Kathy Crabbe, mixed media, 7 x 10 inches.
Prints and cards are available. Email Kathy to find out if the original is still available.
What is Your Gift?
Kathy Crabbe, Ande was ready for any adventure, 2003, mixed media on paper, 8x10”.
This blog post has been a long time in coming folks, so thank you for caring. There have been many tears, many goodbyes and much love and prayers shared with family and friends in the last two months, but as Denis says, "life goes on" and so it does, and so too does this blog.
I said goodbye to my birth mother Sally (I'm adopted) and to my Grandad (her father) over the last couple of months and I also spoke at my Grandad's Celebration of Life.
But, my news is, that my newest project is to be dedicated to Sally. It is both new and old; a project near and dear to my heart since it's infancy in 2000. As you may have guessed from the artwork above, my newest project involves the 'lefties' as they are affectionately known, or more formally as the Creative Soul Cards.
These cards meant a whole lot to Sally and me and to Sal's New Moon group of best friends. One Christmas I presented Sal with a New Moon Kit based upon my New Moon Class and we meditated, pulled cards and shared intentions at the New Moon during that visit. Afterwards Sal started her own New Moon Circle with several good female friends. The 'lefty' cards were a big part of this.
At Sal's Memorial I met up with these friends and we cried and talked a lot about Sally. Her friends told me how much this spiritual group meant to Sal during her last months and how much the Creative Soul Cards touched all their hearts and encouraged them to write and share their hopes, dreams and intentions with each other every month.
So, I'd like to dedicate these Creative Soul Cards to you, dear mum and I will continue to teach this class and share these cards with others just as you shared yourself with us by showing us what love is and how to be in love. That was your gift and this is my gift to you.
So, stay tuned folks, I'm working on getting this Creative Soul Deck published along with a guidebook. It will probably accompany my class which I currently teach online but would like to teach in person next.
P.S. The Creative Soul Card pictured above, "Ande was ready for any adventure" was one of the last cards I pulled for Sally and so it was fitting that Ande turned up today for my first "Lefty" post. And, just like Ande, Sal was ready for any adventure and I trust she's on her next big adventure right now.
Sally & Denis
Taurus New Moon Musings
New Moon in TaurusMay 13, 2010
6:04 pm PDT
This month the New Moon enters the sign of Taurus, the Celestial Cow and a fixed, earthy sign represented by the crown of Isis (the symbol or glyph for Taurus). Try to picture Taurus the Bull munching contentedly away in a field of clover and then ask yourself, “What can I do this week to reward and pamper myself in a sensual way while giving thanks and acknowledging my strengths and values?” (Think of it as a Taurean pleasure bath for the soul). Is there a special source of strength that you can draw upon when necessary? What is it? Have you ever healed yourself by connecting with your power source? Wouldn’t that be amazing?! When the Moon enters Taurus on May 13 get ready to:
- ground your energy in Mother Earth - be cautious and reserved about money - continue or finish projects - stay at home with your family - appreciate the bounty and beauty of Mother Earth
Taurus – The Bull
Time of Year – Spring turns into summer, May Day Quality – Fixed Element – Earth Planetary Ruler – Venus Anatomy – Neck and throat Natural Sign of – 2nd House Color – Pink, green, earth colors Gemstone – Chrysocolla, green emerald, moss agate Tarot Card – Hierophant Goddesses – Demeter, Flora, Gaia, Hathor, Hera, Nokomis, Olwen, Rhea Taurus Meditation
I am of the earth, Gaia feeds me, I worship her body as I worship my own. Introducing The Moon Muses
The Moon Muses are intuitive guides and question askers that offer insight and wisdom along with exercises to heal and inspire you. They are creative leap takers forming a glowing moonlit bridge between your rational self and your higher self, a self that dwells in pure intuition, clairvoyance (clear seeing), meditative reflection and dreaming.
This month you will meet a Gemstone Muse called Emerald and a Lefty Oracle Muse by the name of Song. I encourage all of you to create a Moon Musing Journal to record your monthly moon explorations (more about this in my eCourse Awaken Your Divine Feminine Self).
- lose yourself in music - appreciate and indulge in life’s simple, sensual pleasures
A Message From Emerald
Emerald encourages you to define your values especially in relation to money and possessions.
Questions:
How much is enough, too little, just right?
Does the work you do express your values? Tell me more!
Emerald is a wishing stone and works especially well with this New Moon in Taurus, so that means it’s time to make a wish, but with 1 stipulation, that instead of releasing your wish into the ethers, Emerald wants you to plant it, tend it and watch it grow.
Take a moment now to envision that wish of yours spreading out and effecting 100 other folks, then 200, then 300 then 10,000!
My Green Wish is _____________________________________________________
My Version of Taurus
“Song” is part of a series of left-handed drawings I created over a period of five years. These drawings were later turned into an oracle card deck that I use for soul readings.
“Song” asks you to write a song from your heart!
To begin, list 3 words that fill your heart with joy, perhaps relating to their meaning, or even just to the sound that the word makes. Think fast, don’t dwell on this too long! What are the first 3 words that pop into your head? Write them down!
1. 2. 3.
Now, write down a symbol or something concrete beside each word.
Allow these 3 words to act as a talisman or touchstone for you this month. Try turning them into a collage or collect them as actual objects that you can carry around with you. Ponder them, bring them to life, because they will teach you about the way of joy, the way of heart and the way of soul. Think of them as your Heart Song of Joy and let their magic work it’s synchronicities and healings into the very fabric of your life.
I am currently teaching “Awaken Your Divine Feminine Self” at the Wise Woman University. “Celebrating the lunar cycles is an important part of building a spiritual framework. Each month we can tune into her cycles to keep ourselves on track. At the new moon we plant our intentions for the month ahead, at the full moon we watch them flower, and at the waning moon we release and share our wisdom with the world. As women we are naturally able to resonate with these cycles in deep and meaningful ways.”
The Creative Soul Guides® aka Lefty Oracles
Me, Michelle Shocked & Ginny (a Lefty) at The Campfire Show
International Women's Day, Hollywood, 2003.
In 2001 I began drawing exclusively with my non dominant left hand. I called these drawings 'talking heads' because they all had funny little names and no necks. Five years later I had enough Lefty drawings to inhabit a whole world and I had completely lost track of which hand I was using when I picked up a brush or pen. I like to tell people that I began the Lefty Series because my overly dominant right hand lost it's sense of humour, but really I just needed to shake things up a bit.
Left handed people are disproportionately represented in the creative professions - Turning on the right brain is a skill and one that grows stronger the more you work at it ~ Martha Beck, Oprah Magazine.
A Lefty drawing & a Polaroid of Donna posing as a Lefty.Facing Fears or Stuff the Lefties Got Me Into
- Guided by a dream I turned my Lefty drawings into an oracle card deck for giving online psychic readings.
Over a five year period of painting more than 500 Lefties I discovered that my psychic abilities were increasing to the point where I just HAD to share these gifts by giving Creative Soul Readings.
- Participated in a six month long psychic-mediumship circle or English Traditional Healing Circle to hone and develop my intuitive skills PLUS overcame a lifelong fear of merging onto freeways (at age 42!).
- Started writing poetry again. I created projects such as Gadfly, a series of Lefty Chapbooks that morphed into Songs of the Lefties, a Postcard Zine (sixteen issues in all with monthly subscribers) and a book titled Odds & Ends - A Collection of Friends - Recipes, Rhymes & Incantations.
- Started a Writer's Group to meet writers and showcase the Lefties. The group became quite popular and was featured in the local newspaper.
Action words for right brain thinking: compassion, an open heart and a willingness to be supportive, joyful and at one with the universe.
- Started signing my art as Kathy Crab rather than Crabbe and introduced myself as 'Kitty' at various writing events - it just fit in a Lefty kinda way.
- Invited by Los Angeles musician and activist, Michelle Shocked along with Martha of The Muffins, an NPR (National Public Radio) talk show host, and the Radical Teen Cheerleaders to speak out about our art processes at Michelle's 2006 Campfire Series in Hollywood, California in celebration of International Women’s Day. I was absolutely terrified when Michelle first suggested I speak to a large group, but then she introduced me with her song, 'When I grow up I want to be an old woman' and I was just fine.
- Began a performance art project during which I snapped Polaroids of local people posing as Lefties (see Donna in the photo above) and had them sign their Polaroids with a funny nickname while using their non dominant hand.
- The Lefties offer guidance to students of my Divine Feminine eClass being offered at the Wise Woman University online and in person in lots of other places where they are known as Moon Muses. They are intuitive guides and question askers that offer insight and wisdom along with exercises to heal and inspire.
Moon Glory. Watercolor on paper, 8 x 10 inches. © 2005 by Kathy Crabbe
I will always call the Lefties best friends. They continue to inspire, amuse and guide us all. I feel that many spiritual practices and people are lacking in humor. Many of us long for laughter and lightness to express our inner joy and playfulness so that's what myself and the Lefties are here to do.
The Lefties and I enjoyed these comments very much:
"You must travel to some secret place when you create them" ~ Jennice Hyden, Acupuncturist
"Zen-like" ~ Mary Fleener, Cartoonist.
"The world needs more of your kind of clever silliness" ~ Linda Brunker, Sculptor
"Self esteem boosting" ~ Los Angeles Times, Calendar Section
"I've never seen anything like it...I laughed out loud" - Michael Pontacolini, Spoon Magazine
"Beauty, colorful, pretty, delicate, Murano glass come to life almost too beautiful to touch...I fall in love with the Klimt-inspired drawing...I am charmed. An aging art snob with a guerilla aesthetic. I flip through card after card and start scheming ways to steal K. Crab's work. Beg her to keep drawing!" Andree LaChapelle, Broken Pencil Magazine
"They're so delicate, succinct, playful, refreshing" ~ Susan Mrosek, Artist/Author
The Creative Soul Guides gently and intuitively encourage us to face our fears and experience creative breakthroughs.
You can check out loads more Lefties on Flickr, order a Creative Soul Reading here or purchase your favorite Lefty originals and prints here.
Leftys.us NEW shop!
