Creating with the Moon Cycles: New Art Project

The first 13 moon cycles completed collage painting.

Beaver Moon. 12" x 18", collage, acrylic paint, altered magazine pages, vintage book pages, newsprint - completed and signed yesterday. I am actually going to step out into the world again and share it at Mill Art Center's upcoming annual holiday exhibition, a step towards approaching my art career in a new way. If the work sells, all the proceeds will be donated to the Art Center to support the wonderful classes and exhibitions they offer area artists.

A New Lunar Cycle

When the New Moon arrived on Friday, November 1, I entered a new personal cycle with it. I had completed my 75+ Full Circle Around the Sun Project pieces around the time of the full moon in October. I gathered addresses and plan to sign and send them out between now and the Winter Solstice in December.

Deepening my connections with the natural world with attention and intention is one of the strongest pulls on me at this new stage of my life. I decided to record my cyclic creative process in concert with the 13 lunar cycles it takes for the moon to make its full circle around the sun and see how they connect.

Paying Attention to Cycles and Seasons

My new project is about cycles and seasons, both personal and planetary. Some cycles take place slowly, over millions of years, like the receding glaciers that created the Great Lakes, Finger Lakes and rock formations where I live. Other cycles repeat more rapidly, like the moon waxing and waning over a period of 29 days as it rotates around the earth and sun 13 times each year. Pollinators like butterflies live two to four weeks, bumblebees four to six weeks. Cycles of growth, decay, death and renewal surround me. I am learning to pay attention to these rhythms of the natural world and respond to them in my creative work, to discover the beauty found in impermanence, imperfection and incompleteness, inspired by a Japanese philosophy called wabi-sabi which is difficult to translate into English. Wabi can be translated to “subdued, austere beauty”, and sabi to “rustic patina."

This year, I am also feeling a strong desire to record what actually happens as I create during each of the four quarters of each moon cycle and season. What synchronicities will occur, what new resources and connections will I discover? What are the twists and turns my studio time will take in fleshing out new ideas and working with new content and imagery? That's part of what I hope my journal entries will include.

I have no ideas how this year's theme will unfold or how, what ideas will root and grow and which will wither and dry up. On top of that, I am already feeling the the lower energy that starts to overtake me as the days grow shorter in November and December and want to make sure I will be especially kind and nurturing to myself during this time. What will my own cycles bring over the next 13 moons?

On the New Moon morning, I sat at the kitchen table looking out the picture window towards the back of our property just before dawn. I was making entries in my studio log just as the light was beginning to form a narrow multi-colored line along the horizon. I threw on a sweatshirt and ran out the front door to catch that brief moment just before the darkness turns to dawn. It was brisk and cold and my timing was right. It felt auspicious to capture it for this new lunar cycle and let my intentions for this time unfold as the moon waxes toward full.

The golden hour before the dawn

When I looked up again from writing a short time later, I noticed the first heavy frost of the year had fallen over the back of our property, creating an icy blanket that sparkled as the light began to touch the plant stems, so I ran out again to record as much as I could before those orangish first rays of the sun transitioned into full daylight.

Super Moon Ahead

This month's full moon will be the fourth and final super-moon of the year. Native Americans called it the Beaver Moon. It will reach its peak illumination on Friday, November 15, and it's expected to appear bigger and brighter than normal, according to The Old Farmer's Almanac.

During this moon's first quarter week, the country completed its presidential election process and stunned many of us with the results. I started moving through all the stages of grief - it will take a while to fully believe the outcome really happened.

To keep my attitude focused and positive about addressing the myriad of issues facing our world, I am resuming a daily practice of reading the Metta Prayer aloud and writing all the things I am grateful for each day.

Even though the world has willingly supported autocratic leadership in many countries, including my own now, I feel there is deep transformation at work globally and I will do everything in my power to uphold acts of caring, goodness and light through the coming year.

Metta Prayer

There are many versions of this prayer, I chose this one to speak aloud each morning - to help with the shift I see as vital to our future as humans on this planet.

May I be peaceful. May all beings be peaceful.

May I be happy. May all beings be happy.

May I be safe. May all beings be safe.

May I awaken to the light of my true nature. May all beings awaken to the light of their true nature.

May I be free. May all beings be free.

I wish you peace,

Jeanne