Loving Mystery; an Invitation
Paintings by Brooke Summers-Perry
February 2018, open 11a-2p weekdays in Treebeards Restaurant (Reynolds Hall at Christ Church Cathedral)
1117 Texas Ave, Houston, TX 77002

My paintings and poetry are the expressions that flow from meditation and reading spiritual texts. For me, contemplative practice is an invitation to connect with the Divine. In practice, I attempt to let go of thoughts and concerns, repressed emotions, fear, and unhealed grief. I experience waves of light, love, and healing images of my home in the Kentucky woods. The practice leads me to explore and express my truest nature, what is left as I let go of regrets and concerns. I begin to sense what has always been. While reading poetry and spiritual texts, I often don't understand what I am reading. Rather than struggle with the intellect, I let it wash over me as broader concepts and ideas. Similar to monastic practices like Imaginative Prayer and Lectio Divina, I allow myself to be part of the narrative and notice the focus on certain words or images. Often these are fragmented, not well-formed thoughts. I use the four words Sister Ilia Delio uses to describe the Divine to help synthesize the fragments into an image or poem. These words are; creative, evolving, expanding, and entangled. The process can start while I am meditating, reading, writing, or simply with the act of putting paint on the canvas.
I am not an expert in any one of these.
The willingness to trust the practice is always the beginning. 
This is the invitation.

Twenty-five to thirty paintings will be on display, here are some of the pieces...