MICHELE BENZAMIN-MIKI

Paintings & Drawings

Some dreams are like a road map of the future. One such dream resurfaced for me, and it has been following my waking hours for the last two years. I traced it back to 2002 in one of my journals; you see I journal my life mostly through dreams.

Just recently I received third prize at the ‘TAG” gallery CA Open Competition with Juror Jim Morphesis, and he said to me, ‘Your painting is strong, and your work is out of the ordinary, and there is a need for that!’ he was such a personable and friendly man..

So I told him about my dream ..

I was walking along a street in Chinatown in Los Angeles with my partner Caitriona, we were on our way to see the Emperor. He was expecting us, but the guards were not informed and there was a mishap in which Caitriona was hurt. I put my hands on her and healed her wound, just then the Emperor came down the stairs. He took my hands in his, looked at the red mark in the center of my palm and said, your hands heal, and so does your brush. Then I followed him  up the stairs into a very large loft space with high ceilings and wall to wall paintings. The work was mesmerizing. I asked him who the artist was, and he answered that many of the paintings were his, and some were mine. I was stunned by his words, as I knew that this was my work in the future! I struggled to get my head around his what he was saying to me, and the next thing I know, I began to merge with the Emperor and became him! and then awoke from the dream..

I remember being left with the the feeling of my great desire to look upon the work again.. and I awoke with my hands tingling from the center of my palms.

This dream was thirteen years ago, and the images are just now coming through more vividly onto canvas and paper!

05

My canvases access the dream-scapes of my inner world. I keep meeting the paintings on those walls in my imagination and one by one they enter into this tangible world.

This is not the only time that a major body of work has come from a dream. Before this, I dreamed of being a luminous white delicate spider hanging from a silk thread in vast space. I was in a state of pure embodiment with an inner satisfaction and a deep quiet calm which lasted hours into my waking state. I was so inspired by this dream that I created a body of work from the early 90’s and continue to do so up until now.

Dreams reflect back to us what we need to see in our waking hours.. to make the most of them!

I used to create art as pure catharsis, taking all of those life experiences, mostly the painful ones onto paper and canvas. It was almost as if I equated myself as an artist purely because of my suffering!

This is no longer true for me .. It was only when I made a clear decision to have choices, that things really opened up for me… I was fed up with so much focus on suffering, struggling, and my pride in it.. instead, I put my focus on being informed, aware, and looking through the lens of possibility, being empowered by my imagination.

I turn 60 in October!
..and with that brings a renewed vibrancy and motivation for creating empowered change in myself and others.
My art and my work as a mentor, and trainer in our evolutionary leadership programs, are constantly changing, adapting, and evolving, as I do.

Change is a powerful force of life, and I can choose to be a victim of change and circumstance, or to be a catalyst for a different kind of change, and inspire others to create more possibilities and solutions.

As an artist I use one of the most powerful tools we humans possess to create change inside and around us, everyday.. and that is the imagination!

Einstein said it beautifully, ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.’

And just to let you know.. my art is just as energetic and powerful as the images that were inspired out of the cathartic motivation long ago, the big difference is, I am energized by creating art now, and motivated from a place of inspiration and possibility, which overflows into all the other areas of my life. My life becomes art, and then anything becomes possible, because an artist can move a mountain with a simple brush stroke, can she not?

I invite you to join me and celebrate my 6oth, by expanding your creative capacity this Oct. 2-4 of 2015, in a residential weekend workshop in So Cal, to open and free your mind, empower your imagination, and bring those skills into all areas of your life!

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