Thanks, Wendy, I am afraid that my passion is too much in the visual side of art at the moment.

Thanks, Heather! Yes, the cardigan that I am wearing is one of my handknits. The pattern is “Overgrown” by Anna Johanna, a Finnish Knitwear designer, (https://annajohannadesigns.com/product/156/overgrown—pdf)
but my color palette is much wider and differently chosen.

Thank you, Lynne! Your projects sound fascinating! I don’t know if this is helpful, but I believe that there’s always some fight between reasoning and romanticizing/believing. Recognizing this division when we make creative decisions can be helpful, no matter what our approach to art is. For example, we can assume that we drew a shape from intuition or from an insight, but it can be that we feel we need to get the job done quickly and our reasoning offers a quick shape, a circle for example.

You seem very interested in the “competing” entities that “appear” when you are attempt a painting. I recall other entries in which you have shared them with us. Of course, you have the basis of your engineer training versus your art to bring together in a sort of synthesis. This is an engaging way to approach a piece of work! I, on the other hand, seem to work from only one perspective and that is from the mystical/romantic realm–as much as possible, of course.

I have been deeply involved with my late husband’s work which centers on mysticism (he was an expert on the subject) and I actually had a mystical experience when I was in my 20’s which has influenced my view of the world greatly. The artists I mostly love have a connection with something “otherworldly” that comes through nature or perhaps, some profound personal encounter with the unconscious, inner world. Either way, these works will be “coloured” with a spiritual element. (Because of this, I appreciate “magic realism”, a term I only discovered recently.) Of course there are other connections–music, poetry and literature are amazing inspirations. I’ve tried to introduce these into my art and recently I have done some “haiga” (illustrated haiku) and some abstract mandalas. I want to investigate and go further into “sacred” realms–“Everything as Divine”, as the great mystic Meister Eckhart said. At the moment, it seems as though I’ve only just begun and wish I had concentrated on these ideas earlier in my life! Mysticism is not a starting point for most people–you need to be open to it and then drawn in and it’s a slow process. (I just remembered that revisiting the “Floral Freedom” course is on my long list of to do’s.)

Thanks so much for introducing this valuable and absorbing topic. I would love more discussion along these lines. Hopefully, others will follow…