Surrounded by the butterflies of transformation, along with all the phases of the moon, she is open and willing to look at the less than pretty parts of herself, to embrace them and better understand them, so that they no longer control her.  

By doing this deep work, we learn to come more from trust, and less from fear.

And on that note, I'll leave you with one more piece, which is a Milagro necklace that I created this year on the very same theme. 

I call this necklace "I'm Stepping Fearlessly into the Unknown". The pearls represent the moon, giving us the calm courage to embrace each situation, while the leg Milagros (Milagro meaning "miracle" in Spanish) serve as a reminder to walk in faith, knowing that everything is not only going to be just fine, but even better than we can even imagine.

It delights me that I can express the path I'm on myself through my art, and it's my hope that it can continue to inspire you in some way as well.

With Love and Light,

Linda

New Work: "She Believed She Could"

 

Greetings Art Lovers! I'm excited to share my latest painting, "She Believed She Could", featuring my beautiful friend Mindy Kittay.  I first met Mindy when she came to my table at the Downtown LA Artwalk around 2018 or 2019.  I caught up with her again in Yucca Valley when I was traveling during the pandemic, and even though we barely knew each other, it seemed like we'd always been friends.  Since then we've met up in Boulder, Joshua Tree, Indio, and of course here in LA.  She is brave, optimistic, adventurous, kind, generous, spiritual, entrepreneurial, and downright inspirational, just like her tattoo which reads "She believed she could, so she did".  You can click here for a wonderfully creative post about Mindy's tattoo journey with the artist who created them, Tattoo June. Mindy is also a Jewelry Artist and Clothing Designer, and you can learn more about her and follow her here. I knew she would make a great subject for my next pool painting, and was delighted when she agreed!  We jumped in the pool (yes the infamous one I keep painting in Indio, which belongs to her mom), and the rest is history. Here's a peek behind the progression of the painting... The finished piece is 30"x30", Acrylic on Canvas. I'm looking forward to bringing this piece out into the world at a show soon... stay tuned!! With Love and Light, Linda

"The Four Agreements" and The Seven of Swords

For the past two years or so, I've pulled eight Tarot cards every morning and then journaled about how they may be giving me insight and direction.  One of the cards that I pulled this morning was the "Seven of Swords", which comes up often enough for me to do an ever deeper dive to understand what it's trying to tell me.

In a Tarot class a couple of years back, my teacher called this card "Sneaky Pete".  It is frequently linked to deception, and at first glance my mind goes to "Ok, who's trying to deceive me?"... mostly a knee jerk reaction, I think, because it's always so much easier and more comfortable to pin it on someone else than to look within.

Most recently I've discovered several Tarot teachers who talk more about how this card speaks to our own self deception, with the swords representing the unconscious beliefs that we carry that are formed in childhood.  Perhaps it's reminding us to choose carefully which beliefs we still want to carry with us, and which no longer or never really served us.

After pulling my cards this morning, I felt the need to re-read some pages from "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz.  On page 22 he says,  "If we can see it is our agreements which rule our life, and we don't like the dream of our life, we need to change the agreements."   

I can totally relate this to the Seven of Swords!  In this quote Don Miguel refers to the deep seated childhood beliefs we form as our "agreements".  In Tarot the suit of Swords is related to the mind.  Both the passage and card are getting at the same thing, I think.

It's in leaving behind the old beliefs that no longer serve us, and to take a step further, changing them to the beliefs we wish to carry to create our new reality, where the real growth and healing occur.  This insight reminded me once again about how much I love the Tarot, and how its lessons so often intertwine with so many other systems, including astrology, numerology and philosophy.

Wishing you all a most beautiful, peaceful, and insightful day.

With Love and Light,

Linda 

" I Listen to the Wind of My Soul" Milagro Necklace

Ever since my first trip to Mexico in 2010, I've been enchanted by Milagros (Milagro meaning miracle in Spanish), which are small folk charms in the shape of hearts, animals and various body parts.  You can find them mostly in brass or tin, at the local public markets, shops and outside of churches.  People like to purchase them and take them to church to pin under the Saints, praying for particular outcomes.

I've visited Mexico many times, and I often bring back Milagros.  I've found both vintage and new ones, all equally enchanting, and have made necklaces with them on and off for over ten years.

Recently I've felt the pull to work with them again, and I'm putting together a small new collection of one of a kind necklaces.  

This first one features Ears!!  

So why would you wear ears??  It depends what they mean to you!  Maybe you're experiencing a problem with your ears.  Or... maybe you want to be a better listener, either to others, or to your own inner voice.

On the theme of our inner voice, at first I thought I'd name the necklace "I'm listening to the whispers of my soul", then I thought "I'm listening to the cries of my soul" (sometimes they really are cries)!!  But then a song I listened to many, many times as a teenager, called  "The Wind" by Cat Stevens started playing over and over in my head...  "I listen to the wind, to the wind of my soul".  It made me cry so hard when I listened to that song again that I knew this was indeed the name for the necklace.  So here it is...

"I Listen to the Wind of My Soul"

The piece features seven brass Ear Milagros from my trip in 2017 to Mexico City, each hung from a white freshwater pearl, wired with Sterling Silver wire.

In between the ears are eight baroque pearls hanging from a smaller pearl, all white freshwater.

The necklace features red wine colored iridescent Czech Glass bugle beads with a gold flash,

along with clear seed beads with a gold foil center.

The necklace is about 18-1/2" long, including the sterling silver lobster clasp, and is finished with a two inch sterling silver extender chain capped with a freshwater pearl.

It literally jingles, as an ever present reminder to confidently follow your intuition.

To view and purchase the piece on my website, click here.

For a short Instagram Video featuring the piece and the song, click here.

Perhaps this piece will whisper to your soul as well...

With Love and Light,

Linda

Let My Heart Open Wide, Let it Bloom Like a Flower

Today I'd like to take a deeper dive into my "Mermaid with a Pink Lotus",  born in June of 2020.  She is the tenth piece in my Mermaid series, and the first of seven pieces I painted during the pandemic. 

The idea for the painting actually came about ten months earlier, in August of 2019.  My son was visiting Los Angeles and invited me to spend a couple of nights with him at a hotel in Laguna Beach, where I found the book "Becoming Supernatural" by Dr. Joe Dispenza.  I picked it up and started reading, fascinated by his research on the mind body connection.

The hotel gifted me the book, and it led me to Dr. Joe's "Blessing of the Energy Centers" meditation.  I was very new to chakras and meditation, and listening to this 45 minute journey through the energy centers of the body brought up a lot of emotions for me.  I was particularly taken by his words during the fourth center, the "Heart Chakra", where he spoke the words "Let my heart open wide, let it bloom like a flower".  It made me cry a bucket.

Somehow I knew this was going to be key for me.  Let my heart open wide.  Love.  Beginning with Self Love.

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Let it bloom like a flower.  Which flower?  My mind went to the Lotus, a beautiful blossom that literally emerges from the mud.

In meditation I began to picture myself as a Mermaid holding a lotus, a pink one to be exact.  I was wearing pearls, a symbol of beauty formed by adversity.  And I was naked to the world, standing in my truth, as are most of my Mermaids.   

I started to see so clearly my own inner healing work that needed to be done, and journaled the following: "...the thought came to me that maybe I should look at a year in Tucson, as a retreat of sorts, one where I could focus on creation and self exploration.  I could come back to Cali later if I choose, once I know my retreat is over."  While I yearned for this time alone, I didn't have a clue how it could happen.  I tucked both the painting idea and the retreat idea away and slugged along in what was gearing up to be yet another one of my dark nights of the soul!

About six months later, in March of 2020, the world shut down, and it didn't take long before I began to receive the gifts of the pandemic.  I was still not alone, and still not in Tucson, yet I moved to exactly where I wanted and needed to be at the time, namely confronting the same unresolved issues!  It hit me like a ton of bricks!  So much healing still needed to be done. The words began to echo in my head once again... "Let my heart open wide, let it bloom like a flower".  The first gift of the pandemic... seeing what needed to be healed.  Love.  And the first is Self Love.

The second big gift of the pandemic was time.  With all of my events shut down, I was given focused time to paint.  And paint I did!  Working in Acrylic and Fine Art paper on Ampersand Claybord, my "Mermaid with a Pink Lotus", 24"x18", was born by the end of June.  It was only later that I began to understand just how important this painting would become in my own development. 

Symbolizing my "Higher Self", she was the first to arrive so that she could lead the way.  As the summer of 2020 progressed, along with a record heat wave, so did my meditation practice, and my spiritual awakening.  The next painting to arrive on the scene to assist me was my "Protector", and I will write about him next!

If my journey towards healing and self love resonates and you would like to have your very own print of "Mermaid with a Pink Lotus" on the wall to remind you of the importance of self love, you can click here to see my print options.  It would be my honor to inspire you in this way!

With Love and Light,

Linda

I'm on a Podcast!

Happy Spring!! Dear Art Loving Friends, Ever since the pandemic, it's been a goal of mine to have a conversation about "Art and Channeling".  When I finally said it out loud to the Universe in my recent "Bold Journey" interview, the power of intention worked its magic!! I met Omar Angulo recently at an event, discovered he's an actor and songwriter with a spiritual podcast, "In a Good Way", and that he was interested in this topic as well.  The rest is history!  We recorded our interview on the Spring Equinox, neither one of us realizing when we first spoke and chose the date that it would fall on this beautiful day of renewal and rebirth... the first day of Spring. So pull up a chair, pour yourself a drink (whatever makes you happy) and spend a little time with us as we chat about my painting process, some of our experiences with synchronicity, the connection between art and the subconsious mind, and much more.  You can access the episode here.  It's my sincere hope that it inspires you in some way!! A heartfelt thanks, by the way, to all who came to Frogtown for "Girl Dinner".  It was a great evening, and a big WELCOME if you are new to my list. I'd like to leave you all with a question today.  Have you had any experiences where you felt you were channeling from a higher source while creating?  I would love to hear about it! With Love and Light, Linda "Spring Mermaid", 11"x14", Mixed Media on Claybord, 2014 lindaqueally.com pearls here prints here Follow me on Instagram artbylindaqueally

Thoughts on the Pride Flag Ban in Huntington Beach

Surfers are near and dear to my heart, and I see them as Mer People.  During the three years that I lived in Long Beach, I spent many days in beach towns in Orange County observing and photographing surfers.  I found it to be so meditative.  Sitting on either the shore or the pier, I listened to the rhythm of the waves and waited, while they sat on their boards... and also waited.  

Then a wave would rise, and they would too, riding it to shore if they were lucky and the wave was just right.  I saw them as being in tune with nature, at one with the universe.  With nothing to focus on but the sea, I believe they quieted their mind and reflected on the bigger picture.

How could these same people be so in tune with nature yet so out of tune with their fellow man??  What happened to love and compassion for another being, regardless of whether they are like or unlike yourself??  

This spiritual, meditative sport seems riddled in contradiction to me now.

I was looking for one of my surfer images for this post, and this one hit me like a ton of bricks.  I'm going to call it "Distortion".  

I am of course talking about the vote yesterday in Huntington Beach to take away the right to hang a rainbow flag outside.  How could a country that prides itself on freedom of speech have gone so far in the other direction?  I hang my head in shame for Huntington Beach right now, who has chosen to drive yet another wedge between humans.  

What will it take for us to learn that LOVE is the only answer?  It's time for each one of us to focus our energy on our own journey, and lovingly and peacefully let others have theirs as well. 

With Love and Light,

Linda