Colleen's Artwork
Guardians of the Net
What have I cast upon the waters? Where have I cast the light of my desire? What stirs in the depths? These are the things I asked myself as I painted this one.
Evolution
Life evolves from the materials present as Mother Earth. Everything that humans create is made from the substance of the earth, it is not separate from nature. Although our waste may be toxic to us, it gave me a great release, as I painted this, to realize that new life will evolve out of what is pollution for life as we know it. Mother Earth will not only survive but thrive in a new way.
Our Lady of the Changing Landscape
She stands between a solar and a lunar eclipse. All life is caught in her robes. She and her child raise their hands imploring us to stop as fires burn across the lands and the water rises.
Painting the World
Creating transcends dimensions. As I paint my world is altered in inexpicable ways.
Fear on the Horizon
Stormy weather brewing on the horizon of the future.
Climbing Cumberland Falls Kentucky
The power of water is on full display as the Cumberland River falls 60' over an escarpment.
Mandala of Feathers
Eagle and Hawk feathers woven into a mandala.
Escaping the Cocoon
It is such a release to move on from one phase of life to another.
A Light Rain of Wisdom
Awaking to the hooting of an owl she found herself floating in a dark blue void with lights sparkling all around her. She reached up to catch the scroll drifting toward her. It was the knowledge of lifetimes accumulated into wisdom. The past rolled away from her and the future unfurled before her, the wisdom fell off the page directly into her mind.
Awe
Her gaze is filled with utter awe at the endless expression of divine love that pours down upon the earth and all who live here.
The Oracle
She came in early 2020 offering a quiver of arrows made of light. I wondered what I would need those for. My wishes for the new year dried on the vine into dry pods of seeds and unexpected things bloomed instead. Lovely creatures flew in from the night with dark and mysterious blessings.
Lady of Life
How glorious she is! She bursts forth into an immense flowering of energy and possibility.
Winter's Light
Crowned in the full glory of well earned wisdom, she faces the future with the spirit of a predator. Empathy overflows from her heart and her dreams are a blessing on the world.
The Earth Herself Wanting to Know
If the Earth is an organism, sovereign and aware, and I am part of this great being, then what am I, if not, the Earth Herself longing to know.
Swept Away by Life Itself
Life has a way of asserting itself forcefully upon the river of our existence. I love how her eyes are wide open while his are closed, unaware of the change.
A Grandmother's Blessing
Let your heart flower bloom slowly in the presence of love. Let your dreams be tempered by time. Watch closely for the signs of spirit and pay close attention to their messages.
Sex, Love, Money and the Divine
Need I say more?
Lost in the Mystery
Enveloped in the mystery, amazing things are discovered. Awe is the only appropriate response.
Seeds of Change
The gold of the past in stored in honey comb to be used as fuel for the future. Gnesha helps to break through the barriers as the the seeds of change drift in and the book of possibilities sheds light on what may be.
Lady of the Stolen Moment
She rose in the dark. By the moonlight she picked the most perfect flower in the garden. She burrowed into the back of the closet where the clothes bought in enthusiasm waited. She did her hair and adorned it with perfection. As she danced in the light of the rising sun, she prayed for the rest of us.
Making the Decision to Flee Violence
Margret and Mary discuss fleeing Harod's violence for the unknown with their children, Jesus and John. One will stay and one will go. Imagine making the decision to pick up your children and with only what you can carry to throw yourself onto the mercy of strangers.
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
Known as Lily of the Mohawks (1656 –1680), Tekakwitha is a Catholic saint who was an Algonquin–Mohawk, born in the Mohawk village of Ossernenon, in present-day New York State.
Mother of Prayers
She holds the prayers of the world in a smoking cauldron for a God who reaches through our hands and a Goddess who says only three words, "Dance with me."
She Watches
She watches with anger and compassion in equal measures.
Peering Into the New Year
Every new year, I contemplate the year to come. My thoughts and desires are energy causing ripples in the fabric of the future. That energy forms patterns that will play out in often surprising ways.
Heart Spark
Allowing a child into one's life brings with it unexpected feelings of love. There is no better feeling in the world than having your heart sparked.
Dancing Thru the Winter of Life
She dances on even as her essence is absorbed back into the earth; flowers still bloom, an egg hatches new wonders and pearls of wisdom are whispered into her ear.
Guardians of the Portal
This painting is based on the compositional concept of Bridget's Cross. It can be viewed from all four directions and a different story is revealed.
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Connected to All
We are a channel between spirit and matter; the heavens and the earth.
Our Lady of Spilt Milk
In the chaos of everyday life, there resides a guardian of perspective. Loss rides along side every action and entropy haunts every household. Gently, she whispers, "Cry not over spilt milk."
Great Bird of Prey
Birds have always been messengers from the spirit
Mythical Creature of the Future
Leopards, soon to vanish from the earth, will seem to the future as fantastical as unicorns do to us.
Faces of Mother Teresa
Acceptance and Reproach
Hidden Within
Dark birds fly from the depth of my being, playing on my heart strings.
Our Lady of Guadalope
Mary appeared to the medicine man, Juan Diego in 1531 as the Native Americans were being slaughtered by the thousands for refusing conversion to Catholicism. She appeared on the Hill of Tepeyac, the Corn Goddess carried on the moon on the wings of an eagle in a ball of fire. Her message was followed by mass conversion and the easing of the suffering of the natives.
Communing
The water of the air carries a message from the wild to one who hears and then flows on its way again.
Lady of Fertility
She is seething. "Woman," she hisses, "You are the guardian of the portal of life. Never concede your place, your responsibility."
Our Lady of Guadalope
Mary appeared to the medicine man, Juan Diego in 1531 as the Native Americans were being slaughtered by the thousands for refusing conversion to Catholicism. She appeared on the Hill of Tepeyac, the Corn Goddess carried on the moon on the wings of an eagle in a ball of fire. Her message was followed by mass conversion and the easing of the suffering of the natives.
The Heartbeat of Creation
The drum beat of creation unfolds in the heartbeat of the cosmos, a rolling thunder of effect, as lightening penetrates, perpetrates the long, slow, steady jostle of atoms into life, mineral and sacred magic. Place and person arise wrapped in our sacred robes of DNA only to dissolve back into the fire of creation. Washed in the thunderous heartbeat of the divine.
Seaking Heart in the Chamber of Light
Inspired by images of the burning of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, this painting finds me kneeling in the fire of my grief.
Holding the Light
Sacred Beings are holding space and light for the world.
The Ancient One Bearing Light
The Ancient One comes to me often through paintings. Here he is connected to everything by a current of love as he runs through life. The gems of wisdom life offers are wound up into the scroll that he carries forward into the future.
As a very young child, I ran in the woods and played in the creek behind my rural home. In those days I didn’t know the difference between life and spirit. The land was full of both. The creek was full of fossils from unknown worlds. The Ancient One visited me there.
Lady of the Written Word
She sits in all her power. Her presence dominating the room. One long finger taps a morse code message on an ancient book, language spewing light from her staff. She taps her toe with impatience, waiting for me to wise up. But I don't. A young lion lies under the table with all the patience that she lacks. "Who is that?" I ask. "The Curator," she replies. With a sudden whoosh the book before her blows open and with a roar and a screeching a black spiny creature bursts out. She remains impassive as it races around the air and floor until the young lions stands and bares her teeth with a low growl until the creature skitters way. "What was that?" I gasp. "A concept," she says, "It's best to keep a curator near by to keep them at bay. That one was yours," she added. "Mine!" "Yes, quite an imagination you have."
The Era of Corona
From the mad king to the black angel of social justice, this era of pandemic led us on a wild ride, as the medical profession fought the evil dragon, Corona. The streets broiled and the young carried torches in the night. There were those who tried to hold light on the truth, and those who retreated behind doors and masks. Some turned to study, some to pleasure, others to madness. The children watched as life carried on as best it could. And the medical profession fought on. Women warriors sat in surveillance on the heights, messaging the divine, holding space as souls crossed the waters. And the medical profession continued the fight. Nature rejoiced at the small victory in the battlefield; the humans were driven back into their homes and the air cleared.
Guardian at my Door
This tree, she stands still outside my back door, always impeccably dressed for every season, every occasion. Her life force unbroken, bursting the concrete that would contain her. She is not a silent observer of my comings and goings. I feel her whispering under my feet. I hear her employing the spirits on my behalf: "There is hope yet," she breaths. Sometimes she has great arguments with the sky, a roaring thunderous exchange. She doesn't always prevail and pieces of her crash to the ground. But she stands still outside my door, unbroken. "You too are unbroken," she whispers into the soul in my feel.