The Creative Art, Kaleo and Elise Ching
Artists, and members of Peace
The art exhibit, which coincides with the release of Elise and Kaleo Ching’s latest book, The Creative Art of Living, Dying, and Renewal: Your Journey through Stories, Qigong Meditation, Journaling, and Art (North Atlantic Books, © 2014), is a reflection through paintings and words of the book’s comprehensive theme. Kaleo’s paintings draw on his journey into the mysteries of the body through his practice of Medical Qigong, hypnotherapy, and Hawaiian Lomilomi massage. Kaleo’s art and Elise’s poetry honor their intimate relationships with the ancestors and the natural world and mirror their spiritual foundations in Daoism, Buddhism, and Christianity.
Divine Mother
mixed media collage-painting by Kaleo (30×22”) 2014
poem by Elise
Oh Divine Mother,
you whose bowl holds tears and prayers
and the split places of the heart
in a pool of golden light and sound
whose womb
knows the pain of filling
and emptying
who roves galaxies and stars
to bring us love and hope
and the dark and light that bind them:
Be with us now and every hour,
a bodhisattva hooded in a swathe of glowing sky
Earth
In Chinese Medicine the Earth Element governs the Spleen-Pancreas
and Stomach. The emotional challenge of Earth is worry. Earth is
about nourishment, grounding, centering, meditation, and trust.
Yellow is the color. Yellow light cleanses, purifies, and strengthens
the Spleen-Pancreas.
mixed media collage-painting by Kaleo (30×22”) 2014
poem by Elise
is a big womb
plump with possibilities
like seeds and thoughts
bumping each other
to emerge and drink the sun
become fragrance taste color form
like pumpkin
rose
nettle
fig
and corn
to be harvested
and live again and again
in body
ripe body
and beloved soul
Inner Sanctuary
mixed media collage-painting by Kaleo (22×14”) 2014
poem by Elise
Soul looking for a home
leaves the house of others
for the community of one
digs an X in earth’s skin
A seat at the center
where death is met
and birth is known
by a cord knotted, stretched
but never broken
Fire sits beside darkness
in this grave place,
lights eyes like stars,
warms hands in their mudra,
ignites a prayer to travel deep enough
to glimpse holiness among
the shadows on the stone walls
