Helen Redman

"Observe the wonders as they occur around you.
Don't claim them.  Feel the artistry
moving through,  and be silent." ...Rumi

The quiet beauty of my garden enters my body.  I soak this calm up like lotion to dry skin.  I'm giving myself half day self-retreats right here at home. Each morning begins with yoga, meditation and then a simple drawing of whatever leaf has caught my eye.  I'm letting the beauty of one simple form fill me. It brings me peace.

I often end my meditation --"Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me." The point is there is not peace on this earth and none of us can escape from that despite the tranquility of a garden.  As I meditate I hear birds chirping and airforce planes on maneuvers. San Diego contains military bases amidst its ocean paradise. Many move between this coast and the tormented Middle East and no corner of the globe is untouched by the pervasive chaos.

I'm giving myself the gift of time and contemplation before I set out on any new task. My morning world is quiet and beautiful, but terror reigns in other places and in my head in the dead of night.

If I can find peace in my own heart, can it "osmose" to others and make real change possible?  Is the first task to create moments of peace in our own psyche and then to extend it more and more?  Do we then become holding vessels so that it can be found somewhere should anyone be looking?  Or is the work just to keep from descending to madness and despair?

And, yet again, the contradiction. I can sit alone in my studio and garden loving to study and draw a leaf touching my fingers.  The sun shines, a breeze dances through and in this corner of my world I feel bliss.

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.  ...William Blake


I notice the attention that must be given to rendering what is before me, from the shape and structure to the details and colors.  An entire world in each leaf, in each finger.  I understand more about realism--it's a mad love to depict the incredible beauty of life, the awe and mystery of all forms.

"It has become plain that I must lower my eyes to the very small"...Helen Luke

My own very small act of drawing a leaf andconnecting it to my fingers is peace inducing and deeply satisfying.  I have no goal to make art, just to let be.

The world feels dark and regressive in its struggles--man's inhumanity to man always persistent.  One old female artist seems of no import and I ponder how to be of any use.  As my outer options are limited, I nourish the warrior of my spirit. What is art, but the deepest affirmation of love and creation, the polar opposite of hate and destruction. 

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.