Inner Voice Art

When great hills dream apart,

And far blue leagues of distance

Call to the Gypsy Heart."

— The Vagabond Poets and Muses Love Poetry

Photo: Gypsies in Spain, 1973 Photo by Josef Koudelka

~ Anaïs Nin

Image by Ana Grigolia.

Now your soul has come to take you back.

Take refuge in your senses, open up

To all the small miracles you rushed through.

Become inclined to watch the way of rain

When it falls slow and free.

Imitate the habit of twilight,

Taking time to open the well of color

That fostered the brightness of day.

Draw alongside the silence of stone

Until its calmness can claim you.

Be excessively gentle with yourself.

- JOHN O'DONOHUE

“I have been in the dark; I have been hidden.”

— Virginia Woolf, The Waves

Salvador Dali - Figure at the Window, 1925.

"Dali's younger sister Ana Maria was a willing and favorite sitter in the 1920's, especially in the months leading up to his first solo exhibition, at the Galeries Dalmau in Barcelona. It is thus not surprising that his paintings of her reflect his experiments with various figurative styles. Dali paid special homage to Ingres in the catalogue for the exhibition and the drawing of his father and sister is a superb essay in academic draftsmanship. At the same time, in the contrast between the delicately modeled faces and the simple linearity of the bodies he is looking towards Picasso's post-cubist return to the figure.

In several of his paintings he explores a simplified representational technique, with smooth slightly geometrical rounded forms and flattened planes, as in Girl resting on her elbow - Ana Maria Dali, the artist's sister (Thought). Indeed in most of his figure paintings at this time, despite the obvious contrast with the Cubist and Purist works, there is an interest in surface pattern and abstract rhythm which derives from his avant-garde experiments. He is also exploring a wide range of earlier and contemporary figurative painting, including the Italian novecento artists."

Animation Career: A self-made filmmaker by age 11, Le Cain moved to London at 15 to work in animation. He later joined Richard Williams's studio in 1965 before turning freelance in 1969 to work on BBC sets and independent animation.

Book Illustration: He debuted in 1968 with King Arthur's Sword (Faber & Faber) and went on to illustrate 48 children's books, renowned for their intricate, decorative watercolors and vibrant design.

Awards & Recognition: Le Cain won the 1984 Kate Greenaway Medal for Hiawatha's Childhood.

“Stop trying to heal yourself, fix yourself, even awaken yourself. Let go of letting go.

Stop trying to fast-forward the movie of your life. It gets so exhausting, doesn’t it, always trying to get there, chasing futures that never seem to arrive, living on second-hand promises.

Instead, bow deeply to yourself as you actually are. Be here. Honour this present scene in the movie. Your pain, your sorrow, your doubts, your deepest longings, your fearful thoughts, are not mistakes, and they aren’t asking to be healed. They are asking to be held. Here, now, lightly, in the loving arms of present awareness…”

- Jeff Foster

“The Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert talk about the two "hungers". There is the Great Hunger and there is the Little Hunger. The Little Hunger wants food for the belly; but the Great Hunger, the greatest hunger of all, is the hunger for meaning...

There is ultimately only one thing that makes human beings deeply and profoundly bitter, and that is to have thrust upon them a life without meaning.

There is nothing wrong in searching for happiness. But of far more comfort to the soul is something greater than happiness or unhappiness, and that is meaning. Because meaning transfigures all. Once what you are doing has for you meaning, it is irrelevant whether you're happy or unhappy. You are content - you are not alone in your Spirit - you belong.”

- Laurens van der Post