Jill Joy - Devotion - oil on canvas - 60x48" - 2014
This painting, Devotion, is about spiritual devotion and also plain old human love…loving someone intensely and how our devotion to that person can transform us regardless of the circumstances. It’s part of my current series, Consciousness, but also a subset of work I call Evolution – 4 or 5 paintings that represent the leap from one level of consciousness to the next. The Evolution works are dynamic and give a sense of bursting into growth and new awareness. They are loosely tied to the chakras (energy centers in our body), indigo is the color of the 6th chakra and violet is the color of the crown or 7th chakra. This painting is somewhere in between those two…a deep violet or purple indigo representing the transition from one level of consciousness to the next. Some info below on the symbolism of the colors and the Chakras (citation).
Indigo – 6th Chakra (third eye)
Indigo opens the door to the Divine and it is the color that we associate with night. It is at night, when our senses become finer and a different part of us awakens. Indigo brings clarity to the sense organs - your seeing, hearing and feeling. Indigo It is also connected to your sixth sense - your third eye.
Indigo is a bridge between heaven and earth, between the left and right hemispheres and also between life and death and helps to make a transition towards life or towards death. Indigo color energy is an energy of deep change. It allows you to transform the energies of lower chakras into higher spiritual vibrations. You must be cautious though, because you can become ungrounded and disconnected with the life on earth and with your family and friends. As you unfold the petals of your third eye chakra, you begin to recognize patterns. You can see where you have been, where you are stuck, and where you are going.
You begin to experience those "Aha" moments. Moments of insight and clarity. You are recognizing your patterns and are able to relate everything to a larger picture and what it means. Illusions are shattered and dreams are integrated. You begin to experience wholeness and sense of tranquility and inner knowing - wisdom. You begin to see that you can consciously create your life. And that your vision for the future is a creative act of will.
Violet – 7th Chakra (crown (top) of the head)
Violet connects with sadness of letting go and also with joy of transformation. There is peace and tranquility in the new found knowledge of profound change. Violet color is cleansing and purifying. It is the color of magic, ritual, cleansing, purifying, connecting, mystery, and mysticism. It is a color that allows us to glimpse other realities, beyond our physical and material reality of this earthly existence. It is pure cosmic energy.
Violet is a color of reconciliation. Of bringing together polarities - male and female, day and night, hot and cold, heaven and earth, right brain and left brain. In this state of balance, you feel the connection with other beings, with heaven, with earth, with all of Universe. There is no separation, no duality.