Category: Art Journey

Last night, I watched The Voice. And, even though I can’t carry a tune to save my soul, I learned some really useful things. Or, more accurately, was reminded of some really useful things.

While I was watching The Voice, I was also packing books and WingedEyeWisdom Cards and art prints for this weekend’s Decatur Book Festival. My version of The Voice, in a very real sense!

I know. It might seem like an odd way to spend an evening when the nation I live in feels like it’s crumbling around us. In fact, though, it helped! Not cosmically, perhaps, but in the sense that I lived my belief that my job in this world is claiming my vision of Concrete Passion & Very Large Hope… and taking another step in the direction of helping others to claim their visions.

I cheered for the singers. I felt for their family members – the thrilled and the disappointed. And, here’s the thing… showing up matters. Claiming dreams matters. As long as our dreams don’t obliterate everybody else’s.

It’s truth time.

I’m having a bit of a trauma flare. Well, maybe a bit more than a bit. You see, I know what it’s like to be around someone who thinks their wants, their ego, their power is all that matters. And I promised myself that I was going to learn from that experience and not go there again!

Fortunately, I have a plan. A plan for going, instead, to the place where I am called. My immediate next right thing is sleep. Then, more painting. Hearth tending. Prepping for the Book Festival. And, sharing this with you…

I can help YOU make YOUR plan for the journey to the place where YOU are called. Really!!! And we’re starting soon! It’s going to take a whole lot of us, and it probably won’t be easy, but – one step at a time – we’ll get closer! And, NOW is the time we’ve got!!!

YOUR next right thing, if you’re still reading along, is to click right here and find out all the details.

And, if you’re in the neighborhood, drop by booth 58 at the Decatur Book Festival. There will be Red Thread and Good Trouble buttons!

ps… thanks, Walter!

One of my current paintings-in-progress is known by several names. Artisan is the easy one. Talisman is next. Or, in my case, Taliswoman. Commonly, that means an object held to act as a charm to avert evil and bring good fortune. Or – my favorite – something producing apparently magical or miraculous effects. It is related to the Greek, telos which means end, result, or fulfillment… and boils down, historically, as consecrate.

Now, that, right there, is enough to cause a ruckus in some of the places I’ve hung out. Here’s an example from my years as the Wandering Wedding Woman... Think of it rather like what happens with a wedding ring. Round. Metal. With or without gem stones. Jewelry. Set apart from the usual with meaning and purpose.

That’s what this painting is all about, for me.

We began with claiming our core identity. Gulp!!! And, Oh, Holy Wow!!! And, yes… now I know more!

Part of that, I suspect, has a lot to do with a familiar question in a new context. (Yep! Filters!!!) And new context can come in many forms. The top two on my list at this moment are news and body-gone-rogue. You fill in what comes to your mind!

The deep underlayers are generational surprises. The stories before the stories before the stories I knew. Part of what I hate about our current context is all the increasing efforts to erase those stories. To ban them, if you will, from the greater conversation. This painting is me, refusing to play along.

Then, there’s the body stuff. Mystery symptoms they didn’t cover in nursing school. Pain. Tests. Anxiety over what feels like an overdose of unknown. My painting, though, is insisting on bodies. Generations of them. Bodies carrying stories and symbols and choices.

Deep breath, now, for the big news, please.

We can’t treat our bodies as consecrated if we are – at the same time – trying to banish, ignore, or blame them. Boiled down… consecrate and neglect don’t go together!!!

The painting, as you could probably tell, is a long way from finished. As is sorting my relationship with my body! Here’s what I do know:

I’m staying on the road! Body, Mind, and Spirit!!!

And, I have a map!!! Well, a couple of them…

First, Grammy’s MetaMod Wisdom Cards! They’re actually arriving in their new homes!!! Here’s a bit of what one new client had to say:

Sue! I received the package with your beautiful wisdom cards and book. I read through the book. I had spent the afternoon with a friend who is frustrated that she hasn’t found her purpose in life. I am going to lend the cards to her for her to use. Thank you. They arrived at just the right time! (LSM)

Just click here and the elves will hook you up with your very own!

ps… there’s a Filters class coming, too! Stay tuned…

Does that give you chills? It does, me! And here’s a glimpse of one of my personal Worldview Ancestors… She’s my Artisan/Taliswoman painting from my first Color of Woman adventure in 2018.

In many ways, that was a birth year for me! Really, really new at painting. Even newer at thinking art might be something WE could do. You see, that was not a belief I learned as a child.

She looks familiar. Draped in a quilt, which is very much a WE thing, instead of the suggested veil which is utterly not a WE thing! (I’m guessing you hear me!) And, she is whispering from the walls, again. You see, yesterday I opened the awareness door for a new Taliswoman painting to be born!

Back in the day, she was my first journey with the notion of Winged-eye beings! And, yes… her winged eye is on the – shall we say – other side! (I’m not great with right & left!) I loved it, though, as a symbol of wisdom that’s lots more fun than a basement full of dusty diplomas!

And, even though I haven’t even unwrapped the canvas yet, she’s already plotting and planning. So far, we’re committed to a unicorn friend, and – surprisingly – a magical walking stick. I’m excited about both of those notions.

Unicorns, according to some traditions, are symbols of the true teachings of Yeshua/Jesus and this seems like a great time to wander with that.

The walking stick feels like a persistence message. A way to stay on the road, even when it’s hard. Or scary.

The more I learn about my actual ancestry, the more I realize how much many of those who came before me would have related!

Then there’s the part about Worldview Ancestry! What does that bring to mind for you? (You can leave me a comment, below!!!)

For me, it’s a reminder that we’ve inherited much more than eye color and tendencies toward crooked teeth. (I’d gladly give that last one back!) The cool things start when we claim the wild notion that we can add to our Worldview Ancestry, rather like finding 70th & 71st great-grandparents in My Heritage! (And all the people from them to me!)

When it comes to Worldview Ancestry, I’m releasing myself from the influence of my third grade teacher. From the perspective that the differently able kid in our class was being bad. Also from my 7th grade geography teacher who seemed to think that the only parts of the world that were worth learning about where ones he’d dropped bombs on in a war.

There were more, but you get the drift! And I’m so hoping some similar folks are occurring to you, as well.

The big question, though, is around those folks we’ll choose to add to our worldviews!

You know a bunch of mine. In this moment, the obvious one to mention is Fred. Dr. Frederick Buechner. The guy who helped me claim several versions of the notion that:

The place where we are called is where our deep joy and the world’s deep longing meet.

Just between us, this feels like a good time for as much of that as we can bring!

I’d love to help you get closer to your vision of that place! That’s why I made Grammy’s MetaMod Wisdom Cards! (Really!!!) Just click here and the new batch of elves, who renamed our store, will have lots more info and be delighted to set you right up at WingedEyeWisdom.com

ps… down below Taliswoman #1’s winged eye, there’s a block in her “quilt” that’s kind of hard to see. It says, I am a grandmother… an open-eyed visionary of fierce compassion. She speaks for me!

pps… Ready to raise your hand and claim your next right thing? Let’s talk. 45 min. My gift. Just click here and the calendar elves will hook you up. Also, I have a very special, time-limited offer for a couple of new 1:1 clients available… and it includes a bonus set of cards!