The invisible reality-deeper than skin-galactic in nature-is the mysterious urge that draws me to draw. Every body is beautiful. We're like a nebula, a large group of associated stars in an eternal process of creation. Each is beautiful in its own way. Each is a work of art. Each is alive inside of the mystery. It's the mystery of the human figure, body, mind, and spirit, that calls to me. We are Mother Nature's gifts-her greatest creations. What could be a more compelling subject? The five senses are the keys that open the door to the inner and outer world. The sixth sense, intuition, brings me in touch with the nothingness that is everything. To slip into greater awareness I must liberate myself from my own ego. It's then that I have insight, I see through my heart, I access the inner essence-my true nature. Seeing through my heart-drawing from the inside out-lines spring up from the deepest realms of sub-conscious. They are threads that signify life, energy, tension, force, action, impulse, urge, direction, and more. They touch commonality. They connect to the model. Love is the impelling force, the universal drive, that prods me to wake up to the invisible reality. Love is relentless, all-inclusive, and unconditional. The end drawing is an expression of two souls converging-if my ego doesn't crowd in.
About the Author: Joyce Eakins: "Do what you love and love what you do." That's what I tell myself and that's what I told every student I taught. I started teaching when I was in graduate school and continued for over thirty years. During that time I served as Chairperson of the Fine Arts Department at Colorado Women's College and I taught art at the Women's College of the University of Denver. My favorite medium is anything water-soluble. I love the capricious flow of transparent colors and forms that find their own edges. I love the spills and drips that happen without intention. My work has been exhibited in the Watercolor USA National Invitational Exhibit, the National Art Club of New York, the Butler Institute of American Art, the Palm Springs Desert Museum, the Laguna Beach Art Gallery and other galleries and museums. My paintings have been included in travelling exhibits in the U.S.A. and internationally. My paintings appear in Watercolor Bold and Free by Lawrence Goldsmith, Watercolor: See for Yourself by Mary Carhartt, and Tarot of the Spirit created by my daughter, Pamela Eakins, and me, published by U. S. Games, Inc. and Samuel Weiser/Red Wheel Press, Inc. For the past five years my fascination with the human body has taken form not only in drawing from life but in writing this book about the experience. It's what makes us human that captivates me-it's how we relate to each other-it's the rapid changes-it's what we hold onto and what we let go-it's how we perceive the world. It's curiosity that draws me into the invisible world-the world within. Each of us lives inside our own skin-our home inside our home. Life is such a curious thing. What could be a more relevant subject.