ELIZABETH WEBER FANNING THE FLAMES!

 

ELIZABETH WEBER  has such an interesting story that I’ve decided to leave it intact as she wrote it.  “Being of service is very important to me. I was an elementary school teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District for over 10 years. I left teaching when I felt my soul was no longer able to grow there in order to pursue painting full-time. I gave away all of the teaching materials I had gathered over the years to others so that I wouldn’t have an easy path to run backwards on.

During this transition, I had applied to become a member of the Peace Corps. While I was waiting for my application to be processed and my assignment to come up, I started travelling back east to spend time with my family. I made a planned stop in Little Rock, AR to visit some friends and to try and get some of my paintings placed in galleries before I left country.

The morning after arriving in Little Rock, I was meeting a friend for coffee when over the course of less than a ½ hour I heard several conversations referencing an art walk that night, a particular gallery, and then that same gallery and its owner.  Recognizing that the universe was sending me clues, I made sure I got to that gallery that night and introduced myself to the owner and showed them a cd of some of my work.

When I left less than 20 minutes later, I had my first exhibit lined up in a city I had been in less than 24 hours. From that day on, windows and doors kept opening up to me in relation to my art. I started to have people approach me and speak of how healing they felt my art was how the works have helped them to access answers they were seeking. I had a pastor share with me that they went to my website to look at a painting each morning before they started their morning meditation and prayer.

I started to see that I was being of service here, in the now, and that I did not have to travel out of country to serve. But that by following the path intended for me, I was exactly where I needed to be regardless of where it took me. I have been in Little Rock for over 6 years now.

I work part-time at AR Children’s Hospital through a grant from the Arkansas Art’s Council. I pull a radio flyer wagon around with me through the halls filled with art supplies, and go into patient’s rooms to create art and allow these children to remember they are kids despite their present situation and illness.

Also funded through the Arts Council, I work one day a week during the regular school year at a day treatment school for students K-12 with severe emotional and behavioral disorders such as bi-polar, schizophrenia, and violent tendencies to themselves and others. The students value their art time with me and look forward to my visit every week.

Working with these children brings me tremendous joy.

I am a pretty guarded person, and to really know me, one has to be able to see into my art, and then further into them-selves. I paint how my heart experiences the world. It is window in and a mirror out. See your-self reflected there.”

Elizabeth, welcome and thank you, I truly appreciate your participating in this project.  Your story is most inspiring and I am certain readers will learn a lot from your answers, so let’s get right to it.

No.1)  What is art to and for you?  (Generally and personally)

 Art for me is a dance.

I do not care what the end result will be, for me, it the actual Dance that pulls me. I breathe from the ability to let go and lose myself in this dance, to allow Muse to spin me around till I am dizzy and think I am about to fall, only to be caught in the arms of Creation and stabilized again. I walk away from the experience totally out of breath and wondering what just happened out there on the dance floor, exhilarated and flush with excitement. I long to fall in love again and again with Creation. My muse is an amazing Lover, capable of making me feel safe to let go and allow the Brilliant Flash of Bliss to explode through me again and again and again.

Painting becomes a process of alchemy for me- a space where even the deepest darkest pain is transformed into brilliant radiant light.

Experiences leave marks. Every emotional experience for me has a physical sensation that accompanies it, and those sensations are colorized. I feel physical sensations as colors. Those marks, footprints, left behind by the emotional experience, are like color postcards collected by my Soul. I paint that postcard that was left behind.

I truly feel that one does not choose to be an artist. It is the thread by which the cloth of our life is woven. As an artist I have no choice but to create. For without creation there is no deep breath. No peace. No living.

And I think if you ask most artists, they would say that they do not have any choice but to do what they do. It is like the river encountering a boulder in its bed. Creative energy cannot be stopped, if a block is put up in some way, it always eventually finds a way to release. A river cannot stop being a river. An artist cannot stop “being.”

Pure creative expression, whether it is music, dance, poetry and spoken word, or visual and performing arts, is a vehicle by which the artist is able to access something from deep within and share it outwardly with others. It is an opportunity to share humanity with humanity. Artistic expression is a way to say, “Yes, I have felt that way too. You are not alone.” It becomes a conduit to another’s soul, another’s heart.

I know that it is my soul’s path to share my vision with others. I have no choice but to create. There is a fire within that I tend and the flames are constantly fanned. This is why I am here. I am meant to share this creative heat with the world.

No. 2)  What inspires you?

It can and does come from anywhere and everywhere. It can be sparked from a mood, a dream, an interaction or encounter, the way the wind blew through the trees and played in my hair, the warmth of the sun filling my body as it rose in the sky.

One of my paintings, “Behind His Eyes,” came out as a result of a hospital visit to someone very dear to me. He had just survived a very painful and frightening sudden illness, and although he was laughing and joking with everyone, I could clearly see the fear that under laid the levity.

Another painting, “The Song of Rain,” came through one winter while living in Los Angeles during a period of intense rain storms. Los Angeles is dominated by vehicular noise on a daily basis, but when it rains everything changes. The rain overrides all the other normal daily noises. I enjoy the lushness that is created when rain’s silence reaches a point of contact, whether that is a rooftop, a leaf, the pavement, or your face, and it explodes into such a multitude of variant noises and rhythms. If you really listen you can share in its conversation, its song.

Then there is the example of the painting “Riding As One,” which came from a 5 day motorcycle trip into the Rocky Mountains. There was a moment on the bike when the combination of the warm air, the sun, and the wind came together in an expansive moment. The painting reflects that moment. A poem formed over the course of those days too and wrote itself on the road down the mountain and back into Denver.

I approach each painting as an experience, an opportunity to dissolve the illusion of separation between myself and Spirit. There are no sketches, plans, or goals towards an end result prior to painting. I look at inspiration as just the spark, a match stick. The match is struck, flares up, and is then put to tinder. Once the fire has been lit, the source of ignition is no longer needed. You throw the match aside and concentrate on fanning the flames it has sparked. It is just a matter of getting out of the way and giving it the space to grow and spread within. Join me in fanning the flames of our lives…

No. 3) When you are creating, painting, where does it take you?  I mean where does your mind (spirit) travel?

Let me start out by saying that although my hand was the one who helped to bring these images to canvas, I truly cannot take credit for it. I am just a vehicle, a channel. These are the Works of Spirit, the Divine.

When I paint and pick up a brush it is a reconnection to Ultimate Source. An opportunity to let go of the body and the very thing we like to call ‘mind’… a release of attachments and reason… an awakening of the heart….

For me, painting is a powerful form of meditation. I am able to completely let go of my reason and become an open channel. I become lost in the process and oblivious to the outside world. Hours can pass easily without my knowing, and when I pull back and look at what has come through it is always very exciting.

I get totally lost in the playful lovemaking of creation. There is a Sanskrit word, “leila,” (“lei,” meaning “to create,” and “la,” meaning “to destroy”) which aptly describes the process. It is the ability to be in the state of non-attachment to the end result, the constant ebb and flow between creation and destruction that allows me as an artist to truly create. Once I become attached to something that has happened on the canvas I am immediately stuck, and am no longer an open channel.

No. 4) Do you feel painting, music and health are related and if so, how?

Mothers naturally sing to their babies to sooth and comfort them. Sound and art therapy are used to treat various physical, mental, and emotional conditions.

I work as an Artist in Residence at a children’s hospital. I see first-hand on a regular basis how art regardless of discipline has a healing effect. I have watched patients start to engage in art activities and transform back into children. I have seen the joy and relief on their caregivers face as they watch their child smile for the first time since being admitted. 

I also work one day a week as an Artist in Residence at a K-12 school for severe mental and behavior issue kids. Recently, I had the opportunity to hear some of the older kids talk about what the art program meant to them and it brought tears to my eyes. I have had teachers and behavior specialists tell me how the students behave better and have fewer problems on the days they know they can go to art. Together we created a mural for their cafeteria last year showcasing their dreams they have for themselves. This is a school were anything on the walls is a target when a behavior explosion occurs. Windows get smashed, doors broken off hinges, posters on walls get torn down, and walls get punched and kicked. They have protected their mural though.

No. 5)  How do you feel when you paint?   No. 6)  Do you identify with your subject (which is not the proper term for abstract I suppose) and if so, on what level? 

It is not really about identifying with my subject but rather becoming one with it. In that moment of creation, there is no “I” only the Spirit submerged, engulfed, at one, with the experience. You cannot ask a woman at the moment of giving birth if she can identify with being a mother or exactly how she is feeling… Every sensation is heightened in the actual experience that nothing else exists in that moment but the raw beauty of the experience itself. Single thoughts or emotions cannot be separated out of the experience as a whole.

I paint how my Heart experiences the world. Sometimes my Heart is ripped into a thousand jagged pieces and I wander within myself dazed, stepping on the shards, bleeding on the floor of my existence. Sometimes my Heart explodes with the brilliance of radiant light and joy, but it is all beautiful, it’s all human, and everyone can relate in some way to those experiences.

I dream in full color and sound, I hear the trees speak of their memories in the form of song as they drop their leaves, and I recognize raw beauty even when it’s not pretty…

I know as artists we are aware that color has temperature, but I actually physically feel that temperature, and will often slowly move my hand across an area of canvas that I am working on in order to feel what color wants to be there. I can feel pulsations of heat, swirls of cool air; eddy’s of warmth… and then chooses the colors that need to match that sensation.

For example, in the painting Echo’s Mountain there is a haunting stillness for me when I look at that painting. My Soul has memory of standing on that cliff edge with the sweet winds embracing me… I can smell that wind, feel it across my skin, feel my body leaning into the wind and away from the cliff’s edge, and am tempted to let go, to let go of attachments-fear-my footing, to let myself fall, or perhaps fly…It is an emotional experience, but I can tangibly feel it.

No. 7)  Under what conditions do you work best?

I approach each painting with a sense of reverence, a sense of absolute gratitude for being able to help manifest that which is trying to express itself in that moment. The canvas is not mine, but belongs to that moment even before the first brush stroke hits it. I listen, I listen a lot, and watch to hear and see what it is trying to say. Sometimes the message is clearer than others, but if I am patient it will always show me how to get there.

Before I begin to paint, I choose music that matches the energy level of that moment, just as often as I choose to be in silence. Aroma is something that I also often use. For me, the scent of jasmine awakens not only the physical, but also the emotional, and spiritual bodies. I then allow my ego-self to be swept out of the way of the painting process. I will even begin to use my body as a palette and sometimes even as a brush.

People are surprised and often laugh when they see my skin covered in paint as I dance in front of the canvass. I am never surprised. For me, that is just a normal part of the conversation between Spirit, my soul, the paint, and the canvass.

I need to be absolutely alone when I paint. That does not mean that I have to be physically alone in a room. I have painted in front of crowds of people and in front of roommates. I have to allow myself to become alone, still, quiet, attentively waiting, so I can hear what song my Soul wishes to share through paint and canvas.

I remember a time I was painting during dinner at a restaurant. I came to a point where I needed to get clean water to rinse my rags and brushes and turned around almost tripping over a woman who had moved her chair up right behind me. It took a split second for my brain to re-connect my environment to me, making sense of a table full of people about two feet away watching me paint closely. I giggled, saying, “I forgot you were there.”

Part of that process of becoming ‘alone’ involves leaving me, my brain, my ego, behind. Sometimes I have to play music to give my thinking mind something to focus on while Spirit runs off to play.

No. 8 )  Does painting help you connect with your “higher self” whatever that may be for you?

Personally, I consider painting to be a large part of my spiritual practices. It allows me to turn within, to become one with the Universal Energy that is the Divine, to open the channel of creativity, and to just be. I look at a painting as a source of healing for myself and others. I feel that if you can open your heart to the energy within the paintings, you can also benefit from the healing vibrations of that energetic flow.

Within the poetry of Middle Eastern mystics Rumi and Hafiz, when one is in a state of “bewilderment” they have finally gone beyond reason and have entered the blissful and ecstatic state of Union with Divine.  Personally, it is through painting that I dance in that state of Oneness. And these paintings have become the “footprints” the evidence left behind, of this sacred dance of creation.

My work focuses on the realm of the heart, the rich texture and the fragrant winds that explain my personal connection with Spirit. I look to my painting as a form of meditation and prayer, and without any pre-planned sketches, I allow inspiration to be the spark and then allow the process to fan those flames. I start with a black canvas, just as when I look within, I acknowledge my shadows. It is from that space of darkness that allows me to truly see the Light. I work in many layers slowly building surface texture and a history that is available to be revealed later on.

No. 9)  How do you feel about creativity in the public school system?

Creativity is a necessary component of any educational experience. If we are not taught to think out of the box, or even outside the dodecahedron, invention and innovation in all fields would not be possible.

When I was teaching, I used to love math time. In the beginning of the school year, it was always fun to shake up the students perceptions of what a correct answer was. I would walk around the room and find a student who solved the problem exactly as the text book taught it and one who solved it totally differently, and ask both students to show how they solved their problem on the board. Some students would comment on how one student didn’t do it right. But we would talk about how they got the same answer though. We would discuss why it was important to have people who solved problems differently than others. Pretty soon, my board didn’t have enough room for all the kids who wanted to share how they solved their problems differently.

In art, before we started a lesson on how to draw trees, we went outside and looked at trees. We touched them to feel the texture of the bark, stood underneath them and looked straight up, stood across the yard and looked at them. We collected leaves, took a dead branch and saw how it went from thick to thin as it reached the end. We identified the scent of the bark versus the leaves and then the smell of a tree as a whole. We shared our own memories as they related to trees and read The Giving Tree by Shell Silverstein. When it came time to draw, their trees transformed from rectangles with circles on top to trees that lived and breathed.

Creativity requires courage. It requires the courage to risk the possibility of everything not falling into place exactly as planned and still being okay with it. It requires you to see with more than your eyes and feel with more than your hands. It requires that leap into the unknown. So, we have to teach our children to believe in themselves so they will courageously leap in all areas of their lives throughout their entire lives.

No. 10)  In your opinion, what could be a simple solution to improve creativity in the public school system?

I’m sorry, but I just can’t answer this.

No. 11)  What are you hoping to convey through your art to the viewer?

Think of these paintings as snapshots of Universal Memory, postcards from Beyond the Visible Realm. Places that your Soul has traveled to, visions your Third Eye have seen, fragments of maps whose legends and keys have been tucked away deep within you.

Take a moment to become still, and from a space deep within, turn the postcard over. Read the name of a place, and the words you have sent to yourself to remind you of your Divine Nature.

I have been approached by people who say that they experienced tremendous peace and healing when viewing the work and that they are drawn to the paintings again and again. Once the works are in their homes, my collectors tell me that they often just sit and look at the paintings for long periods of time, always seeing new images within them. A local Reverend once told me that they often visit my website to view a painting just prior to their daily meditation.

I believe that people are drawn to these works because it is their Soul that remembers and recognizes, that space, that moment that is captured in the painting. These are Universal Works and we are all part of that Divine Universe. There is no separation between any of us, between Spirit. So, in a way, we are all connected to everything in all places, and in all times. I feel that each of these Works captures but a split second of that Universal Memory, that Universal Energy.

I paint from my Heart and Soul in order to directly communicate with the Heart and Soul of the viewer. My success in reaching them is apparent each time someone stands before a painting and becomes enshrouded in a blanket of absolute stillness.

I hope you will experience my paintings as though the paint brush was just in your hand as you danced. Look within yourself and ask your own heart what each one is dancing.

This is not an easy question. It is difficult to describe one’s Soul. I can say that my paintings are not of this realm, for I am not there when they are painted. My hand holds the brush filled with paint, but it is my heart, my soul, that chooses the colors and moves it.

I would describe my painting as a window. A beautiful opportunity to look at and then through something into yourself and be moved. I hope that you take that opportunity.

That is why these paintings are unique, and people are drawn to them without knowing why. They cannot be boxed because they are expressions of something that is absolutely limitless. And whether we realize it or not, our Souls all strive to reconnect to That Which is Without Limits.

Again, Elizabeth, thank you, you have been most truthful and generous in your answers.  I sincerely appreciate your giving us a glimpse into your enchanting world.  I hope we work together again in the future.  I wish you the best in all your endeavours, be blessed!

TO THE READER :

You are cordially invited to visit Elizabeth’s links below.  Your comments are sincerely appreciated, thank you and enjoy!

www.mysoulspath.com

https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethWeberArt

 http://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethweberart

 

 Mail this post

About

My name is Michele Andree. I am an artist, I paint musicians in action. I think I’m a musician at heart, my instrument being… a brush, so I play…brush and I paint… music.
I love jazz. I call it freedom music. It promotes special values. I love intelligent people and good conversations.

Some people ask me how music relates to art. Personally I find they go hand in hand. Music is what turns me on to painting. It makes me see colours