Effortless, very hard work.

What's great about being an artist in the crazy times we live in.

When I look up from my computer this is what I see. The ripening wall in my studio is where works in progress hang. I like to work on many paintings in rotation, not just one. More below.

Muse News, September Notes

I’m up early most days, generally happy and excited to get into my work. Except for off-days the surge of energy is clear, on, and flowing. Creativity is the flow of life, not something just for us artists. It tends toward a non-linear expression, however, which distinguishes it from the daily grind. It’s not a dry to-do list, with an underlying message to override our true calling. You know, drudgery and the like. It’s actually fun. And that’s the big secret we artists usually keep to ourselves.

Exquisite Paintings on the Nature of Flowers is a body of work based on a sophisticated visual analysis of Nature's frequencies = LOVE. My long-standing body of work, ongoing and now in phase two, began in the early 1990s and is the culmination of a lifetime quest—a sacred journey into the heart of Nature, beauty, and healing the myth of separation.

Fun is following and responding to the flow of life. Not to be confused with frivolous, lazy and whatever those words evoke. It’s like getting out of the way so life can live through us. That’s me, you, everything in our environment and beyond. It’s about being in flow, our natural state of being. Peak experiences are said to happen in this zone.

Generally speaking, I describe what I do as effortless very hard work. That’s because I’m in the flow state, which is endless. It’s how I live my life. Where my feet touch the ground, paintings are made. The technicalities of my craft require self-discipline and deliberate application, all carried out over time. And persistence, did I mention persistence? It’s an alchemical process of making what is invisible and non-linear into real tangible form. It’s magic.

The life of an artist can seem mystical to others. Ironically, that’s always been a mystery to me. Painting requires a certain quality of attention without which there would be no depth to my work. So everything I do has to support the main thing I do. It all works together.

Some backstory of how my process developed. Way back when, immediately following graduation with a BFA, I began training myself away from some of the unproductive patterns I’d learned in school. It was a mixed bag of mostly not-so-good days as I consciously re-trained myself to go to a place of effortless action before I’d do anything creative. Some call this non-attachment. At the time I had zero knowledge of meditation or any Eastern philosophies. All I knew was the call of Love from deep within. Its beckoning light poised to guide me through a spell of disillusionment.

I’d been trained in the classic do-this-to-get-that model of reality which was not a good fit for my creative nature. I am practical-minded, however, my creative nature is based on reciprocity. I believe the two are one, and that reciprocity is the foundation for all types of exchange. I’ve since learned that many indigenous cultures work this way.

The frequency of our planet has risen overall since my school days in the 1980’s. And no matter how it looks, I believe we are all being called to Love. Anything that doesn’t match the new higher vibrations of Love can’t remain in its old form. Shaking loose, and quickening causes the chaos we see in our world.

What I love about these crazy and challenging times is that no one can ignore the call to Love. It used to be possible, but it’s not anymore. We are all being invited to choose. And like they say, go with it or be dragged. It seems to be a combination for most of us, me included. But thank goodness it’s still fun.

—Leslie

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