I finally got back into my daily restorative yoga practice this week, and my body is so grateful! The trick, of course, is to do it before I turn on the computer in the morning. This is much easier to do now that I’ve completed my “Inspirational Quotes for the Creative Soul” project – quotes on 180 of my paintings/photographs delivered once a day on my Facebook Page until July 15th. I’ve started other tax, writing, and art-business training projects though, so I’ll have to keep reminding myself to start my days with yoga – I can feel the difference all day long.
This week’s workshop was a natural follow-up to last week’s. We studied how to make Thangka paintings, an ancient Tibetan Buddhist style of art used as a teaching, devotional, or meditation tool. Our teacher, Timea Tallian, spent 6 months in the Himalayan country of Bhutan working with Thangka masters there, adding to her wealth of artistic, technical, and spiritual knowledge. I always learn so much from her. When we came in on Monday, we were greeted with our biggest altar yet – which included various books, sacred objects, inspirational tools, and loads of art supplies she had picked up the week before in London’s Chinatown. We started our week with a few breathing exercises and chanting to Tara, the “mother of liberation”, who represents. amongst other things, the virtues of success in work and achievements, enlightened activity, and compassion.
Thangka painting isn’t about creativity or imagination – it’s a craftsmanship that requires years of training. Young Buddhist monks train for 10 years in order to be able to copy all of the symbols by heart, make their own paints, learn each figure’s dimensions and sacred geometry, etc.
Day 1: Line Drawings
Unlike these monks, we only had a week. Therefore, on Day 1, we used the photocopier and various copying techniques to create our own thangka drawing. One technique is to apply powered pigment on the back of our chosen symbols with a small burlap pouch and then trace on top to leave the pigment on our papers and then affix the design with pencil.
Another is to pounce holes along the design and then tap the pigment pouch on top, which leaves a dotted design that we can then draw in with a pencil. This is great if you’re using the same design several times.
We all got to choose symbols that appealed to us to decorate around our double dorje. Some of us went simple and others got very intricate. Once we were done, we used special Chinese paint brushes to practice ink line drawing – not as easy as it looks. I had heard an artist talking about turning the paintbrush in her hand while painting – when I asked Timea if she did this, she realized she had been doing it unconsciously all these years. I’m both needing and appreciating the practice in fine line work with a paintbrush. I ended up buying one of Timea’s curved chipmunk hair brushes from India as they’re great for curves and spirals.
Bella’s
Mine on Day 1
Mine
Martin’s
Mine – I did a second the second day – improvement!
Day 2 – Shading & Paint Making
On Tuesday, after a bit of Kundalini Yoga, thanks to Martin, we continued working with ink and then shading – either with ink or pencils. I used a simple black drawing pencil to do mine. What I like about the Thangka style of shading is that it’s a whole lot easier than the western style, where it has to replicate what we see in real life – light direction, cast shadows, reflected light etc. In this style, all you have to do is make sure that light is against dark and dark is against light. The light is usually on the outside. That’s it. That’s good!
Mine
Bella = http://www.bella-volen.com/news.html
Vera’s
In the afternoon, Timea gave a lecture on traditional pigments and paint-making before we got into it ourselves. Although we did use animal glue and powdered pigments, we also used gouache colours from the tube to mix into them. As I said, we don’t have 10 years, only a week, so no sitting for hours grinding malachite into a fine powder…
Timea
Kevin
Day 3: Painting
I truly appreciated our opening circle on Wednesday. We chanted and OMed, but we also participated in a sacred ritual that resonated deeply within me. I often start my painting sessions by smudging the studio and blessing all of my supplies, praying, etc. On this day, we did that as a group. While chanting, we passed each of the containers of paint that we had mixed the day before around the circle. We each stirred each one, focusing on an intent/ prayer for each. We had a lot of colours, so I had the opportunity to pray for loved ones experiencing challenges, for all of humanity, animals, Mother Earth, living with purpose and passion, unconditional love for all, etc. Those were only my consecrations – can you imagine how beautifully infused those colours were by the end – not to mention well mixed? Wow!
As you may have read in my last post, I had a challenging day on Wednesday – I’m sure our morning circle helped – in many ways.
Timea demonstrating
Timea demonstrating
For the rest of the day, we painted. This was our last practice exercise before starting our individual projects. Our task was to use our gouache paints on top of an acrylic ground that had been applied on a photocopied image – the same for everyone. Timea demonstrated and we spent hours painting with these creamy colours that felt very much like my beloved Golden Fluid acrylics.
Mine
photo by Florence
Once we were done, Timea showed us how rubbing the back of the image with a crystal pressed the pigment in and smoothed out the image. For smaller parts, we could do the front without fear of all our flaws being revealed.
Although we all worked with the same image and colours, the results were all quite different – beautiful work everyone!
Lizzy’s
Timea’s
Florence’s
Sara’s
Sara
Timea & Sara
Rachel’s
Day 4: Personal Projects
On Thursday before Ernst Fuch’s birthday, Friday & Saturday, we worked on personal projects inspired by what we learned this week.
Martin
Vera
Vera’s – http://seelenmaler.net/about/
Rachel’s
Florence
Martin – http://www.facebook.com/mcasharts
Sara
I was inspired by a painting I saw in a calendar and went out to buy myself a canvas to play on, starting with the way I’ve been painting for years – on the floor, with lots of water and fluid paints. What fun! After spending a few hours fanning it and working on my design of a tree of life and of a Buddha based on a photo of a sculpture, I glazed the whole thing in yellow. On Saturday, after a 4.5 hour hiking excursion (photos in next post tomorrow), I went into school for 7.5 more hours of work on this project. I wanted to bring back some of the original colours and so I added more water & colours – they looked great wet, but my experiment using zinc white (which is transparent) vs. titanium white (which is opaque) led to all the colours drying too dark. I got a lot of great coaching by Timea today, as well as by Martin (a classmate). I added a bit of a foreground by darkening the front with a purple glaze and will work on lightening the edge so that it’s light against dark and dark against light. I did some of that too around the tree and birds inside the circle. I’m learning so much and still have more to learn. I look forward to Monday/Tuesday when I can work on it some more.
with yellow glaze
While still wet
unfinished
Photo by Florence
photo by Florence
Oh – on Saturday, Timea demonstrated airbrushing – I could have fun with this!
Celebrations:
At the end of the day on Friday, Laurence surprised Florence with a bouquet of flowers and their son Clovis gallantly presented a single rose to everyone in the class. Laurence gave his to Edgar 🙂 While he was out, Florence left class to pick up a delicious chocolate cake for Laurence’s birthday and we enjoyed that with a glass of champagne (or orange juice in my case). Nice!
What a great week! We’ll be spending Monday & Tuesday working on several projects from the two Intensives, and so there will be more fun & photos to follow.
Things are Looking Up – Vienna’s Architectural Details
/in My Travels, Vienna - Life and TourismIf you click on one, you can then proceed through them at full-screen. If you’re a subscriber, you can click on the blue title in this email to go to my blog page, where the photos are displayed in a gallery.
Intensives Wrap-Up + First Painting For Sale!
/in Paintings, Vienna Academy of Visionary ArtsAs you may have already read, we’ve been very busy at The Vienna Academy of Visionary Art. We had two 6-day Intensive Workshops in the last two weeks – Spark in the Void and Thangka Painting. Six days each wasn’t enough though, so we extended the workshops into this week. Vera and Timea came to school on Monday and Tuesday to assist us with our various projects. Beforehand, though, Timea gave us a very informative lecture on colour properties & mixing. Although we were using gouache and the colours we talked about were traditional Thangka colours, the information will be very useful for my work with acrylics, saving me a lot of money in the long run – instead of buying 30 different colours, I may buy half of that and mix my own.
The Mandala:
We only did a partial closing ceremony with this mandala (which included chanting to Padmasambhava) as there are still a few finishing touches to make. Although a lot of love, energy, mantras, and intentions have already been infused in this collaborative piece, we will empower it further when it’s completely done by writing Om Ah Hung in Tibetan on the back of the canvas, behind the figure at the forehead, throat, and heart chakras. I’m truly in awe every time my eyes rest on this beautiful piece- it affects me on many levels.
Individual Projects
Students flowed between their various projects and the mandala during our two days of the Intensives Wrap-Up and some into Wednesday, this week’s studio day (for all Academy projects).
Finally Finished my First Painting!
Those of you who have known me for a while know that when I paint, I usually work on about 5-10 paintings at a time, 12-16 hours a day, for days or weeks at a time. I get into the flow and unless I’m working with thick layers of gels/mediums that take weeks to dry (especially in humid Newfoundland), I stay in that flow until they’re finished. Then I take time off to take care of other aspects of the business or do other things until the next painting marathon. That’s the groove I work best in. It’s a truly connected state of mind and spirit (some may say obsessive, but I prefer meditative) and it feeds my soul. It’s been challenging, therefore, for me to start a whole bunch of projects here at the Academy and never get around to finishing them – whether it’s because it takes weeks for layers of oil paint to dry before I can glaze again or because we’re going from one class to another, one project to another. We spend 8 hours a day at least 5 days a week at school, but I hadn’t completed one painting in 5.5 months! Well now I have! Yay! It feels great. On Wednesday, I applied a final UV protective archival varnish to “Cosmic Vision” – a piece that’s very much in my style, but integrates some of what I’ve been learning, especially about transparency, glazing over whites, dimensionality, and brush work. I spent most of 5 days working on this piece with short lunch breaks and occasional visits to the mandala. To follow up on what I wrote about this painting in a previous post, it was infused with sacred ritual, energy, and intentions (something I’ve done with my artwork for years)- but this time it was also empowered by writing OM in Sanskrit in the back of the circle and Om Ah Hung in Tibetan in the back of the Buddha.
Vienna City Hike #3 – Hameau
/in My Travels, Vienna - Life and Tourismpanning with the camera
Yay! It feels great! Not only did I get out on Saturday morning for a 3.5+ hour hike after spending so much time crossed-legged on the floor painting this week, I’m back on track in terms of doing Vienna’s Hiking Paths in order. That same part of my brain that likes to finish one book or project before starting another feels much better now that I’ve done City Hike #3 – Hameau. If you’ll remember, I had skipped it to do the much shorter Hike #4 on a cold day when I had very little energy. Then again, I haven’t done 1A, right next to Hike 1 because I’m saving it for when the grapes are growing again. Somehow, my brain has no issues with that.
dancing with the camera
Highlights:
The Lowlight:
I made it to school by 12pm, even before the teacher, and had a very productive day working on my painting. As for today, it’s a home day. A bit of writing and photo editing, a bit of studying, a couple of loads of laundry, a movie or two, and perhaps more cooking. Life is good indeed!
“Thangka Painting” – This Week’s Intensive
/in Vienna Academy of Visionary ArtsThangka painting isn’t about creativity or imagination – it’s a craftsmanship that requires years of training. Young Buddhist monks train for 10 years in order to be able to copy all of the symbols by heart, make their own paints, learn each figure’s dimensions and sacred geometry, etc.
Day 1: Line Drawings
Unlike these monks, we only had a week. Therefore, on Day 1, we used the photocopier and various copying techniques to create our own thangka drawing. One technique is to apply powered pigment on the back of our chosen symbols with a small burlap pouch and then trace on top to leave the pigment on our papers and then affix the design with pencil.
Another is to pounce holes along the design and then tap the pigment pouch on top, which leaves a dotted design that we can then draw in with a pencil. This is great if you’re using the same design several times.
We all got to choose symbols that appealed to us to decorate around our double dorje. Some of us went simple and others got very intricate. Once we were done, we used special Chinese paint brushes to practice ink line drawing – not as easy as it looks. I had heard an artist talking about turning the paintbrush in her hand while painting – when I asked Timea if she did this, she realized she had been doing it unconsciously all these years. I’m both needing and appreciating the practice in fine line work with a paintbrush. I ended up buying one of Timea’s curved chipmunk hair brushes from India as they’re great for curves and spirals.
Day 2 – Shading & Paint Making
On Tuesday, after a bit of Kundalini Yoga, thanks to Martin, we continued working with ink and then shading – either with ink or pencils. I used a simple black drawing pencil to do mine. What I like about the Thangka style of shading is that it’s a whole lot easier than the western style, where it has to replicate what we see in real life – light direction, cast shadows, reflected light etc. In this style, all you have to do is make sure that light is against dark and dark is against light. The light is usually on the outside. That’s it. That’s good!
In the afternoon, Timea gave a lecture on traditional pigments and paint-making before we got into it ourselves. Although we did use animal glue and powdered pigments, we also used gouache colours from the tube to mix into them. As I said, we don’t have 10 years, only a week, so no sitting for hours grinding malachite into a fine powder…
Day 3: Painting
I truly appreciated our opening circle on Wednesday. We chanted and OMed, but we also participated in a sacred ritual that resonated deeply within me. I often start my painting sessions by smudging the studio and blessing all of my supplies, praying, etc. On this day, we did that as a group. While chanting, we passed each of the containers of paint that we had mixed the day before around the circle. We each stirred each one, focusing on an intent/ prayer for each. We had a lot of colours, so I had the opportunity to pray for loved ones experiencing challenges, for all of humanity, animals, Mother Earth, living with purpose and passion, unconditional love for all, etc. Those were only my consecrations – can you imagine how beautifully infused those colours were by the end – not to mention well mixed? Wow!
As you may have read in my last post, I had a challenging day on Wednesday – I’m sure our morning circle helped – in many ways.
For the rest of the day, we painted. This was our last practice exercise before starting our individual projects. Our task was to use our gouache paints on top of an acrylic ground that had been applied on a photocopied image – the same for everyone. Timea demonstrated and we spent hours painting with these creamy colours that felt very much like my beloved Golden Fluid acrylics.
Once we were done, Timea showed us how rubbing the back of the image with a crystal pressed the pigment in and smoothed out the image. For smaller parts, we could do the front without fear of all our flaws being revealed.
Although we all worked with the same image and colours, the results were all quite different – beautiful work everyone!
Day 4: Personal Projects
On Thursday before Ernst Fuch’s birthday, Friday & Saturday, we worked on personal projects inspired by what we learned this week.
I was inspired by a painting I saw in a calendar and went out to buy myself a canvas to play on, starting with the way I’ve been painting for years – on the floor, with lots of water and fluid paints. What fun! After spending a few hours fanning it and working on my design of a tree of life and of a Buddha based on a photo of a sculpture, I glazed the whole thing in yellow. On Saturday, after a 4.5 hour hiking excursion (photos in next post tomorrow), I went into school for 7.5 more hours of work on this project. I wanted to bring back some of the original colours and so I added more water & colours – they looked great wet, but my experiment using zinc white (which is transparent) vs. titanium white (which is opaque) led to all the colours drying too dark. I got a lot of great coaching by Timea today, as well as by Martin (a classmate). I added a bit of a foreground by darkening the front with a purple glaze and will work on lightening the edge so that it’s light against dark and dark against light. I did some of that too around the tree and birds inside the circle. I’m learning so much and still have more to learn. I look forward to Monday/Tuesday when I can work on it some more.
Oh – on Saturday, Timea demonstrated airbrushing – I could have fun with this!
Celebrations:
At the end of the day on Friday, Laurence surprised Florence with a bouquet of flowers and their son Clovis gallantly presented a single rose to everyone in the class. Laurence gave his to Edgar 🙂 While he was out, Florence left class to pick up a delicious chocolate cake for Laurence’s birthday and we enjoyed that with a glass of champagne (or orange juice in my case). Nice!
What a great week! We’ll be spending Monday & Tuesday working on several projects from the two Intensives, and so there will be more fun & photos to follow.
Happy Birthday Ernst Fuchs!
/in Vienna Academy of Visionary ArtsInternationally renowned artist Ernst Fuchs celebrated his 84th birthday today and the staff and students of the Vienna Academy of Visionary Arts were invited to his private afternoon party at the Fuchs Villa (see earlier post for photos of this amazing house/museum!). Professor Fuchs is a co-founder of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism and is our director Laurence Caruana’s mentor / teacher.
Happy Birthday Ernst Fuchs!
Interestingly, it’s also Laurence’s birthday later this week. Happy Birthday Laurence!
The Real Test of Every Day Life
/in Inspiration, Vienna Academy of Visionary ArtsI’m afraid to report that Wednesday was a tough day for me, at times – completely by choice. As one of my mentors, Dr. Greg Baer of RealLove.com says, “Every single time we become anxious or doubtful or irritated, we must first forget the love and vast potential of joy available to us.” How true. On Wednesday, I would forget, remember, forget, remember – you get the picture. The loads of sugar I ate when Kevin graciously brought in chocolate cookies for the class didn’t help. I can’t blame the sugar or Kevin though. Some lessons I need to learn more than once, or twice, or three times – again, you get the picture. Here’s what happened – I take full responsibility and share it here in case what I’m learning may be a mirror for you even if the details of our stories differ.
Trial 1 – Success
One thing I love about The Vienna Academy of Visionary Art is that there are no formal tests. This doesn’t mean we don’t get tested though – artistically, personally, spiritually. I got rather emotional for less than a minute in the afternoon, while cleaning my brushes, because I was comparing my painting to others’. Our skill difference in blending paints is so obvious, and my lack of progress in that area can be discouraging. I’m human – it happens. Fortunately, I was able to let that one go rather quickly, remembering how much I enjoyed painting it and how much I learned by observing others work. It’s all good! Yay!
Trial 2 – More Learning to Do
With my second test, however, I didn’t do so well. I’m aware of the lesson and my internal processes, but am also aware that I still have a ways to go to be a truly unconditionally loving person. My classmates are doing a great job at helping me 🙂
As I’ve mentioned in an earlier posts, one of my lifelong and biggest pet peeves is tardiness. Our class hasn’t had a good track record in the last 5 months – if people show up at all, they’re often late. Yes, you can already read my irritation in my choice of wording. I told ya, I’m still learning … I know it is none of my business and that people are free to make their own choices. I can’t control other people. I also know that loving people unconditionally means caring about their happiness without wanting anything in return. Who knows? Their happiness may be enhanced by sleeping in or whatever. I never asked – I never cared. My anger and irritation (whether or not it shows on the outside) doesn’t serve me and certainly doesn’t serve them. Each time I choose to focus on Me Me Me when people walk in late, I choose to step out of love and step out of happiness. On some days, my feelings and thought lead me to think that I’ve mastered this lesson, but not on this day. Instead, I judged and grumbled inside. We started class an hour late because only 3 of us were there at 10am. While I was preparing the absentee’s work stations and starting the first steps of the day’s project for them in case they showed up (following the teacher’s request), I kept telling myself to choose to see this as an act of kindness. My irritation, however, kept bubbling up and I was on the love/non-love roller coaster. Quite the test. I would succeed in making a more loving choice and then a few minutes or even hours later, it would raise its ugly head again because it affected some of the offerings that Timea had scheduled that I had become attached to. Sigh…
My sincerest apologies dear classmates for not loving you unconditionally on this day.
http://reallove.com/free-videoaudio/
Lunchtime Stroll
/in My Travels, Vienna - Life and TourismI brought my lunch to school today, as I most often do, but this time I decided not to stay in the classroom to relax or to keep on working. Instead, after I finished eating, I went for a half hour stroll around the neighbourhood with my iPhone camera. What a neighbourhood it is! Thought I’d share as I got quite excited – not having walked in that direction for a while. I even stopped into my friend Donnalyne’s favourite confectionery / café to buy myself a Florentine (a childhood favourite) in honour of my friend Cheryl’s birthday in St. John’s. Happy birthday Cheryl! It was delicious!
P.S To see them full-screen, click on the first and then you can click on the arrow to make your way through the gallery.
“Spark in the Void” – this week’s Intensive Workshop
/in Vienna Academy of Visionary ArtsWe’ve just completed a special 1-week intensive at the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art.
Themes:
Each day had a special theme:
The week was a perfect blend of the spiritual and artistic. Each day included: lectures and demonstrations; work on 2 projects, and; powerful meditations, creative visualizations, and chanting. My Spirit Calling Card Reading upon waking on Wednesday was so right – that morning’s guided journey into the mandala was such a blessing!.
Once again, I’m amazed at what my classmates created. What talent!
Every workshop that Vera and Kuba have taught has been both educational and inspirational. Seeing this couple work together is great! Kuba will be one of the main teachers for the Spring trimester, along with Daniel Mirante. I will miss a few weeks in April while I’m in Bali, but I’ll be participating in some classes and workshops when I come back in May and June. To find out more about The Vienna Academy of Visionary Art’s curriculum, click here.
Tidbits
/in Vienna - Life and Tourism, Vienna Academy of Visionary ArtsI didn’t want to make yesterday’s post too long, so I’ve decided to wrap up my week’s summary in a separate post.
What caught my eye?
Vienna is relatively clean. With all the smokers, however, there’s bound to be some unusual ashtrays.
On Friday, I had to go to the main OeAD office to pick up my new apartment keys, and so I walked past City Hall and got to see Vienna’s Ice World. In addition to a couple of skating rinks, there were long snaking ice paths between them and very appealing food stalls. It was 3pm, and I hadn’t had lunch yet, so I had myself a Finnish specialty – fire roasted salmon on an organic baked potato and sauerkraut sauce. It was quite cold eating that standing outside, but fun too! I may return to skate one day- it’s 6 Euros entrance fee, plus 6 Euros skate rental. Lockers are 2 Euros, but I could skip that, making it an $18 Cdn outing.
It did look fun and it’s been a few years since I’ve been in Ottawa when the Rideau canal was open – the world’s longest outdoor skating rink.
At School:
This week we worked on the concepts for several paintings. One I haven’t talked about before is our “Poetic Landscape”. Timea and Benedetto will be coaching us on very specific elements – drapery, transparent figures, and landcapes. If you’ve followed the link to Benedetto Fellin‘s artwork in previous posts, you’ll see he specializes in all three within each composition. Our first task was to find examples of these elements to collage together as our painting sketch – something I did in Photoshop. We’ll be doing the drapery from real set-ups in class, however. Although I’m really motivated to learn both drapery (for long flowing dresses) and transparent figures, I can’t say this project had me very excited when I first heard of it. I saw it more as a simple practice exercise. After putting these elements together, however, I’m really looking forward to it. I chose an image of a Buddha and a drapery set-up I found on the Internet and superimposed them on a photograph I took of Shag Rock in Fortune Bay, Newfoundland. Doesn’t it look like he’s rising from a lotus? Love it – and reconnects me to the very spiritual nature of the Rock – the island of Newfoundland. We’ll be doing this in oils over an acrylic ground.
Do you remember that I showed this pony painting by Bob Coonts in my Inspirations post? It’s similar in style to a phoenix that my friend Lori Reddy and I did together (I painted the background and she brought it to life, leaving me breathless! I later used a similar technique for “Jubilation”.
Well, that’s the style I’ve decided to use for my Fantastic Creature project, but stepping it up a notch. On Thursday, I spent most of the day designing the owl, learning new ways of approaching such tasks thanks to Timea’s coaching. I also added another layer of colour and more white details on the canvas. Fun! I’m also including early process photos taken by Laurence & Florence as I just got these.
On Thursday, Laurence gave a great 2-hour presentation on the Hindu Worldview, looking at the different eras and sacred texts to answer these 3 questions: “Whence Come We?” “Who Are We?”, and “Where are We Going”?. I certainly learned a lot thanks to his wealth of knowledge and personal experiences.
On Friday, I spent most of the day working on my self-portrait – you can hardly tell the changes unless you know what to look for, but trust me, I’ve done quite a few more hours of work on this since you last saw it. Oils in the Mischtechnik take time… Laurence spent quite a bit coaching me on how to apply shadows on the female figure. Very helpful.
This blog is as much a diary of my time in Vienna as it is a way for me to share my journey with you – hope you’re enjoying all the details.
My New Home Until Bali
/in My Travels, Vienna - Life and TourismFor my first four months in Austria, I shared a very small apartment in OeAD’s Kandlgasse international student residence with 3 young women from elsewhere in Europe. When it became legal for me to stay in Vienna longer than a trimester, however, my room was no longer available. Luckily, a single apartment in the same complex eventually opened up. What a relief! I love this modern clean “passive house” and neighbourhood – my 40-minute walk to school, the organic grocer at the corner, the tram/bus/subway central 2 blocks away, etc. I wasn’t thrilled about the fact that this whole district doesn’t have trees, but I’ve just found a couple in the courtyards in front and behind my new place. Yay! I’m even thrilled at the bare vines growing on the wall outside my window – signs of nature! Progress! Interestingly, I have mixed feelings about living on my own after 3 years of having roommates. When I weigh the advantages and disadvantages, however, it’s clear that I’m going to enjoy having my own space for a while.
Disadvantages:
Advantages:
So there you have it. I have a new home for the next 2 months, and I’m thrilled. I’ve unpacked, put up my prayer flags, had my ritual house-warming ceremony (smudged it with palo santo smoke, lit a beeswax candle, did a bit of fung shui, invoked my angels and guides to help me fill it with healthy energy, etc.) For those of you I know like pictures, here’s how it looks.