Classical

"The scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our souls." – Edgar Allan Poe

Encouraged by her own continued journey, Lalita is taking first steps toward being publicly vulnerable by sharing personal experiences through art and writing. In so doing, she hopes to inspire others to expose, address, accept and release the 'ugly' and 'dark' parts of their personalities in order to turn their suffering into thriving.

The process began four years ago with Gaye Adams, an accomplished painter, instructor and life coach, who gave Lalita the tools and support she had been desperately seeking. 

The practice involved, and continues to involve: becoming aware of inner demons, inviting them to ‘speak’, hearing what they have to say, taking responsibility for the truths, letting go of the rest, dialing the voices down, and most importantly, replacing those negative voices with gratitude, truth, light, curiosity, forgiveness, compassion and wisdom.

This is a large art / life project, and has been divided into several stages that will likely result in several bodies of work. Lalita is currently working on the charcoal sketches and oil studies for Stage One. She is grateful to Justin Ogilvie for helping her free up and experiment!

"The scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our souls." – Edgar Allan Poe

Encouraged by her own continued journey, Lalita is taking first steps toward being publicly vulnerable by sharing personal experiences through art and writing. In so doing, she hopes to inspire others to expose, address, accept and release the 'ugly' and 'dark' parts of their personalities in order to turn their suffering into thriving.

The process began four years ago with Gaye Adams, an accomplished painter, instructor and life coach, who gave Lalita the tools and support she had been desperately seeking. 

The practice involved, and continues to involve: becoming aware of inner demons, inviting them to ‘speak’, hearing what they have to say, taking responsibility for the truths, letting go of the rest, dialing the voices down, and most importantly, replacing those negative voices with gratitude, truth, light, curiosity, forgiveness, compassion and wisdom.

This is a large art / life project, and has been divided into several stages that will likely result in several bodies of work. Lalita is currently working on the charcoal sketches and oil studies for Stage One. She is grateful to Justin Ogilvie for helping her free up and experiment!

By ‘inner demons’, “shadow” or ‘voices of the negative ego’, Lalita is referring to the voices that tell us we are not good enough, or that we are trapped, separate, or undeserving. 

The critic, for example, might follow one around, feeding self-doubt by criticizing every action or inaction throughout the day. “You did that wrong” or “You have failed as a painter!”  The inner critic finds fault; it shames you and compares. The critic also judges others, and might cause you to flip off another driver for cutting you off. An astute inner critic will even judge your thoughts, and ironically say things like “Don’t be so judgmental!”  

Stage one of this process involves shining a light into dark internal spaces and seeing what is found. This can be scary! Some of our shadows and beliefs have been around for a long time, and do NOT like to be brought to the surface. 

Those voices, many of which lay buried in our subconscious and physical body, have relentlessly told us we are small, insignificant, unforgivable, defective, helpless, useless, incapable, alone, unsupported, unworthy, lost, irreparable, unloveable and fundamentally depraved. 

Why bring these shadow voices to the surface? Won't this just muck everything up and leave me with a mess I don't know how to clean up?! What if I try and fail?

Years ago, Lalita asked herself such questions. Finally, she was done with suffering. Her depression had taken over, she had several health scares, and her well-being, relationships and quality of life depended on a shift taking place!

Fortunately, after years of trying to improve on her own, Lalita was introduced to the seven voices of the negative ego: the critic, trickster, outlaw, dark rage, debt collector, mad(wo)man, & dark lover. Watch for upcoming portraits of these character voices!

Inviting the shadow voices 'in' takes courage, patience, and practice. The remaining stages are:

Stage 3 - Owning It

Stage 4 - Letting Go

Stage 5 - Creating the Life you Want!

If this topic is of interest to you, please subscribe to Lalita's newsletter and/or follow the artist on Facebook at LalitaHamillArtist.