How Art & Healing are Intimately Connected
Title: Mandala Rose by Leslie Montana
Watercolor on cold press paper
Paper 22 x 30 inches / Image 16 x 17 inches
Key Notes: Where Spirit Becomes Matter, Live at the Intersection
Buy a print of this painting here.
When Spirit and Matter Are One
Flowers remind me of what's important to me. They reflect and ground some of the highest and most refined frequencies found on this planet. As I work with them they help me make what most people think of as magic, real. I feel more alive when I create. As I paint, the quiet center of my being is touched. I get centered there and can hold the space of what I call Mother Nature in the unique way that I do. After years of meditation and creation, my process allows for the frequencies I'm embodying to embed in the works of art I'm creating.
Some backstory & How I got here
As a child, I felt in awe when I learned about the concept of infinity. It was a breakthrough moment for my young mind to contemplate. Over the years, a natural sense of appreciation for the depth of life, the stuff no one was talking about, created the foundation of my spiritual identity. I understood that humans embody as expressions of infinity in this tangible and physical world. I knew spirit and matter were one, but I had no words to convey these thoughts back then. Creativity was my best expression of inner knowing. And, it still is.
In those tender young years, my mother seemed to understand and encouraged me. She used to say I walked to the beat of a different drum and I was allowed to just be myself to some degree. But after a while, the stories, cultural expectations, and norms regarding how I was supposed be do things and believe began to encroach. But when you're creative some forms of socialization don't fit no matter how hard you try.
When we're distracted and busy with urgencies, emergencies, and things that keep us identified with what is not us, we tend to forget our true origin. how could we remember? We feel disconnected and become limited by our stories. No one likes it, but we tend to cling to our crazy-making programming, sometimes until it's forced to leave. It has to go.
In working with flowers, especially roses, I learned to re-attune myself to deeper levels of love. And who can define what love is? No one. By trial and error, I found the connectedness I was looking for in Nature. Environments that fed fear started disappearing from my life. Everyday kind of miraculous.
When we humans create, it can show up in such wonderful ways. In these instances, frequency is given form in the material world. And that is what artists do. We midwife matter into reality in new ways. We rearrange it.
As appreciators and/or creators, it comes down to the same thing. Being touched by the numinous, that which cannot be captured and nailed down. Reality is taking on a very different quality in the times we live in. The ineffable qualities are among the most powerful in life. Think; Love. Nobody can define it, but everybody knows what it is, and everybody really does know what it isn't. This is what makes art so special.
Creation happens at the magical juncture between spirit and matter. The intersection of physical and non-physical. In us, it's where our body and energy field meets. In art, it is the same. A piece of artwork that speaks to us informs our energy field first. It fills the environment with a kind of beauty that anchors the infinite. Beauty makes us slow down, stop, and smell the roses. We feel good.
We're always at the crossroads, that intersection where spirit becomes matter. It's our aliveness and connection with the infinite that make things happen. It's just natural that we are creators. How amazing is that? In my opinion, I think it's very amazing.
Leslie Montana
Prints of Mandala Rose are available in my online store.
Mandala Rose, shown below in progress
Key Notes: Where Spirit Becomes Matter, Live at the Intersection
Flower Essence Transmission Collection
--------
Exquisite Paintings on the Nature of Flowers is a body of work based on a sophisticated visual analysis of nature's frequencies = LOVE. Ongoing, and now in phase two.