ABOUT MY ART

In life, I have a deep fascination and appreciation for the Mystical, Spirituality and direct experiences of the Soul. I am most content in the company of trees, open fields and natural environments. In Art, I have a deep fascination and appreciation and a natural ability in balance and harmony with patterns, form, texture, colour and shape. The integrated experience of spirituality, nature and creative abilities brings into existence a Visual Art product that is full of Perpetual Motion and Fluid Vibrant Colours. The colours are produced through a process of layering and blending of Acrylics and/or soft pastels; varied colour and water colour pencils plus Artist Markers.

My ideas come in response to something I saw either in meditation or in day-to-day living that infuses within me. The varied series birthed themselves oozing out of me from some deeper place within me. Once the series revealed themselves to me – I’d often decide which series I want to add to. Then I’d decide the colours I want to work with and the frame. Once these limiting factors are concluded – I then let go and become witness to what pours out of me onto paper. I am often so awestruck that I’m brought to tears.

MY TREES

I have a deep wonderful attraction and connection to outdoor open spaces; gardens and trees. As a child, I climbed two mature Apple Trees located on our ideal 2 ½ acre property (one was at the top of the hill, the other at the bottom had been split in half by lightening – yet bloomed brilliantly every year). I often played with imaginary and real friends under arching majestic branches of mature Spruce Trees resting on the bed of fallen needles. Surrounded by Farm Fields and Estate Meadows a magical varied textured pond intersected the three properties. I’d frequently sit upon roots protruding out of the embankment from trees arching over the water’s edge. Living in this ideal location for 11 childhood years gave me opportunity to develop imagination, respect for nature and the human dependence upon nature and to awaken awareness and expansion of the Soul. As pruning is necessary for the growth and beauty of a tree, so is continuous investment in oneself. I always try to be the best version of myself and I continuously work towards improving and evolving myself.

MY FLOWERS

As a child, I explored and played in many of Long Island affluent Estate gardens while my father either played Tennis or overlooked construction of contracted concrete swimming pools. Later, in my adult years, as a Landscape Designer and Horticulturist for over 35 years in Ontario, Canada, I’ve been exposed to tropical and indigenous flowers. I’ve always been awestruck by the magnificence of flowers in their delicate physical form yet their hardiness in steadfastness of growth. Flowers teach me qualities of elegance, grace, perseverance, gentleness and awe.

MY CHAKRAS

Early 1970’s, I moved to San Francisco to study Commercial Art at San Francisco Art Academy. I found myself attracted to the impact of colour on the human experience, so I shifted to the study to Art Psychology. In 1975, I married and moved to Toronto where my son was born in 1981. Eighteen months later, I separated from my husband and I moved to Hamilton, Ontario. As a single mom to a very bright active boy, and myself still healing childhood wounds from alcoholic home environment I learned about Chakra Meditation as a means to comfort me through these challenges. To help keep myself calm, safe and well-tuned, my early morning routine, while my son still sleeping; I’d turn on the water of our antique claw foot bathtub, go down stairs to meditate for the 20 minutes it took to fill the tub, then I’d quietly go back upstairs to soak in the comfort of the deep hot water and continue meditation – inhaling and exhaling each colour at the designated Chakra station of the body. When my son was grown and living in Toronto; I began painting Chakras using Acrylics, Colour Pencils, Soft and Oil Pastels. I’d witness colours pouring out of me like liquid transcendence onto the paper. Again, Chakra Colours kept me calm, safe and well-tuned.

MY NATURE DIVAS

Whenever I doodled, I’d draw eyes, faces, flowing gowns, leaves or branches, giving no attention or significance to them, until one day in 1995 during a lengthy phone conversation. Something caused me to question these characters pushing out of me into visual existence – hence the birth of winged and flowing characters perched on branches or embraced with leaves, bringing forth outpourings of frolicking, flowing, ascending and descending angelic mystical characters. When we were children, my sister and I would wonder down to the pond, which was located centered by our property; the neighboring extensive Farm Fields and Estate Meadows. Along a velvety moss covered pathway, we discovered a home for fairies. We could hear them whispering, giggling and singing and see them dancing ever so elegantly. We were ever so careful not to disturb them or to damage their home. It seems, these characters have traveled with me, out from me into my adult years onto paper. In 2008, years since any formal Art Show, I held an outdoor exhibit on a friend’s property in Dundas Ontario. When we realized none of my works were titled, my friend, affectionately gave a name to each series and Art piece.

MY BIRDS

Each season I feed the birds on our back deck, and watch them from the comfort of my living-room chez-lounge, while looking through our large window. I joyfully watch the arrival of a Blue Jay couple, a Cardinal couple and a Dove couple (I’m not sure if they are the same from year to year) and a variety of small and large birds stopping by to nibble and splash about. They love the berries, nuts and seeds and water I set out for them. One winter we had a Peacock come and stay at our back door looking right into my eyes. Another time, I was driving and caught the sight of a large white Owl sitting on a distant branch when suddenly he pressed off and flew right towards me looking me straight into my eyes then veered upward over the top of my car. A third close encounter with a bird was when I was on a photo shoot for the cover of my CD Mystic Haze. A large Hawk landed on a branch of a tree just by where I was standing and stayed for a lengthy visit.

MY ANGELS

Being raised a casual Christian, we attended church three times a year (Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday and Christmas), where I was exposed to various classical images of Angels and to hear about Angels. I experienced a sweet comfort from the colours and styles of the Angelic images. I found hearing about Angels guiding and guarding us intriguing. When I was about four years old, an adult female sat at my bedside and read the Lord’s Prayer to me. The moment I heard the words “On Earth as if in Heaven”, I recognized that this is what I’m here for. In 1989, a friend attended workshops to learn the role of Angels in human life and ways to connect to his Guardian Angel. He shared his experiences and learning with intention to assist me to discover my divinely appointed Guardian Angel.

Curiosity, speculation and an open mind guided me to begin regulated meditation and journal writing to record my experiences. After a progression of days with varied awesome visual images, an overpowering presence of Angels appeared to me. This then manifested an enormous indescribable sense that filled the entire room. Although I cannot give adequate translation into words or visual depiction, Leighlachavera became the first of my series of Angels.

MY DANCERS

Silent music and unspoken drama of dance captivate my curiosity and relentless fragrances of wonder about the magnificence of the human spirit. The movement of the human body within the art form of dance calls forth into expression qualities of balance, grace, flexibility, poise, coordination, confidence and strength. Being a witness to these awe inspiring sacred virtues, seized in a fluid moment of time, can effect one’s positive outlook for an entire life time.

A dance translates human emotions, conditions, situations and fantasies into virtuoso grandiloquent motion. Dance is aesthetic and symbolic, performing world historic and varied cultural ethnic values and principles.

To me, dance implies silent music, calling forth music to comply with movement that reveals a story. A beautiful classical painting The Dancing Girl (A.L. Baldry, 1901.) in Lululaund Mansion embodies the inscription “Dancing is a form of rhythm. Rhythm is a form of music. Music is a form of thought, and thought is a form of Divinity.” While drawing an individual dancer or partners, poetic breezes whisper sensual ceremonial rhythmic fluidity and musicality within me. Dance teaches me to be versatile, disciplined, and courageous and to release with sacred harmony.

MY TREE OF LIFE SERIES

In response to Annual World Earth Day and the global out-cry from numerous environmental advocacy groups dedicated to the care for all levels of life on planet Earth, I had an idea to do a show located at a Natural Healing Centre with visual and literary art works on the theme of Fire, Earth, Water and Air.

Because human life is the highest form of intelligent life and dependent on these precious elements, it is our responsibility to exercise qualities of reciprocity and nurture. Late December 2017, while looking for ideas for the upcoming Art Classes, I saw photos of a Baha’i Children’s Tree-ofLife Presentation that integrated various sized circles coloured in with different patterns and designs then adhered to a large hand painted cardboard cut-out tree. Viewing the Tree Of Life Project gave me the idea for the next Art lesson, to create a self portrait Tree Of Life, by drawing a tree integrating organized circles of which contain drawn symbols of favorite things and activities. While giving the instructions for the assignment, it occurred to me that the Tree Of Life would be a good design template for the elements of Fire, Earth, Water and Air.

MY SKIES

This Sky Series was inspired by photographs taken by my son, Charles George Gambit Munro. He captured a wide variety of moods and images upon water and open field landscapes reflecting the ever changing, evolving and transforming process of life, of which we are an ongoing part. We too change, evolve and transform each and every day. I have experienced many inner storms, but mostly, I experience all is a dance, a sway, a cradle embracing and unfolding me, season by season, day by day, moment by moment. All created by The Ultimate Creator. I love to experience Space Between – between Seasons; Heaven and Earth; between moment and eternity; between life and death; between day and night; between thought and feeling; between feeling and action. I love connecting and breathing within the Space Between.

MY MOONS

Constantly changing its form and location in the night sky, the Moon calls my attention to marvel at awe inspiring grandeur. Being the largest and brightest illumination in the night sky, it is observed from all locations on this glorious Earth.

The New Moon and Full Moon Cycle, a constant evolving process from no form, developing each night slightly bigger and brighter into full brilliant form, and then shifting smaller, returning to no form; creates and maintains rhythms that have guided human life for thousands of years; as well; the ebb and flow of the Moon energy guides the tides and governs emotions. The Moon Cycles connects me to appreciate unending natural cycles in life. I reflect upon my own personal growth and development in alignment with phases of the Moon, which is constantly evolving through passages of growth and decline, revealing various illumination and shifting and changing and expressions through an evolving process.