Coloring to maintain and reaffirm spiritual direction is an underlying purpose of my art. Since I first drew my winged heart in 1980 with the words “always follow your heart in all ways”, my art has been a spiritual exercise that has aligned me with my Soul, though I don’t think I realized that for a long time.
As a therapist, I often led art therapy groups or encouraged people to express themselves using art in some form or another, depending on their interests. However, for me, art has never really been about releasing, expressing or purging feelings as much as lifting above the negative thoughts and feelings of depression, grief and anxiety. It is how my Soul calls me to refocus, regroup and recharge.
During the past month, I have been working on a watercolor version of the coloring page I called “Reaching for the Light” and shared on Facebook on January 8, 2016. The haiku reads:
reaching for the stars
wrapped in starlight, heart in hand
where dreams may lead
Usually, I will design a drawing or painting and then create the coloring page later. This time, I used images – the open flower, the globe and the girl – that I had created years ago for different projects, added the stairs and stars; combining them all to express an inner vision.
I have since edited it to simplify the stars around the body. (oh – that is another story and I now have learned more about how to do that and stay sane!) I have been taking a classes in Illustrator and Photoshop. I continue to slowly learn bits and pieces of the many tools to make editing and creating easier. I also added the winged heart….so here is another version. 
The image continues to “morph” inside of me in its creative unfolding and more recently I felt called to do a simple watercolor. I still find that hands on, with pencil or paintbrush, I feel closer to my “purpose” and the feeling of the vision, than when working on the computer.
So this month, I created a simple version of the image in watercolor. Here is the process of drawing and painting.
This time I am calling it “Eyes on You”.
Here is the final version, scanned, edited a bit in Photoshop, given a frame with simplified haiku added…..
I come unadorned
keeping my eyes on You, Lord
my heart is the gift
The original haiku was two lines longer:
I come unadorned
keeping my eyes on You, Lord
wrapped in Holy Light
asking for Your Grace
my heart is the gift
My month of “coloring on purpose” has been a sweet journey to align with spiritual purpose and to reaffirm and deepen spiritual direction. The added blessing was the joy of drawing and painting and watching a vision come to life on paper.
I am providing a link to download the pdf of the coloring page if you are reading this far and would like to use it to support your own journey to the center of your heart.
click on the link to open the coloring page
May you be blessed by the beauty of your own Heart Light.
I would love to hear how you use your creativity to support your own spiritual journey!