Leap of Faith

Letitia Eldredge welcomes you to her site of exhibition of inspirational art created as "art for spiritual practice".

The titles and chronolgies of these images is unlisted placing the priority on their content as visual revelations. There is no specific intent aimed at the viewer, but rather the art is created from inner views from the artist's mind's eye and often referenced from literary promptings which occurred while keeping daily sketchbooks and journals. Generated from many various locations of the globe, Letitia Eldredge's art symbolizes that time travel in an intuitive weave of bold color and figurations.

The subject expressed in the painting "The Ordination of Eve" is the moment when divinity annoints a woman and takes her into the embrace of Christ Jesus. From then on she will know Him as her creator, partner and provider. Christ authors her heart. She holds her desire with a renewed soul hungry to know Him. The image depicts her appointment to His priesthood. God's constancy and love are given to her with creation. His order of service is entrusted to her along with His fertile seeds for mankind. The woman will nourish many sons and daughters in His Light. This painting was inspired by the Reverend Nancy DeForest, who dedicates her life to the Lord Jesus as Pastor at Saint John the Divine Episcopal Church, Houston, Texas. Rendered 2002-3, Texas-Colorado. Oil on Canvas.

"The Crossing" graphically illustrates the weight of soul searching. Is there a bridge we must cross before the deep abyss of identity will be forged? Many faces are hoisted upon each of us. We may seem destined for travail. Where struggle leads us is to the motion of the spirit; that presence which grows within us telling we are accompanied along our way. Safety and Peace is being in trust with that presence, courageous to know that truth is its source. When we reside in faith, looking between our mind and our eyes, listening to the good messagenger, we observe; the promises of God are constantly ours.

I created this next painting in the early spring of 2004 while in Grand Junction on a respite from the extraordinary season of studio and world community in Summit County, Colorado. I had access to my sketchbooks from an earlier residence in the Grand Valley. That was 1992 and the Western Colorado Landscape mask series was under construction. I used a daily writing routine to follow a path of intuition as it unfolded dream by dream. This method helped me excavate mind fields of vision turning out a harvest of archetypal configurations. One black and white line drawing from my notes, here transferred into the oil painting medium, vividly reflects a modern predecessor Georgia O'Keefe. All I can say to that is, "who would have ever thought it? What led me to a "Prayerform 1"?.

"The Listener" is a gouache painting made in 1983 during the 2 year period while I occupied a studio on Market Street in Downtown Denver. I was the fortunate guest of local collector, Herbert Wanderer. It was and still is, a common occurrence for me to have vivid dreams. Some of these will speak to a future I can not foresee relevant to events at the time. This image comes from one of those dreams. Then was the eve of a mysterious fatal air crash of a Korean airliner off the coast of Communist Russia. That night I was dreaming as a witness. My companion, Jeff Basinger, came rushing down a flight of basement stairs into a small protected chamber. He had urgent news about a global war. Due to this upheaval it was necessary to scramble and shift the world's libraries for they hold the records of our cultural memory. For those living in the "Light", a violent upsurge of Darkness was aimed to attack and demolish this memory bank as a means of total domination and submission. When Jeff spoke his message to a holy woman clothed in a black vestment, she remained silent on her small cot in this underground cell. It was clear to me she lived a vow of silence, and rarely left her place. Her assignment was to listen then to hold strategic secrets for their revelation at an ultimate moment for decision. The year was 2 or more decades in the future. I understood there were others like her, and together they formed a security network. As Jeff relayed his words her arm rose above her head in acknowledgment of his message. When he had finished, she bowed gently at the waist and nodded her head to signal she received its content. This dream alarmed me. How and to whom should I communicate it? I immediately began this painting to establish an artistic cornerstone. For the many years to follow, I was compelled to listen for any signs of this prophecy coming to pass. Now is Memorial Day, 2004, an anniversery which needs little more comment for Americans. By definition of this democracy, we are all party to world events at hand. This statement is my prayer for our individual awareness of this as a fact and the community's awakening to its responsibility for a potentially morbid imposition of our policies.

The following painting is also a symbolic rendering of a dream. This one was of the ascending resurrected Christ, on July 17, 2001. I have transcribed a synopsis of what I saw then combined with a scriptural reference of Jesus as the second Jonah. "The Signal of Jonah" is an oil painting on canvas rendered in Houston, Texas, fall of 2001; only a short time after the Allison Flood devastated Harris County. Next transpired the epic fatal events in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, September 11, 2001. The message spoken in my dream was "the oppression will be lifted". On this I have centered my faith and trust in God for today.

While a studio guest in the Downtown Fort Worth cultural center, I felt the brothers combined strengths and cultural philanthropy would impact many lives for the better. The tradition of this family is to demonstrate appreciation for the arts with gifts of support and production. It followed a decade later the sale of this painting provided seed money for my passage to Kiev, Ukraine when I responded to their government's request for a cultural mission with the Face of the Americas Institute Fellows. Dr. Fernando Isart purchased this work. Then he and his brother, Professor Juan Isart of Austin, Texas, led workshops at our conference for the Institute of International Relations at Tara Shevchenko University. Mission guidelines were specifically in support of aesthetics as a spiritual necessity. Art and freedom of self-expression were encouraged in order to raise the level of committment to arts as affecting quality of life. A positive result of this movement lends benefit to individual health-care issues and the over-all communal climate of humanitarian cross-cultural affairs.

Pictured next is a large gouache painting evolved from a sketchbook series entitled "Paradoxical Realities" reported from a series of dream visions intuitively developed during 1996-7. I lived in Austin, Texas at that time. A ceaseless weight of longing wore on my heart. Perhaps this ephemeral state constituted more of a migrating personality than a thought about someone else. The essence would go and come like a houseguest and deposit morsels of poetic inspiration all around me. Graphic symbolism combined with visual metaphors told stories such as the germination of life. A subliminal text referred to aspects out sight or control. Daily events acted as injections of sperm which gave birth to more art. This powerful love originated with gifts of revelation only a muse can pass on to an artist. Passionate ideas were delineated for me like a ghost writer was present. I instinctively made images as art I would later come to see represented an expression of pure faith in God. "The Trinity" is one such image. Here is the man giving birth to woman.

A sequel to "The Trinity" is "Harvest". Similar in size, the theme of the female is expanded into an archetypal portrayal of duality and fertility. The woman's biogical destiny to give birth to mankind is paired with her human search for a fully actualized identity. It is an irrevocable force in truth which dispels her most treasured inner riches outside herself. An intangible cross beams at the center of her flowering nature. The symbolic fish is the caress of creativity. A Tree of Life has roots in her flesh and bone.

It has been three and a half decades since The Masks took a hold of my art. Soon after that dramatic shift in all my art forms and intention, came a dream telling me the entire experience was a book. The book called Birthplace would be revealed to me, "room by room" as the light on circumstance did permit. What has been a continuous flow of interconnected ideas for this entire time, were evidently concealed metaphors attached to the life of Christ. Not a concientious Christian most of that time, it still seemed natural to me that all concepts and infinity belonged to God Himself. And I searched for proof in the poetry given to me. How did these imaginations tell of real life? One such idea is represented in this painting "The Shepherd's Way". This version tells we are at the gates of salvation where all things are seen, heard, and spoken. The simple forgiveness comes to The Samaritan woman. She has met her Master. The well pours out living waters for her spirit to drink. The message contained is that infinity is open to you. Be strengthened. Be in faith. All things are possible in the Lord. You are welcomed at the well. You choose to drink of the living waters. You entered His Temple now. This iconic illustration, was inspired on March 27, 2004 to be painted that same day.

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FOUR DIRECTIONS
TRUTH

LEAP of FAITH

FOUR DIRECTIONSTRUTH

LEAP of FAITH

FOUR DIRECTIONS
TRUTH