The Quest – a new painting

“The Quest” (16″ x 20″) – SOLD

It is with great joy that I introduce my latest painting, “The Quest” (16″ x 20″), inspired one Sunday morning shortly after the dawning of this new year.

But before I go into my explanation of its background and symbolism, take a moment to contemplate it and listen for what it offers you. That is the beauty of art – it can speak to many in many different ways.

Now, if you’re curious, read on to my experience of its unfolding.

Since my two-month stay at the Ananda ashram near Assisi, Italy, during my 2023 Transformative Art Certification program, I’ve attended their Sunday Service either in person (in Italy or California), or online. This Sunday ritual, which includes the weekly Festival of Light, has become a quiet, steady companion in my life.

The Festival of Light tells the story of a little bird —a simple image that quietly carries the entire spiritual journey within it.

Through storms and darkness, it learns to surrender, allowing Divine presence and strength to be added to its own. Stage 3 of this journey is called The Quest.

When I received a clear inner vision of the painting during Stage 3 of a recent Festival of Light, its name was immediately clear.

I saw a vast spiral rising upward, a woman standing at its edge, and a bird flying ahead of her into the Light, the vortex of Cosmic Energy.

In the Festival of Light ceremony, the Quest represents the soul’s transition from ego-driven restlessness to a conscious search for divine meaning. It marks the point where the soul realizes that true fulfillment cannot be found in outer, material things. Having experienced the limitations of selfish pursuits, it surrenders to something more. 

Inwardly, a shift has occurred. A longing awakens. There is a pull, but no clear destination yet — only the knowing that the path must be followed.

What matters here is that the Quest does not begin with effort, but with a deep Listening.

In my interpretation of The Quest, the soul has learned to navigate, with Divine Help, the winds of desire, the storms of striving, ambition, and identity.

In the painting, that momentum of what came before is visible in the woman’s hair and flowing skirts as well as the moving energies swirling around her. She is now standing still and feeling the direction of the current, no longer being tossed around by her resistance to it.

Descending to her is the spiralling energy of the Divine, a visual expression of the living vibration of God. This is her invitation to experience the Divine in many of its forms: wisdom, love, light, sound, calmness, peace, joy, power/energy.

The spiral itself is lined with hundreds of small dots—echoed in the surface of the figure. The woman is adorned with glass beads that catch and play with the light. Some are painted over, while others rest upon an iridescent gold underlayer, allowing them to glow vibrantly from some angles. These beads mirror the dotted currents of the spiral and represent the divine energy already present within us—our capacity to radiate God’s light through every cell of the body.

The path is not straight. It circles inward, drawing rather than demanding.

Within the Light ahead, at the core of the spiral, flies the bird.

For this bird, I chose a dove—the universal symbol of peace.

It comforts me to remember that the soul sees from above and ahead, held within a wider perspective, while the human self so often moves step by step, with only the next one or two visible. The dove carries that quiet reassurance: that something deeper already knows the way.

In this vision, the bird is the soul itself.

Again and again, the bird learns that freedom does not come from flying harder, but from surrender — from trusting the current of divine grace. When effort relaxes, the soul is carried.

Here, the bird is already moving lightly, sensing the way ahead.

It flies before the woman, yet it is not separate from her. In my interpretation of the vision, the bird is the soul; the woman is the human self learning to trust it.

The distance between them matters. The bird is close enough to follow, far enough to require faith.

I painted The Quest while listening to Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda—a companion voice reminding me, again and again, that the divine journey is both inward and ever-present, revealed not through force but through devotion, attunement, and grace.

This painting is not about arrival. It is about the moment when striving softens, listening begins, and the soul turns toward what has been calling it all along.

This is The Quest.

I’m grateful to announce that it has found a home.