Chelsea Rushton: Vespers, Lauds, and Other Prayers began simply as Vespers (evening prayers) in November 2015. After a nightly body-focused yoga nidra meditation, I would get up and, disturbing myself mentally and physically as little as possible, start painting. I began the Vespers during a time of deep mental contraction, in which I had few, if any “visions”. The Vespers, therefore,were not about painting what I saw. Instead, I let my hands paint without thinking.

When my schedule allowed it, I began to practice yoga nidra in the mornings upon waking, and as a gateway into afternoon naps that I often need badly but have a hard time settling down for. As more space in my life cleared for rest, regeneration, nidra, and sleep, more space cleared in my mind for sankalpa, the intention-setting practice embedded in yoga nidra. I noticed that my paintings began to reflect the intentions I set in meditation, and I titled them accordingly. I see a subtle shift in these works, not toward representation or illustration, but toward clarity and cohesion. These new paintings remind me of and anchor me into the sankalpa I set in yoga nidra, tend to in sleep, and carry out with me into life. The voice of my intuition began to speak louder. If I could listen and respond, the voice would get clearer and easier to hear. A cycle was created. Vespers, Lauds, and Other Prayers marks a transition, the slow and careful awakening of my third eye from its own kind of deep and necessary sleep, before a new phase of creation.