animal art

Animal Wisdom for 2025

Posted by Barbara Techel

The animals inspired me to draw three cards this morning from my Animal Reflections Healing Oracle deck and share with you their wisdom for the coming year. It’s a message you’ve no doubt heard before, but it’s one that many of us need reminding of as we continue to heal what needs healing within ourselves. And this, I believe, helps us shift the planet, one-by-one to a more peaceful place.

Animal Wisdom for 2025

Hippo reminds us that our true HOME is within and gently embracing all aspects of who we are.

And when those sneaky doubts slink back in, Hummingbird swoops in and flutters before us with excitement, encouraging us again to BELIEVE in the magical gifts that reside in each of us.

Kingfisher, so bright with its magnificent colors, lovingly calls out to us in its beautiful song as a reminder to never stop SEEKING the wonder of it all – the stars, the planets, the Universe! Everything is alive and here supporting us!

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I also recently completed this custom 8 x 8 3D mixed media collage Animal Art (thank you, Connie!) and felt the additional message from Mountain Goat is a great one for the New Year also.

When Connie asked me to create this custom piece I asked her what it is about Mountain Goat she liked. She shared with me that it was during a spirit animal workshop I co-facilitated a few years ago that Mountain Goat came to her during the meditation portion of the workshop. At first she was disappointed.  But then she learned how they can traverse any surface without falling and appreciated their teaching for her of perseverance, grit, and grace.

Don’t you just love grit and grace together? I do!

Animals have this amazing ability to show up at just the right time with just the message we need. So it’s best not to question what animal may appear and keep your heart open to exploring what you can learn. You just may be pleasantly surprised!

Our perseverance has certainly been tested these past few years, but I do hope you are feeling a shift of the energy and one of grace as we move into 2025.

Happy New Year!

P.S. I am available for a limited amount of custom pieces. So if you are interested, let me know!

P.P.S Could you please let me know if you received this blog post?? I’ve had to update this part of my website and want to be sure you are receiving my blog posts. Thanks so much!

XO

Barb

    

Project of Love Complete. Art that Supports Dogs in Need.

Posted by Barbara Techel

When I was in the process of creating my Animal Reflections Healing Oracle deck over two years ago it wasn’t on my radar that the originals of each card would eventually support a local dog rescue.

It was after a local non-profit, LaValley Home and Garden, approached me last December about carrying some of my other art in their shop that would support a local dog rescue, that another idea came to me to part with the originals from my animal oracle deck.

While I was initially a bit sad to part with them, I was excited about the prospect of helping raise some money for a rescue that cares for special needs, senior, and hospice dogs, called Albert’s Dog Lounge.

And so it became a labor of love as I took each card that was created on a 2.75 x 4.75 wooden template and mounted them on a 6 x 6 wooden panel, with coordinating paper background and added some gem stones to give them a bit of sparkle. On the back of each one is the message from each animal also as written in the guidebook to the deck and signed by me.

Connecting with each animal as I re-created them in a whole new way was a gift to revisit with each cards meaning and now I offer them as a gift you can give to yourself or someone you care about.

You can see some of the designs above, but there are many more on my website here. A portion of each piece sold will benefit Albert’s Dog Lounge.

XO

Barb

    

Currently on My Art Table: An Ode to Cicada and their Special Emergence this Summer.

Posted by Barbara Techel

A few weeks ago I began to hear about a phenomona which hasn’t happened since 1803 and how this summer millions of cicadas will emerge in the midwest.

There is a 13 year called Brood XIX and a 17 year called Brood XIII of cicada emerging during this summer and what is being called a co-emergence. These two specific broods with different life cycles co-emerge only every 221 years.

Soooo, as I’ve been hearing more about this special event I’ve also heard some ‘negative’ press with the warning: ‘Cover your ears! It will be deafening!’

This perspective immediately made me want to be an advocate for Cicada and encourage us to lean into what it is we can see about ourselves and learn from Cicada at this time.

It has me pondering where in our lives are we not singing our own songs? I see this rare occurrence and this large body of Cicada coming up from underground as a mirror to guide us back to remembering why we are here on this planet. And that we are here to sing from our hearts! A time for us to come out of from the darkness we’ve been in and forgetting that we are here to explore, discover, evolve, and emerge into more of a state of peace and joy .

And instead of covering our ears, it’s an invitation to open them and ‘tune into’- as in really listening deeply – to what it is we may need to actually hear within our own inner world to help us to live in the truth of who we really are.

It’s an opportunity to add our voice to this co-emergence that we just happen to be here for at this time as again, it only happens every 221 years. And and how exciting is it we are here to witness this!?

I’ll be adding an oracle message to the back and once complete this Cicada will be for sale here my website.

P.S. If you’d like to learn more about where in the midwest they will emerge and other information, I found this website helpful:  https://cicadas.uconn.edu/

XO

Barb