By Elizabeth Nolen
This is the response to the invitation to share my soul’s creative expression with the WCCM community through these challenging times. These are a few of my favorite pieces painted in acrylic on paper and canvas in/through this pandemic.
I began painting intuitively in the summer 2014 in response to an unfamiliar energy I did not understand or could articulate. Life circumstances led me to discover my unique creativity finally expressing a part of me through painting and writing poetry drawn to the abstract, human form, and unblemished perfection of flowers.
A couple of my poems are published in Through Layered Limestone: A Texas Hill Country anthology of place, Patrick Heath Public Library, 2019 and I am in the midst of writing poetry for a book I hope to publish one day.
My prayer-life is my inspiration. My creative process stills me, feeds and releases my soul. My art is a tender loving relationship between my soul and mind. My art is not “perfect or correct.” My art is practicing resurrection. It has made me more vulnerable and my faith has made me an artist courageously sharing the depths of my soul with another.
My commitment to living a creative life as gift created by God is a daily ritual (habit cultivating style) engaging my mind, body, and soul with my senses manifesting my emerging “process.” It is a continuous cycle nurtured through journaling, prayer, and silence teaching me to notice, to be more aware, present, and mindful; patiently waiting, opening, holding, sitting with, listening to, letting go, observing, reflecting on and responding to what my soul longs to say; freeing me to empty myself reclaiming my true identity all at once knowing I am lovable deeply loved touched by God. Practicing creativity is prayer honoring my deepest self, welcoming the presence and action of God.
When a piece is finished, I sit with it in prayer holding it in humility wrapped in grace filled with joy thankful for the creative dance with God eventually letting it go, completing (healing) something in me; and, I begin the process again like a flower “passing through the point of perfection, spotting and browning, and twisting [its] way back to the earth” (inspired by photographer, Irving Penn).
As we continue to make this journey together, if you’d like to share your personal, creative response to the crisis, please send your contributions to comms@wccm.org
