To Know Bounds

Though I have not posted for a while, I have not been absent from art.  As many changes have taken place for me in the new year, so too have things been taking shape with collaging.

Below is the piece I completed in February.  The moth is a totem you may remember from one of my posts on reading signs and spirit guides a few months back.  As you may recall, the moth is about relationships, about following your senses, observation and intuition to know whether a relationship, of any type, with a particular person, is right for you.  The rabbit I recently came to discover is one of my totem animals.  I had wondered over the last few years, in creating pieces with totem animals, when I would discover which animals represent me.  Though I know I do not yet have all of them, the rabbit is indeed one.  Rabbit is about boundaries.  It is about knowing which boundaries are appropriate to keep and maintain strong, and which ones to leap beyond, to risk venturing outside of them in order to grow and change.

When these two totems come together, they suggest that we must all be aware of what boundaries are necessary for particular relationships to thrive.  How far to push?  How far to be pushed?  Where do you begin and I end?  We do not have to sacrifice our boundaries to achieve closeness.  We get to protect ourselves and hold ourselves sacred, and still be loved.

To Know Bounds
cut paper on canvas panel, 8"x10"
© 2013 Nicolette Callaway

New Collage - "Let the Spirit Take You"

I began my most recent piece in April.  I finished it last week.  Five months may seem like a long time, but sometimes art requires that an artist let a piece simmer while doing and experiencing other things.  In the last five months, much has happened.  Lessons have been learned.  Time has moved both quickly and slowly, things have been gained and lost, and hearts have been broken and mended.  This piece speaks to all of that.

The animal totems that appear in "Let the Spirit Take You" (2012) are hummingbird, tortoise, and dog (Golden Retriever).  The hummingbird is a symbol for accomplishing the impossible, and finding joy in all things.  The tortoise represents longevity, persistence, patience, slowing down enough to identify what's really important, and finding the abundance in simplicity.  The dog generally represents faithfulness and protection, and the ability to love.  The Golden Retriever in particular holds qualities of confidence, patience, friendliness and domesticity.

In this piece, all of these totems surround a woman.  She is relaxed, yet vulnerable.  And with vulnerability comes fear.  The hummingbirds are flying at her head, sort of kamikaze-style.  Perhaps they are trying to make most apparent that she can accomplish anything, and that she doesn't have to think about the how but rather just feel the joy of wherever the Spirit takes her.  The tortoise provides stability for her to recline, but it is in her face, talking to her, making a point.  Perhaps it is telling her to slow down and, again, not think so much, but rather watch, be patient, make it through.  The retriever is lying on her feet.  It doesn't worry.  It loves.

Recently I had a conversation with someone about the nature of love.  It is immutable, flexible, infinite, expandable, and unoppressive -- and solid.  Love isn't fleeting, contrary to what many may think.  Love allows us to break, and allows us to mend.  It helps us complete the cycles we experience throughout life.  Where would we be without it?  Likewise, Love's friends -- Patience and Persistence, among many -- are also our helpers.  They all work together to help us accomplish what we never thought possible.  And when we let them help us out, things like how and time -- well, how shows up, and time moves without us even realizing.  Perhaps that's part of the key -- don't think so much.  Let the Spirit take you.

"Let the Spirit Take You"
2012
paper and acrylic medium

Market Saturdays

Just a reminder - I'm at the Delmar Farmer's Market every Saturday morning, 9am-1pm, at Bethlehem Central Middle School.  I will be missing the next two weekends, but I will be back on September 22nd.  Please feel free to email me in the meantime about any artwork, prints, cards, sock monsters, or jewelry -- I can always arrange to meet you during the week for an exchange!

This past Saturday, three small butterflies flew in or through my tent -- two white ones, and the third one was brown.  Any hazards at a guess for the meaning on that series of encounters?

Below is an image from market.  Thanks so much to the customer who snapped this photo!

Signs and Flexibility

As an addendum to my last post on reading signs, I want to say that one must be flexible.  This holds true for everything in life; we will all get further if we keep our thinking about things flexible and expandable.  And if one is practicing any form of art (expressive, visual, literary, etc.), this will necessarily occur (except when one is experiencing artist's block, which generally means that one is being too rigid or literal in their thinking -- aka, being overwhelmed or afraid). 

But in any attempt to follow spirit guides, or signs, outside of an artist perspective, one must not have too strict of an idea of what they're a sign of.  An experience with a spirit guide can hit at the core of a feeling and be dead on, but as for what to DO about it, well... that spirit guide may not be giving you any advice.  That's when the other guides show up and lead you further.  So while we may get hit with one encounter, we've got to keep open and listening.  And, of course, we always must be observant about the actuality of the situations we find ourselves in, and do our best, while feeling the feelings that may come up, to think rationally, and act based on rational thought.  Which is, indeed, flexible.