The Art of Letting a Collection Reveal Itself Over Time
Once an idea is given to me by the Holy Spirit, my role shifts. I step back, watch, and listen. and play with the idea mentally until it starts to coalesce into images I can see in my head. I don’t force the story; instead, I observe how the idea unfolds on its own. Hidden threads emerge that I never could have planned. A shape, a texture, or a symbol starts to repeat. Patterns appear slowly, often only after several pieces are created. And when they do, they carry a quiet power, a sense of inevitability that reminds me to trust the process.
For example, my earlier animal constellation pieces felt like independent experiments at first. I wasn’t thinking about a larger series, outside of animal constellations. I was exploring a single idea. Only later did I realize that these pieces were forming a subtle bridge into a larger series that has been growing over time. The animals held seeds of the collection’s story, quietly guiding me forward.
This is the nature of prophetic, intuitive work. Collections often speak before I can articulate them. The work guides me as much as I guide it. I follow impulses, symbols, and patterns as they arise, rather than trying to design a cohesive series from the start. Every decision, every mark, is informed by observation and intuition. It’s about trusting the process and trusting that the Holy Spirit will reveal what I need to know when I need to know it. The Spirit sparks idea, I nurture and grow it and finally the art itself communicates its story and needs, and I respond.
Letting a collection reveal itself over time requires patience, trust, and humility. It means honoring the hidden currents of your creativity instead of forcing coherence. Sometimes an idea surfaces after a dream, sometimes in quiet reflection, and other times it only becomes clear after several paintings are complete. The patterns and symbols reveal themselves gradually, and when they do, the collection feels inevitable—like it was always meant to exist.
This process has taught me to embrace uncertainty as part of creation. It’s a reminder that art, like life, has rhythms, currents, and timing we can’t always control. Collections are living entities—they have their own way of unfolding, and my job is to listen and follow. By letting them reveal themselves over time, I create work that is authentic, intuitive, and deeply rooted in both my creative and spiritual practice.
