This portrait could have been titled “The Warrior.” Warriors come in many forms. Some fight external battles. For those brave enough, their war is internal for a time until it reaches the surface. In this case, I get the sense that when it does, it will not be stopped, and the fruits of her labor will carry so much complexity and richness.
Sarah is a seer. Her vision has been refined by a life that has taken her through the depths, occasionally yielding to the surface for air and light before being submerged again.
Witnessing life’s registers so deeply has given her the capacity to hold all perspectives at once in a state of non-judgment and compassion that few can sustain. She rises loyally on behalf of others with genuine care and draws from her incredible reservoir of creative energy to do so. Those of us who are lucky enough to be among her friends know the breadth of her generosity and empathic intelligence.
This capacity to hold all and endure for others also requires active compassion and return to the self to sustain it, lest one remain forever in the act of holding another’s vision, a shape that is unfamiliar. Rooting into one’s own experience connects us with the energy and direction to grow as self and not as other.
I saw a great power within her and a sense of returning to this power as an active force after a long period of observation. It rose like a song that hadn’t been sung for many years and yet all the words were known. This song was from the distant reaches of consciousness, carrying the purest resonance of “I AM,” allowing this knowing to exert itself and to flow, to create and to destroy as appropriate.
The words “I remember, I remember, I remember…” repeated intuitively as I was working.
It felt as if I were witnessing a redirection to the aligned state of the soul. The expression of vision, not displaced from the self, but emanating from the depths of the central force…fortified and nourished by the dimensional wisdom of the heart.
Sarah is both a gift and a giver…and, in time, will speak her gifted vision into the world.
Suspension, Convergence, Unity (2021)
Suspension
When aspects of the self are in a state of separation, full embodiment of one’s experience remains elusive, and our inner evolution slows to a state of suspension. If these planes are out of alignment, a continual loss of energy occurs.
In this portrait, two planes of consciousness appeared misaligned. One contained the vital force, the other the energy of the heart. The angle of the forms caused the energy to flow over the edges of each plane until its light faded into the surrounding void. These planes curved slightly inward upon themselves. There was a sense of allowing and loss alongside an impulse toward retraction…and impending redirection.
The source of this energy was POWERFUL.
The planes were connected by an illuminated line that felt like a soul line, reaching vertically between the two. It appeared as a golden thread of conscious information animating these forms.
There are times when a protective instinct splits our experience, when the heart resides in one dimension and the vital force in another. But they are not meant to be separate. The soul is always replenishing these aspects, its resources filling the same emptying experiences for a time. Yet, it also seeks unification and these energies may be redirected at its discretion.
The soul line is the line one must follow. It may be taxed but it is never fully diminished and will always provide the power and direction to move.
Convergence
This energy was ready to move! After witnessing the suspended state, I saw a very strong merger between the planes. The soul line pierced the vital energy with the energy of the heart. It happened quickly and with force, bearing the full experiential spectrum of destruction and creation.
It felt as though the essential energy of the soul line catalyzed the integration of these aspects within the self.
With any kind of tectonic shift, there is a period of active vulnerability, uncertainty, and loss of shape that disturbs the entire field. It can seem very disorienting. There is also a considerable amount of energy expended during the creation of a new form. Yet, this movement toward integration carried a sense of conviction, inevitability, and restoration.
Unity
The final form in this sequence was one of unification. After the intensity of the destruction/creation cycle, the remaining energies coalesced into a cohesive, spherical whole. The energies of the heart and vital force assumed the full volume of their potential, where one energy nourished and sustained the other without loss.
The form was vibrant and alive. Its surface enacted a kind of dynamic liquid dance.
When we fully inhabit our energy, merging the parts of us that call for unification, we begin to take up space as a self-contained and generative force. We are able to give while remaining boundaried.
This integrated state allows for our inner regeneration. And from this space, we experience the true magnitude of our light, where the vital force is inflected with and guided by the resonance of the heart.
Description of Process:
Through my work, I have come to know creative energy as an intelligent energy that wants to help us heal. All we have to do is open to it. It is in this spirit that I approach my energy portrait series, which are the core of my creative practice.
My work merges portraiture with energy healing and depicts a subject both in physical and energetic forms. When I sit with someone, I ask them to tell me their life story. During the sitting and throughout the creative process, I will intuitively see forms that reflect the sitter in some way. Some are geometries, some are symbolic, and others are purely energetic in their composition. I draw these forms and capture in words what is seen, heard, and felt in this space.
Each series illuminates the sitter’s multidimensionality and creates a compassionate opening to receive the insights that creative consciousness has to offer them. I believe this kind of creative witnessing is greatly needed in the world today and offer my work in service of this, both on individual and collective levels.