FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS...
I am often asked about my creative process and for advice on creating visionary art, so I have selected the most often asked questions about my work and how it is created.
I am always ready to discuss particular paintings or topics or expand on what is written here by email
There are 4 groups of questions:
~ ABOUT VISIONARY ART AND INNERSCAPES [below]
ABOUT VISIONARY ART AND ‘INNERSCAPES’
Q Where do your images come from?
Everyone has innerscapes - the view of the inner eyes.
I am a mystic and a visionary artist. I record my personal soul journey.
Since childhood I have had a strong capacity to ‘daydream’ and this description was always put as a criticism. But as a visionary artist this is a wonderful asset. When I consciously enter an altered and receptive state with shamanic or meditative practice, I see an unfolding 'story' - rather like Alice down the rabbit hole!
My task is to depict exactly what I have seen with my inner eye - my ‘innerscapes’ - to the best of my ability. I tell the story of where I have been and what I have seen.
Q What is the world you go into? Is it another dimension, or just imagination?
Imagination is an extraordinary part of our wider senses that counterbalances our automatic filtering system. If we didn’t filter - ignore and prioritise - the vast amount of input we receive constantly from the world around us we would be overwhelmed. Imagination helps to take off some of the filters and see a wider reality. In this wider reality there are many layers. In some of these layers there are the unseen beings that inhabit this beautiful world with us.
I trust that what I experience in this wider reality is real, but I cannot prove that, nor do I need to. It works for me. Everyone has their own unique experience.
Q How can I explore this wider world?
Imagination plus a clear intention creates a doorway through which to explore. Clear intention - a purpose - is vital as it shifts the daydreaming [that is usually undirected and ungrounded] into a deeper place where we can see clearly with our inner eyes.
The key is to keep it simple. Intention keeps us on track and we can begin with simple explorations to get used to the feeling of shifting consciousness and returning to the everyday world
.
For instance, to start with you may make marks about a vivid dream you have had [I don't use the term 'drawing' in this context], or simply find symbols, colours, shapes and images which make you feel well and happy. Or you may explore the energy of a particular flower or stone by observing it with all your senses, making marks to record the experience or taking photographs, making a collage - there are no rules.
Writing about what you experience can also be part of the process of increasing awareness. Such a creative journal is also somewhere you can note what works for you, and what does not.
And of course the act of making a painting, poem, dance or even a photograph can itself provide that gateway as we see the world more vividly or in a new way.
