It's October 7, 2023, and it's around 8am. A group of my paintings are lined up in front of me on the floor.
Sipping my coffee, I stare at them, and they stare back at me. Silently. Clearly they asked to be brought into this world. Like my own children, I was a channel for them. Are they a part of me? Or are they through me, but not of me?
Here they sit. Patiently observing me. Asking "Now what"?
In 2020, during the summer of the pandemic, I had a spiritual awakening. My "Mermaid with a Pink Lotus" (a self portrait of my higher self) and my "Protector" (literally), the first two pieces, were born during that time.
I wasn't living alone, though, and my soul was crying out.
So in October of 2020 I retreated to the desert, where I was to spend most of the next nine months in solitude. And it was there that the paintings came one after another, starting in December. The idea would come in a dream or meditation, and I would be guided by an inner voice, loud and clear, to books, to materials at the art store, and even to a nearby lake to observe the color of the water.
"Oshun", then "Yemaya", then "Conversation with a Mermaid", then "Gaia", then "Shango" arrived, each one revealing themselves day by day as I worked.
Suddenly I understood how movies are made and concertos are written. How singers can get on stage in front of thousands of people. How to step aside and let spirit flow through. Like magic. Looking back now I realize that during the pandemic, when the world stood still, and I was relieved of the pressure of going out to sell, I was given the rare gift of the freedom to take time simply and exclusively to go within.
The tears flow now as I write this, reliving with great gratitude the profoundness of that experience. Above are the seven paintings, photographed together in Green Valley, Arizona at the end of my stay in June of 2021.
I knew it was time to return to Los Angeles to ground and integrate what I had learned in the desert. If I stayed too long, I could lose myself there. So just like that my crown closed, and along with it, the channel.
Why did these beings come through? I thought at the time that I was meant to reach many people with this work. Perhaps that's still true. Or was it just to teach me with absolute certainty what it feels like to channel, and set the stage for the next experience?
And what about the originals? Is there someone out there that is supposed to share in the sacred magic by putting one of these special beings on their own wall? How do I reach them? Where do I find them?
This, my friends, is the journey of an artist...
With Love and Light,
Linda
