Unexpected Results. The Story behind the Paintings

It takes Love and Wisdom to Re-Create a Country.

On Tuesday, the 21^st of November 2017, the president of Zimbabwe for 37 years, 93-year-old RG Mugabe, resigned after a peaceful army coup. ‘They said’ it wasn’t a coup. We’ll never know the true story and I am not a political analyst. The previous Saturday, more than 200,000 people, all over the country, marched in jubilation in total recognition and gratitude toward an army that for once, they felt protected by.

The country was under a spell. Darkness and moral corruption. Unfairness and hatred. Games of shame and blame. Separation for personal gain and foolishness had reigned sovereign for too long.

One day, like in the best fairy tale, the hero with his army broke the spell and the ancient king, the vengeful queen and her corrupt cronies vanished into oblivion, or so we think. Most of all, people felt the joyous rays of sunshine once again. Only time will tell the truth and if the heroes were true heroes.

Zimbabwe has been numb and asleep for too long, mostly out of fear. Expressing your own voice could be used against you. One of the gifts brought by this coup-not-coup is that it has awakened the country to an apparent ‘freedom of speech’. Most people, for the first time, now feel safe to talk openly socially, be on social media or at parties without lowering their voice into a whisper.

I too, I wanted to express. As an ‘heARTist’ my medium is mostly images. This time I strongly felt the urge to create starting with all the smallest pieces this country has been broken into. Believe me an abundance of them!

For the last two months I felt creatively stagnant so I played safe by choosing three small blank canvases to get into the flow again. Being Creatively Fit is like to go to the gym, we need to exercise our muscles, and when we stop for a while and start over, our muscles resist and can hurt again.

The first piece was about setting an intent. I laid a ribbon made out of Retso, the cloth evoking the spirit of the hunter. I was invoking ancestral guidance. I started to paint…red, orange, fuchsia on the left and a very dark brown on the right. ‘Peace in a new Country’. These words etched themselves on the dark side of the canvas: the ancestral blessing, I asked for.

I then glued an abundance of small torn pieces of fabric on the two small square canvases (25x25cm) to create my base. Once glued I played with acrylic paintings to create a colourful layer on the background to bring harmony to the ‘mess’. I did that into two or three sittings. I had no idea whatsoever of what I would paint.

Another day, I approached the second painting with soft gazing. I saw the image of a Mother and Child peeping through, maybe a Black Madonna, I thought ‘here we are … entering the time of Christmas indeed!’ First a very bright moon light, I saw the mother out at night in the desert. In spite of being enlightened by the moon, the figure felt icy cold, I needed a warm light. A gold glow started to surround them. Warmth. Here she was in a safe space, maybe a cave, surely under a shelter; she could lovingly play with her baby now. Her inner glow is merging into the glow of Creation.

Art making is the space where I get my visions and guidance. The way I see life, gets revealed in an uncommon way. When I am ‘in the zone’, my moves are driven by intuition one step at the time and the creation process flows on its own accord, I am the bearer of this process, holding curiosity and at times awe in seeing it unfolding.

When I look at this piece I can’t stop feeling how the glow of Creation, life itself, is bearing pure unconditional love that reverberates into my space.

I followed the same procedure for the third piece. I posted a picture of the work in progress and I saw a man wanting to be painted (photo in the centre), the wise man who came to acknowledge the Divinity of Creation, Life itself! He’s observing, he’s holding space … his wisdom is enough.

Masculine and Feminine dancing together, the masculine holding the feminine, giving permission for her to flourish and expand and bring more Creation to Life. She brings Love and he brings Wisdom.

Love and Wisdom. They both need each other. Many times, in different proportions. Love without Wisdom can become stupidity, and Wisdom without Love can become a sterile mind exercise, creating only distance.

This is a new beginning for the country. Is she a black Madonna, is she a mother? Is he a Magi, a Wise Man? In the end it really doesn’t matter.

What matters is that only using Love and Wisdom (and of course plenty of skills) this country can flourish again. If you look at a country, it’s the product of its citizens in all their diversities, a macrocosm of ourselves; that means that the same message coming from the paintings, applies to all us. It’s time for renewal … at all levels!

These paintings invite you to let go of all that no longer serves you to create space for Love and Wisdom into your life. I can guarantee it’s not pretty sight to look at our shadows, but it’s so necessary to bring them back to light and discard them, in total acceptance and forgiveness. We are all on the same boat. If I can do it, then you can… will you join me?

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