As I stood there at the Festival of Arts on a warm summer Friday, where I have stood every summer for the past eleven years, I was unable to catch my breath. I was unable to stop the tears from streaming down my face.
So, I didn’t.
I just stood there and openly wept as I was caught so off-guard by the beauty and grace that is portrayed through the fine art pastels of Mary Aslin. What I was aware of at the time was that I was literally being moved by Spirit. I was aware that Mary Aslin has somehow captured the elegance and magnificence of her own soul’s essence and she has shared it with all of us on a piece of canvas.
As I just allowed myself to receive the offering of her soul’s magnificence I was struck with a profound sense of femininity, softness, delicacy, and grandeur which collided with my awareness of the energy of the Divine Feminine and the unmistakable palpability of this very real, tangible, presentation of this beautiful and soft feminine energy before me.
I was captivated and I was held and there was nothing I could do to push away or hold back what had gotten hold of me. I recognized it as the intangible, infinite, uncontainable, unbounded, unbridled, part of Mary and she captured the fragrance of her essence and she parked it on a canvas.
The universe set me up for this, as I was touring my sister and my sixteen-year-old niece. The nostalgic whimsey of my childhood playmate skipping in front of me, the humbleness of owning my sensuality now as a mid-aged woman, the metaphor of draped fabric symbolizing the ever connectedness of it all. None of it could be captured. It was the light. And the roses. And the dreamy remembrance of what only our soul knows to be true.
As someone who is married to a professional fine artist, I see and engage with a lot of art. I’ve stood by my husband’s side for the past eleven years and witnessed all one hundred and forty artists who have exhibited for the past decade. I’ve seen a lot of art. Something like this has never happened.
Early on in my relationship with my husband Paul Bond, he painted me standing on a pile of rocks in the middle of the ocean. It was called The Arrival. I sat in my husband’s studio sobbing in front of this piece resting in the marvel that someone had captured me on canvas, and I was moved by the sentiment of loving between my husband and I and our epic love story.
But what happened to me at Booth #100 this year was different.
I know that the consciousness on the planet is indeed rising. I know that the true Divine Feminine is rising. The energy of sacred, mystical Love is becoming more fully present with each breath we collectively take on this earth. This Love is all around us. It’s always all around us, even if we think we can’t see it. We just look over it and past it. Sometimes we look through it or are buried under it, but I know from first-hand experience it’s right here, right now.
Mary Aslin brought it to life, and it was my honor to be graced by its essence. I am further enchanted in my heart that I shared these beautiful few moments with my gorgeous, sweet, loving, super present sixteen-year-old niece and my dear middle sister. The experience is on my top ten. I am humbled and grateful.
Mary’s work will be on display in Laguna Beach until the end of August at the Festival of Arts. Get there if you can.
Mary Aslin has received numerous awards for her paintings, has been featured in The Pastel Journal and in several French art publications under the Pratique des Arts name. She is a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America, the Northwest Pastel Society, the Pastel Society of the West Coast, and a Master’s Circle Member of the International Association of Pastel Societies. She is also an Artist member of the California Art Club and a member of the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association.
Her work has been widely collected and she is proud to show her art each summer at the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach where 2021 marks her 11th year. She can be found painting outside around San Juan Capistrano and in her studio in Laguna Beach, where she occasionally holds workshops, classes, and open studio events.