Lauren Blair Churchill
Gallery of Art Works
My art is a spiritual practice. I like to explore color and form. Very often color comes before the form, but sometimes I use a specific form , and the piece grows from there. The effect produced is one that the viewer can meditate on, and hopefully be brought to a higher state of consciousness. If a label is necessary, my work may be considered actualized fantasy in that the feelings that I have while creating are actualized onto the paper or canvas. Very often these feelings are inspired by dreams, or by music and literature.
The Mayan peoples of Central America have also been an inspiration for me, particularly their calendrics. You can also find information about the Mayan Calendar on this website.
Most Recent Art Work
2006 - Paintings
What About the Mayan Calendar?
In October of 2006, I attended a workshop being given by Mercedes Barrios Longfellow, Maya Mam Elder and Daykeeper (Aj'q'ij). She opened my eyes and gave me a whole new view of the Mayan Calendar and how it is presented in the modern, European-oriented world. Since the 1980's, more and more people have been coming out with their ideas and theories about the Maya, particularly the Classic Maya who lived between 300-900 CE. These ideas were exciting and the people were charismatic. The books written were very scholarly and convincing. It makes total sense to most people that we are living in 'very interesting times', as the Chinese proverb would have it. Influenced by the Christian concept of the biblical Revelations, many believe it is the 'End Times'. The 'End Date' of the Mayan Calendar would seem to back this up. Having read many of these books and thought about it for a period of about 13 years, I had as my goal to find out exactly what the actual Mayan peoples believe about it.
Mercedes Longfellow is a humble and intelligent woman whose message is simple. Mayan Grandmother medicine is made up of 5 elements: Humility, Respect, Gratitude, Permission and Offerings. Mercedes' partner Gerardo Kanek Barrios spent 25 years talking to Daykeepers all over the Maya lands. The Calendar he has compiled is the most comprehensive and its lineage goes back thousands of years. To be humble is to give this Calendar the most respect. To be grateful for it's existence is not to rob its authors of the greatest authority. With permission, I offer my art, inspired by the Mayan Cholq'ij, or Tzolkin, being in no way connected with or intended to be a teaching for it's promotion. For this I refer people to the source, the Maya themselves, who after all have been exploited for over 500 years.
The Illustrated Daybook
Inspired by Mayan teachings, the Daybook consists of illustrations for every day with room for journaling. Let the illustrations work like a meditation. Let them speak to you in the way you need the most. Let them inspire you to acts of creation that bring more joy into the world.
Read More about the Daybook here.
ArtWorks by Lauren Blair Churchill are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.