Spiritual Art Blog - *Ed P

Sharing Love

Picture:
Does this picture look familiar? Yep it’s just like my mini picture which is on last weeks post. This is created using a program called Bryce. It’s a 3D landscape program where you can create landscapes and things in three dimensions. You can then fly around the landscape and find the best angle for your picture or even create an animation. Anyway this is going to be the basis of another picture in the Sanctuary series, Island Sanctuary.

Thought for the week-
Sharing love is something we do a lot but we are often unaware of it. When we smile at someone or make a pleasant comment we are sharing a little love. When you say thanks to someone for any little favour, it adds a little sparkle of love to them.

If we can just increase our awareness of these deeds they will become more valuable, to the person receiving them and to us too. Anytime I hold a door for someone and they say thanks, a spark of love glows within me. If I meet someone I like, the warmth grows and I am a happier person. All these little events build up to add more and more joy to our lives.

While the people we do these little deeds benefit from our kindness, I think the one who benefits most is us. We allow love flow through us and once it begins to flow, even more of it comes through. As love flows through us we are surrounded by love and the joy it brings with it.

That’s the way love works. The more you give the more you get.

Inspirational Quote:

No man is an island
"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII:

Every picture can tell you a story

The canvas above left, Island Sanctuary, is the one I painted at the Expose Yourself gallery over the weekend. The photo on the right shows it being exhibited in ‘Ireland’s Smallest Gallery’.

-Thought for the week
I was talking to a good friend during the week and she was asking me about the picture Soul’s Journey Begins. The surprised look on the baby’s face frightened her. She said ‘All babies are happy and lovely and cuddly’.

She then told me about the time of the birth of one of her children. She had given birth naturally on her previous children but on this one she had to have a caesarean section and she was unconscious for the arrival of her child. This distressed and confused her a lot. After visiting some intuitive people she was told that the reason the baby went into distress at the birth was because the child decided it didn’t want to be come into this life. She, the mother, was unconscious because she had to go to the soul who was to be her new child to explain that it would be fine in its new life and it would be well looked after.

It seemed to me that the picture reflected the event of her child’s birth. When I told her the title of the picture, Soul’s Journey Begins, she thought about it a bit and said ‘That’s, fine, it all makes sense now’.

We never really know the effect a picture has on a person. If you look close enough, every picture can tell you a story.

Painting a Mini Canvas

News

I called in to the Expose Yourself gallery in Dun Laoghiare yesterday, Sunday, and took up their offer of painting a miniature picture. You get a mini canvas for a minimal fee and then use the paints provided to paint whatever you like. I did a picture titled Island Sanctuary as a follow on from River Sanctuary. In fact the island is part of the River Sanctuary picture. It was great to have this facility and another great feature is that you can have it hung in the gallery for sale.

There is no excuse for anyone with any creative tendency not to paint and be able to boast that they had one of their works hanging in one of the most creative galleries in Dublin. The event is over now but watch the Irish Craft Update blog for updates as they may run it again.

Inspirational Quote

“The greatest thing we can possibly gain from this life is the ability to love, and to love greatly. The Holy Spirit, the ECK, brings us whatever we need and, especially, those who need us and whom we need to fulfil our goal of reaching the richness of love.

“Your children have come to you because of your great capacity to give love. And as you give love, it increases in you.”

Harold Klemp, A Modern Prophet Answers Your Key Questions About Life.

Bubbles

The picture above is a first rough of an image which came to me as I discussed with a friend the fact that we are like bubbles in life. We go through life aware just of our own world and those in our immediate surroundings. As we shed our attachments we rise a bit higher. We eventually get to the point where we have no need for the protective bubble and we burst free of all the constraints of our lower world and float into the worlds of spirit.

Pride and punctures

-Thought for the week

Have you ever noticed that if you are going along proud of yourself and looking on the world with distain you end up falling flat on your face?

I cycle to work 2 or 3 days a week. Many times I’d fly past slower cyclists with pride and gusto as if to say “I’m faster than you, get out of my way.” On a number of occasions I’d get a puncture and it wouldn’t be long before the person I’d passed would glide by, as I repaired my bike. After about a year of this carry on I eventually put my pride and my punctures together and discovered that they were related.

It’s interesting the way life is trying to teach us things as we go through the process of living. It will place lessons in our way so that we have to go through them. How long does it take for us to really learn the true reason why things happen in our lives?

Watch out for the repeating problems in life, there is a lesson we’re missing if it keeps coming back to us. I hope you learn your lessons faster than me.

*Ed P

Inspirational Quote

“We must remind ourselves as often as possible that our true life is not this external, material life that appears before our eyes here on Earth, but that it is the inner life of our spirit for which the visible life serves only as a scaffolding – a necessary aid to our spiritual growth… We must remind ourselves and one another that the scaffolding has no meaning or importance, except to make possible the erection of the building itself.”
Leo Tolstoy

Let your diamond sparkle

-Thought for the week
A thought struck me during the week. We are here in this tough, hard life because we are like diamonds in the rough. There is a pure clear loving core within the hard rocky exterior we project as our personality. We need to go through a lot of grinding to get all the rock and grit off us. Once we’ve removed the crust of attachments, opinions and bad thinking we then need cutting. The cutting goes deep into our emotions to reveal a brighter part which would have remained hidden otherwise. You might have thought that was the end of it but there is always something more. We need polishing to get rid of the jagged edges and make us truly sparkle.

So during the week when life begins to grind you. Relax a bit. You need to get through it and learn from it. The lessons we learn help chip away the rock and dirt to reveal more patience, compassion and love. With a little more light to our lives, those around us will sometimes see a sparkle.

Picture
The picture above is the almost finished version of River Sanctuary. It’ll take me about another week to clean it up and finish the detailing but at this size on the web you’re really not going to see much of a difference.

Irish Craft Association official launch

Pictured above is Karen Harper speaking at the launch of the Irish Craft Association.

News

The Irish Craft Association had their official opening last Thursday evening at the Expose Yourself gallery in Dun Laoghaire Shopping Centre. There was a big crowd there, I’d say at least 60 or more. I didn’t count them, I was too busy chatting to Paul O’Mahony, Mairead deBlaca, Partick Naughton, Tony Murray and lots of others. We retired to Lime, the pub on the ground floor of the shopping centre for some food and drink. I headed home at about 9.30 but some people didn’t get out of the place till 2.30 am.

No need to win the Lotto
I got a very pleasant phone call during the week from a visitor to the Expose Yourself gallery. She said "I just had to call to say I love your art and if I win the Lotto I'll buy all of them!". I told her she doesn't need to win the Lotto to buy one of my pieces as the A4 size prints are now only €90.

I also pointed out that on my web site she can print her own images at A4 or letter size. All she has to do is submit her name and email to gain access to the pages. Keep in mind that the web images are low quality and nothing as good as the limited edition photographic prints in the gallery but hopefully they'll bring some pleasure to her.

Inspiration Quote

“One of the most important questions you can ever ask yourself is, ‘Do I want to be ‘right’ – or do I want to be happy?’ Many times, the two are mutually exclusive!”
Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff…