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New Wine available here.
Just as grapes are crushed in the process of creating wine, we are also crushed during times of sorrow and affliction. Like sweet, new wine, we are able to transform into more wise, understanding, and compassionate people as a result of living through these moments. This piece of art is an abstract expression of that process.
Entangled By Words available here.
Words can break down and words can lift up,
Intent will empower them and align their result;
Care is required because words contain power,
To fuel hope or dismay, acceptance or rancor.
-Diamante Lavendar
Today I’m very excited to introduce an amazing artist named Joe Gilronan! I came across his art while working on my FAA site. I absolutely love his work and am very happy to be able to pass it along to you! Joe wrote the blog post below. So, sit back and enjoy!
Halloween Express, available here.
Art and creating have always been a part of my life, my father before me had a successful career as a British landscape artist, so it seemed only natural to follow in his footsteps. As well as my father's influence, my love of all things magical has led me to where I am today.
Growing up I found inspiration all over the place: TV, film, and most of all books and one book, in particular, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien. For many years I painted mainly Tolkien-inspired work and still receive requests for commissioned pieces to this day. The world Tolkien created is full of wonders, and at the same time, very real. This is what really inspires my work and fires my imagination—finding the magic in the natural landscape.
I have been very lucky in that I have always lived in close range of amazing scenery—the Snowdonia National Park, the Cheshire plains, and now the Andalusia mountains of Spain. Whenever possible, I go for walks and take photographs and do lots of sketches. So there are lots of trees, mountains, castles, rivers, and landmarks that I have sketched and photographed that end up in my finished works.
A typical day for me starts at 7:00 am when I grab a quick breakfast, check e-mails, and start creating around 8:00 am. I will work all morning until around 3.30 and then take a break to go out for an afternoon run, I find the time out an essential part of the creative process, and where I mull over the direction the work will take.
I work mainly in oil and acrylic but have recently started to dabble in mixed media, combining both traditional and digital mediums, it's a steep learning curve but one that I am enjoying immensely and is probably the direction I see myself gravitating towards.
However, whichever path I eventually decide upon, one thing will remain constant, and that is the challenge of creating a sense of wonder.
Concerning Hobbits by Joe Gilronan.
If you love what you see, as I’m sure you do, you can find Joe’s website here. What an inspiring and magical collection to get lost in! Thank you, Joe, for being a guest on my blog!
Shooting Stars by Joe Gilronan available here.
Fairy Nook available here.
Recently while I had my Purple Passion art contest going, I met an artist whose work I loved. It really caught my eye because of the bright colors and wonderful composition that he uses. So I contacted him and asked if he would like to be on my blog. I was very happy when he agreed! His name is Nick Gustafson and his work is amazing! He wrote a little about himself below:
Ever since I was little, I have always loved animals and creating artwork. I would spend hour after hour watching nature shows and drawing and coloring pictures of animals. I made up my own comics featuring frogs and other animals and illustrated my own nature books just for the joy of it. I would also spend hours and hours doing black and white ink drawings of animals using hundreds and hundreds of dots to create them. One day I visited an art gallery and I became fascinated with Canadian wildlife artist Robert Bateman. I loved his style of beautiful, realistic artwork, and how he had the animals hidden in his paintings, much like they would be in nature. I modeled my artwork after him, creating pieces with nature and wildlife themes. I used muted monochromatic earth tones with dark shadows in which the animals hid and blended into their surroundings. Now my work is about as different from that as can be.
Colorful Frogs and Mushrooms by Nick Gustafson
After moving to a small town in Oregon, where they just happen to have an annual chalk art festival, I was inspired by all the colors of chalk to evolve my style into something more colorful and bright. Now I use my imagination to create colorful, whimsical images of rainbow trees, colorful cats, and happy frogs. Acrylics are a perfect medium to use because the colors are vibrant, and they dry fast, so you can add a lot of layers, which I like to do. I also now use a digital drawing tablet and create digital art with many layers and colors. Sometimes I paint the image first and then recreate it digitally and other times I create it digitally first and then recreate it with acrylics on canvas. One thing I realized recently is that I’m on the autism spectrum, and that is why I tend to do a lot of repetition in my artwork: a lot of cats in a row, or frogs, and a lot of the same themes repeated throughout my work. However, I never tire of it! I can create art all day, every day, and never get bored! I get lost in my own world creating art and that is what makes me happy.
Swing Amongst The Stars by Nick Gustafson
I spent time printing t-shirts, framing artwork, creating stickers and temporary tattoos, designing fabric patterns, and other things, but just creating artwork for myself is really the greatest joy to me. If I am lucky enough to show my artwork in different businesses or galleries from time to time, it is a great honor. I am always grateful for those who have given me that opportunity.
I like to use my artwork to help causes that are important to me , donating time and artwork to create murals for elementary schools, Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue, Triple L Horse Rescue, Forever Loved Pets, and Save The Frogs! If someone tells me that my artwork made them smile, or brightened their day in some way, then I have accomplished my goal!
If you would like to view Nick’s gallery, you can find it here: https://nick-gustafson.pixels.com/
Many thanks to you, Nick, for sharing your beautiful work!
Waiting is hard to do. It requires a great deal of faith and patience. In our humanity, we want things to work out in a certain time frame, particularly if we’ve been waiting for something for a long time. Learning to wait patiently is a virtue. And learning to wait in faith without seeing an answer for a long time is also a virtue.
Throughout my life, I’ve wondered why certain things have happened. It has required great faith and dedication to my spiritual walk to be able to come to terms with a lot of those things. Hardship has brought me to my knees and has brought anger and pain to the surface of my life. It has seemed to me that the more difficult the circumstance that I’ve encountered, the more it has taught me, albeit unwillingly much of the time. But I have learned to believe and come to know that whatever is divinely ordered will someday be made right, and will bring me into a deeper understanding of God and the purpose he has for me. It’s been extremely difficult, sometimes more than what I thought I could bear.
The last few years have been indescribable for all of us. There has been so much pain and anguish that it is almost unbelievable. Yet it is happening around us every day. Questions of why will haunt us. Images we see bring pain to us. How do we survive these types of things? By believing that someday we will understand, and by knowing that someday we will find peace on the other side of these problems. It is of little comfort when we try to reason things out ourselves. Trusting in a larger perspective and understanding will open us up to higher truth and meaning. Knowing that “this too shall pass” gives us the hope that one day we will recover and be able to move on.
If you are suffering, please find refuge in the fact that you are loved and cherished. Try not to take things that hurt you to your core in such a way that you will never be able to mend or recover. You have great meaning and value. Your life matters as do the lives of your family and friends. If we could only spread a spirit of kindness and compassion amongst ourselves, we could make this world a better and more palatable place to live and survive in. Pain begets more pain and is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Love and light are a choice, particularly in the face of destruction, anger, and demise.
When my children passed away, I didn’t think I could survive it. I struggled for years in grief, anger, and desperation. I finally came to the conclusion that the only way I could live was to make the decision to be of help to others and to bring good from the horribly bad things that had nearly destroyed me. We need to find a way to continue on, to persevere, and not give up. Procreating purpose and good is a wonderful way to achieve that goal.
I sincerely hope that I can help you decide to continue living within the parameters of hope and meaning. It’s extremely difficult at times but worth it when you come to the other side of your pain. Being an overcomer is a beautiful thing, particularly when you are able to help others be and do the same!
The art piece that I’m sharing below is an illustration of that process. I hope it inspires you and encourages you! It is true that we need to be the change we want to see in the world. Start the chain of hope today by being a light in the darkness!
Becoming by Diamante Lavendar, available here.
After a year of silence, I have decided to begin posting blogs again. I had a while to think about life, my plans, and what I hoped to do going forward. I’ve been stuck, not sure if I wanted to continue writing. Things that happened in the last year made me unable to write much of anything besides very short 4-8 stanza poetry pieces. I didn’t know how to proceed.
I’ve been feeling the nudge of the Holy Spirit lately and I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to post on my blog to lift others up and help them continue on to what they are destined to do. Over the years, I’ve made my own plans and tried to prosper what I was doing within my own strength and I succeeded somewhat, but nothing ever goes as it should if we rely more on ourselves than on God. So I’ve learned to yield to Him, following the desires and dreams He puts inside me but relying on Him to let them go where they need to go and do what they need to do.
I’ve been meditating on hope a lot lately. Hope is essential in following your destined path. And many times hope is very difficult to find, especially when the world gets overwhelming around you. The events of the last couple of years have really been rough on so many of us. This world has changed drastically in a very short amount of time. And hope is the rudder that will guide us through if we don’t lose it. Hope, to me, is a stabilizing factor and a rampart of strength. It is something we need to seek, something we find when we trust in God. When everything is shaky, run for the fortress found in Heavenly peace and discernment. That is where we’ll find safety and strength.
Faith is wrapped up in hope. Faith is defined as, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1. That was always a tough one for me because I was someone who had to see things in order to believe. I’ve really had to change my attitude and outlook about that! I believe that’s why we are given an imagination. And we are free to use it however we choose. When we think about our dreams, we are fueling our faith to step out and make them happen! I believe that everyone has a dream in their heart and I think that this world is the place where we need to discover it and walk it out. Sometimes it can take a while, and when it does it’s easy to lose faith and hope. I am reminded of the saying that anything worthwhile in life takes time. And that certainly does seem to be the case. We are tested on our ability to persevere.
If you find yourself going through a rough patch, cling to the promise that there is good planned for you and that you have a unique dream to achieve-one that nobody else can accomplish quite the same way you can. And if you’ve failed before, take heart. Failure is a learning curve for us all. How would we know what works if we hadn’t tried numerous things that didn’t? You’ll find your way. Have hope, have faith, and persevere! You’ll soon discover the silver linings of every failure you’ve been through which will lead you to your path of destined light!
My art piece titled Faith.
Faith is a rainbow of colors wrapped in trails of glittering light!
This year has certainly been something out of the ordinary-something nobody could have predicted. I think it can suffice to say that this year has been ‘otherwordly’. Before the pandemic hit, I created a piece of art that fit very well with the onslaught of 2020.
Growing Through Adversity, available here.
The description of this work was written as follows: Hardship in life is inevitable. We will all experience it from one degree to another. Hardship redefines us and makes us grow. Much of it we have no control over. But it can make us stronger and wealthy with wisdom if we choose to have the right perspective about it.
Now that I look back at this work, I find it almost haunting that I uploaded it on my art site on April 24, 2020, with the pandemic hitting only weeks afterward. It is true that hardship really causes us to grow. I find it almost amazing how much. It seems that the deeper the pain and the valley that is forged within, the deeper the insight and understanding we gain. A difficult part of being human.
Then on May 3, before the pandemic became critical, I uploaded a piece as a response to the beginning of the craziness that was befalling us. The work was titled A New World Order. And how strange it has been to see the civil unrest and disunity that this pandemic has caused or brought out among people. I truly believe that unity is the answer to fighting this pandemic and to rising up as accomplished, caring citizens of this country.
A New World Order available here.
The description of this work is written as:
Current events have changed our world;
Hardship and heartache have brought much concern.
A world divided against itself will surely fall,
Unity is the answer to destiny's call.
How true that became after the pandemic had caused economic issues and social unrest. I pray for a better future- a world of unity, cooperation, and understanding rather than division and anger as we have seen run much too prevalent in current times. Everything that has happened has reminded me of Martin Luther King Jr’s statement: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." His words still ring true to this day! I pray we can rise up and adopt that stance in our current societal condition!
Here is my newest art piece which I titled Beautiful Night! It is a celebration of color and beauty!
Beautiful Night available here.
A beautiful evening and beautiful sights,
With a beautiful woman is a beautiful night!
Not only is natural light important for our bodies, but so is spiritual light-the inspiration we receive from spiritual practice.
In our crazy world with its ups and downs, we need a calming influence. A reminder that we can find refuge amidst the chaos and calamity of the societies in which we live. Inspiration means different things to different people. But the basis is the same for everyone. And that basis is peace, hope and meaning within our day to day timelines. No matter where we come from, those are the things we crave. And people receive that guidance or uplifting presence from their religion, beliefs and activities.
For me, a Christian perspective has helped me navigate through a lot of pain and turmoil. And stemming from that perspective is my daily act of writing and artistry. When I am overwhelmed or stressed out, I sit down at my computer and begin to create. I also do it when I’m relaxed. But I find that artistry lends a presence of Spirit and hope to my day.
Whether it’s cooking, exercising, meeting new people or taking a trip to someplace new, everyone has an outlet in which they find hope and meaning. And recently I’ve been focusing even more on spiritual art and poetry. I’m trying new things, expanding my horizons.
The piece you see below is entitled Let Your Light Shine. It’s a mixed media work in which I share my belief that everyone has something important to offer-a destiny to fulfill. I hope that this work will persuade you to shine your light. The world is in need of love and encouragement. When you decide to let your light shine, I know you’ll be so glad that you did!
Let Your Light Shine available here.
Here is another new work I created. I titled it Subconscious Impressions.
I am very interested in the role that our subconscious plays in our lives. I believe it has a huge influence on who we believe we are and what we do. I also very much believe that if we change our deep-seated understanding and concepts regarding what we’ve been through in life and begin to believe more positive, proactive, and kinder things about ourselves that we will change who we truly are. I do believe that Spirit is a huge influence in this process. It has been an outstanding role and influence in my life, turning negativity into positivity and bringing beauty from the ashes of my past.
Subconscious Impressions can be found here.
Description:
Subconscious impressions affect our decisions,
They weigh in on our consciousness and influence our opinions;
To increase our awareness is a part of our cause,
If we wish to find freedom and decrease our flaws!
Stay blessed and have a joyous day!
This art work was directly inspired by my Christian beliefs. I wanted to convey the beauty of transfiguration, when our spirit joins our loved ones waiting for us in heaven. This is a very poignant piece for me since several of my children are waiting for me to join them there. I can imagine the celebration that must take place when we are united together again!
Transfiguration is available here.
Here is a poetic description:
The beauty of transfiguration,
Is a blessed, hopeful inspiration;
Fear has no depth with which to claim us,
For God's faithful promise guides and saves us!
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and I wish you a very Happy New Year!
I believe we all have guardian angels. I believe that they’re with us each moment of every day and night. The thought of angelic beings watching over me brings me peace. I see angels as messengers created by and working for God.
This is an artwork that I came up with earlier this month. I was thinking about our planet and all the life teeming on its’ surface and in its’ atmosphere. It is mind boggling to meditate on how many species live with us on our beautiful planet. As I considered the numerous plants and animals that share this space with us, I began to wonder if earth is watched over by angelic beings. I can only imagine that our Creator would have made special angels to take care of the planet and instruct us about ways to keep our earth safe and healthy for upcoming generations.
This is the result of my ponderings. It is entitled The Guardians and is available here.
The Guardians by Diamante Lavendar
We are very fortunate for the beauty of the the natural world around us. Even the stars that light up the night are astounding. I hope that during the hustle and bustle of the holidays, you are able to take a moment to relax and appreciate the simple things in life. Happy Holidays!
Who doesn’t love to have their wishes come true? Here is an artwork about the wonder and fun of fulfilled dreams and wishes!
Life is a game, or so it seems,
We discover our passions and chase after our dreams;
Some days can be hard but we find our way through,
And hope for the moments when our wishes come true!
Wishes are the stuff of tomorrow and the hope of new promises and outcomes. Wishes keep us going. They motivate us to try harder. What would we do without wishes and hopes? Life would be dull and very melancholy. If you have big dreams, never give up trying to accomplish them. Shoot for the stars and you just may find yourself living heaven on earth!
When Wishes Come True is available here.
In the last couple of months, I’ve been blessed with a couple of new art awards. The winning pieces and awards they’ve received are listed below:
Ministering Spirits available here.
This work is a mixed media piece entitled Ministering Spirits. It involves components of photography, fractal art and digital art. It won a tie for 5th place in Manipulated Photography (Category 45) in The American Art Awards. Artists from 63 countries around the world applied to these awards, so it is a huge honor to have won! Thanks so much to The American Art Awards and Thom Bierdz! I’m very grateful!
Hurt is available here.
My piece entitled Hurt also won a 4th place tie in Non-Representational Digital Art (Category 48) in The American Art Awards. This work is Digital Art which I created in 2015. A wonderful honor indeed!
I also was very happy that my work entitled Portrait Of Time was juried into an art exhibit this month, November 2019 at 3 Square Art’s exhibit, 100 Square Inches Of Art! Portrait Of Time is shown below:
Portrait Of Time available here.
My work entitled Electric Flowers was awarded 3rd place in Contemporary Art Gallery Online’s 2019 All Color Art Competition and Exhibit. Electric Flowers is shown below:
Electric Flowers is available here.
And another of my work titled The Prophecy was awarded 2nd place in the 2019 Portrait/Figurative Competition (Photography/Digital) hosted by Contemporary Art Gallery Online! You can view The Prophecy below:
The Prophecy is available here.
If you’d like to view any other pieces of my work, you can find it at https://diamante-lavendar.pixels.com/.
Thanks for taking a moment to check out my post! It’s always a pleasure to have new visitors! Take care and be blessed!
I recently had a contest in my Emotive Art group titled Art That Illustrates Appreciation. It was up to the artist to submit a piece that was voted on by Fine Art America members. Michael Durst won first place with his work, I Love You Darling!
I love the colors used in this piece and the feeling of love and appreciation. It really does capture the essence of what I was looking for in the contest.
I asked Michael to send me a biography. He is a very interesting artist indeed! Please find it below:
According to the Ico Gallery in New York’s Chelsea district, “Dr. Michael Durst is one of the most exciting South African artists to have exhibited in New York." Originally from the U.S. he has been living and painting in Cape Town for over 20 years. As a psychologist, Dr. Dust’s paintings create not only beauty for the beholder, but also a state of relaxation and healing. His work combines impressionism with fractal art, evoking an emotional link to the heart-thus the name he likes to call his art: Heartscapes.
Star Light Star Bright available here.
His exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Cape Town, the Netherlands and India have received rave reviews and gained Dr. Durst international recognition.
He loves to create art in two very different mediums: Impressionism and Fractal Art. His impressionistic work of the beauty of Cape Town--especially the Waterfront, Hout Bay, Table Mountain, ocean views, spring flowers, and the vineyards-- are breath-taking.
Durst's Fractal Art is based on mathematical formulas that produce order out of a world of chaos. What is created when chaos shifts to order, are beautiful “fractals” that have the ability to be explored as separate visual universes. Durst uses texture, pattern and colour to reveal the infinite visual depth and immense detail, inviting the viewer to plunge into an imaginary world of striking beauty. It seems that behind each curve and ripple lies a surprise, just waiting to be discovered.
In the last year, Dr. Durst has combined the Fractal art with painted images to create mixed-media "visions" of striking beauty. These works break down our sense of identity with intellect and form, and reconnect us to the sacred whole to which we all belong. He typically uses many different fractal sets and images, changing the light source, colour and perspective and then layers them into complex composite designs.
Two Hearts, One Soul available here.
Dr Durst is one of the best known artists on Fine Art America, having over 475,000 hits on his site and winning countless “First Place” awards in online exhibitions, competing with hundreds and in some cases, thousands of artists from all over the world. He has been named one of the "Impressionists of the 21st Century" and was voted First Runner Up in the ARTIST OF THE YEAR FOR 2018 by his fellow professional artists and international gallery owners.
He opened the DR DURST GALLERY OF ART AND ANTIQUES at 58 Loop Street, on the corner of Loop Street and Castle Street in Cape Town. The Gallery is located on the Second Floor on the Shark and Safari Tours on the corner of Loop Street and Castle Street.
If you would like to connect with Dr. Durst, you can find his website here. He can also be found on Facebook here.
Eternal Optimism available here.
I am currently featuring a beautiful piece of art in my art group, Emotive Art. The piece is entitled Eternal Optimism and it was created by Laurie Cairone. Her art is spiritual in nature and flows with a sense of peace and light. So I was immediately drawn to her creativity! I am always excited to introduce new artists and authors and Laurie Cairone is no exception! I asked her to write up a post about her creative process and background which you will find below:
I have created art intuitively for more than 40 years. Why Do I create art? Because creating soothes my soul and is a form of meditation for me. I enjoy working with Pastels, Watercolor, Acrylic, and Charcoal mediums. I also enjoy now learning and working with these mediums digitally in Procreate on my Ipad.
My interests in the Universe,The Healing Arts,The Metaphysical World, and the Mind, Body, Soul Connection influence and inspire my art. I have also practiced as a Registered Nurse for over 30 years and hold a Second Degree Reiki Certification. Over half of my nursing career was spent in the specialty area of psychiatry, so I am very drawn to the introspective process. I believe that keeping our minds healthy with positive thoughts is a main ingredient to good health.
I have always found Art to be a therapeutic, relaxing, creative process that soothes my soul. Creativity is a form of meditation for me that allows a way of letting go of the dust that builds up over time. Art can be a healthy form of distraction for us. Creativity can open the door to self-reflection that can aid in helping us gain clarity and peace over every day life. Drawing can be a sacred process of creating images from the heart.
The creative process for me is often from a shape and a color. I seldom have a vision or sketch out what will evolve. I love to see what evolves and once I feel a piece is finished is when I name it. Here is where the introspective work arrives. I analyze my creation and look to the symbolism behind each color and shape and that is when the title hits me. Sometimes the title provokes much contemplation about a subject, so I will then write about the piece in my description. Sometimes the description to a piece is left for me to do a little more introspection before I can write about it.
I have enjoyed the creative process since childhood and when I look back over certain times in my life, my work often reflects the joys and sorrows that we all go through at times. I will say that creating has helped me during some of the most difficult times of my life. I experienced a stillbirth full term many years ago and creating art kept me in one piece during that time.
A percentage of all my sales are donated to Magnolia Pediatrics to help Dr. Linda Del Vecchio-Gilbert provide palliative care to children with complex, chronic conditions. You can learn more here.
You can find Laurie and her amazing art here. Thank you, Laurie, for being a guest on my blog!
In my two most recent books, I write about my kids that have passed into Heaven. I tell stories about them and speak of what their lives meant to me. My youngest daughter who passed two years ago loved fairy tales and spiritual stories. When she was young, we spent a lot of time swimming in the summer. One of our favorite activities was swimming in the rain. There was something magical about being in the warm water while the cool rain dropped around us and created a mist. It was like being in another world. It was beautiful. Those memories are bittersweet now.
We used to talk a lot about folklore and fairytales. My daughter was convinced that she had been a mermaid in a previous life. She told me how she remembered sliding down some type of embankment as a mermaid child. She was always very accurate in telling the same story: she hit her head and fell into the water, drowning before her mother could get to her. It was magical listening to my daughter talk about the things of other realms. It made me believe more in other universes and possibilities.
This piece of graphic art is one I created in remembrance of my precious child. How she loved to dream and imagine! This is a piece I call The Gathering Place. It is a place of serenity and rest where mermaids come to relax and reminisce. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it!
The Gathering Place available here.
I find it intriguing that at the age of twelve I attended a writing class at a local university. In that class I wrote a story about a mermaid who fell in love with a human. Their story was one of sorrow because they weren’t able to marry and be together. Maybe there was a reason for that story. Some day I may receive a confirmation about that! In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the memories of my daughter and think of her when I look at this piece of art. Perhaps she’s waiting for me in a realm somewhat like this. You never know. Many times truth is stranger than fiction!
When my daughter passed a few years ago, I was beside myself with grief. I felt like the bottom of my life had dropped out and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to believe and I began to question everything that I thought I knew up to that point. It is amazing what the effects of grief can do to you, not only physically but also mentally and spiritually.
I had been a Christian for almost twenty years before my daughter passed. I talked about spirituality every day with my kids. Spirituality was the backbone of my life. But when my daughter left me, I not only felt betrayed but I was so devastated that I begged for answers to questions that only God could provide. I went on a spiritual quest. I even left my home for months in search of answers. And I received many-positive and negative.
While I was on my quest I wrote my book entitled Finding Hope In The Darkness Of Grief. I studied spiritual concepts and immersed myself in spiritual literature and theories. I sought understanding and wisdom. I begged for enlightenment. And I received a lot. But the more that I learned the more questions were raised. God is an amazing, powerful, loving entity that holds so many facets of information and wisdom that it is mind boggling. So I came to a point where I decided that having the faith of a child is a very valuable trait.
Yes it is important to continue learning and seeking. But it is also important to believe without doubt. To know that spirit is powerful, all encompassing and infinite. To understand that human capacity can never fully comprehend all that God is. I came to the conclusion that I could seek for all eternity and still have questions. That is a beautiful thing when you have the faith of a child.
I am one of those people who wants to learn and understand as much as I can. I want to seek and find. I want to grow in spiritual stature. The beauty of a belief system like that is the fact that I can learn forever and never grow tired of finding new concepts to embrace, new facets of understanding to harvest in my life. The concepts of reaping and sowing, speaking and receiving, blessing and being blessed are just beginnings to amazing information that is yet for me to discover.
I was stretched to capacity. I didn’t feel like I could be stretched any farther. But then….spirit stretched me almost to a point I couldn’t handle. It never ceases to amaze me how our limits are tested when we beg to know more.
I have a new book coming out soon. I wrote it for my daughter after she passed. It is a dedication to her life and her love; the legacy she left behind. However, God in His great mercy, has allowed me to continue a oneness with her from beyond heaven’s veil. She and I are tied up in spiritual love and understanding. It has been hard but beautiful at the same time. Some of the concepts I write about in my new book have been alluded to in Finding Hope In The Darkness Of Grief. It has been an interesting journey. One that I will continue until I am able to hug my daughter again in heaven-and through eternity. Spirit holds us together in love and light so that darkness will not prevail.
If you have lost a child or close loved one, it is my hope that the books I write will give you peace. I believe it is true that grief is love with nowhere to go. Fortunately, when we are held together in spirit’s compassionate love and light, our love does have somewhere to go. It goes to our creator and our loved ones that wait for us. I believe that is a key for handling loss well. Continue to feel your love for those who have graduated and moved on. Because in spiritual love and light, our care and concern are received. Our sorrow is understood. We need not fear. Love is a living energy that not only transforms sorrow but also pain. Our love is received and translated to those who wait in heaven for us to join them. They are only a heartbeat away. Love is the transmitter that holds us close, that keeps our departed ones near and dear!
I came across Julie Turner’s work while I was working on my art site. I immediately fell in love with her wisteria prints and contacted her about a feature on my blog. She happily obliged! Below you will find her biography:
Julie received her BFA from James Madison University (Harrisonburg, VA). She spent her career working in the visual arts for various industries producing commercial art, technical graphics and multimedia. Concurrently she created fine art, representing many disciplines. Her most recent works are primarily acrylic on canvas paintings and digital art for print and home decor. Her style is a unique blend of Abstract Expressionism and Expressionism. Turner has exhibited in the USA: San Diego, CA; Las Vegas, NV; New York, NY; Alexandria, VA; and Bologna, Italy. Her artwork has been published worldwide and has been sold to many private collectors.
Although she’s skilled in many art disciplines: drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, stained glass, jewelry, video, multimedia and digital imagery, she has a strong drive and passion for painting. She enjoys experimenting with difficult paint challenges and likes working with bold paint colors and varying degrees of paint thickness and layering. She’s inspired by love, family, friends, nature, music, dreams, astronomy and spiritual/metaphysical subject matter.
After I contacted Julie, I found that she and I share similar interests. Not only is she an artist but she has also written a children’s book. A kindred spirit indeed!
If you’d like to contact Julie, you can find her on her Website, Facebook, Fine Art America, and Handmade At Amazon. You can find Julie’s book here.
Dream 06 Julie Turner
Several weeks ago I found an artistically kindred spirit. Read more about her here!
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