I paint the healing beauty I see in nature because it feels like magic to me. On what began as a blank canvas, a whole world appears, delighting and surprising me in new and unexpected ways each and every time.
I live for the burst of glee that arrives when a painting has just come to life. This lifts me and carries me above the fray. I share my art in hopes that it will lift and carry you too.
A bit about my background
I've been creating imagery that sings to the soul since 1989.
As owner and creative director of Design by Muse, it was a blessing to co-create with coaches, healers and soul-centered entrepreneurs doing beautiful things in this world.
Connecting, learning what made their spirits soar, and designing logos and web sites to help them shine their light was always close to my heart.
But as I struggled to continue that work, it became clearer and clearer that something was off, and it had been for a very long time.
Journey of healing
After brewing for decades, illness made its presence known. Suddenly life turned upside down and I began my own personal journey of healing.
During this time, I alternated between self-care and creation. Angel, earth frequency, meditational and praise music lifted my spirits and inspired me.
As I listened, I felt this peaceful, uplifting energy flowing through me ... like a calm in the storm ... and I found myself creating the imagery you see here. The art emerged in this inexplicable dance of creation.
It became my intention to share the healing energy infused into these images ... to soothe, support and uplift you too.
Vibrationally infused images
People often ask how I create. That's evolved over the years, beginning with Meditational Art then Presence States and now Intuitive Impressionism. I'll explain more below ...
Meditational Art naturally flowed through me in a dance of inspiration. These were born when they wished to be born and were a delight to welcome into the world.
When one was ready to emerge, I couldn't *not* create it. No matter whether I was sleeping or taking a bath, when I was called to create, the imagery first appeared in my mind's eye then flowed out in this unstoppable, inspired dance that both moved and completely uplifted me.
I felt blessed to be receiving these and to be able to share them with you. I believe there is healing energy infused into them because of the way that I felt as they were being created and the way people have responded to them.
It's a pure, uplifting energy that soothes and transmutes whatever is going on around me. If I could share this feeling with everyone, I would in a heartbeat because it is pure magic.
Presence States imagery emerged while I was meditating on a particular essence, a state of being that we can choose to feel, embody and pulse out into the world.
Through things like music and art, we can bathe our senses in the energy we choose, to uplift us and to support and enhance our intentions.
This special co-creative dance … the way words and imagery and sound weave together and play off of one another … truly is magical and has come to be such a gift to me and to others.
Intuitive Impressionism is my latest adventure. Whenever my symptoms cooperate, I paint ... purely because of how uplifting it feels. I don't sketch or plan but just begin making marks until I begin to see something emerge.
Most often elements inspired by the natural world will be found in my brushstrokes and I continue painting to bring them to life.
It is sheer magic to me. I truly believe the energy of this feeling is infused into each painting and carries through to whoever receives one.
Illness and magic
In 2014, my health took me away from my computer screen and my 25 year graphic design career, where I used to create on demand for clients who I loved and felt deeply connected to.
Rather than seeing illness as something that needed to be stopped, I viewed it as something which was taking me on a journey into the unknown and creating a new path for me. If it were not for that, I would not have begun painting and it is so clear to me that this was what I was meant to be doing in the world.
I was no longer able to sit for hours at a desk and was most often sick in bed. But on certain days I was able to paint for 30 to 60 beautiful minutes, building up layer upon layer … often as many as ten layers … until over the course of the weeks and months, something new was born and my spirit was soaring.
This is what it felt good for me to be doing. I wish this for everyone and I feel we can do it, if we drop all of our preconceived notions about what is possible … and follow what’s in our heart and our soul.
This is what my art now represents.
In my design career, I always had a concept in mind as I created. In these paintings, it was just the opposite … I began painting intuitively, flowing whatever colors and marks I was inspired to make and going with whatever felt good to my spirit.
After many layers of paint, I would begin to see something emerge (like this magical little seahorse) and at that point I coaxed it out with my brush, bringing it to life.
It’s a process of discovery that just filled me with delight ... like a treasure hunt, finding things within the marks that I’d made ... and in the end I felt lighter and brighter for the experience.
It's my hope that whoever takes home one of my paintings feels the same magic and love.
I encourage you to make friends with whichever piece calls to you, allowing it to lift and sooth you.
Much love,
Col
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"Everything that Col learns and experiences goes deep within her being and comes out as ART! Art with spirit. Art with soul. Art with purpose. And art that is infused with the energy of healing and a return to balance and wholeness!"
— Sue Elliott,
Founder/Editor-in-Chief of Law of Attraction Magazine
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