This was going to just be a blog touching on the importance and value of art – something I often write about especially when I hear and see struggling artists, people unable to find a way to make a living with their artistic expression, people feeling their “art” not being taken seriously and just thrown aside as a hobby, or having a hard time to take leaps of faith with their creations because of such strong collective beliefs that have shaped their own.

This was percolating again when I was reading reviews of art that had been purchased in my Etsy shop and realizing how unless people come face-to-face with the experience of someone’s gift they have to share, that there can be a disconnect or devaluing that takes place. Of course, this can be connected to the feelings we have come to believe about ourselves, that are innocently conditioned.

Here is an example of just one review:

“Hi! Just wanted to let you know that I received your creations. I was a bit taken aback how stunningly beautiful they are in real life! The photos just don’t do them justice. In real life they are on a whole new level!!! I guess original art really has something so special that can’t be reproduced….”

That’s not to say that even when the art IS experienced, that someone appreciates its true value, but there’s definitely more understanding when something becomes tangible, they hear an artist share about their work in person, or when a person truly takes the time to “sit” with the work of art and receive from it.

It’s invaluable, to say the least. And this is why I support so many artisans over purchasing a lot of commercial items because there truly is a depth and richness to things made from the heart.

There tends to be a disconnect with the amount of energy, time, love, thoughtfulness, vulnerable soul-processing, and skill that creators imbue into everything they make. It’s why I love those one-of-a-kind and original pieces that bring me closer to the artist’s intentions.

That’s not to say you can’t receive from duplicates, prints, etc., as there is always an energy signature that will resound, but I love being that close to the seedling of creative impetus infused within the first birthing.

True, it will be more costly, so it’s not something I/we can always bring home, but when something really speaks to me, I don’t question the value placed on an item, as I know as an artist how much is poured into every creation that can never be measured in these terms.

I desire so much that more and more artists will get to flourish and share their gifts with the world.

I hope for the collective to tip the scales back in balance, so we honor, appreciate, and value the arts as we once did – the storytellers, mystics, artisans, visionaries, medicine people, astrologers, musicians, dancers, healers….were all revered.

I’m seeing a shift happen and people starting to thrive again in these regards, but there are still so many struggling and so much energy holding in opposition to these shifts that artists are working overtime to change.

And that brings me to what I uncovered, as I was sitting with all of this and some of my own past works-of-art.

It wasn’t about value per say, but it was about attachment and feeling another layer of etheric tethers (as I put it to a dear friend) releasing.

Although I do remember how many times in my past I had to explain myself and the pricing of my art – especially when it came to some of my first commissioned pieces.

Two incidents in particular come to mind: I literally had to write a long proposal finely detailing hours and work involved to an attorney once and also had to prepare information to the president of a company I was doing a mural for to back up my proposed fee. The first grueling effort succeeded and the latter got knocked down in half, but was still courageous of me to put it out there, especially since one of my greatest fears was verbally expressing myself and public speaking.

But what came to me recently has to do particularly with the In Lak’ech “Five” series I brought to life between 2006 and 2009. I chronicle some of it in this post: In the Spirit of In Lak’ech 

Fire

When first I timidly put them out on my website, feeling very vulnerable in sharing such depth, I listed them at $11,000 each. Not a strange price at all in the art world given their size, time invested, and being four feet by four feet originals.

I also made prints available, figuring that the originals would likely not be going anywhere anytime soon and wanting people to receive from them still.

But what I notice now in looking back is that I don’t believe at my core that I wanted to let these originals go.

Even though my highest vision and intention was that perhaps they’d find a home in a healing center or someone’s personal sacred home space, they spoke to something very sacred within me that perhaps felt like a violation to give away, at the time.

I can’t really put a word to it.

Earth

They were indeed like babies I’d birthed, but had truly never been created for me, as the channeling aspect going into them removes me from personal ego.

Yet, it was when out of that channeling space that personal was being tethered.

I may be one to look far deeper into things than most like, want to, or perhaps are over with doing anymore – I get it because overall I’m in that space of peaceful “being” more so now – but within one there is still the other and while I prefer the simple, my innocent curiosity simultaneously can feel the bigger encompassed within that – both sides of the coin exist even if focused elsewhere. And sometimes even if I’m not in that space myself, I will explain things out for others to better understand the process that may be more seamless in experience for me now. I find that helps people to relate and find connective threads for themselves.

Air

So, how did this play out for me?

Well, it was a mix of that value of art I spoke of before AND personal attachment.

I remember once that someone very well-off (a millionaire in fact) where I was showing my work in their gallery space asked me about one of the Five and wanting to purchase it. I told him the price and he looked at me in a strange way. Not that he felt it wasn’t worth this, but my sense was he felt entitled as someone perhaps more worldly to take advantage of someone he deemed less than that. (Interestingly, a small theme included in some or one of these paintings.)

He proposed $1500 instead of the $11,000.

I, immediately said no, but did feel that weird grating inside mixed with everything around it all that I’m sure a lot of artists feel, including that flash of all the artists that have in fact accepted what ever they could get because they felt they had no choice, but there was something more too.

There were other incidents similar or went further to even just wanting me to give them to people starting up places they thought they’d add value to.

And then there were a few months where my art hung in a hair salon studio that brought together art events, where they told me that business boomed while my paintings were there and brought much intrigue and interest.

Water

So, yes, I dealt with the value thing and seeing how these paintings were being experienced, but as mentioned, more importantly these pieces in particular hold such a sacredness to me and depth that truly it wasn’t about the money, but I was feeling protective of something within myself.

I realize now that I had mixed feelings that were tethering me to the experiences held within the portal paintings on a super-subconscious level.

While I’ve worked so much in the past to free myself and integrate the healing of these times within my and the collective’s soul history, there is an underlying comfort resonance in holding them, or identifying with them – basically allowing them to define me in behind-the-scenes way. Perhaps even fueling a sense of purpose I felt that recently I’ve been letting go of. AND, perhaps even still holding onto a self-imposed collective burden I felt to bear in that old martyr role.

It’s that super-shadow work often spoken of where you can’t make mental sense of it and there are many layers to the onion of feelings to unmask and get to the seed of it all. Some of which is purely your own and some that is collectively conditioned.

And in so much clearing out and truest desire to move beyond the unseen tethers that may not even by own, this suddenly hit me that I need to release these paintings rather than store them away in the dark recesses – literally they’re stored in a dark area of the garage to keep them safe from the elements and such right now, as we didn’t have any place to put them in the house, with all of the other paintings on the walls.

That’s interesting to me to have such powerful creations “hanging around” in the background.

So, my original “detached and collective reasons” for creating them returned to me, which was for them to be “out there” doing their work, especially at such pivotal times as now.

Spirit

These originals are so potent that to have them stored away feels like an injustice, just as I don’t store crystals when I’ve moved – either taking them with me or moving them on to other guardians.

But I did end up having to store them when we lived in the Magick Bus RV for a year and a half. I remember setting them all up in the living room together before they were taken away. A friend came over who was picking up some things from me and ended up sitting with them for an hour taking them in and receiving rushes of energy, emotions, and visions. It was the first time they were all together like this in their original form and not prints, so it was profound for me to watch someone experience them as intended, but I obviously was still not realizing the attachment.

And to feel that subconscious tethering now reminds me to release fully from inner identifications to soul wounds/feelings over lifetimes. Not simply on mental or easy to find emotional levels.

That is the gift of these Five portals is to move energy and keep it moving – that’s why they are so alive. Working with them invokes an inner igniting to happen and can continue to work layers of their imprints in unearthing and beautiful ways.

Yet, the trick, as with anything is to flow and not get stuck in identification as defining and encapsulating.

It’s taken me all of these years to uncover the true gift within them.

And I am now able to truly release the paintings so they can be that experience for someone else.

I could keep them now, fully living in that freeing energy I’ve now discovered and harnessing it for endless renewal, but they were always meant for others.

The only way I would truly know their gifts is to have journeyed with them all of these years, so I’m grateful for the discovery – one that is very hard to put into words. I’m not sure I’ve explained it well here, but it was a huge shift that happened yesterday when I cracked the code within.

As the link I shared above about their process expresses, these paintings remind me of hieroglyphics mixed with sound coding and telepathy. A journey backwards and forwards in time and encompassing both my personal and a collective “history” spanning what I believe to be very pivotal timelinks carried within our very DNA.

While I process things differently these days and my life is more simplified, like these images that appear as snapshots, they are also encompassing of so much more.

These five pieces, except the last two that were combined in one year, took each a year to create on their 4 feet by 4 feet very detailed canvases. This in part due to my own processing, research, and discoveries, the collective timing, and travels I did to work with the energies at sacred sites across the globe.

I actually have a journal notebook I kept with all of the detailed research and coding I was discovering along the way and working out like a treasure map before starting to paint each of them.

They include encoded messages that are sound-woven and frequency-embedded for that transmutation.

These paintings were my interpretations and new perspectives of each element as seen through different astrological signs in their highest potential (Divine Male and Female aspects). They incorporate Mayan glyphs and act as integrative portals that bridge time and come through an ancient story that weaves Sumerian and Babylonian, Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Druid and Celtic Ireland, Atlantis and Lemuria, and the Cosmic Earth.

They are layered with energetic symbolism that can help shift things on a DNA level by simply viewing them – something I witnessed when I showed them a few times separately and some individuals would find themselves moved to sit and meditate with them. One time in particular stands out, seeing a young man with tears streaming down his face while sitting in front of Air.

And like Lee Harris spoke of in his last Energy Forecast for May about a new wave of people awakening to greater awareness than they have before in different ways and being more ready for conversations they weren’t open to in the past, I’m seeing how the original seed of intention in these paintings is more relevant now than when first created.

This has led me to truly release them to the world this time and whomever might feel called to them.

While that “value of art” thing is still very important I feel in helping to shift things collectively and bringing awareness and honor to the creative arts and even our relationship to nature because the arts connect us with the “nature within,” I am ready to let them go at huge discount simply because I feel the importance of their living out their purpose.

Like the mother must release their child at some point to  live their life, I do the same and know I am no less or more because of their physical presence in my life.

I had thought about offering them each at $2000 instead of their original $11,000, and all five for $10,000 – less than one’s value, but I’m now going to open it to best offers so that they can truly go where they can do the work they were meant to and fulfill the vision I had of them as meditation pieces, either individually or as a collective story for integrative healing on deepest levels.

So, if one or all of them speak to any of you, please let me know of your desires and we’ll go from there.

I do have to reiterate that these are 4 feet by 4 feet, so I will have to ask that shipping be covered as well because they will take special packaging and shipping costs.

The five are shared throughout this post in the order they were created. I hope you enjoy viewing them again, as much as I’ve enjoyed resurrecting them in a new way.

And if they don’t find new homes, this whole process is still rich in the discoveries I’ve made that I know will domino-effect out through our collective connection.

UPDATE: The five paintings have found their new home with an amazing new guardian and keeper who is keeping all of them together and will be working with them as the sacred portals they were intended as. I’m so happy that they can stay as a unit, even though I was open to them finding homes where ever they were meant to be.