Coming Home

Fly Above (Stacy Wills, 2013)

3" x 4 1/2" alcohol inks on yupo

I am returning home

after being away...

I am met 

 with

exquisite silence.

The wrinkles of 

brain and brow

begin to smooth...
soothed
by the comforting hand
of the familiar.

Breath prayers

rise and fall...

i n h a l e

e x h a l e.

Birds, old friends,
come to call.
How long has it been?
How long?

O blessed communion
of I and thou...
the sweetest homecoming
of all.

-Stacy Wills (2/27/2013)

A New Life Takes Hold

Desire to Bring Forth New Life (Stacy Wills, 2013)

Alcohol inks on yupo, digitally altered.

"Therefore a person contains both the likeness of heaven and earth in himself or herself...A person has a head in which there is clarity, inspiration, and reason - just as the sky contains light-giving things, air and winged creatures.  A person also has the means to bring forth new life and the desire to do so - just as the earth has the means to bring forth greenness, fruitfulness, and animals." --Scivias II.1.2

-Hildegard of Bingen (1098 - 1179)

The creative urge

never goes away.

Inspiration,

meet Means.

Reason,

meet Desire.

A moment of clarity

in a midlife womb;

between crisis and chaos -

a new life takes hold.

-Stacy Wills (2/23/13)

Her Womb Grew Fruit

Her Womb Grew Fruit (Stacy Wills, 2013)

Alcohol inks on pear shaped river rock, set atop

 background of alcohol inks on yupo.

Her Womb Grew Fruit is a creative response to this text for lectio divina* (Latin for "divine reading") during Week 1 of Creative Flourishing in the Heart of the Desert:  An Online Retreat with Hildegard of Bingen through Abbey of the Arts.  

In you have flourished the beautiful flower

whose fragrance was given to all who thirsted.

And thus all appeared in complete greenness.

From heaven, dew spread over the grass

and the whole earth delighted,

because her womb grew fruit

and because the birds of the skies nested in her.

-Hildegard of Bingen (1098 - 1179)

from O Viridissima Virga

O Viridisimma Virga

For a unique audio/visual experience, begin listening to O Viridissima Virga, then click on Her Womb Grew Fruit to enlarge the image...engage your imagination...and see what arises.

*If you would like to learn more about the practice of lectio divina, an on-demand online course is available here through Abbey of the Arts.

See the Flowers

The Dreaming Garden (Stacy Wills, 2013)

9" x 12" alcohol inks on yupo

See the flowers, so faithful to Earth.

We know their fate because we share it.

Were they to grieve for their wilting,

that grief would be ours to feel.

There's a lightness in things.  Only we move forever burdened,

pressing ourselves into everything, obsessed by weight.

How strange and devouring our ways must seem

to those for whom life is enough.

If you could enter their dreaming and dream with them deeply,

you would come back different to a different day,

moving so easily from that common depth.

Or maybe just stay there:  they would bloom and welcome you,

all those brothers and sisters tossing in the meadows,

and you would be one of them.

-Rainer Maria Rilke  (1875-1926)

Sonnets to Orpheus II, 14 

Grace

Light in the Forest (Stacy Wills, 2013)

alcohol inks on yupo, 5" x 4"

Light in the Forest came about the way many of my paintings do...by accident...albeit a happy one.  As an artist who is largely self-taught, I learn best by playing.    This past Sunday afternoon I had set aside some  creative "play time"  with my newest obsession, alcohol inks.  (I was introduced to inks this past year by the amazingly gifted artist, June Rollins.)   Working with inks is so very different than other mediums I'm accustomed to using...for one thing, they are very unpredictable!  They're also very fluid, as you might imagine, and when used on a non-porous surface such as yupo, you're never quite sure what's going to happen, but that's part of the fun!    Since the ink dries  quickly, I usually have a few small paintings going  at once, keeping a scrap piece of yupo  handy for the "run-off" that occurs sometimes.  In this case, however, the "scrap" looked pretty interesting to me at the end of the day.  I actually liked it better than some of the "on purpose" paintings.   As I was reflecting on it later, I was reminded of the song, Grace, by U2...in particular the line, "Grace finds beauty in everything."  One of my passions in this life is to share Beauty...in whatever way I can...as often as I can...and today, it comes in the form of a small scrap...meant for the trashcan...but Grace had another idea.   

When No One is Looking...

Let it Rain, Let it Pour (Stacy Wills, 2012)

When no one is looking,

I swallow deserts and clouds

and chew on mountains

knowing they are sweet bones!

When no one is looking

and I want to kiss God,

I just lift my hand to my mouth.

-Hafiz (1325-1389)

Moonrise

Moonrise (Stacy Wills, 2012)

The man who has seen the rising moon break out of the clouds at midnight has been present like an archangel at the creation of light and of the world.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)