Stay empty and held between those fingers, where “where” gets drunk with Nowhere.

Stay empty and held between those fingers, where “where” gets drunk with Nowhere.

The Prophet has saidthat a true seeker must be completely empty like a luteto make the sweet music of “Lord, Lord.” When the emptiness starts to get filled with something,the One who plays the lute puts it downand picks up another. There is nothing more subtle and delightfulthan to make that music.       […]

The (invisible) flute player…

“Love plays and is the music being played. Let that musician finish this poem.” ~Rumi          “The Flute Player” acrylic, collage, permanent marker on paper 27.25 x 21 inch (69 x 53,5 cm) .

painting in process… “flute player”

This is how most my paintings start…. …and it takes a while till I find where the painting wants to go… It is never boring that way. Though often this method leads me to do things backwards, like starting with the paper and then realizing that the collages I stick to it requires for it […]

Nowhere and Nothing

Nowhere and Nothing

Remember some time ago I wrote a blog post about my struggles to just relax guilt free and do nothing (“The one who is not busy” is not me… yet). I am still trying. Last monday I had this idea that doing nothing doesn’t always mean doing no-thing… I was cleaning out the closet finally, something I meant […]

Art, Grief, and Transformation…

Art, Grief, and Transformation…

So there I was, sitting on the stairs to the beautiful garden, green and lush with moisture from the sprinklers going on at the peak of the day, the sun is shining bright, perfect blue sky, not a single cloud, and all I could think was how wastefulness and out of connection with nature we […]

The song of separation

click on images below to see details… click on images below to see edges… “The Song of Separation” acrylic, oil pastel, collage on canvas 11.75 x 11.75 inches (30 x 30 cm) painted around the edges, ready to hang original painting sold!

Jeden Tag ein neuer Tag . . . Every day a new day . . .

Been sorting thru old photos to print an album for my father. While entering the digital age have been leaving behind some people that haven’t gone with me into that world. And while going thru them realized just how much has happened that just went into some computer folder almost unnoticed. Like this poem that […]

Look in a clear mountain mirror…

Look in a clear mountain mirror…

After all the frenzy and busyness, suddenly feeling quite (which could be the quite before or after the storm)… You Don’t Have to Act Crazy Anymore – We all know you were good at that. Now retire, my dear, From all that hard work you do Of bringing pain to your sweet eyes and heart. Look […]

June gloom…

Always forget about it when May is over and I think it is time for summer… the weather here in LA is overcast, cool and… well, gloomy. Really looking forward to seeing the sun again. The garden has been shining nonetheless, or perhaps because the sun hasn’t been too scorching hot yet.So here are a […]

Like thread through a needle…

Your absence has gone through me           like thread through a needle.                   Everything I do is stitched                                 with its color.             […]

“The one who is not busy” is not me… yet

Been so busy lately, can’t seem to stop. And after reading this very good article, “the one who is not busy” – meditation on the fly – Busyness Plan, realized, I am such a workaholic. So I tried on monday just to have a day doing nothing…. There I was sitting in the garden with […]

Birthday girl, illustration for a children book

After a big gap of no posts, here is (so far) the last illustration in the series for the children book, actually the second version or even third… I kept making changes. Starting with a collage from three photos to ge the composition and adding the background, and then my friend was asking if I […]

A Thought . . .

Its been quite here after a very busy time, and it is amazing to watch the amount of thoughts that can creep into the silence when one isn’t watching, but that’s just another thought 🙂 When you see that from a thought every craft in the world arises and subsists— that houses and palaces and […]

Let the inner life grow… illustrations for a children book

“Polish your heart with meditation and quietness. Let the inner life grow generous and handsome.” ~Rumi This poem is not part of the story but it is so befitting for what the story is about that I couldn’t resist quoting it 🙂 and could not leave out this music that I was listening to while […]

illustrations continued…

The above illustration accompanies the story about the love for animals and non-violence. And this is about how to talk to your parents with logic 🙂When wanting to publish his translation of the Bhagavad Gita, at an age when others where getting ready to marry, Swami Lakshmanjoo got his father to fund the money for […]

Illustrations: Badi Boda (“bigger than the biggest”)

This illustration underwent a bit of changes from the original drawing . . .   In the middle of it is a life-sized drawing done by our teacher in his later years, which amongst others adorns the walls of the celebration hall in Kashmir.   This is the accepted version of the illustration… The story tells of […]

“Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge . . .”

It’s been a pretty chaotic and busy in my life lately, and I don’t know about you but it seems as if it is a reflection of the universal chaos, or the other way around. Its harder to keep the balance when the world seems to be falling apart in front of ones eyes. So […]

Illustration: “what do I know…”

This turned out so delicate, I just love it! And it was so much fun playing in Photoshop, finding more great painting tools. My favorite tool for this was some chalk looking one that I used in the background and for the lines to enhance the original sketch . . . This is the story […]

sketches to illustration

from the sketch . . . to the final illustration . . . to coloring it by hand (because my laptop broke) then getting back with it into photoshop and . . . making some more changes, voila! Done!

another story…

I am making the illustrations for the spiritual children book . . . starting with the sketch . . . to the illustration on the computer . . . to the changes: landscape to portrait, text in the sky changes from urdu to sanskrit . . .

drawings…

Lately have been working on some Illustrations for a spiritual children book that a friend has compiled. They are stories from the life of our spiritual teacher from Kashmir and his message to children… I started with sketches… then scanned them and took them into Photoshop, and added color and texture… His parents priest and […]

because of the pain this world caused me…

because of the pain this world caused me…

Just when all the recent chaos and suffering and pain of the world seems to be unbearable and not making any sense, I came across this poem, when I randomly opened up my favorite book, “Love poems from God” by Daniel Ladinsky   . . . I HAD TO SEEK THE PHYSICIAN I had to seek […]

bug in my ear, pin in my nose :-)

Recent drawings…         

…here swimming ends always in drowning

…here swimming ends always in drowning

This beautiful poem of Rumi I came across while watching a video of Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee “A Dangerous Love” which caught my eye because of the title.“How can love be dangerous”, I thought… Subtle degrees of domination and servitude are what you know as love but love is different it arrives complete just there like the moon […]

“Offering”

Detail views… “Offering” acrylic on found wood box, (painted around the edges and ready to hang, wired) 32.5 x 12.5 x 2.5 inch (82,5 x 32 x 6cm)

unfurl yourself across the universe…

“Don’t forget love;  it will bring you all the madness you need to unfurl yourself across the universe.” ~Mirabai   Impressions from Würzburg Dom… From Würzburg, Istanbul  

The sun shines again and again…

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