Exploring Faith and Spiritual Light
Written by: mindfulnesspaintings
As I am exploring Faith and Spiritual Light, I am also honored to have She Lights Up the Night included in the Sacred Rhythm, Sacred Pattern 2026 National Juried Exhibition at the M.G. Nelson Gallery in Springfield, Illinois. This illuminated assemblage shrine continues my ongoing exploration of spirituality, intuition, memory, and the sacredness found within everyday objects and experiences.
She Lights Up the Night is an illuminated wall-mounted assemblage shrine inspired by Greek Orthodox icons, Catholic devotional traditions, family shrines, and the sacred beauty found in nature. Through glowing blue LED light, flowers, Marian imagery, a hanging cross, coral-like branches, a brass bell, and layered found objects, the work reflects an intuitive and deeply personal exploration of faith, memory, and spiritual presence.
The piece draws from a lifetime of spiritual influences that continue to shape my creative process. Greek Orthodox iconography glowing softly in candlelight, Catholic religious objects resting quietly in homes, handmade family shrines, rosary beads, bells, leaves, and overlooked objects from the natural world all intermingle within the work. Rather than following one strict religious tradition, these assemblages reflect the imperfect but deeply felt ways spirituality reveals itself through making, remembrance, and light.
Exploring Faith and Spiritual Light, the work centers on a Marian figure surrounded by luminous blue imagery and devotional symbols. Activated by LED light, the shrine may be experienced both illuminated and unlit, allowing the piece to shift emotionally and spiritually depending on how it is encountered. When glowing, the work radiates an inner presence that feels alive and sustaining. The blue light symbolizes intuition, memory, and the quiet spiritual energy that continues guiding me through both life and the act of creating itself.
Assemblage allows me to work intuitively, layering fragments of memory, ritual, and emotional history into a single form. Found objects become vessels carrying traces of lived experience. Flowers suggest fragility and beauty. Religious imagery carries inherited memory and devotion. Bells, crosses, branches, and gathered materials begin speaking to one another through proximity and arrangement. The process feels less like constructing an artwork and more like listening carefully to relationships slowly emerging between objects, memories, and symbols.
Exploring Faith and Spiritual Light, much of my work exists within liminal space — the threshold between visible and invisible, material and spiritual, remembered and present. She Lights Up the Night glows with blue light, sacred imagery, flowers, and found objects gathered into a personal shrine of memory, faith, and intuition. It reflects my continuing search for inner light and the sacred presence hidden within ordinary life.
Mindfulness plays an important role in both my creative process and my spiritual life. Creating assemblage shrines like She Lights Up the Night requires slowing down, paying attention, and becoming fully present with the objects, memories, and emotions that emerge during the act of making. Through this process, ordinary materials become invitations to reflection, gratitude, and quiet awareness. The work reminds me that spiritual presence is often found not in grand moments, but in the simple act of noticing light, memory, beauty, and connection within everyday life.
I am deeply grateful to the M.G. Nelson Gallery and the jurors of Sacred Rhythm, Sacred Pattern 2026 for including this work in the exhibition.
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She Lights Up the Night glows with blue light, sacred imagery, flowers, and found objects gathered into a personal shrine of memory, faith, and intuition. Rooted in Greek Orthodox and Catholic visual traditions, this illuminated assemblage reflects the imperfect but deeply felt ways spirituality reveals itself through making, remembrance, and light.