Leanne Shawler, Artist

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.