Within Without - Within

The invisible force field surrounding my cage

Trapped in confusion an endless maze

Reaching beyond feels painless and easy

Going within is agonising and hellish

Surrounded by darkness the cold holds me tight

a burning desire is beginning to glow

Can the truth of everything really be close

I'm afraid of myself and how little I have done

As the night enters morning a deep calmness falls

Much of today slumbers deep undisturbed

Many such nights alone in the silence

Inspires a courage that lives in us all

Transformation begins, ends, starts and falls

Connected with nature with nothing to hide

Being present in time and watching down from above

in the shadows a true light is formed

How we live, who we are and how we treat others is important. I am important, you are important and together we can all make this world a better place.

Be present, be aware, share a smile, talk to someone you don't know. 

Reaching OUT - Finding courage (2-11)

Finding courage

First I had to find a NEW PERSPECTIVE which I marked with my first solo exhibition on September 5th 2014. Having quit my job in July 2014 to pursue full time art, I realised that everything since my A-level art was self taught and I had been so focused on working to pay my bills up till that point, I hadn't devoted anytime to myself or my artwork.

and I knew nothing!

My whole life I have believed in magic after all the impossible becomes possible everyday. I believed in Santa, my Mum was great for that. When I came home saying kids at school said Santa isn't real the gifts are just coming from their parents, My Mum just laughed and said, Yes! It's true, kids who don't believe in Santa do get presents from their parents pretending, Santa stops visiting kids who don't believe in him, so if I were you, I'd keep believing coz its  not worth the risk! Well, I was almost satisfied with this answer but decided to stay awake on Christmas eve to find out for myself...

That night as I was lying in bed, I heard Santa enter the bedroom... My first thought was... I smell toothpaste!? Santa just brushed his teeth!? As Santa came closer to the bed I suddenly had a rush of thoughts through my head, the loudest saying Do you want Santa to be fake? Do you want this magic to go away? NO WAY! Santa brings awesome stuff! And I lay there with my eye's firmly shut while I listened to Santa.

After Santa left the room I quickly checked to see if my stocking was on my bed... YES! I'd saved Christmas!

Years later I always feel a little crushed when people talk about Santa as a commercialised because for me I believed that Santa had his work shop filled with hand made toys for all the kids in the world. What's so 'EVIL CORP' about thinking that as a kid? 

As an adult I feel I want to create something special and share that magic. The magic that leads to anything being possible, if enough people collectively believe in that magic I honestly believe this world will continue to grow into a better place. 

Equality for all, as a kid in my mind, Santa had toys for ALL the kids in the world. My idea of Santa didn't discriminate. 

a NEW PERSPECTIVE

 SteppingOUT exhibition at the beach March 2015

 SteppingOUT at Chu's gallery, 1 Hollywood Road

New Perspective exhibition at Pan Hoi Street

Being able to do this on my own terms a very special and magical thing. It makes what I'm doing feel real, following my decisions and choices. I believed in myself and the rest seems to be falling into place. But I have devoted time, thought and energy to embrace this project with all my heart. Driven by seeking truth and honesty in the world around me, I find beauty everywhere. You see an ugly corner, I see the opportunity to transform that corner into something beautiful.

I want to break it down, take it apart and rebuild creating a solid foundation built on magic.

I recently sold this painting NEW PERSPECTIVE it was painted to represent a doorway or port hole into a new way of thinking. Now that I feel I have confidently made the leap of faith and entered through this doorway into another dimension of thought. I am ready to pass this magic to a new home. It is blessed with the power of opening one's mind to the infinite possibilities within the universe. And as the universe expands so to do those possibilities.

I thought that this first art exhibition would be the giant hurdle I would need to overcome to reach my goals, how wrong could I have been :) The last 12 months has been littered with hurdles... but after the first exhibition I needed to step out of my comfort zone...

Next blog REACHING OUT - Stepping OUT (3-11)

Friday 7th August 2015

support the artist and buy some art

Mini canvas artwork for sale

Reaching OUT - 365 days (1-11)

Happy one year no job anniversary to me!

Did i imagine one year ago when I walked out of a full time job that I would be here today over joyed with what a fantastic year I have had? Yes! But I wasn't so certain I would make it to this point... there have been many tantrums and tears along the way but I knew it wasn't going to be easy. That just made me more determined.

Emotions are like roller coasters, the more complicated one's life is the greater the dips and turns. With this in mind, I decided I really needed to focus on simplifying everything in my life. Suffering from depression (worrying about the past) and anxiety (worrying about the future, I had to start living in the present.

I have spent the past year working on my art. Finding focus was incredibly challenging... for the past 20 years all my jobs had been active, hands on work... so sitting quietly to draw and paint was something I needed to train myself to do... Looking back now at some of the more simplistic artworks I have done, I can clearly see my state of mind reflected on the canvas, the ideas are there... but the attention to detail is poor...

Visualising my dream and working through each progressive step, I have gained so much knowledge along the way. I am also very grateful for those who have supported me in buying my artwork, if feels like such an honour when someone treasures my art as much as I do.

Here in Hong Kong now, everyone is away overseas and its lovely and quiet... A brilliant time to be out and about in Stanley and preparing for my 3rd solo art exhibition, ReachingOUT

Here is my official poster design for the exhibition. I'm currently working on a canvas 120x100cm of this picture as one of my 6 featured new artworks. This design will be available at my exhibition for sale as a large canvas, smaller mini canvas features, and greeting cards. All at very special exhibition prices only ;)

The image of the lady in the middle is inspired by the Hawaiian goodness Pele, protector of the volcano and feminine divine of awakening. In times of stress I look to my goddess oracle cards for guidance. Free readings will be available on Saturday from 5-7pm during sunset surprise.

Sun, moon, sun represents the exhibition days and times Saturday, night and Sunday.

My daily meditation sounds everywhere I go in Stanley is birds, there are some many birds here such a peaceful energising sound.

My fairly recent move to Stanley has connected me to the ocean, water. Endless amounts of natural healing in various different ways, my favourite is swimming at dawn, at 5.45 before the oldies rock up at 6am.

The spider is Charlotte, she lived by my front door as I also attempted to confront my fear of these 8 legged beasts. 

And the fish, symbolising the generosity I have received in these last few months, the most surprising being receiving fresh fish from the fisherman here. Happy to share their daily catch and have a beer at the end of the day :)

With September fast approaching I am busy working on and organising the details for my Exhibition. 

As mentioned earlier, I will have 6 new canvas' so as a build up to my Exhibition I shall have regular updates here on my blog. 

On a personal level, I feel very bless and pleased that I am gaining momentum and this is going to be AWESOME!

Next blog update Monday 3rd August

Reaching out - Finding courage (2-11)

REACHING OUT

Solo art exhibition by Arana Kennedy

Sat 5th & Sun 6th September 2015 Stanley

AranaARTnDESIGN website

Painting - New Perspective

"When at first you don't succeed, try again!"

or continue working on the project because, maybe its just not finished yet...

For my first solo art exhibition a needed a new piece, something that was personal to me, something that portayed the symbolic new dramatic angle and life I was about to embark on. With NEW PERSPECTIVE on my mind, I needed to re think everything I'd previously known and decided if I was about to take this giant leap of faith and follow my natural instincts... I needed to think differently and change everything. I needed a door way, a secret doorway that would help me catorgirise what I am doing, in my mind. I decided to leave the dragons for this part of my project. And I needed to introduce a colour other than red, black and gold, hold onto your seats folks... I added a bit of yellow! WOW! hahaha!

Featured here at my first exhibition on Pan Hoi Street, Quarry Bay.

I wasn't pleased and it just didn't feel finished, was it the painting or was it myself reflecting in the colors a sense of incopletion within my soul?

Having a new and different perspective, adjusted the way I looked at things, I no longer am choosing fear, I am choosing to be. Nothing need be final or unchanged, we choose our own paths and destiny everything else is a fleeting moment, a random act... So I got back and started to complete my first transitional process, really embracing the NEW PERSECTIVE.. 

My New Perspective was ready by the time I decided it was time to Step out... 

So I featured my completed peice for my second Art exhibition

Stepping OUT

The final completion and the amazing feedback was incredible... I made this, I created this... and Mr Tilbroke... we aren't in Art class anymore!