I'm BACK and ready for Soul Reading!

It's been a few months since I've posted here due to some intense painting and printmaking which can be viewed on my fine art website: http://www.KathrynVCrabbe.com plus I've been partaking in quite a few exhibits of my work at local museums and college galleries.

But my Soul Reading/Astrology biz is calling me back ever so surely and I'm very happy about that! I've made a few changes here on my site also: I've changed my eClass to a self study eBook and I have found another newsletter provider (Mail Chimp) which is free!

My creative explorations have taken the upper hand over the past few months and I've joined a bunch of artist groups: PAAR (Plein Air Painters of Riverside), PNET (Printmaker's Network), the Haggus Society (L.A.), The Women's Caucus for Art, and I am also volunteering at the Dorland Arts Colony in Temecula.

I begin my day by drawing from life, mainly landscapes and still lives of my neighbour's water-wise cactus and native California plant garden. After drawing, I lift weights and sun tan - it's almost always sunny here in the Southern California valley desert plus it's my change to fill up on all that Vitamin D! I paint large abstracts and work on printmaking after that; all part of my Journey Into Intimacy Series and my BodyPrint Healing Series.  You can read more about what they mean here in my bio.

It has been a nice change to get out of my studio and my meditation space to kibbutz with live people at art openings, meetups and plein air painting dates. Next on the agenda is offering you, my dear reader a chance to purchase high quality reproductions of my new paintings as well as a chance to purchase my originals which are all large (4 foot by 4 foot) and are painted on silk, masonite and canvas. So stay tuned, I'll be keeping you posted through my Museletter, my blog and on Facebook.

Journey into Intimacy: Celebrating 1 Year of Process Painting

It's the one year anniversary of my Process Painting experiment - yahoooo! One year ago today I began a series of paintings to save my life...no joke! Getting started, I literally ran full tilt in search of painting supplies so that I could begin that instant. I HAD TO PAINT. There was no choice. It was either paint or explode and so I chose to express my inner passions through the medium of acrylic painting. This time I wasn't painting small, but instead put my whole body into lifting, painting, making marks and covering paper, then silk, and then masonite sheets that were 4 foot by 4 foot (48" x 48") .

I obviously had a lot to say but words just weren't cutting it. As an artist I had to get it all out there through color and movement expressed in big, broad, splashy, sensual strokes, gouges and scratches painted to loud music: Celtic, Industrial, Acoustic, African, French...a mix, depending on my mood.

As the months went by I continued to paint, explore and express my feelings through art and writing that accompanied the paintings. That combination was new for me; one fed off the other. I combined the two in part because I wanted my blog readers to see what I was going through as I painted.

My friend Ian asked me if these paintings came from a metaphysical, meditative place within my soul and I had to answer 'no,

this series is pure emotion.

For those of you wondering what in the heck Process Painting is, I'll explain. Process Painting is painting without concern for anything but the process itself. This allows one to really focus on being present and in the moment without concern for where the painting will go afterward or if it will ever be sold. It's not easy for many of us to let go of control over outcome, so it felt risky and strange at first, but I grew to love it and crave it as time went on.

What I learned

By experimenting with Process Painting I gave  myself permission to express my emotions out loud and in paint and how to be fully present.

I granted myself time, space and freedom for emotional outbursts and for believing in myself. I spent time just being and I spent time writing, painting, pondering, dancing and absorbing music. I could feel myself coming alive in every pore and I expressed that being-ness, that alive-ness through my creations; my paintings, my photographs of the paintings and my writing that accompanied each painting and finally through my blog posts which brought it all together.

Process Painting has put me back in touch with my emotions; joy and faith and strength and yes, pain.

I painted as if nothing else mattered but this being-ness, this process of painting. It was a reminder of what's really important for my spirit and my soul.

Painting abstractly encouraged me to translate my feelings very directly onto the canvas without worrying about depicting anything recognizable.

As for the future, I'm going to continue what I started one year ago today because frankly,

I am in love with process painting.

I created two slides shows (see below) documenting all the paintings I created between October 30th, 2009 and October 30th, 2010. You can check out the accompanying blog posts at Creative Soul Blog or read my original Art Mystic blog that was eventually abandoned half way through the year so that I could focus on my Creative Soul Blog instead (all posts are now on my Creative Soul Blog).

Let's not forget that this is also a 1 year BLOG PARTY so I encourage you to leave your comments below expressing how this post has inspired your creative soul. I plan to pick one lucky winner at the upcoming Full Moon in Taurus on Nov. 15th, 2010 and gift them with a card or two from this collection.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathycrabbe/sets/72157625176624687/show/

Seeing Things For The First Time

Sinking into Artist-Time is sheer self-indulgence in a way and in another way, not at all! It is both and more. It is being present and open to:

heart emotion intuition dreams soul being feeling alive and on fire in every pore.

In Process - acrylic, pastel & charcoal on masonite - 48" x 48"

It is trusting the instincts of your hand, the brush, your colors and their combinations based upon years of loving them, knowing them, spending time with them, through devotion, nurturing and letting the paintings and colors nurture and heal oneself - it's all of this an so much more.

I can't imagine seeing the face of God/dess because She is everywhere and in everything.

Sometimes it may appear to others that we're being selfish, but how can we possibly feed and nourish others when we ourselves are starving? So we take and take and nourish and feed until sated and then we empty ourselves in giving, knowing that we will never go hungry again because now we understand what fullness means and we can share that knowing with all we meet. So far with this series - Journey Into Intimacy, I'm learning how not to finish a painting to perfection, but instead to let it be, not push it beyond where it wants to go, trusting completely in the process to guide me into a perfection I've never known before - non-attachment.

"I'm seeing things for the first time in my life." Sung by The Black Crowes ~ Seeing Things.

Musical Ambiance ~ The Black Crowes album, "Shake Your Money Maker" and Santana's album, "Supernatural".