meditations

Meditations: A Limited Edition Series

Each piece is a limited edition work. Only five of each meditation are made. Each piece is plaster, 24k gold leaf, on 300 pound cold pressed 100% pure cotton fiber paper. The gold is one of my signature elements and thus it was essential that it had a presence in this series. The gold covers a rectangular portion of the paper serving as the background of the text. As with all of my works, infusing light into every piece and every space is my mission. Due to the dynamic nature of gold these works change dramatically depending on the lighting in the space, but it is always adding light. Catching your eye as you glance across a space and directing your attention to the raised, three-dimensional, plaster text. Each piece may vary slightly depending on the way the gold moves in any particular application.

This series is very personal to me. I practice repetition of certain phrases throughout the day. When I find myself in different situations I meditate on these phrases. Each phrase serves in different capacities, to learn more about what a particular phrase means to me, simply click that piece.

These works are different from my previous works. This was intentional. I spent months playing with these phrases, integrating them into different canvas works in various capacities from spray paint, to continuous line script, to multi-dimensional works that layered text and paint in an abstract work. None of them served the narrow purpose I wanted them to convey. In all previous iterations the meditations got lost, which is the opposite of the intended effect. These meditations are supposed being to catch your attention and remind you to meditate on the words.

These words were too important to get lost in abstract expression. As you explore each meditation I ask that you focus on your breathing. Slow down and breathe deeply.

1. You’ve Got Time 11″x14″
We live in a fast pace word. I often find myself speeding around, my mind racing as I jump from one task to the next. My heart rate increases. My breathing is short and shallow. Stress. Usually this rushing around and stress is caused by unmet expectations and fear of letting others down. It is in moments like these I meditate on and remind myself, “you’ve got time.”  This meditation is a call to slow down and to celebrate slow.you've got time original art

2.Breathe, 16″x20″
This meditation is a frequent reminder. I am a chronically shallow breather. My entire life I would be constantly sighing. Others around me would always ask if I was ok cause I was always sighing. I’m fine, I sigh all the time because I forget to breathe. I catch myself in moments gasping for air. Being mindful of my breathing was one of my New Year’s resolutions in 2018. Nothing has changed my life more in the last two years than practicing better breathing. Breathing deeply, breathing often. I am less stressed; I handle difficult situations better. I have more peace. The stresses of life and made manageable by a practiced breathing technique.  This meditation has changed my life.

breathe

3. Practice Thankful
Thankfulness is a practice, it’s not a feeling. Every day at the beginning and end of each day I list even just a couple things I’m thankful for in the morning and in the evening. They do not have to be new each day. This meditation at the beginning of the day prepares me to see the good, the true, and the beautiful around me. I am primed for good when I practice this in the morning. In the evening even after a terrible day there is always something to be thankful for, it helps end the day in a positive place. Practicing thankfulness changes not only the way you see the world, but the way you interact with it. This meditation has given me more grace for others and a chosen lens to view the world with. Practice thankful is an exercise that I will forever be working on. There is always more to be thankful for.

practice thankful

4. Seek the Light 11″x14″
Seek the Light is a meditation I speak to myself in moments of confusion, of jealousy, of comparison. When there is temptation to make myself small, depressed, or compare myself to others. Seek the Light to me means seek God, seek good, choose that which is higher, less about me, more about the good. This is reminder to get out of my own head and take the focus off of myself and put it on blessing others, bringing light to them and lifting others up. This meditation is one of the most challenging for me, but all the more important.

5. Choose Peace 16″x20″
What bearing does this have on the big picture? The meditation, “choose peace” asks this question, and the answer is usually, very little bearing at all, so choose peace. Choose peace reminds me to ask myself if what I’m feeling is the most important thing. If there is injustice or evil, then yes perhaps it is. But more than 90% of the personal offenses we take, of the arguments we have with others do not really matter. Choose peace asks me to evaluate if my feelings are more important than the person I’m talking to. Can I compromise and bless another if I choose someone or something else over my own emotions? The choose peace meditation asks you to put pride and emotion aside and ask, “what is most important to me in this scenario?”Choose Peace

6. Let Go 11″x14″
This has been an exercise I’ve been working on for three years now and a new lifelong habit I’m working on. The meditation, “let go” has lead me down a path of my insecurities, my triggers, my fears, and the things that shame me. I have spent years journaling, and writing lists of where I picked these bags up. Some of it is baggage my parents gave me, some if it is from teachers, from past boyfriends, from friends, from unspoken social constructs. I’ve made a personal “baggage map” if you will, and I am systematically evaluating each piece of baggage and asking myself, “where did I get this from? Who gave it to me?” I then evaluate if I trust the source, and more importantly, is it worth my time to continue carrying it? Usually, the answer is no. A recent example of this, is I just got a second piercing. This is something I always wanted one, but someone once told me, “Second piercings are not elegant, they are not ladylike.” That is a small, silly, stupid little piece of baggage I have carried for over ten years. This year I let go of it and got a second piercing. The thing you will find with the meditation, “Let Go” is it will surprise you. Pieces of baggage will pop up all the time, insecurities, triggers, baggage you may not have even known you’ve been carrying will come out of nowhere. In those moments I invite you to evaluate the source and if it’s a piece of baggage you want to keep. If not, I invite you to join me and “Let Go.”

7. Make Beauty 11″x14″
We are all creators. We are all creating things all day long. I’m an artist I create art with the purpose of bringing beauty into people’s lives. You might be a lawyer, creating compromises for people. You might be an engineer, making elegant solutions for places and ways people live and move through the world. Whatever your field, choose to make it beautiful. And perhaps it is because I’m in a field where I see a great swathe of human creation I often see the glorification of the dark and the basest of human instincts I ask why? Whenever you’re creating ask yourself why you are doing it. Is this a dark thing, is it gross, does it have to be? Make things that bring beauty and light into people’s lives. Ask yourself, is this going to make people better? Or does it pray on their fears, insecurities, and base instinctual reactions? The meditation, “Make Beauty” is a reminder to me to when I’m creating to make things that add value and beauty to people’s lives, rather than preying on people.

8. Be Present 16″x20″
Where are you right now? Are you at work? With your children? Try to be there. Close this tab and be there. Focus on your tasks, on the people around you. The meditation, “Be Present” is hard for me to execute. Distraction is easy but what are missing? Being present and fully engaged for me usually means I need to put my phone away and focus on the task or the person in front of me. This meditation is intended to add richness and texture to your life. Being present is such a struggle, but one with rich and immediate rewards.

9. Take The Risk 11″x14″
This is something I am very bad at. I am by nature a caution and suspicious person. That’s the way I’m wired. This message is not for everyone, some of you probably need to take fewer risks. This meditation was spoken to me by a therapist and trusted counselor. After having my worst habits paraded in front of myself one glaring thing stood out. I have chronically held myself and believed I “couldn’t” or that I was just “not enough” for X thing. I speak this meditation to myself when I am afraid, when I’m insecure, when I’m crippled with inaction. “Take the risk” is a message I most often want to speak to my female friends. I see so many strong, powerful, talented women holding themselves back to which I say, sis, “TAKE THE RISK.” This meditation is for the meek and the afraid to take action. You are capable.

10. You Won’t Get What You Don’t Ask For 16″x20″
This meditation often couples with the previous meditation. Ask for the opportunities you want. I’ve missed so many opportunities by not taking the risk and asking. This meditation must be coupled with a tough skin, because you will be told “no,” but you will also hear some amazing “yeses!” This meditation is the one I leave you with because now I’m going to ask something of you.

I’m asking you to join me, be with me, meditate with me. Not all of these meditations are for everyone, you know what you need. These are the meditations are the ones I have needed, they are the meditations I speak to myself and I have written on my walls. I ask that you take what you need. I ask that you share these meditations with those that need to hear these messages. These meditations are icons. They are made to catch your eye in the middle of your day and remind you to act on them. These meditations are an invitation to you. I’m asking you to join me in the practice of meditating in truth, beauty, and light.

 

Comments

    1. Author

      Hi Ruth! I’m glad you like the meditations. That sounds like a good book. Thanks for the reccomendation!

  1. I love how you think at such a young age. I am 78 and just recently learning all these things. I am a fellow artist with high hopes for the future of our world because of young ones like you. You have the verbiage and care that lifts people. Thank you!
    I need a new website! Ha!

Leave a Comment