Dear Being Energy Community,
My name is Chris Osgood. I’m a painter, an artist. I’m also a Being Energy practitioner and a member of our Path With Heart family. I live in Lincolnville, a small Mid-coast Maine town, in the United States. I live and work on the property my grandparents purchased in the 1920’s where a small river meets the Bay. It is a former tribal summer camping/fishing area, and later the site of an early European settled village. The unique energy of this little harbor continually attracts and connects with me.
As a painter I primarily work in oils and Japanese Ink, on canvas and paper. This is my studio, feeling a little neglected at the moment. I’ve had a long stretch away during the construction of my new house. Now is a time of cleaning up, sweeping, vacuuming, making space, and scraping palettes. It’s a time of transition much the same as my house and gardens, all waiting for blossoms, sprouts, and color. In my studio, as I get started again I have a typical struggle to remember – how did I do this, make a painting? With Being Energy I can practice Being Energy® movements, and jump into my painting groove, and reconnect with all the memories. My daytime dreams open up and out, and spill into forms and color. Then all I need is a little dance music, and I’ll be off.
I often wonder what it means to be an artist. And am typically challenged to find an answer. I fretted this past year, since I had so little time to spend in my studio. A year ago I began contracting out the construction of a new home on a tiny spit of land on our family property. I have been dreaming this home for more than thirty years. Now, I’m able to recognize this house/home is itself a work of creativity, a piece of art, just like a drawing only three-dimensional. It is still unfinished, with a fair amount of exterior work, steps, lattice, earthwork, and landscaping still to be completed. My Being Energy practice helps me to unfold my dreams and bring them to life.
My new house is a work in progress, much like my garden and orchard. Each spring, as soon as the snow melts, it’s time to prune the fruit trees. Each spring, when I begin pruning, it’s just like returning to my studio, I wonder how to do this, prune the trees. Yet, as I go along and begin to quiet, I listen to each tree, and each one tells me when I’m in sync with it and when I’m not. They let me know when I’ve pruned enough. And my recollection of, or connection to the art of pruning opens again. This little peach tree, is for me every bit as much a work of art as any painting I’ve done, and I feel great affection for it and all of the trees. The trees are still dormant, they are also in process, ready to flower and then bear fruit. Practicing Being Energy movements encourages me to be quiet and listen to the trees, and value their feedback.
Here’s another example of an artistic piece of work. This old tree and I have worked together for more than fifteen years.
Here’s my vegetable garden, with weeds growing, nothing planted yet, and looking pretty grey. It’s another work in progress, about to begin its seasonal dance. In a couple of weeks peas, onions, sweet potatoes and tomatoes will be the first to take root. This garden is perhaps my principal place of connectivity, a place of connection up from the earth to infinity/spirit. It’s a place of heart and love and creativity. It’s definitely one of the premier works of art in my life.
I encourage you all to come back in late summer or fall to see how these works have taken root and blossomed.
I dedicate these works in progress to my Being Energy and Path With Heart family, and to you all, with a basket full of love.
