These are few of the mandalas from my book Awakened By The Flowers: Channeled Messages and Watercolor Mandalas. They are being exhibited now at the Community Center in Capitola, California, so if you are unable to go to the exhibit, you can see them here, each with an excerpt from the book. The basic message of the book is this, which I received from St. Francis: When you heal your earth body, through the work with the colors, then you will heal your spirit body. And when you heal your spirit body you may enter into the realm of the divine cosmos and flow with all love, all harmony, all unity. This will open you to such joy you have never know, and this is where the real adventures begin.
White: In the Arms of the All
My heart had been aching as if a flame of love were in it, and it felt really quite wonderful. When I saw the beautiful white calla lily, I perceived a similar flame within it. Now, how to capture that? As I painted I felt myself letting go and going into the white and being enveloped in a force, an energy I could feel but couldn’t see with my normal vision. Being with white, which is all color and no color, and breathing it in from the reflected light in the garden, was profound. It amazed me in its power. 15”x 15”
Red-Violet: The Grace of Love
The color of this friendly pansy electrified me when I saw it in my flower garden. It caught my attention and took my breath away; I loved that. I worked diligently to get the color just right. As I completed it, the pansy seemed to call for the five-point star over its five petals. White Eagle, one of my spiritual teachers, says that the five-point star is a symbol for the awakening of consciousness, and indicates that the light is beginning to dawn on those who seek it. 15”x 15”
Iris and Triangle
With a triangle gently super-imposed over it, this butterfly iris appeared to me one day in meditation. It gave me the impression it was from another dimension. The petals seemed to be reaching to the heavens like hands together in prayer and blessing. There is no flower I’ve painted more often than the iris. I’ve always had such a strong attraction to it, even before I knew that the iris, for me, was a symbol of St. Francis. 15″ x 15″
Opening to Indigo
It was important for me to remember the full significance of the painting when it was chosen for this book. St. Francis was the first teacher who came to me and whose words I transcribed. When he first spoke to me in my garden in 1987, the initial sign that he was there came when “Francis” appeared to be written across the top of my forehead. At first I really did not know which “Francis” it was. When I asked, the old fresco from Assisi, St. Francis Preaching to the Birds, popped into my mind. “Oh, Saint Francis!” I said, bursting into tears and feeling humbled, honored and not at all prepared for the visitation. An indigo-colored iris appeared in my mind and I took it to be a symbol of him. 22″ x 22″
Cactus Over Cross
This is a prickly pear cactus which is growing in the gardens of the California Mission San Juan Bautista, just outside the chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It got my attention with its wonderfully expressive shape and the various greens accented with reds. The gardens have such a beautiful spirit and I have spent some peaceful days painting there. The day I painted this, I was with a group of like-minded friends who had gathered to paint, after first meditating together. 15″ x 15″
Opening to Yellow
This is a prickly pear cactus which is growing in the gardens of the California Mission San Juan Bautista, just outside the chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It got my attention with its wonderfully expressive shape and the various greens accented with reds. The gardens have such a beautiful spirit and I have spent some peaceful days painting there. The day I painted this, I was with a group of like-minded friends who had gathered to paint, after first meditating together. 22″ x 22″
The Rose in My Heart
I first saw the rose in my heart after my granddaughter was born. Following her arrival, I sat in my garden contemplating what a profound event her birth had been for me. Overcome with emotion, I saw a red rose in my heart on fire. It felt like my heart had never quite opened in the way it was opening with her birth. She is so special to me. She was born about six months before I began this book, and it never occurred to me that that rose would be part of the book. NFS
Unity
A few nights before New Year’s Eve, 1999, an image came to me in a dream. The image was of a plant, with many large, bluish-green flowing leaves, all coming from one center, and rooted in the earth. The leaves moved and flowed independently in the gentle wind and it was very peaceful. I knew in the dream that this was to be a symbol for New Year’s Eve, as we crossed into the new millennium. And, so, on that much awaited eve, I participated in the world event by painting the image of the plant—which became a flower! NFS
Connecting to Mary: All Things Begin With This
After my husband and I had moved back to the Santa Cruz area, I had the following dream. I was standing on a balcony at night and as I looked toward the ocean I saw something floating toward me on a cloud. As it got closer I saw that it was a white calla lily, and as it came overhead, it turned into the Virgin Mary. She was standing within an arch and was surrounded by little pink roses. She floated by and walked off into the clouds. I was very moved by this dream and wanted to paint her, but was unsure how to begin. I didn’t paint people—and especially saints! The image of her was reminiscent of images I had seen in art history and so I finally did assemble her likeness by piecing together images I’d gathered in my art history books. That was how I created and painted my first Mary. 15″ x 15″
Fullness
“It’s OK to grow and bloom. It’s OK to be who you are,” I heard this within and wrote in my journal. It came from what felt like an inner spiritual guide. This mandala is from a vision I had of a very large, white hydrangea blossom. As I saw it, it seemed that it represented one’s fullest potential, to blossom fully and be oneself. “What would that be like? What would I be like if I bloomed fully and purely?” I wondered. “A vision of purity,” I heard as I wrote. “I imagine it would be a vision of such incredible beauty and light that it would be like the lyrics of a song ‘Blinded by the Light,’” I wrote. “Wouldn’t that be something,” I mused. NFS
The Transformation of Mary
The mandala came from an inner vision. I saw a dendrobium orchid over the face of Mary. It was powerful and very beautiful. The orchid seemed to be me as a little girl, delicate and soft. It felt like it was a view of a part of me which had been hidden and was not at all like my usual self. I got the sense that this little girl felt vulnerable and afraid of wanting to be loved and cared for. It made me cry to feel the softness of the divine Mary taking care of and protecting me. I asked, “Could someone like that really care for me?” I heard, “Let the love in.” 15″ x 15″
Exploding Berries: Finding My Way to the Connection of the Universe
“The berries burst. The bubbles burst. The boundaries burst. Finding my way to the connection of the universe.” That is what I wrote on the back of this painting before I started it. The mandala is a chalice full of fruit—lemons, grapes, peaches, pears, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries. They seemed to want to explode—to burst beyond their boundaries. It is a joyous explosion, about energy that cannot be contained any longer. And, in its breaking of boundaries, it joins other energies in the universe and connects on a higher level with the cosmos. 15″ x 15″
The Rose in My Heart II
When I saw the poster about a play of the Guadalupe with rose petals on it I got choked up and thought, “Those rose petals are activating the rose in my heart, which I had originally seen following my granddaughter’s birth. How is this all connected—Mary, my granddaughter, and me?” Then I felt my chest fill up with roses. It was just incredible. I had the thought that the Mother was leaving an impression on my heart as she had done so long ago in Juan Diego’s beautiful vision of our Lady of Guadalupe. As I grasped for meaning, I wondered if that could be possible. NFS
The Birds Came
The day the birds came and sang their hearts out was a significant one for me. I had written in my journal, “I woke up sad and the birds came. I saw little birds in my Cecile Brunner rose trees. I saw the rose leaves and the budding pink roses and the birds came in—there were lots of sparrows and even a hummingbird.” I really hate waking up sad. It is really hard to feel grief and I don’t like it at all. I am told it is the hardest emotion to feel. It is easier to feel other emotions instead. 15″ x 14 3/4″
You Can Be Yourself: Message From My Wheel Of Life
I was seeing bouquets of yellow violas which appeared to be a gift for me. Why the violas? I felt the violas were coming to me to give me a new life’s message. This was the message and I put it in the center of the painting: “You can be yourself, beautiful and good. Bring out your smiling face and share your joy, let the joy come through you. Express it, Express yourself. Share it. You are beautiful. Remember that always.”8.5″ x 8.5”
For It Is i
n Giving
This painting is used as a divider between parts in the book and doesn’t have an explanation of it anywhere in the text. I offer one here: In the center of this painting is an image from a fresco of St. Francis feeding the birds. Surrounding him are iris, roses, butterflies and fish—some of the nature he loved. Because of my relationship with St. Francis, this painting is a tribute to him. The title comes from the prayer of St. Francis: “…for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.” My “Awakening” was truly “dying” to my former life. NFS
Available Work
Some of the above original paintings are for sale. The 15″ are $500 unframed. The 22″ paintings are $600 unframed. The 8.5″ painting is $300.
