These Guardians really do have a life of their own. I am gallery sitting today and a woman and her daughter, I think, are speaking in depth about them, in Spanish. I had a brief discussion with her explaining their origin and process. She is taking that and her impressions and talking at length to this young woman about them. She wants to see the entire series when it is done. This is what makes my work important to me, knowing that it generates a response in the viewer.

I've finished five of my Guardian pieces and they now reside in the gallery. Two more are in process and near completion now with at least three more to come before I move on to my next challenge. I do hope you will continue to give me feedback in this process. I'm hoping to have the final five done within the next two months.

The Guardians can be viewed individually on this website in the works section. This whole project has created an inner dialogue for me with these presences. They truly are a presence for me, I can feel different waves of atmosphere as I'm working on them or looking at them. I pray that that experience translates to the viewer also. I shall not attempt to lay any meaning on any of them, their job is to give that to you, mine was just to make them visible.

I think I will begin work next on some flowers, mostly sunflowers. It is a time for a seasonal change for my soul. I need a break from the intensity of this experience so that I can return to it empty and ready for more inflow. We all need breaks from the intensity of life from time to time, a vacation from the serious work into something light and bright. My sunflower photos helped with that as I healed from surgery early this year. Unfortunately, my last session with my sunflower patch was short-lived. The weather here in Florida is quite strong and the winds and rains simply beat them to death early. It is now way too hot to attempt any more plantings. For now I'm  starting pineapple plants, not quite as beautiful to look at but very satisfying when they yield fruit. Sunflowers will wait, winter here is coming and that's when I'll start again.

I will leave you now to your peaceful lives and hope to connect with you again soon. In the meantime, here is a sunflower preview, the digital piece that will continue on to be worked with cold wax and other media. 

I spend time in my gardens for pleasure, fulfillment and healing. I find that creating art does the same thing for me, however, unlike the flowers, the products are not consistent in quality, nor a quick to blossom. As I look back over the years and years that I have been creating, I sometimes cringe at what I thought was worthy of the title of art. 

It seems that that thought speaks more to the growth of my soul as an artist than it does to the actual works themselves. I have always maintained that the process is far more important than the product and I guess this morning's thoughts are an outgrowth of that initial seed. To illustrate this a wee bit, I give you an earlier image, created in 2011, soon after I had finished chemo treatments for ovarian cancer. This is the beginning iPad painting of Guardian IV, which at the time was called D2. 

I did hundreds of these small iPad paintings based on this figure which has a history in my life dating back to 1983. (That is another story for another time) Last year I began a revisit of these paintings and they have given way to the series called The Guardian Series. This particular piece is becoming Guardian IV, not yet completed but is well on its way. Here is the final digital form of it:

This will now be subjected to my intuition, cold wax, and other media. It will appear in the Guardian Collection as soon as it is done.

I do believe that artwork is a process, a process of growth, with roots deep in our psyche and unconscious. I never anticipated the appearance of this subject again after 2011, which was in itself also a surprise appearance. It gives me joy to know that there is much going on in the fertility of the depths of one's soul. 

If you are a creator, and if you are human, you are, I encourage you to dig in the dirt of your soul. Let the seeds blossom and take great joy in their fruit.