Do the heart work...

Do the heart work..., a photo by northwoodsluna on Flickr.

I had about 10 minutes to work on a journal page this morning. The background paper is one that I had left from Katie Kendrick's class I took last fall, just the hint or an image transfer onto watercolor paper. The face I'd painted with non-dominant hand on the telephone page didn't transfer well, but there was just enough of an outline of the shape of the head that the paper suggested a face that demanded to be drawn. It made me think of a Rilke quote I'd read ages ago.


"The work of the eyes is done.
Go now and do the heart-work on the images imprisoned within you."
~Ranier Maria Rilke


What is heart-work?
Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
n. Work that has been prompted by the heart., or executed with all one's heart
Example of usage:
“We make nothing of our religious performances if we do not make heart-work of them, if that which is within us, nay, if all that is within us, be not engaged in them.” Psalm 103 - Part 2

I think that heart-work is the heart in action, observed through our work, our play, our creativity, it is wearing our hearts on our sleeves, putting them out there, risking them, sharing them.

As an artist, I think that "heart-work" is that vision that pounds on the door of our soul demanding to be released. We can not rest until we have freed it from imagination through clay, paint, fibers, prose, poetry, song, or whatever the genre or medium in which we work.
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I am so sore!!! The Belly Dancing class at the church was so much fun! The couscous and Morrocan vegetable tagine I cooked this morning was met with delight by some and suspicion by others. LOL


Two of the ladies there have a bit more sophisticated palates and have even eaten them, prepared similar dishes themselves. Nancy brought taboulleh so there was at least some Mideastern food there. There were


I still have so much more I need to do this weekend. I've a good start on a doll for an artdoll swap. I need to get my journal made for the Dark Art journal round robin. But before I get to any of that I need to take some ibuprofen and maybe a power nap.


It's been a good day. My heart is singing.


Life is good!