Why Anibus has come to stay…

Posted on July 30, 2017 Posted in fine art, paranormal, spiritualityTagged art, artist, dreams, fine art, paranormal, spirituality, Texas artistLeave a comment

anubis egyptian god who ushered souls into the afterlife 5.5X9.5 in ink on paper 2017

anibus 9.5X6.5″ ink on paper, 2017. $45

Anibus was an Egyptian god known for ushering souls to the afterlife.

This form appeared during an early morning meditation, say 3AM. At the time, I was unfamiliar with Anubus, but when I finished, the image looked familiar and the thought came, jackal.

Indeed, jackal is one of the names by which this god is known, but it wasn’t until I showed the work to my son that I heard “Egyptian god,” though, somewhere in my subconscious mind, I knew.

Since I am often awakened or simply unable to sleep in the wee hours of the morning, being disturbed (I believe) by discarnate souls, (trembling, coldness, nausea, nightmares, acute anxiety), I wonder if Anibus has appeared to me for this reason: a spirit guide for those who have lost their way and found me, the listener.

Always, I command these energies to go on their proper way, each to their own appointed path in the company of angels and guides.

Perhaps Anibus has heard me so many times, he has come to stay.

poem in pictures: river. tree. lizard. knee

Posted on May 21, 2017 Posted in nature, photography, Poetry, spirituality, UncategorizedTagged art, cypress trees, dragonfly, einstein, guadalupe river, hill, life, peace, photo, poetry, spirituality, stillness, Texas, truthLeave a comment

look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better

Albert Einstein

guadalupe state park, hill country, texas

cypress trees with knees

d. ellis phelps is the author of Making Room for George, Moon Shadow Sanctuary Press, 2016: a tender love story about family and one woman’s journey toward her true self. Free for kindle unlimited users. Softcover available for Prime shipping.

ode to the snout-nosed butterfly

Posted on September 8, 2016 Posted in nature, photography, Poetry, Social Commentary, spiritualityTagged activism, environment, natural world, phenomonon, snout-nosed butterfly migration, south texasLeave a comment

if you live south

look out

you might demise

this little snout

i must have split

poor little wings

a thousand times

such fragile things

yet slicing through

these clouds of life

i thought to stop

upon the side

of littered roads

with bodies thin

& hold one

death

against my skin

Snout-nosed butterflies have been migrating south through San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country for the past few days. High summer temperatures and drought plus recent rains have caused the exact right climate for this phenomenon. The last time it occurred was in 2012.

As I drove to lunch with a friend today, killing probably hundreds of these delicate creatures, their bodies, sacrificial on my windshield, on the grill of my GMC, I cringed & wondered how it might change our world (my world) if, when this kind of natural phenomenon occurs, we would stop: declare a national holiday, pull up chairs beside the road, in the forests and witness, in reverie, these powerful mysteries happening right before our eyes.

image: “Leonard Cohen” used by permission of Bill Strain via Creative Commons. Rights reserved.

new publications: art & poetry

Posted on August 20, 2016 Posted in Painting, Poetry, Social Commentary, spiritualityTagged D. Ellis Phelps, fine art, painting, poetry, politics, social commentary, spirituality, trump, Tupelo Press, Voices de la luna2 Comments

how many painters does it take to change a nation 12X12″ mm on paper, 2016 (c) d. ellis phelps

Voices de la Luna

A San Antonio based, Quarterly Literature & Arts magazine has published this painting and one of the poems I wrote for the Tupelo Press 30/30 Project in March, 2016.

These two pieces represent the beginnings of an increasingly political bent in my art & writing. To my surprise, the painting has sold. So much for trying to “make things pretty” when they are decidedly not.

Here you see the matriarchal warrior goddess questioning: how many painters does it take to change a nation; how many $ does it take to trump justice.

It is not simply a female leader we need. It is a compassionate, honest, dignified, just, intelligent leader (of any gender) we need. & since the populace seems blinded and deceived by drama and captivated by fear, I wonder what kind of cataclysmic event it will take to bring us again to our metaphorical knees or whether All that is Whole and Good and Pure and True will move us to redemption.

How does Great Spirit move in you? This is how it moves in me:

i had attended

the workshop

i would have missed

this:

visitation of cranes

follow this link to read the rest of the poem in Voices

Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy.

Posted on November 7, 2015 Posted in spirituality, well beingTagged affirmations, art, spirituality2 Comments

"jesu" 15X11" watercolor on paper unframed, circa 1995. $150 — “jesu” 15X11″ watercolor on paper unframed, circa 1995. $150

Though my spirituality has morphed and evolved into a very broad, multi-faith practice, the mantra-prayer I use most often, especially when I am experiencing fear, is “Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy.”

In 1995, my mother was diagnosed with uterine cancer and underwent surgery.

As I sat in her apartment, she in the hospital recovering, me waiting for the day I could bring her home, coming back and forth from the hospital, not knowing how much longer she would live or if the surgery was successful.

I came as close as I had until then to recognizing her mortality and my own.

I felt frozen.

I sat at her table, her things all around me, but not her.

I pulled out my paints, these I’d brought with me because from the beginning of my artistic journey, I knew this was how Spirit would speak to me, how I would listen.

Not anticipating any image but just allowing the paint to flow onto the paper, connecting, praying, “Lord have mercy; Christ have mercy” for my mother, for myself, this image emerged.

In that moment, I felt as close to this teacher/healer as I have ever felt, knowing the Essential Energy of his work in the world was fully present to me then, as I know it is now.

Today, I use many other equally powerful mantras and memorized prayers, some from the Christian tradition and some not, but the one element that remains steadfast as essential to my connectedness with the Whole, with Great Spirit is what I now call the christ, the essential truth of being. Mercy. Mercy is Lord. Gentleness. Care. Compassion. Being and living into these qualities day by day.

What prayers sustain you? Do you use affirmation?

Let us gather here in a community of gentleness, sustaining one another as we enter this season of darkness returning to the Light.

Aho!

loose woman: #art & #life

Posted on April 2, 2015May 23, 2015 Posted in fine art, Formidable Woman Stuff, spiritualityTagged archetypical imagery, art, artistic transformation, desire, dreaming forward, fine art, letting go, life, loosening up, spirituality, woman, womenLeave a comment

image: sketch from a couple of days ago in my journal

This loose woman and many others like her have peppered the pages of my journals for years like sirens, luring me into the dangerous waters of artistic transformation.

Some have become manifest in more rigid forms, morphed into spirit guides bringing messages, heralds of truth.

But these images are more abstract, less full of words, more pure imagining, fanciful, and fun!

I wonder: what would this life, this art look like? How would it change me..

Can I let go of what I have known, ask the “Little Baptist Girl” shadow to rest, release her Puritainistic, patriarchal hold on my psyche and let this wild, loose woman have her way with me?

Can I trust that SHE too is holy? Can I allow Her sensuous vulnerability to pull me into the dark waters of the unknown?

piles, prints, paths: a poem in pictures

Posted on March 12, 2015June 28, 2015 Posted in photography, Poetry, spiritualityTagged bones, cedar, habitat, limestone, meditation, nature, oak, paths, photography, piles, poetry, spirituality, spring, Texas, tracks, white tail deer, zenLeave a comment

…neither technique nor talent matters half as much as deconditioning the eye from looking-at to seeing.

Frederick Frank

d. ellis phelps is the author of Making Room for George, Balboa Press, 2013.

self portrait: a poem in pictures

Posted on March 11, 2015March 11, 2015 Posted in photography, Poetry, spiritualityTagged Texas nature photography zen poetry cactus fence post red grass dry grass barbed wire spirituality dry creek bed2 Comments

Give your body an hour a day. If it’snot worth an hour a day, there’s nothing your body can tell you and not much anyone else can do.

Marion Woodman

leaning post

barbed wire