All You Amazing People!

I want to ask you something.

Over the years I've been asked to give personal art lessons. Instead I've been going to schools, doing workshops, and using my art as both a teaching tool and as a way to promote cooperation in communities. For me art has not just been about painting a picture, but something I feel is far more important.

Art has been my path to reach a deeper understanding of what it takes to be successful both professionally and personally.

I've had my highs and lows and learned A LOT along the way and nothing gets me more excited and to feel more in purpose with my life than to share these things.

My question is simple:

Would this be something you'd be interested in hearing about? Would it be of value if I were to put together the most important things I've learned about art and provide them to you?

I'm talking about people with no skills who are just starting out.

I'm also talking about artists who are further along and want to learn the final keys that I believe would work for anyone to take their work to the next level.

And even more important I'm talking about learning powerful ways of thinking about life and creativity that let you leave your troubles behind and open up to all the wayyy more awesome things in store for you!

Basically, I'm talking about a few simple steps that will improve your art, your career and your life.

I have decades of experience and feel like I really want to share it on a larger stage than I have been.

So what would you like to learn? What would be the biggest questions you have and the most important things you've always wanted to get a handle on or get better at? Please leave a comment below to let me know. I want to create something special that will really help people.

Thanks again and I look forward to hearing from you.

Aaron

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More from the archives

Life Seeks It's Reflection
Mixed Media on Canvas
2008

Here is a little more from my conversation with my sons and wife.

In talking about miracles - and life in the universe - the question came up as it always will: Why? What's it all for? Is God a guy with a beard?

Well, I can't answer these questions for anyone. The search for the answers is what can come to define the shape of your life, so I leave that entirely up to you. All I know is what I know.

In my own meditations and dreaming I have found that it is all a beautiful, timeless weave, everything touches everything eventually. We are a fabric, a song.

We are life's longing for itself, the universe seeking it's own reflection. I look at you and I see the spark of the divine in you. I see that you are not only a part of creation, you are creation fulfilled. You are the dreaming creator. So am I. So is everyone and everything. Behind the mask of our physical forms lies the underlying and awesome truth: we are all the same.

When you look down past molecules, past electrons, past quarks, and so on, you come to it. The place where there is nothing. A vast emptiness. It is neither cold, nor warm. Neither dark nor light. It is the place where the dream of existence originates.

There is no dichotomy or good or evil or right or wrong. All is one with no judgments.

Where do our prayers go? Where does our meditation take us? Could it be that place where nothing is written, where all things are possible?

Could there have been nothing and so at the same time everything?

Could it be that we are the mind of the universe? That we are it's senses? That if that is so, then perhaps one day we will know the slow burning thoughts of a star, the great song of a galaxy and witness the dance of a trillion souls in endless variety, played out against this cosmic playground.

But for now it's enough to look at a leaf, breathe in the air, feel the beating of your own heart. For now, listen to the silence, for it too is a song. Watch a mote of dust spinning through the air, pushed by nothing but the warmth of the sun through a windowpane. You are watching an entire reality float by in the late afternoon light.

For now breathe and let love be your truth. It's enough. Indeed, it's all there is.


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You can't hit a target you can't see

Buffalo Woman
16" x 20"
Mixed Media on Art Board
2010

Sometimes I work with schools and kids and the message I try to leave is to have actual achievable goals. After you have a few achievable short term goals, then dream bigger than big. Dream ridiculously impossible stuff.

If you aim for the impossible, what you determine to be achievable changes and magnifies exponentially. You get way more out of life than you ever thought possible. If you look for average or normal, if you try to fit in with everyone else your life will be, well, normal. And that's not such a bad thing if it makes you happy. What I would suggest is that your life can be something truly special. You can think different, think larger, more encompassing. Make travel, adventure, service, and pure joy your every day experience. We have one shot at it, so why not go all the way?

Apply the miracle of your mind and the beauty of your heart to your life and see what the Creator can make happen.



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Moondance

32" x 24"
Mixed Media on Canvas
2010

A few months ago I happened to look up at the sky and I almost fell down at the vision. What would normally be a waxing moon seemed to me suddenly like a pregnant belly, the rest of the woman submerged under the evening sky. I knew I had to share that image. This painting is dark, but so full of light everywhere! The teepees are a row of warm invitation, the roaring fire a beacon to home and safety. I like to imagine someone is out there, tending to the living fire, watching the sparks rise against the stars as they form a seamless union between heaven and earth. The mystery of the Northern Lights hovers up above, muted as it goes to rest with the rest of the world, and there she is. Dancing in the spinning cosmos, giving life in the same breath as she bequeaths death. We are all on a one way ticket from the moment we board this physical plane, and it is this balance of light and dark, birth and death, joy and melancholy - these things give meaning to it all.


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Here You Go!

Everyone Is Invited To The Feast
Acrylic, Gold Leaf
On Canvas
2009
(click on image to enlarge)

I wanted to paint something that made me very happy. Although it took a very long time to complete, for me it was well worth the effort and the seemingly endless days!

As you can see, everyone is coming to the feast, guests are still arriving, and there will be something for everyone on the table. The celebration will last as long as there is something to celebrate. In other words, it just won't stop!

Some people might not come to the feast. They doubt there will be enough left over for them. Others will grab as much as they can and run away, thinking that the pie might run out so they better get theirs while the getting's good! And then there are those who will take a bite of this or that, never stopping, never savouring, just trying to fill a hole that they think is one kind of hunger, but is really another. Sadly, what will be left behind is a bit of a mess!

Some might show up empty handed, feeling out of place and awkward, feeling that they really don't have much to offer. But they do! Once they sit down at the table, their company will be another type of nourishment for their companions.

Still others will be happily serving, clearing up, filling plates and glasses, making sure as many as have want or need are getting their fill.

In the end, what you bring to the feast is what you will get. Hopefully, hopefully, when you sit down at that warm, heavy laden table that just groans with all the good things it has to share, you'll bring a happy heart. Or at least, a heart that is willing to be happy! Sometimes just being open is all we'll need. Even if it's just a tiny, teensy, microscopic crack. Yes, even just the hope of a crack will be sufficient.

Welcome to the feast, everyone!

There is enough and more.

Dig in!

Enjoy.


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Our Lady of Seeds
10 1/2" x 14"
Mixed Media
on Paper
2007

There is something so beautiful about the fragility of a dandelion that has gone to seed. Before someone has blown away the puff, or the wind or a passing creature has exploded all those little messengers out into the world, there is a delicate beauty about it that has never faded for me. Often when we say something has "gone to seed" we mean that it has been wasted; a crop that was not harvested. I often pass through "seedy" neighbourhoods in my regular routes through the city when I have errands to run. You can tell because the roads aren't maintained by the city, the zoning is confused, there's trash on the sidewalks and in the streets. The homeless -or otherwise unoccupied due to being unemployable, or struggling with addiction or mental illness- are common. It's the poorest of the poor in these neighbourhoods.

But if you look past the surface you see something wonderful. There's love, friendship, hope, and definitely determination. There are families with children who will grow and take the lessons of their youth with them, for good or ill, but we pray for the good. There's beauty everywhere, even when we feel hard pressed to find it.

Dandelions everywhere...and we call them weeds.

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If You're Afraid...

...of spiders, then you will not want to click on this photo. I saw this as I was taking a walk the other day. My brain couldn't process what I was seeing, so I bent in reaaaally close to figure it out.

Shudder.

Anyway, if you have a strong stomach and little things like the circle of life don't bother you, then click away!

Moonlife
18" x 36"
Mixed Media
on Canvas