Leanne Shawler, Artist

 In 2018, I completed my first Mary Magdalene piece based on a theory I had stumbled across that Mary of Magdala was a nickname, like Peter the Rock. She was Mary the Tower, not Mary from Magdala. However, academics are not agreed on this. Not that it mattered because I took the idea and ran with it. (This is how stories happen.) Here is a video going through each of the women in her tower. (2:44 one) Each of the women in the first Mary Magdalene tower are: Prisca (an early apostle with Peter), Hildegarde of Bingen (medieval abbess, painter, writer, doctor, guide to leaders), Elizabeth I (guided England into the middle way between Catholicism and Protestantism), Anne Hutchinson (dared to teach about Christian faith, was booted out of the settlement and survived), Florence Li Tim Oi (first woman to be ordained a priest in 1944). And then 2020 happened. And I took a look at this painting that sits in my altar space and thought, in light of the injustices against people of color that ...

I knew for about a week that I needed to paint. To paint out my feelings onto the canvas. This color palette is not my usual color choices, it’s full of oranges and reds which are usually accent colors. The process and my thought process at the time is hard to describe but here are a few things I do remember, while painting out anxiety and anger. I painted my palms in red paint and pressed them again and again on the canvas.  For two weeks (not straight, mainly on weekends and half an hour here or there in the afternoons) I scribbled random marks and dripped alcohol ink, ink and fluid acrylics.  The delicious golden color started bringing a bit more calm. About midway, I saw the profile of a face in the marks and brought that to the forefront. She speaks waterfalls of truth. An initial splash of muted violet became mountains on the horizon and much later the ocean appeared at its feet.  I flung sprays of white paint at it (while listening to “White Women’s Toxic Te...

This art is flawed, imperfect, and doesn’t come near to what I had in my head, and it was my head from a month ago. If it exposes white bias, well, I will accept all noticing with humility, but acknowledging you’re under no obligation to do so. I know I have more work to do. I am learning more to do better. It was the second week of protests when I started this piece and I finished it around June 11. And then I sat on it because we were amplifying melanated voices and it wasn’t my time. I delayed longer because it felt like centering my white voice and this isn’t about me except in how I take action. Also, it’s personal processing. I’d been taking slow steps to learn more about racism (consistently studying it since late November) and then George Floyd and I really woke up along with many many others. I’m an artist, so an art challenge on mermaids and whales spurred me to process what I’ve been absorbing.  Two mermaids, one black, one white. I tried many ways as to how they s...

[posted on Facebook and Instagram on May 29, 2020 and I wanted to post it here as well.] I finished this painting and wrote the following before the latest witnessing of the deadly evils of racism in this country. There was no mercy, there was no justice, and I thought, how could I post this? So with that heaviness in my heart, I share the following, with the hope that when we remove the chains of racism from white hearts and BIPOC bodies, all of us will experience the relief and release of Divine mercy. May it be. I did not expect mercy to look this way. But as I grew closer to finishing the painting, I realized that mercy was more than I knew. But let me start at the beginning. When the pandemic started gaining ground in the United States, I continued to paint. The first painting I completed was a massive prayer to be saved from COVID-19. To be honest, it began really as a prayer for me and mine to be saved from the virus. But as I wrote my prayers across the canvas, it extend...

I wasn't quite sure if she was done after yesterday's painting session but I realized that there was one more layer of prayer to be added. So I quickly fired off a request for words to be added and did a last live session on Facebook -- and attempted it over on Instagram as well. Here's the video from the Facebook Live (I failed to save the Instagram Live one from a slightly different angle). And apologies for the muted sound, I was talking facing away from the iPhone so I didn't realize I needed to speak up a wee bit more. The words are: hope, safe, calm, mercy, presence, healing, joy, peace, thankful, breath, grace, community, beloved, remember, adapt, rooted, together And here she is all finished, pending final drying time and then covering in varnish. Close up details of the marks made by the rosemary "paintbrush":

I attended Flora Bowley's "Brave Intuitive Botanicals" class on Wednesday and we did some writing. In my case, that a sprig of rosemary was writing to me.  The timer was up before the letter was finished, but even so, her words are words you need to hear also, so I've done a bit of editing and put it in poem form below. I want you to know you are resilient.    Even through drought I have survived, you will survive too.  You are enough. Stay grounded,  be rooted in love. Shelter the birds, those who need you.  Keep safe by staying put.  I am full of fragrance that you love.  Your sweet medicine is useful and nourishes others.  I want you to know that all will be well, even through cataclysm and loss.  All will be well.  And you are loved. Love, Rosemary And as a graphic, using the page where I did a blind contour drawing of the rosemary sprig.

Where I sing snippets of various Ave Maria tunes learned while I do the repetitive act that is meditative and prayerful (interspersed with chatting with my one viewer), but aside from the opening summary, you'll miss all that unless you can find it on my Facebook feed. I also forgot to readjust the camera when I went back to work on the other wing. Sorry about that! And here's where we are at now:

Although the second painting session I had the camera rotated so that I was sideways the whole time, but I was able to fix that. Here's the sped up version below. And then I did another session the following day. This video is also sped-up because it turns out I hardly do any talking during these things. (The black bar is because the Facebook Live records it so that there are black bars on either side, so I zoomed in for a closer look.) I kept going after that, and here's where we are at now. I took it into the Procreate app as somebody spotted something which should have been obvious to me. As I couldn't unsee it, I needed to fix the issue.  I've resolved that now and see my way forward with this mock-up: This mockup will guide my process, the wings (that you can barely see in the image above as I'm still learning how to use Procreate on my iPad) will be quite different. And I need to keep working on her face and neck first, but I think I will d...

Holy cow. To be honest, I haven't listened to it yet, but I trust Christianne Squires when she says it gave her joy in editing this episode of her podcast.  Bear the Light is an interview-style podcast that shares how light is being brought into the world by all kinds of people in all kinds of ways, big or small. So you can listen to this "Bear the Light" episode via your favorite podcast app, or here on Christianne's website. I will circle back with additional thoughts after I've listened to it, and if you have any questions, please share them in the comments below.

For at least a month, I had the idea of to write about the souls of churches, but just never got around to it. And that turns out to be a good thing, because since COVID-19 cast its shadow of my city and my state, the idea of church has radically changed. I was going to write about walking into a church in Venice and knowing at once what kind of congregation inhabited it. There was a warmth and friendliness in the dark church of San Zulian, the nearest church to where I stayed. San Pantalon, which was three times the size, also had that warmth. It felt good to put in the requested Euros to light the ceiling. It felt like I was supporting the congregation.    There was an air of sorrow at this tiny church on the Guidecca canal. The Chiesa di Santa Maria della Visitazione was being used by the Biennale to showcase this large sculptural room but when I looked up — there were faces painted into the ceiling that looked like it was done in the 1500s. I felt like they were m...

And after I was done, had some more prayers! So here's the progress thus far (before I add the two new prayers): Not sure what will happen next, beyond the hypothetical I mention in the video. I've had a couple of more prayers to add since I went live and will go add those.

During this time of lockdowns and social distancing, I’ve felt this need to do something to help. Monday, I felt the call to let you all in on this. But let me start from the beginning, so you can understand my request. Last week, as COVID-19 ramped up in the United States, I remembered that I’d seen a painting in the Accademia or maybe it was Scuola Grande di Rocco (or maybe both) where the artist had created the painting as an act of devotion. I am pretty sure it was Tintoretto, but I have a vague memory of seeing also seeing a Tiepolo. At the time, I thought little about it and moved on to the next painting. But, now I remember it.  And I thought, what if I created a painting as an act of prayer to spare us from this current plague? I’ve entered into this very slowly and meditatively. First, the idea, then the next day, an idea of how to begin. I reset my little altar in my studio (a figurine of Mary, a candle, feather, shells, gemstones and seedpods), took the ...

Updated to add more resources.... It is just barely starting for us here, but I want to compile some links and ideas for things to do when you get stir-crazy, and you're done with your tele-working or making sure the kids have taken their class online: Bake or cook: hopefully you have stock on hand (my store was low on flour this morning) but if you like to bake or cook, now you finally have the time, and if you have kids that are old enough to help, teach them to cook! Make chicken stock (I've been saving odds and ends in the freezer) or muffins or brownies or bread. Either make what you need to enjoy over the next few days or freeze to eat later. Inventory your pantry, fridge and freezer -- what can you make out of what you've got? Put together a recipe list so you can pull something together. Short of meat? Can you convert a recipe to vegetarian and maybe a plant-based protein like beans? Visit museums online. You can tour 12 Museums online. That stack of va...

Well, I am not plastic-free, and won't be until someone comes up with ways to safely sell meat and cheese and crunchy chips without a ton of plastic.  But, there were a number of practices I took on last Lent and I thought you would be interested to see how I've been doing with them in the year since: this all started with silicone straws, and I'm continuing to use them although I'm fine in doing without straws altogether for most drinks. I did a wee backslide and got a drink at 38Degrees (plastic cup! plastic film! plastic straw because of boba!) but have been pretty much on the straight and narrow for this stasher bags -- Still using them instead of ziplocks for all manner of things, including freezing leftover raw meat, and now I have cute little Stasher pouches for my vitamin gummies as the ziplocks I was using and reusing were getting a bit bedraggled. Haven't really missed ziplock bags at all, except for the marinating of meat and storing end b...