by Andrea Fedder | Oct 21, 2019
There he sat, just facing me. ‘Hello’, we said to each other in acknowledgement. This time he didn’t buzz away. He just sat there – cleaning his long proboscis. The muse is not an entity of creative instilling that is some days with you and on others forsakes you. The muse is a willingness you develop through consistent creation to find things as a-musing.
(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Inspiration: artist’s own
ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE
Yup. I painted a fly. Sometimes, you’ve just gotta acknowledge the weird things that come to you without questioning the motif.
.
This enormous horse fly has been flying into my studio persistently for the last week. Every day I would capture him inside a jar and ferry him back outside where he would literally buzz off.
.
Today I captured him and studied him through the bottle. Sure, flies aren’t graceful or cute or regal or elegant creatures and they often represent death and disease, but it occurred to me that if you’re not going to stop to marvel at the dark, the macabre, the morose, the insignificant and the icky – well, are you then really accepting of life as a whole?
.
I took him outside to the rocket in the veggie patch. He climbed very willingly out into the bush and then, clambered up a stem, onto a protruding leaf and out onto the furthest point that balance would allow. There he sat, just facing me. ‘Hello’, we said to each other in acknowledgement. This time he didn’t buzz away. He just sat there – cleaning his long proboscis.
.
‘Hmmm, so I guess I’m painting a fly today’ I announced to the surrounding veggies.
.
And you know… they really are quite captivating.
.
And then it dawned on me. The muse is not an entity of creative instilling that is some days with you and on others forsakes you. The muse is a willingness you develop through consistent creation to find things as a-musing.
.
🙃
by Andrea Fedder | Oct 3, 2019
The central experience is essential to the consequent unfoldings. Everything we need, our entire life’s future unfolding is already in us. It will unfurl, like the individual tightly rolled leaves of this fern, when it’s time is right to do so.
(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE
Could it be that the sacred geometry in nature is more than a divine principle?
.
Is it an aesthetic code drawing our attention not only to its existence all around us and in us but as nature’s way of saying ‘look at this, study this, make sense of this.’ I’m sure nature has said this to many people and I’m only now waking up to it.
To me, nature’s sacred geometry is saying this:
‘Understand why it’s significant to your awakening that this pattern governs this creation in this way.’ When I observe the fern’s unfolding, I tap into this:
The reason we can’t suddenly be or have ‘the large unfolded fern’ (having “arrived” by societies definition) is that it takes time to unfold the main stem first. .
The central experience is essential to the consequent unfoldings.
.
You can’t skip ahead or the smaller leaves (your achievements) will have nothing to hold onto.
.
The central stem is all the seemingly random, “useless” experiences we gather. They are the primary feeding stem to what will come.
.
This is why when something comes together down the line of our lives, we often get a sense of ‘hey I’ve come full circle from that thing that happened way back when’. Because you have unfolded many times over.
.
If this parallel holds truth – then all future unfoldings of your life were with you from the start, bundled up tightly as the shoot broke through the soil into the world or as the baby broke through its embryo. (Not so coincidentally a foetus contains the Fibonacci spiral too)
.
It’s no longer about trusting that everything we need is already in us. Rather, it will unfurl, like this fern, when it’s time is right.
I’m literally baked on miniNature right now!
by Andrea Fedder | Sep 22, 2019
If you want to remain young, keep reaching up toward the en-light-enment and keep learning new things and just like this branch, you’ll keep growing into YOU-th.
(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Inspiration image: artist’s own
ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE
One of the trees growing in our garden is knobbly, long-limbed Eucalyptus cinerea or silver dollar. Their sage-green leaves are often used in flower arrangements. I’m super lucky to have one and always use it for cuttings in our home, come pruning time.
.
While trimming branches, I noticed one stem containing the full spectrum of growth – dark, brittle, leaves at the base with curled brown tips, deep vibrant leaves in the middle – perky and full of confidence and tender, mint green buds shooting out from the very end.
.
Omg – ‘this branch is how we actually age?!’ I said to my cat. She didn’t seem to care so I’m going to tell you instead.
.
Our society (while slowly shifting – wooohoo) still favours youth. And since those years only last briefly at the start of our lives, we have a tendency to cling to our past with romanticized longing while resenting the fading allure of our ageing, physical selves.
.
But in truth, in each new chapter you undertake, you are sprouting new, vibrant leaves. As you grow through it those leaves age and become part of your sturdy undergrowth.
.
It is only our young selves that age. Every day, every season, every undertaking is a new spurt of you-th that grows from your old, young self.
.
If you want to experience age – curl your branches backwards, starve them of light, lament on what was and you will stagnate in your present.
.
But if you want to remain young, keep reaching up toward the en-light-enment and keep learning new things and just like this branch, you’ll keep growing into YOU-th.
.
.
.
.
Ironically Eucalyptus oil heals a myriad of health problems. Maybe it really is the tree of youth?
.
by Andrea Fedder | Feb 15, 2019
ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE
I ventured beyond my studio today. And oooh man, comfort zones, are a thing! I’ve spent my life creating from behind the scenes – first in film, then in product design, then in online content writing. And I would be happy to create from behind the curtain, only peering occasionally through the window that is Instagram. But even then, you can feel when you’re getting too settled in your ways. So, when a casual conversation with the owner of @lacuccinahb, your local favourite eatery, turns into “hey, you should come paint here,” you can almost feel life giving you a kick in the bum.
.
As Liz Gilbert says, thank fear for protecting you your whole life, but then know when to tell it to settle down when opportunities like this come up. So I gave it a whirl “Hey Mr What If, I’m just going to paint in a coffee shop. No one is going to die.”
.
And as a nifty perk, the guys from @geometricdrinks happened to be sharing their awesome botanical tonic essences there too! 🍸Maybe their chamomile and rose geranium blend helped soothe my artsy nerves?.
.
Hope your Friday is shaping up to be an easy-breezy one too ✨
.
Inspiration image: common license image
(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Recent Comments