To Martha

"Martha's Grotto Collage"

Today is my sister Martha 's birthday. From the moment that she was born, Martha was loved by each of us in our family. She has been, since she was very young, a ray of light and a source of joy and laughter. She is, at times, much related to the fairy kingdom. Plants flourish when she grows them. Hummingbirds, Orioles and birds of beautiful song flock to her property. A flower garden appeared out of nowhere the first year after she and her husband moved to her present home. She called it her Fairy Garden and said the birds must have brought the seeds.

Martha has been a rock to everyone and everything that she loves and has loved. She stands by them, loyally, and does whatever she can do to bring beauty, safety and happiness into their lives:Her pets; Her plants; Her friends; Her family. Martha is my sister, but she is also my friend. We have shared incredible and unforgettable moments together. We have laughed together until we could barely breath and tears were running down our faces. We have contemplated; argued; consoled; applauded; danced; played cards; worked; created; cooked; gardened; exercised,; lost weight; gained weight (without wanting to); appreciated; supported and cried together. We share a love of campfires, blues music, science fiction and fantasy movies and have spent rainy days watching all of the Lord of the Rings movies, back to back.

I was with her when her husband passed away last April and I have learned much about grief and grieving from her. The last year has been a time of sadness, surrealism and reconfiguring for her. Through it, Martha has exhibited grace under fire & deep compassion. She is re-birthing into discovering who she is without her husband. She is being birthed when she least expected it. For Martha, this year, I send light filled love and wish for her, safe passage to this new manifestation of herself. I wish for her deeper strength, greater joy, more expansive peace..and I wish for her fulfilling new beginnings that validate the gifts she has shared with others. Live long and prosper.

Who has touched your life and given you great joy? How can you honor the people you love? How have your sisters changed your life? Who do you know that is like a sister to you? What birthing is occurring for you, a friend or a family member at this time?

Transitions

Archway at The Grotto of Redemption, West Bend, IA

I am amazed to discover that I have not written an entry for almost two months. During this time many things have occurred that have deterred me from this. My scanner has a glitch that I have to figure out and get it back in working order. This prevents me from scanning art that I include with my posts. Without a scanner, I am adapting my methods and will be posting photographs I have taken until I get it working.

During my scanner-less-ness I have gone through a shift in my work focus which has created the need for some adaptations and new orientations in my life. My mechanical scanner may be out of sync, but my internal life scanner has been working overtime. Last year, I made the decision to place my dominant career focus up my art and soul healing work. Although I had transitioned from full-time work into working as a substitute employee, in April, I was presented with the possibility to apply for another full-time position at the same agency. The focus of this new job is more in alignment with my specific skills and work background than the previous work I have done there. Before applying for it, I had to scan my life: consider my goals; contemplate my personal mission statement; assess what I was willing to adapt and modify.

Engrossing myself in creating art and working at a job that is not typically art oriented has always been a struggle for me. Being fully present for one always seemed to overwhelm my ability to be fully present for the other. It has been an either/or dilemma for me that created frustration in my life. I felt like I was falling short of fully utilizing my true gifts if I inhibited my calling to create art. I felt like I was not constructing a legacy of substance and significance.

Charting our course in life begins the process of fulfilling who we are...once we set sail, guided by the map we have created to get us there, spirit will lead us away from or toward the channels that will ultimately allow us to travel to the most significant way we are to express our intentions. Artful healing is the process of creating a healing environment with an artful approach, regardless of the venue in which it is expressed. In applying for this job I made a major shift in my mental processing and gained the awareness of knowing that whatever art I did while fulfilling this job was enough. I realized that I could do both at the same time and that defining myself as an artist or, defining myself as anything, for that matter, was not important. I was called to embody what I knew but had not embraced.

In allowing myself to be resilient in thought, rather than rigidly holding on to thought patterns that I felt defined me, I have discovered something I had not expected: For the first time in a very long time I wake up looking forward to going to work.

When you scan your life, what is calling to you? What ways of being and thinking can you let go of to create an opening for new possibilities? How can you expand the way you are defining yourself? If you didn't define yourself in any way, would you fall apart or create a path for limitless possibilities?

Turtle Island

"Turtle Island"

Kate Jobe 4/2009

I began this mandala perhaps eight months ago with the intention of creating in a more earthy, and somewhat simple style. Being me, loving ornamentation, that didn’t happen. I found it this week and was inspired to recycle it. The more I worked on it, the turtles became more flamboyant. They are, after all, painted turtles and the focus of this piece was to celebrate and honor Mother Earth. So, my humble turtles have been transformed into highly embellished ones but venerable, nonetheless.

Turtle Grandmother is a symbol of Mother Earth. Turtle reminds us to slow down, look around at the world around us and to remember that all that we need is provided for us in the realms of Mother Earth: Her trees; Her lakes and rivers; Her grasses and flowers; Her animals and birds; Her sunsets and sunrises; The geography of her land…all have gifts of insurmountable beauty and resources to share with us. We will continue to be sustained by our beautiful planet if we reciprocate her generosity and take care of her.

Wherever Turtle travels she has her home upon her back. At all times, everything that she needs surrounds her. We carry everything we need within us…the spark of original joy…the comfort of our original peace that was infused in us at birth. We have to seek shelter within the home of our spirit, the compass that steers us toward truth, to experience more beauty and appreciation of the world around us.

To me, the alignment of the turtles shells in the North & South segments of this mandala resemble ornate tropical butterflies. On the medicine wheel the red road of the path of heart runs between the north and south. When we go within to the truth of our soul, we can determine what speaks to us with heart and meaning. Energized by passion for life, we rise beyond ourselves to reach greater heights of awareness and can then reach outward with a generosity of spirit.

We owe it to ourselves to nurture that inner spark…to cultivate it to its full bloom. We owe it to Mother Earth to be fully present for ourselves to allow us to take care of her in the best way possible. How can you further cultivate your spark of original joy and peace to it’s full bloom? How can you nurture and appreciate Mother Earth?

Listening for the Rainbow

"Listening for the Rainbow"

Kate Jobe 4/2009

The mandala featured above, "Listening for the Rainbow", with it's lines weaving together, some times in neat orderly rows and, in other segments, in a pattern that is in the process of being loosely formed, reminds me very much of fabric that has been created from mixed media processes...hand-drawn fabric resembling a crazy quilt or a tapestry embellished with texture, color and the sheen of gold metallic glitter. As I contemplate it further, the mandala speaks to me of the fabric that defines us, woven together from the threads and colors of a multitude of processes, interactions and knowledge gleaned from everyone who has touched our lives. Many of the individuals who have added to the richness that makes us who we have become are people we have never met and perhaps, never will:authors of books whose words resonated passion within us and supported our values;politicians, scientists, visual artists,actors and musicians whose work assisted in forming the direction of the roads we traveled in life; and ancestors...born generations before us...who have gifted us with genetic assets that resonate within our cells and whisper directives to us as we create our lives. We are the vehicles chosen to act upon the inspiration whispered to us by all of these people, as well as the ones that form, or have formed, an active part of our lives. They are all a part of our web. We are their gift and they are ours.

What significant threads woven into the tapestry of your life were created by people you have never met? What dominant threads were created by people you know or knew? How did each of them change the course of your life? What new threads or embellishments are being formed?

Ganesha's Labyrinth

"Ganesha's Magic Labyrinth"

Kate Jobe 3/30/09

Illusion builds
the bones that bridge
Ganesha’s
magic labyrinth.
Listen.
The dance of
laughter shines through…
revealing golden keys
cascading
from shrouds
veiling open
doorways:
Breathe Trust.
Pray Forgiveness.
Embrace Love.
Inhale Truth.

Plunge

into

the flowing stream.
Be Abundance.

The mandala art featured above began as a rambling doodle that evolved into the image of an elephant and as I continued to embellish it, I transformed it into a mandala. The poem came after I meditated while focusing upon the image. I then researched the symbolic meaning of Ganesha, a Hindu deity, here and here (among many other sites), and discovered that Ganesha, while generally depicted as red, is also shown in blue or pink. Ganesha can have a snake draped across him and has a silver or gold crown with a red ruby on his forehead. He is sometimes shown with long flowing locks of hair. Upon reading this information, I was, once more, affirmed of how, when we allow ourselves to be guided by our intuition, we are more in touch with the interconnectedness of all things than we can imagine. Ganesha brings the gifts of wisdom and abundance and is said to both place obstacles before us to keep us on our right path and to also assist us to remove the obstacles from out paths. Many times in my life, I have been frustrated by challenges that I perceived as deterrents from what I wanted to be doing. Sometimes they were in the form of timing; Sometimes jobs or relationships, or lack of one of these, that created the challenge for me. As time passed, I would eventually unveil a greater gift that was woven into the guise of my challenge. These keys to awareness allowed me to see that I had skills I had not realized I possessed, or taught me how to stand stronger for myself, which ultimately led me to pursuits I would previously not have attempted.

When you look back over the challenges in your life that you resisted, what gifts did you eventually find within them? What challenges are facing you now that are waiting to be transformed into greater wisdom, truth or abundance for you?

Celebrating the Year of the Woman

2009 is the Year of the Woman and Sunday was the International Day of the Woman. The art featured above, "Sharing the Dance," is a vibrant, but dream-like representation of the joyous power that occurs when women are united, sharing their gifts to accomplish great things, but at the same time, are able to maintain their individuality. In addition, it a symbolic depiction of the maturation phases of a woman's life.

This year, the Omaha YWCA has allowed me to re-introduce the "Sharing the Dance" print, which I originally created for their 100th anniversary, 15 years ago, to sell in a smaller poster size version. I am offering this to you in an 11" x 17" size, printed on 80# paper with a satin finish for only $20.00 + $5.00 shipping and handling if you need it sent to you. If you order now, I will also sign your posters.

8" x 10" copies of the segments of the picture ("Beginning the Dance"; "Nurturing the Dance"; "Honoring the Dance" & "Rejoicing in the Dance") are also available for sale for $15.00 each.

If you order more than one poster, I will only add $1.00 extra above the $5.oo shipping charge $5.00 shipping charge/per each additional one for the shipping charges. (ex.: 2 "Sharing the Dance" posters = 2($20.00)+ $5.00+$1.00 = $46.00 Total Additional

To purchase, contact me @ my email address kjjobe@gmail.com and tell me how many you want and I will let you know where to send your check or money order. Turn around time should be within a week after I receive your check. Art will be mailed to you in a mailing tube or mailing envelope.

To view all of these pieces and to read the narrative on these works, you can access my blog at this link . Be sure to begin @ the post at the top and read down to see all five entries.

Please Pass the link to this blog post along to anyone that you think would want to purchase one of these. They make great gifts: birthday; celebration; new mother; friendship; life passage event; etc.... for all the special women you know...young or old....they would make wonderful Easter or Mother's Day gifts

Love: A Rose Unfolding

My seven year old granddaughter, Maddie, spent Friday and Saturday night with me. Her paternal grandfather unexpectedly passed away this week and, to allow her parents more time to spend with family and friends after the funeral luncheon was over, I asked her to spend some time with me. On the way to my house, we bought ice cream cones and ate them outside on a remarkably warm Friday afternoon. Later, we selected sympathy cards for her father and grandmother and then went out for Chinese food. On the way, we purchased stick-on faux fur moustaches that both of us wore while talking to each other in manly voices. Our conversations were minimal because Maddie kept having hysterical fits of laughter.

Without coming out and saying it directly, Maddie let me know that she needed my attention and needed to be close to me. At night when the lights were out and she was cuddled next to me in bed, she would sometimes talk about what had happened that week. She wanted to know if I had cried at all at the funeral and when I affirmed that I had, Maddie told me that she had cried some at school that week when she thought about her grandfather. After we talked we played what she calls, "The Bird Game," which involves listening to peaceful music with our eyes closed, while we take turns telling each other what bird we are seeing. The game never fails to rapidly relax her and put her to sleep.This evening we saw a white crane, a small songbird, an eagle, a golden oriole, a golden fox, a brown bear and a Pegasus.

Together, we planned and prepared a menu of hamburgers, chips and fresh fruit in yogurt to serve on Saturday night. Maddie sat the table with celedon green plates and cobalt blue water glasses and entertained herself, as well as me and our dinner guest, my sister, by telling lively stories and making up jokes that were truly, very funny. After dinner Maddie began creating mandalas. She drew the one above, a free-form spiral, with chalk pastels on paper, selecting the colors by herself and carefully blending them until they merged together. She made a mandala for her paternal grandmother and a stunning crosshatched turtle mandala that she collaged onto black paper with a silver metallic paper heart. She drew mandalas with angels on them and she cut out a little paper heart for her aunt. It's message, very simply, but poignantly filled with love, said, "Why are you so sad? I love you."

Maddie is not consciously aware that making mandalas can assist with others healing, but she very clearly knows that sharing her heart is important when the people she loves are sad or in pain. She instinctively knows that creating art and finding ways to make her laugh will help her to feel good when she needs grounding. Like most children, Maddie may not always be able to succinctly express her feelings with words, but sometimes, words are not necessary. When love is present, it is enough.

Is there someone on your life that needs the simplicity of your love and compassion?