Laurence Bilodeau, local artist and reiki practitioner, has created a painting which she said resembles her belief system.
One of her paintings, called State of Being, was on display at The Gallery on 47th Street. She explained one part of the painting, in the top right corner is a honeycomb pattern and a bee.
“They’re so basic when it comes to the natural system on Earth,” she said. “When you lose the bee, you lose pollination, plants, and the food chain gets messed up.”
The honeycomb is only a small piece of a bigger puzzle. She said that the overall painting depicts many symbols associated with mysticism such as the flower of life, the Torah symbol and the all seeing eye.
“I try to put that on a 2D perspective and it’s very hard to translate what you feel onto (the canvas),” she said. “This is as close as I was able to get to my personal experience.”
She further expressed the root of her perspective by taking about her past. She said that from the time she was a child, she had a paranormal side and was able to perceive things that seemingly no one else could.
“It was a bit of a struggle because the basic system we live in does not reinforce whatever you see as actually real,” she added.
Bilodeau explained that has been revealing more of herself in her paintings over the course of years.
“Five or six years ago, I was going to keep to northern and I would (depict) camping, ravens and bears, what people are ready to see.”
She said that she did not know how many of the symbols would make it in the painting when she started because she did not have a complete vision of the final product. She added in each symbol to the painting one by one as it came to mind.
“I said that I should make a rainbow, and then I put it aside and think that I should add sacred geometry,” she added.
She commented that she wished she knew what the final product would look like because it would have saved her time an effort since she had to paint in the white background after she had already painted some of the symbols. She explained that most painters are able to make big brush strokes but she always ends up making tiny strokes with a small brush.
She pointed out that one of the similarities between the way she paints and reiki.
“I’m almost (painting) more and more microscopic,” she said. “You always zoom in closer when you work with clients for reiki.”