There are many reasons that painting this series (titled "Sacred Imperative I, II, II) of paintings that could not fit in my home...did not make sense. And yet I felt a clear impulse, a sacred imperative if you will, to do so. I knew I wanted to paint a tree big, very big. I often long to paint trees life size. And I had the idea to use a few canvases together (that would fit in my home) to make it happen.
As I started working on the painting, moving the canvases around, I started laughing. The clear parallels for other parts of my life, and how there doesn't seem to be room for all of me were clear. And so with a self-compassionate laugh I carried on working on this canvas. A friend reminded me: Yes the painting doesn't fit in your home, yes there are places in your life/work where you don't fit...and you are doing it. You are painting this large canvas. You are finding ways to be bigger than some of the boxes around you.
So I offer this painting with a prayer for each of us: May we might fully inhabit our beings. May we be as big, bright, joyful, wise, loving as we are called to be no matter what the forces around us say. And may we each follow the impulse to create and live fully.
"Our creative urges are a sacred imperative." Julia Cameron