Following the Path if Freedom through art continued
So, this artist decided to name her business in a way that reflects her feelings when she is busy arting, (arting?) I paint, I mosaic, I fiddle with graphic arts, I create logos, and business graphics, I dye, and watercolor, I do acrylics. I do whatever I want and however I feel the Spirit leading. There is a freedom in the way I create art when I allow myself the time and space. My business name was originally Eagle’s Wings Art Productions. Eagle’s Wings is a very popular name for many companies. I Googled that name and there are thousands of entries. Most of them represent some type of spiritual endeavor. That’s okay with me. Most of my art originates from the heart and the spirit. Another little gem that I discovered when I researched some of these companies was that many of them did not use the apostrophe in Eagle’s. Hmmm… I felt a glorious permission to hang out with this rebellious crowd, because quite frankly, I was having a dickens of a time trying to justify the fact that I was not allowed to use an apostrophe in my email address. The wee bit of OCD within me was squirming every time I sent or received an email without the all-important and required apostrophe.
Years later, I am on Yahoo and the headline is this:
Its a catastrophe for the apostrophe in Britain
It seems there is an on-going, years-long battle over the removal of apostrophes from street signs. Councilor Martin Mullaney, who heads the city's transport scrutiny committee, said he decided to act after yet another interminable debate into whether "Kings Heath," a Birmingham suburb, should be rewritten with an apostrophe. So, it’s official. No apostrophes in street signs.
I like the finality of that decision. But what I really like is my justification in deciding to make eagleswings all one word without an apostrophe or the separation of words, nor the capitalization of wings.
The apostrophe has three uses:
1) to form possessives of nouns
2) to show the omission of letters
3) to indicate certain plurals of lowercase letters.
In Eagle’s Wings then, the Eagle owns its wings. (Ahh…. look up the use of its vs it’s. I usually get that wrong!) I chose the eagle as a symbol of freedom and spirit. The symbol of me following my spirit and the Holy Spirit to create art. Somehow, using an apostrophe feels like I’m taking away that freedom. It’s like dancing. When one is dancing in a passionate way, they follow the beat of the music, that requires some brainwork. When one dances to the spirit of the music, that requires heart. And the body follows both. When the eagle soars, the wings enable the freedom of flying in a rather mechanical way, but the wings also enable the eagles to enjoy the dance with other eagles and the joy to follow the air currents. Does the eagle own its wings? The wings belong to the body and when the heart says, “Soar at your leisure, let the spirit lead, let the wind take you wherever,” then it seems that the wings are owned by no one and no thing.
Take my art. When the spirit leads and I just have to jump on the currents of the wind and paint, I pick up my paint and brush and paint until I’m done. There is a certain disconnection that occurs between my hand and my head. Instead, I connect hand and heart and the magic begins. I turn over my hand to my higher power and let the Spirit take over. It truly becomes a type of out-of-body experience. I ride the wind of the Spirit and create until I awaken from the dance.
This is the path I take as I direct groups of individuals who love art to communicate with Holy Spirit as they walk their path. I encourage the dance between the head and heart and the Holy Spirit. I teach others to abandon some of the rules of art, or writing, or musical composition, to let the Spirit in and to ride the wind until there are some answers.
So, thank you Councilor Mullaney for giving me the Queen’s permission to opt out of the apostrophe and to revel in the freedom of my art. That’s Thats nice.
