Most of the paintings in the show were inspired by a book entitled, "The Eight Human Talents," written by Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa. She identifies our individual energy centres or chakras and focuses on one "human talent" for each. I used her ideas and words as a starting point for the paintings in the show. Listening to beautiful sung mantras I painted these images intuitively and trusted that the colours and shapes for each of the 8 "talents" would emerge.

 

The first painting "Surrender is pure grace" portrays a statue of a meditative Buddha whose hands form a mystic triangle.

 

The second painting "Homage to Saraswati" incorporates water imagery and the colour of the second chakra - orange - which symbolizes creativity. The is a tribute and thank you to the goddess Saraswati who is a patron of artists.

 

The third painting, "Pure power of infinity", represents the strength of the centre of power. I used trees flecked with yellow because they remind me that our strength is sometimes unseen - our roots.

 

The fourth painting, "ABC's of gratitude", is a reminder even at our lowest we can think of 26 things we are grateful for and the knowledge that we are so blessed will open our hearts to compassion for ourselves and others.

 

The fifth painting, "Our soul is a song in our heart that must be heard", is the pure joy of our expression of truth amidst the chaos.

 

The sixth painting, "Intuition is being open to God's reply", is a stylized vision of the seat of our intuition, our third eye. It looks different for everyone and contains so much beauty.

 

The seventh painting, "Ability to connect with the universal", depicts a ring of Tibetan prayer flags which carry their message of peace to the universe. The figure in the centre makes the Shuni Mudra giving patience.

 

The eighth painting, "Your talent of radiance", began with a phrase from the book, "Everyone is a candle, true, but everyone is not lit." The joy of this child reminds us we can reconnect with that joyful flame and that we also have a shadow, but it needn't slow us down.