ART and SOUL by Shayli Vere
Flexing our Visual Muscles
I know of another artist, a self described SOUL ARTIST, who developed a painting technique using your body as the brush, imprinting a shape, then instinctively adding color, shapes and images. This is also the art for process approach that assists us with understanding our body and seeing it in a new way.
Visual Language is a part of us, individually and collectively. Since the first cave drawings, we have expressed our need to communicate visually, sharing visions, beliefs, and experiences along the way. We passed along these visual clues for the next generational level of understanding and growth, contributing to our own evolution. In modern society, however, we have placed true art out of the reach and understanding of the masses. Instead, we have wasted our professional artists’ talents on commercial applications that pass on negative messages to our whole society. We have stopped teaching basic drawing and visual language, even though studies have revealed that we do better in math and geometry if this visual/artistic side of us is explored. We are cut off from our own visually-expressive voices and from the true voice of our full time creators. So, what have we got? A disconnected, angry, unfulfilled society, controlled, in part, by an overwhelming negative visual language. We have dismissed the power of visual language, but at the same time are controlled by it. By reconnecting and exercising our visual muscles we can begin to break this cycle as we learn to understand our true selves and our physical environment. We can also make new choices that support our wellness and growth, both individually and as a collective whole.
Letting Go from 'See' Collection - Shayli Vere
As a visual communicator, art for me has always been about self-exploration, a study of the visual clues that I have created. I believe that everyone can approach art as a natural human expression or a self-explorative tool. We do not need to be professional artists, but I believe we all need to be creatively connected. It is a huge part of who we are and how we understand ourselves, whether using photography, an art for process approach, self-portraiture techniques, or any other form of expression. It helps us to reconnect with our creative selves and flex our Visual Muscles - so we can once again see the beauty of humanity, our world, and each other, reconnecting the whole of our being.
So where do we start? I recently came across an ART FOR PROCESS approach and thought, that’s what I’ve been doing all along! I would instinctively choose colors and layers, not always with a vision of what I was to create, but just letting it all come out through the process. Creating for me has always been very intuitively led, without rules, and I was happy with the unexpected "mistakes". Even with a well planned piece, there must be a connection to the moment, for that is where all creation happens…. In the moment! There is such freedom in it, an expression of joy for me.
Towards Consciousness from 'See' Collection - Shayli Vere
Photography has also been a wonderful tool. In my early photographic work, I desperately needed to connect with my conscious, spiritual self. I did many self-portraits, trying to connect with my internal questions and answers. I would do a photo shoot alone, releasing emotions with movement, expressing that with a black and white print, perhaps taking it farther, adding paint, color, and texture. Always letting my intuition guide me. Later, with models, I used the human body and movement to express my deepest feelings, that were most important to me. All of these images were messages to myself, my visual communication from my own innter guide to me.
Sketching our environment can also help to connect us to ourselves and our world. If we sketch where we are, our environment, noticing the dance of light and shadow, we are paying attention to our world anc can begin to make sense of our place in it. Instead of just taking in what we are shown on television, billboards etc, we can make our own decisions of our physical world. We can connect with nature and search for our connections through the physical earth or Gaia. We can also use our camera to capture our environment, to really SEE our world, helping us to understand our place and connection in it. The important part is that we look!
When we begin to connect our visual language and start to express our creative voice, we can then begin to understand visuals on a whole other level. Recently my photographic work led me in the study of body identity issues with a dear friend expressing anorexia. Visual information is very connected to this disease, big surprise as we are a society so disconnected from our true selves that we’ve bought into the idea that happiness is a flat stomach. How powerful is that visual communication?! Seeing her body in an image forced her to see what she really looked like, not her distorted view in the mirror.
Continuing farther into understanding our visual language, we can research and create Sacred Geometry shapes. It is fascinating to study these repetitive geometric shapes that are found in all creation. I will devote a whole article to this shortly! Just with any muscles we train and flex we can then move on to a greater understanding of visual language and start to decipher more complicated messages and symbols.
Explore yourself visually, draw, photograph, mess it up and get dirty! There are wonderful lessons in creation, especially if we approach it with freedom and not any preconceived idea of what creation is supposed to be. Just explore, be fearless, let go, and have fun without those constricting judgments. See what comes out!
Also, notice what is in your visual path, in and outside of your home. You may just start to make some different choices with the knowledge of how our visual world contributes to our happiness and perceived identities. If you find your way to working out your Visual Voice, you will begin to understand your own identity, your place in the world, and the expression of it. As we all now seem to be looking for tools to help us relieve blockages and unhappiness, we can use Visual Language, Creation, and Exploration to assist us on our journey to ‘finding ourselves‘ while freeing us to fly into our new world.
Much Love Shayli
Towards Freedom from 'See' Collection - Shayli Vere
To See from 'See' Collection - Shayli Vere
Flower of Life
by
Keely Bays
Crown Chakra Meditation
Meditation Series
An artistic, visual exploration of
frequency and image sequences
What began as a personal exploration into sound frequency and sacred geometry, relating to the chakra points, is now becoming a Meditation Series. This Meditation is designed for the activation and opening of our 7th Chakra, the Crown.
Each sound, movement, color, and image in this meditation is here to help us attune and align with the frequency of the 7th Chakra. You are hearing the chakra 7’s 528 Solfeggio Frequency and notes in the key of B, as well as the vowel (high) eee.
Included are visual elements in the Crown color violet, as well as flashes of images to assist with our awakening. There are layers of the Flower of Life, and emanations of the Concentric Circle energy ripple, the water drop. This Meditation is intended to be an artistic, visual exploration. It is not meant as medical advice.
Namaste, Shayli
Purple Mandalas on this page
by Shayli Vere
(Headphones recommended!)
An offering from the Elemental Realm
For grounding and clearing energy, particularly that of the emotional body
_________________________________
Listen. Listen with your whole body. Listen with your belly, your skin …
Let the elements flow through, be with whatever comes up breathe, release...
Let go of your own personal ‘weather’. Let the elementals wash it away
Y
Elemental Symphony
by
Lisa Cole
ABOUT SHAYLI VERE
My Art is my Tool.
The Spirit is my Study.
The Search is my Passion.
I use visual language to study myself, humanity, our Identity, and currently, our Energy. Art has always been a tool for my Spiritual Search and Expression. I have loved and cried my way through my Art Collections, always being offered personal insight to my Life's Big Lessons ~ a blending of my Art and Soul.
Meditation Video Series * Creative Exploration Coaching * Energy Capture Portraiture
I hope to share with you my ART AS TOOL approach to assist you on your journey of self-discovery. Please visit my websites for more information. Or E-mail: shayli@starseedmedia.net
MULTIMEDIA
