Exploring Spiritual Landscapes Through Art

Welcome to this page where CASC/ACSS members are invited to share their artistic responses to our ever surprising and changing world. Inspired by the 2018 conference in Deerhurst which had this title as its theme, we hope to encourage our members to share their creativity and unique perspectives with their colleagues. Art work, photos, poems and stories are all welcome. Please send your submissions to webmaster@spiritualcare.ca. Submissions are expected to conform to CASC/ACSS ethics.

March, The adolescent month.

She, he, they awoke March first

fogged and clogged by a late February hangover.

Insolent, moody and in need of a good wash

they slumped and slept

darkly and shiftily for a few days feeling sorry for themselves,

yet getting no sympathy, no pity.

And suddenly, without a hint or warning,

brightness, light and warmth

touched us,

awoke us,

healed us

as winter tired snow drops

once again perked up to greet this promise of spring.

Short lived, this promise, this break,

we awoke to darkness, ice pellets and freezing rain.

As if we were entombed in a glass casket,

trapped in the world, the chaos,

that she, he and they created.

Yet once more the tendrils of warmth began their siege on winter,

one last stand,

one last, not so fond farewell to she, he and they,

as March, the adolescent month

climbed wearily, yet soberly,

into her bed at midnight,

March 31^st.

©Ciaran Mc Kenna, March 6^th 2022, inspired by, well March of course

Acrylic Flow Paintings

Angela King, a Certified Spiritual Care Practitioner, has recently relocated to Saint John, NB. Angela continues to explore acrylic flow paint pouring techniques, a medium in which she finds her spirit continually surprised, delighted, and refreshed. Here are her latest creations. Thanks you Angela for sharing your art. July 4, 2021

Staggered Steps

On staggered steps,
like the drunk in Cohen’s midnight choir
we have stepped, and mis-stepped our way
through this past year of this covid maze,
and still we trudge through the sludge of this pandemic.
Hindsight, is 20 20 it is said,
yet it is foresight and fore thought we need,
together, united as one.
Can we do this, can I,
do this for you and your family,
if not then I have let my parents and their parents down.
Can we, can I look in the mirror and say,
I am I doing all I can to keep my neighbor safe.
If not,
have I the courage to ask myself why
and to answer it honestly,
as like the drunk in Cohen’s midnight choir
we continue on staggered steps.

©Ciaran Mc Kenna, April 1st 2021, after listening to Premier Ford’s announcement re a month long lock down

In the presence of mystery

Standing among snow dappled giants
I knew I was in the presence of mystery,
and I needed not mastery to embrace her,
no, simplicity, innocence, openness, and grace
for her blessings to unfold,
breath on breath,
step on step,
gently, lovingly, leaning into her truth,
my truth, our truth.
Our truth of returning home,
home to earth,
home to hearth,
home to self and the good other before me,
and seeing, as if for the first time
she has always been here,
waiting, anticipating, my, our return
to her presence of mystery,
to her beautiful, complicated simplicity.

©Ciaran Mc Kenna Jan 3rd 2021. Inspired by a walk and talk with Janet Frood in Weldon Park on a beautiful winters morning

Ciaran McKenna’s reflection on our pandemic experience

Incognito

Nothing, no expression,

just the appearance of two beads

above a black, multi-colored, designer, hospital blue face mask,

all of us moving in safe lines

secreted behind our masks,

for the introvert, a secret glee,

for the extrovert a suffering experience of isolation

incognito.

Great armies of us going around en masse,

in our ground hog day like experience

of our daily Halloween masquerades,

masked, muted, mummified,

wondering when The Borg landed saying,

” resistance is futile you shall be assimilated”.

Who could have known,

who could have imagined this, this way of being,

no-one,

it happened, we adapted, we always do

once more to be counted by numbers,

or discounted behind our masks,

incognito.

Ciaran McKenna sent in this poem on November.

Retired CPE Supervisor-Educator Michael Chow sent in some of his photographs.

Bio and Artist Statement for Art$Pay (2020)

Michael (Chow Man Choi) lives with wife Bonnie at ‘Edenwilde’, their beautifully landscaped period home in central Kitchener, where he gardens creatively and sustainably with mainly indigenous plants and trees.

Along the way, his love of experiencing the natural world in new and deeper ways led to expressing that world through the blended art of photography and printmaking, a passion shared by both his father and grandfather.

As a self-described “emerging” artist (recipient of a Record Readers’ Choice gold award in 2016; Jurors’ Bronze Award & Homer Watson Gallery Curator Award at KWSA members exhibition 2020), Man Choi draws creative energy from fellow photographers, gardeners, naturalists, intuition, and more formal learning experiences such as articles, books, and workshops.

Inspired by others, but equally attentive to personal instinct, he has captured and transformed myriad images from the commonplace to the sublime – landscapes, nature, portraiture, still life, architecture, events. Many have commented on the Zen appeal and painterly textural qualities of his work.

Mike experiences his evolving art as a “progressive culmination” of his former full-time vocation as educator, pastor, psychotherapist and spiritual healer. He feels that discovering the infinite connections among art, photography, landscaping and spirituality is not only “re-creational” and healing, but also great fun.

He is a member of UpTown Gallery, Waterloo; member of Art$Pay as well as KW Society of Artists. He has exhibited at a number of juried shows (Art$Pay and KWSA); the Art Store, Waterloo; Framing and Art Centre Kitchener; The Crawford Collective, Brantford; and Paula White Diamond Gallery, Waterloo. You can visit his page at www.ManChoi-Chow-Photographer or www.facebook.com/ManChoiChow

1. “Hidden Figures” – A tribute to all those who play critical roles but are never in the limelight; yeah front line workers!

2. “Harmony” – Pastoral scene near Maryhill, Ontario that decries ‘harmonious co-existence’, a yearning in my heart for all.

3. “Tree of Life” – Softening the harsh lines of modern cities. (Downtown Kitchener, On)

4. “Vision of Hope”

5. “COVID 19 Blues”

Kathleen Cairnie-Sorensen, MDiv, from Oakville ON, currently taking CPE shares her creations in polymer clay. She also loves to create individually inspired finger labyrinths.

Angela King from Red Deer AB shared some of her paintings. Angela reports she is having a blast as she explores this medium. Done in “Acrylic Flow” or “Paint Pouring” style, they are striking images which evoke many associations for the viewer. What names would you give these four paintings below?

Angela has some of her work on her walls for inspiration.

“My Name is Eleanor May” is a song made into a marvelous video by Spiritual Care Practitioner Gord Johnson of Winnipeg. Based on his experiences in the hospital it raises themes familiar to all who have “Loitered with Intent”. The patient lives in the historic and gritty North End of Winnipeg and ends up in the core area hospital where, though just “6 blocks from home” she feels a million miles away from the familiar realities of her life. Thanks Gord for sharing your talents with your CASC/CASC colleagues.

Brilliant Blue

While walking on winter’s ground

she sang in creaks and cracks

as beneath my feet were clouds of white

and the sea up in the sky

brilliant blue.

My winter shadow

stretched long ahead of me

while sister sun warmed my back

and the wind licked and stung my face.

Snow, like feathers

embroidered my coat and boots

and winter diamonds

shone everywhere

with winters light

a reflection of the sea sky,

brilliant blue.

©Ciaran Mc Kenna Jan 7th 2020 inspired by the beauty of a winter’s day

Listen, Listen, Listen

Lady Labyrinth’s carpet
nestles on mother nature’s breasts
fed with story
her story
our story
always moving
rotating to and fro
to the center
from afar.
Lady labyrinth you call us to walk
to stand,
to stay,
to breathe,
to be
to be present,
to ourselves,
to each other,
to our path,
to our paths
on which we may walk separately
yet we never walk alone.
And she calls
listen, listen, listen
we are one,
we are many
we are on our way
Lady labyrinth
guide us
aide us
heal us.

©Ciaran Mc kenna May 28th 2019. I said I would write something and I wanted to honour the feminine spirit of the Labyrinth and this piece came to me about a week before and I feel it captures the spirit of this particular Labyrinth at Belvoir Estate farm in Delaware Ontario. Inspired by the invitation to build a Labyrinth

Mary Tingley offers these works from her spiritual practice of painting/play

Emergence –

that which was transforming into new possibilities.
Watercolour 8×10 Painted December 2018

Accompaniment –

Based on a photo by Judy Kowalski of her sister Jan on PEI.
Watercolour 12×14 Painted February 2019

“Building Hope”

Based on the reading of the book “The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating” by Elisabeth Tova Bailey for CPE.
Acrylic 16×20 November 2018

Jan Kraus sent in a timely seasonal watercolour

Waiting For Spring

4X6 Watercolour
Painted March 3/19 in Wilket Creek Ravine in Toronto. It could be taken very literally or in the context of Lent, waiting and longing for all glimpses of new life.

Into the Silence

I found you

Walking your well-worn path

Your eyes glance briefly my way

I smile

You smile

With eyes gentle and kind

Inviting me on your quiet journey

Who are you, I ponder

As my step joins with yours

To begin the trek

You have taken thousands of times . . .

I have watched you as if we were separate

But now your journey

Is my journey

What thoughts do you think

As we tread the same short path

Over and over and over again

Stopping just once in a while

To enjoy a picture

Or briefly rest

I step into your space

And see barren walls

And empty counters

Bereft of memories

No story for your heart to see

My heart reaches out to yours

On this desert road

And though I long to talk

I choose to enter with you

Into the silence . . .

By Kathleen M. Brown, CPE Student
(Currently in 2nd Basic Unit, Edmonton, Alberta) posted Feb 19, 2019

The Haiti heist

Hungry,
hurried,
harried,
harmed
deserted
disheveled
disorientated
empty of spirit
drained of hope
longing for relief,
hoping in the belief
the belief
that one,
someone
will see that this man made
tsunami of crisis
is not our error,
it’s outcome our ongoing terror.
This volcano of struggles
these fears are ours.
Eyes open. Eyes closed.
Eyes open. Eyes closed.
You choose, I choose, we lose
In this Haiti heist.

FEEL

By Diane Holmlund
In response to the Toronto van massacre on April 23, 2018

Feel,
whatever you feel
right now, where you are

Feel your bones,
Feel your blood,
Feel your warmth,
Feel your eyes,
Feel your ears,
Feel your mouth,
Feel your body,
this good body you have been given
to carry you through your days
and guide you through darkest nights

Feel your lightness,
Feel your depth,
Feel your tears,
Feel your fear,
Slow your pulse
to slow your thoughts

Breathe for your life
Breathe for others’ life
Breathe for those who have lost life
Breathe for those who hang on to life
Breathe for those who have lived terror
Breathe mercy for those who cannot rest
Breathe hope for our beautiful, worn world