Dear Girl Magdalena

Intuitive art is a funny thing. I love the adventure and surprise. You never know exactly where you’re going. Magdalena is a perfect example of this. When I sat down to paint this canvas, I envisioned a sweet girl in rain boots holding a bouquet of wild flowers. I pictured soft pinks, gold, a warm ivory. Hearts. Stripes. Very girly. In fact, here’s the color and pattern palette I’d picked out to get started.

My collage paper choice for this piece.

I collaged the canvas top to bottom in those colors. There’s the shape of a girl filling most of the canvas, actually. But as things progressed, I kept listening to the calls. Put some green at the bottom.  That turquoise blue belongs at the top.  Some scribbles in the grass. Now stamp foliage in the green…. Keep going… I’ve learned to listen and trust the calls. Sometimes fear will rise and I’ll worry about covering up a beautiful part. What if I mess up the whole thing? But the Spirit in me whispers, “trust me.” And I am reminded that no matter what beautiful thing is covered… No matter what perfect parts are lost… what is meant to be will take it’s place. And that is ultimately so much better. I turned the whole canvas upside down and things started to become a little clearer. I painted in the little dear girl and just kept listening to the calls. This was not at all what I had expected.

Now I see it. That’s water not sky. Still in my mind I’m thinking a city park. I don’t know what the red is there for. I just felt called to add some red.

These dear girls write their own stories. I wait and listen or search for their meaning and sometimes I’m completely blown away by the way they show up. Often I’ll sit with a girl and study the painting. It feels as fresh and foreign to me as any stranger sometimes. Who is this person? What are they here for? Who do they belong to? What is it they want to say? As I studied Magdalena I realized she looks like a little angel. The white dots above her shoulders look like wings and she’s so ghostly white. And here she is in this gritty, nasty, dirty city – seemingly happy to be here. And that’s when it all started to come together. Here is the caption I wrote for Magdalena.