FEARLESS We Paint: Guest Post By Gail Leeder

Published on December 17, 2010

What I Learned From Painting Fearless?

When Connie sent me an email asking for a contribution for the month of December, on my experience with FEARLESS Painting BIG, I had to put some thought into it.

My very first reaction was………whoa….even if I did consider writing something, what would I say, no really WHAT WOULD YOU SAY (gremlin). I know how I felt, like someone put a giant wooden spoon in my creativity, where ever that maybe, and started stirring and stirring and stirring. And I could see all the colors swirling around and around and then it all mixed together, and then separated again. Then something jumps out and you create that.

That very same day that Connie sent me an email I received my daily inspiration from “DailyOM”.

This is what it said “Synchronicity may appear random, but at closer look you will see that the universe is giving what you asked for.”

Secretly I have been asking the universe …….. What do I do? HELP ME? GUIDE ME?

They go on to say “These synchronous happenings are much more than that; if we look more closely, they can show us that the universe IS listening to us and gently communicating.”

“Learning to pay attention to and linking things that occur on a daily basis can be a way for us to become more attuned to the fact that most everything happens in our lives for a reason” –—– even when it is soooo not clear.

When I read that……….for me it was a connection to the FEARLESS painting

Fine tuning your intuition and letting it flow through the brush and as much as possible keeping out of its way. Sometimes that inner voice gently nudging us along, I’m pretty sure mine has tripped me a few times.

“So synchronicity means we have to trust what is happening to us and that there is more to our lives than the physical experience.”

This also means we have to take the good with the bad; it all has messages for us………. Including my FEARLESS paintings. That’s huge for me.

This is exactly what I learned from FEARLESS painting……… it crossed MY path at just the right time

For years I have been painting and sometimes it felt like I was pushing up against a wall, nothing would work and I would get frustrated and walk away.

Other times I felt so energized and could go on and on.

Now I see what was happening, I was listening and did not realize it. Connie helped me see all that.

When she started talking “fear gremlins” and ……….. Well I mostly remember her talking about the “gremlins.

OOOhhh gotcha, then little things started shifting in my head. It has affected many parts of my life not just painting.

I have a long road ahead but for right now I’m riding on some smooth pavement, WITH the occasional pot hole.

My husband is really relieved I’m on the road and not in the ditch.

I live in my home town, which the only time I left was in my late teens early twenties. My husband (Maurice) and I bought property from my parent’s farm, 5 acres and have been here for 25 years. We built a log cabin and have slowly over the years have been finishing it.

We have 3 sons Kyle 27, married to Jenn, Taylor 21 and Zach 18 and 2 grandchildren Mason 3 and Ava 1. And I must say that I am the luckiest mother, mother-in-law and grandmother, well mason calls me monnie, in the world. It has been the most grueling, heartbreaking, satisfying, loving, exciting…..I could go on and on….position I have ever had. And I would do it again in a heartbeat. I love them all, they are the cream in my coffee and I do love my coffee.

I have always been involved with some sort of craft all my adult life; it was not until my last son Zach was born that I started painting. First I started with “tole painting” and then from there I just kept taking different courses, buying books and reading up on different painting techniques. When I became severely ill and hospitalized in 2001 painting became a saving grace, and so I plunged deeper into it. So painting of some sort has been by my side, through good and bad, and all the ups and downs of my health. It’s like a dear friend.

Over the last few years I have started painting for a bit of money. I have painted milk cans for people in the community with their homes or farms on them, business signs, saw blades, pet tombstones, and patio stones; I don’t think there is not much I have not painted on.

I have to say that up until “BIG” my painting has been very rigid and structured. Now I can recognize the good voice in my head and listen to that and paint from there and it’s been very positive. It is almost like a weight has been lifted because my painting is my painting and I am not trying to paint what someone else has painted.

VERY FREEING!