Welcome to The Drishti Experience (Part 5 of 5)
/This is the final installment in a series of 5 posts focused on my current solo painting exhibit: The Drishti Experience - Capturing the Frequency of My Well-Being. If you missed the other posts, you can read parts 1 through 4 on this blog.
Whether we're aware of it or not, we are all on a healing journey here on earth. Each of us seeks ways to navigate life in order to feel good.
At its core, this journey is about remembering our authentic selves—recognizing that we are, in fact, part of the divine here on earth. The more we reconnect with this truth, the more we experience clarity, calm, confidence, courage, and connection. In essence, we feel good when we align with our authentic selves.
Creating these paintings was a tremendous learning experience for me. Whenever I felt lost, overwhelmed, or afraid during the process, I would take a deep breath, place my hand on my heart, and gently remind myself:
"Deb, you only need to know your next step."
Sometimes, that next step was as simple as washing my brushes, leaving a note about the next layer, or even taking a nap. This present-moment focus—a drishti—helped me move forward in creating this body of work.
Through this intimate process, I remembered that I am safe, worthy, powerful, loved, and that I belong. And so do you, dear friend.
When we focus on thoughts that bring us joy, we return to the frequency of our well-being.
💖 Download the beautiful digital catalogue for this exhibit. 💖
A World of Thanks and Appreciation
Thank you to each friend who came to the opening. You know who you are and I appreciate you showing up for me, and for the flowers, kindness, support, and most of all for believing in me all these years.
You had me in tears of total joy. This evening was honestly one of the best nights of my life.
Thank you for being part of it.
Thank you for the phenomenal team at Douglas College who helped execute this exhibit from start to finish. Thank you to the adjudication board at Amelia Douglas Gallery for choosing my proposal and believing in my exhibit concept. Thank you to the set up crew, piano player, food services, and security team for getting me safely to my car in the evening after the show.
Thank you to Jeanette Tilly for helping me write the Canada and BC Arts Council grants. Big, huge, amazing thank you to the arts director and gallery curator Jennifer Racco for managing, supporting, promoting, helping, creating the catalogue, and many, many more things she did to make this happen.
Thank you to my amazing digital support team Susan Greig for managing my Instagram and for Doug Wright for taking care of emails and all the other social media platforms. I could not have done this without you! THANK YOU.
I would like to thank a number of key people in our Gabriola Island community who helped me with the various aspects of this exhibit. The Gabriola Arts Council for awarding me the grant earlier this year in support of this exhibit. Thank you.
Our local artist, Tyrrell Clarke, for taking all the promotional photographs. Thank you. Carol Ferguson for helping me write the BC and Canada Arts Council grants; thank you. Jonathan Hoskins for making the beautiful small frames for the Little Drishti paintings. Thank you. Stephanie Artuso for taking the final photographs of the large Drishti Paintings for the exhibit catalog. Thank you.
Catherine Hallum of Free Spirit Gallery for cheering me on every step of the way. Thank you. Ezra Miller for arriving at my studio at 8am (was it even light out?!!) to help me pack up the paintings and load up the van. Thank you. Thank you to Unky Lestrange for helping us set up the glass cases and art labels. Willow Friday of Iron Oxide Art Supplies for getting me all the materials I needed to create these paintings. Thank you.
Thank you to The Georgia Strait, Galleries West , Preview Magazine, and Arts New West for listing this event on your sites.
Thank you to Vancouver Magazine for the feature article and sharing the story and inspiration behind this artwork.
Lastly, I would like thank God for making all existence possible and helping me in realizing my dreams, and through my meditation practice, to re-connect to the well-being that always exists here now, that love that pervades all. May I always put you first, thank you for loving me constantly, unconditionally.
Download the complete digital catalogue for the exhibit.