Step by Step

Often, the most difficult part of the creative process is just getting started. Whether its a new routine, habit, or series of paintings, beginning the new thing always seems to be more difficult that keeping the momentum going once started. Creating a blog post regularly is something I've been wanting to do for some time now. Today I am grateful to begin again!

I wanted to start my sharing again with a new set of mosaic garden stones that I created for a client in Antigua this spring before leaving for the US and a summer of travel and art making.

In this set of photos, the client asked me to create three versions of three of the Nawals from the Mayan Calendar series that I have been doing for some time. She wanted the colors to reflect the palette in her home, to complement the Spanish Colonial style of her home

This project provided an opportunity for me to get re-aquainted with the Tzolkin, the day-signs of the Mayan Sacred Calendar. Working with these sacred symbols always infuses my work with energy and motivates my spiritual and artistic practices. The nawales remind me that there is another time-space where my impatience with the process is meaningless. Working with them reminds me to be patient, and to appreciate each day, each moment, to be open to receiving the creativity each moment presents.

These three nawales have special significance for me. Noj represents the mind, and wisdom and encourages me to allow divine wisdom to guide me. B'atz is the nawal of creativity and history, the very source of creativity. Imox is the nawal of water, the essential element of life, one that inspires a lot of my art making.