While I was in Mexico this winter, I received an email from Christine Valters Paintner of Abby of the Arts, asking if I would be interested in participating in a publication that she was in the process of putting together. I immediately shot back a response with a resounding "YES!" (Finding a hi-res copy of the work and emailing it from an Internet cafe in San Miguel de Allende, is another story that I won't go into here!).
I met Christine in person last summer when I met up with a group of bloggers from the Seattle/Olympia/Bellingham area for dinner and a book signing at Borders for Patti Digh's book, Life is a Verb. (I was also thrilled and honoured to have some of my artwork published in Patti's book). Christine is a thoughtful and talented writer, artist, spiritual seeker and spiritual leader. She has authored many reflective art journals and various articles for spiritual magazines. She is also the art editor for Presence, an International Journal of Spiritual Expression.
Her first book Lectio Divina: Contemplative Awakening and Awareness was published last year in 2008. She is also a talented photographer and if all of that isn't enough, Christine regularly leads retreats which integrate spiritual formation and contemplative practice rooted in the Christian tradition, together with the healing practice of the expressive arts and the cycles of the natural world.
In this, her second book Illuminating Mystery, Christine has collaborated with several of the artists who participated in her Sacred Artist Interview. She wove the art together with her own writing while developing the theme of creativity as a spiritual practice.
I was both thrilled and humbled today to receive a copy of this beautiful and insightful book in which Christine elegantly connects the artist's works and their words while giving voice to the mystery of the connection between the artist and the sacred muse, and the magic that results from this connection.
I feel incredibly honoured to have been included in this work.
Thank you Christine!
