Carol Mackay Mertz

I am heading into my winter break. As an artist, when I make a break in my daily work structure, it helps to relax and repair those overused muscles and overused mind. I am heading into mindfulness and rest. The rest part is pure attitude, for the daily work of living continues, bringing in wood, preparing meals, paying attention when business crosses my desk, visiting family, etc…lots of etcetera.

The winter shift moves me from one operating system to another. The break in the intensity of the daily round brings with it a relaxed preparation of a meal, delight in having clean clothes, joy in cleaning up the studio space, etc. The pressure of deadlines, finishing the details on new paintings, inventories, tent designs for shows, traveling, updating everything is at an end for this season.

My painting above is called Zero Point Creation. It represents that moment when one is in perfect stillness, perfect balance, and in a true resting state. One can go out into the physical world to do one’s work from the place of stillness OR one can go into one’s inner universe where creation starts, the intuition speaks with more clarity , incites blossom, perspectives change, and intentions are born. Pretty busy place! Almost as busy as the outer world. However the inner world is of a much higher resonance than the physical world. Ergo the work one does in the inner world is a flow, in an effortless graceful vibration of joy. It is a sequence of ideas and wisdom which energizes the soul.

But to do our job in the world, one must be in balance, in zero point for some measure of the day, so that one can bring the inner vision to the outer world, where it wants to be seen and felt. An artist must be adept at traveling from the right brain to the left brain and to be functional in both.

The harvest has been gathered, the introspective time of winter is upon us now. The growing season has completed its round. It is the time that humans begin to look forward, and into their inner knowing for what is next. It is a time when released of the arduous work of summer and harvest, that we go into the dreaming time, a necessary movement which translates to the continuation of life.

We give thanks. We show appreciation. We feel deeply blessed. Being human is a busy experience, no wonder we need our rest and renewal and our stillness most of all.

Below is some of the past season’s harvest.

Peace be with you.

Upper left is HEART FIELD, middle is VESSEL OF UNITY ,upper right is GENESIS.

Lower left is SOURCE RAIN, lower right is HAUMEA