Primal Echo ~ Coming Home

My heart and spirit always seem to be leaning in the direction of ancient echoes, calling from the past, and primal echoes, that whisper in my heart. This focus on bringing the past to the present and the inner to the outer has been with me since my first painting as a teenager. I work, sometimes struggle, to make the unseen visible. I do this, both through my visual art and my jewelry. And if I breathe into the depths from where these echoes emanate, it helps lesson the very real physical pain of my Fibromyalgia. I have always believed in the transformational power of art, in whatever form.

This necklace, "Primal Echo," came into being first through the spiral pendant. Spirals are universal symbols of transformation and the dance of life, and have always featured prevalently in my art and jewelry. The faceted Rhodonite and the Apache Sage Jasper seemed to go perfectly with the faux brass spiral pendant. The faceted Taureg (African) Silver beads, which I love, pick up the colors in the pendant and, again, seem to speak from the past. This little bit of a song from my repertoire seems to sum what I am saying up:
Listen in the Cave of your Heart,
the Silence echoes your name.
Do you answer the call
to come Home again.

Up and Away ~ Transformations

I have been undergoing a transformation recently, as I move away from making jewelry to making visual art again. When I moved from New Mexico to Massachusetts, my studio was smaller; I opened an Etsy shop, and it made more sense to focus on my jewelry. But my heart has always been with visual art, with what can be explored, shown, transformed. Additionally, though many people seem to like, even love my jewelry, I'm not selling. I can't, because of my health, do art fairs or belong to cooperatives, which were the major sources of selling my jewelry in the past. And I'm just not making the sales in my Etsy shop. On the other hand, the moment I listed my small drawings, they were snatched up.

Don't get me wrong. I have never made visual art with the primary intention of selling. For me it has always been a voyage of discovery and personal transformation. But it sure doesn't hurt when someone likes my art enough to buy it. This new direction means a re-do of my studio area, putting my jewelry making supplies, which are all over the place at the moment, away and re-establishing my area as more of an art making center.

So far I've been working in the small format ACEO (Art Cards Editions and Originals), which is 3.5 " x 2.5 ". It's been a great way for me to stick my toe in the water again. And because the format is small, it doesn't take quite so long to build up all those transparent layers I love to build with my colored pencils. My most recent, "Up and Away," was done as a "challenge" for one of the art forums I belong to online. To me, it's also a metaphor ~ what will I recover and discover as I take up my art journey once again?