It was October 2004 when I finally honored my inner calling to more fully use my creative talents and abilities that I have had since birth. With the encouragement and assistance of my dear friend and most talented artisan Shiloh McCloud, I entered into a visualization to help me reconnect with my deep inner calling and creative juices. After only 20 or so minutes in a guided visualization, I entered my unused art studio and began painting again … after a hiatus of more than seven years. Not only did I begin painting again, but I also began using a new medium consisting of more brilliant colors than I had used before. These paints were vibrant, alive, intense pigments beyond what I had ever imagined in the past … including metallic pigments … taking my creativity to a new dimension … literally!
In moments, my painting experience surpassed what I had only dreamed of for many years. For some time I had sensed that I would merge my fine art talents and creativity with my intuition and spiritual guidance. Self-doubt and the “daily grind” had kept me from painting for far too long. I’ve been quite intuitive my whole life, but, like many, I had too often hidden or dismissed my intuition and inner guidance. Though I have actively worked at developing my intuition and inner guidance for more than 20 years now, when in corporate America, or around my family or mainstream friends I kept quiet … in the closet … or, low key, about my true inner knowing and intuitive promptings. I have had many reservations about using my inner guidance publicly.
However, painting intuitively immediately opened me up to energies greater than my inhibitions and insecurities. I could not deny what was flooding forth through my paintbrush and my consciousness.
Within a few weeks of picking up a paintbrush, Mary (you know, Holy Mary … Mother of God Mary!), came to me in the middle of the night and prompted me to paint her. She presented herself to me through my sense of feeling and inner hearing. I could feel how she wanted me to paint her on the canvas … the colors, the pose, the messages steeped in unconditional love. She encouraged me to continue to open to the creativity and calling of not only her, but of other beings wanting me to paint their presence for the world to experience. There was no way to ignore the guidance. It was filled with love and messages of universal truth for all to experience.
Though unfinished, I displayed Mary at The New DreamWeaver. Within 24 hours of her hanging in the store, she auspiciously connected me to her buyer, Kerrie Weitzel … now a dear friend and avid promoter of my artwork. In deciding whether or not to sell her, I was told to release her to the world, share her presence and wisdom, and make room for more beautiful beings wishing to be painted.
As different sacred images and heavenly beings have flooded in, so have continual internal encouragement from my guides, angels, and the entities wishing to communicate to the world. The inner promptings grew louder and more intense. They were now telling me to paint “Soul Portraits.”
“Soul Portraits?” I knew exactly what they were telling me. In the mid-90s I was prompted to paint “Soul Portraits.” And I did for a while in 1997. Instead of the brilliant acrylic medium I am now using, I was then using watercolors. I was less confident, not wanting to portray myself as a psychic, or really any sort of intuitive—though I had taught others how to become more intuitive through classes for more than seven years at that point.
Now it was 2003, and there was no way my guides were going to let me off the hook. They were so excited that I was painting again. Their urgings became stronger for me to do what I now understand as my soul path, or soul contract. There was no way I could ignore the messages.