If You Want

Our Lady (Stacy Wills, 2014)

alcohol ink on tile + sacred altering

If You Want

If you want, the Virgin will come walking down the road

pregnant with the holy, and say,

"I need shelter for the night, please take me inside

your heart, my time is so close."

Then, under the roof of your soul, 

you will witness the sublime intimacy, 

the divine, the Christ taking birth, forever,

as she grasps your hand for help, 

for each of us is the midwife of God,

each of us.

Yes there, under the dome of your being

does creation come into existence eternally,

through your womb, dear pilgrim - the sacred womb

of your soul, as God grasps our arms for help:

for each of us is his beloved servant, never far.

If you want, the Virgin will come walking down the street 

pregnant with Light and sing.

-St. John of the Cross

(translation by Daniel Ladinsky)

Monks and Mystics and Archetypes - Oh My!

 Coming Up for Air (Stacy Wills, 2014)

collage on mat board

Cowabunga! (Stacy Wills, 2014)

collage on mat board

I am currently enrolled in an online Advent retreat (Birthing the Holy:  Advent & Christmas Retreat with Monks, Mystics and Archetypes)  through Abbey of the Arts.  In our work with archetypes, one of the creative exercises offered is the making of  SoulCollage cards.  Here are the two I've made thus far.  "Coming Up for Air" correlates with St. Hildegard of Bingen and the Visionary archetype, while "Cowabunga" is inspired by Brendan the Navigator and the Pilgrim archetype. Each card holds a powerful message for me, particularly at this point in my life.  SoulCollage is a very intuitive process, and you just never know what or who might show up!  

Refugee Mother and Child, a poem by Chinua Achebe

Mother and Child (Stacy Wills, 2014)

alcohol ink on yupo + sacred altering

Refugee Mother and Child

No Madonna and Child could touch

that picture of a mother's tenderness

for a son she soon will have to forget.

The air was heavy with odors 

of diarrhea of unwashed children 

with washed-out ribs and  dried up 

bottoms struggling in labored 

steps behind blown empty bellies.

Most mothers there had long ceased

to care but not this one; she held

a ghost smile between her teeth

and in her eyes the ghost of a mother's

pride as she combed the rust-colored

hair left on his skull and then -

singing in her eyes - began carefully

to part it... In another life 

this would have been a little daily 

act of no consequence before his

 breakfast and school; now she 

did it like putting flowers

on a tiny grave.

-Chinua Achebe (1930 - 2013)

Creation Song

Womb of Creation (Stacy Wills, 2014)

alcohol inks on yupo + sacred altering

Creation Song

What did

 you know 

of me

before you 

formed me

 in the womb?

What dreams

 did you dream

 for me?

What plans

 did you make

 for me?

What song

 were you singing

while knitting

 my bones?

-Stacy Wills (12/17/10)

Dove that ventured outside…a poem by Rilke

The Dove that Ventured Outside (Stacy Wills, 2014)

alcohol ink on yupo  4" x 6"

Dove that ventured outside, 

flying far from the dovecote:

housed and protected again,

one with the day, the night,

knows what serenity is,

for she has felt her wings

pass through all distance and fear

in the course of her wanderings.

The doves that remained at home,

never exposed to loss,

innocent and secure, 

cannot know tenderness;

only the won-back heart 

can ever be satisfied:  free,

through all it has given up,

to rejoice in its mastery.

Being arches itself

over the vast abyss.

Ah the ball that we dared,

that we hurled into infinite space,

doesn't it fill our hands

differently with its return:

heavier by the weight 

of where it has been.

-Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)

Scraps of Moon - A Poem by Denise Levertov

Moon River (Stacy Wills, 2014)

alcohol inks on yupo + sacred altering

Scraps of Moon

Scraps of moon

bobbing discarded 

on broken water

but sky-moon

complete, transcending

all violation

Here she seems to be

 talking to herself about

the shape of a life:

Only Once

All which, because it was

flame and song 

and granted us joy,

we thought we'd do, be, revisit,

turns out to have been what it was

that once, only;

every invitation did not begin

a series, a build-up:

the marvelous did not happen

in our lives, our stories

are not drab with its absence:

but don't expect to return

for more.  Whatever more

there will be will be

unique as those were unique. 

Try to acknowledge the next song

 in its body-halo of flames

 as utterly present,

as now or never.

-from The Great Unknowing:  Last Poems

by Denise Levertov (1923 - 1997)

Evolution of a Touch Drawing

I have recently been exploring an intuitive painting process developed by Deborah Koff-Chapin called "Touch Drawing" - which you can learn about here.  As I'm learning it, I am also finding my own approach to the process...and that is, I like to add color to my drawings.  Color has always been a prevalent and important element in my artwork, so I'm not surprised that I feel pulled in that direction.

The initial drawings are done in rapid succession and laid aside for further review and contemplation.  After choosing one drawing to work with,  I begin to add color, all the while   listening to what the picture is telling me.  It's  a bit like dream work, in that one image...or even part of an image has multiple layers of meaning.  Today I wanted to try and  document  my process from the initial touch drawing to the completed piece. 

 My touch drawing is done on tracing paper which I then mounted onto foam core.   

I used alcohol inks to color in the face.

 Slowly adding more color...

 Details becoming more defined...until my drawing feels complete.

 Touch Drawing #2 (Stacy Wills, 2014)

mixed media on tracing paper