about me...

I am the youngest of seven children and was raised a Catholic. From a very early age I would often think about God and how life "worked", a couple of incidents stand out to me. I would listen to my father's Sunday dinner conversations of how some churchgoers would seem so pious yet cut each other off leaving the church parking lot! He would also speak of how certain people would act so self-righteous yet soon after reveal their prejudice toward certain races and or religions. After church one Sunday, at about the age of five, I remember playing with my dolls and reflecting upon what I had just been told about who we are in relation to God. I remember thinking "so as I am to my dolls, God is to me"....but then I asked "who is to God as God is to me??" That made no sense to me looking at God as a physical being, like man. There had to be a better explanation.

My oldest brother became a Jehovah's Witness when I was in elementary school, much to the dismay of my parents. One day before I started highschool he shared the book of Revelations with me. As he described what he had learned about the "End of Times", the seals being broken and the good angels coming to Earth to rid the world of the impure and the bad angels, I could think of nothing greater than assisting the "good" angels in bringing peace to Earth.....I was so excited to think of the possibilities of helping. I wanted to be an ambassador of sorts and prayed to God that I would be able to be just that.

These early familial influences inspired me to pay attention to the world, to religion and eventually spirituality. I have always tried to figure out how mankind can live more joyfully and how we can have peace amoungst ourselves and within ourselves. My favorite teacher in 9th grade told us stories of her own experiences with intuition and synchronicities and I was fascinated. She recommended Raymond Moody's book Life After Life. I read it quickly and was hooked and began to read everything I could on near death experiences, metaphysics etc. throughout highschool. Though I had not had any "real experiences" I always felt this wonderful greatness within me....like a powerful well of beautiful energy, but I yearned for more.

After studying many different religions and philosophies in and after college, I joined a weekly meditation spirituality circle before I had my children and had my first experience. I was 5 months pregnant with Kelsie and painted a beautiful picture of a woman with long flowing red hair and blue eyes. The background was sunrise and a crescent moon hung in the glowing sky. Kelsie came into this world just like that....at sunrise, with red hair and blue eyes with a crescent moon in the sky....it was my first real vision. Today she looks very much like the woman in the painting.

Despite everything I have read and heard about others experiences and perspectives, I always come back to that essence of joy and spirit within me and use my own experiences with the divine for guidance. I am forever grateful however, for the teachings & writings of courageous people such as Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Raymond Moody, Dannion Brinkley, Shirley McClaine and Nick Brunick as they have given me the courage early on to reach beyond this material world and to find the truth and beauty of who we really are for myself. I am also grateful for the few recent authors such as Eckhart Tolle and Dror B Ashuah whose writings have not only validated my experiences but have also inspired me to reach even further and deeper....to release my egoic self and step more fully into love and the bliss of being. And now I encourage others to take the plunge, to let go of exterior influences and beliefs and to listen to and trust in their own inner guidance and connections with the divine.

about my art...

I graduated with an Economics degree but had taken courses on painting and design at Regis College and began my art career in 1989 with a wholesale hand painted garment business in Florida. I sold painted t-shirts, garments and accessories to resort boutiques across the country and then created illustrations for greeting card, packaging, imprinted garment and gift manufacturing companies. I have been a freelance artist for over 22 years.

I witnessed personally how life's circumstances can change with positive affirmations. When I was a single mother raising two young daughters working two waitressing jobs and doing my art on the side, I taped notes with positive sayings on them all over my tiny apartment and listened to motivational tapes whenever i could; eventually i was a full time freelance artist again and met another wonderful man to share my life with.

In 1999, inspired by an amazing dream of angels I took to canvas and began creating a series of angel paintings and allegorical paintings that spoke of manifesting positive results in life. I became actively involved in the Cape Cod holistic health community, painted hundreds of angels on commission and became the publisher of Synchronicity Magazine. Though I loved what I was doing, I felt drained by my spiritual work and the challenges that following this path created in my everyday life. I was fearful of another divorce as my husband, though supportive, did not fully embrace the experiences I was having. I shifted into painting more main stream art for a couple of years.

The call to paint to better the world came again to me after attending the Landmark Forum and Advanced Courses in January 2007. I began a series of Tranformation of Human Consciousness paintings and in the spring I recieved five requests for Spirit painitings in one week after two and a half years away. The summer of 2007 was spent improving my painting techniques on the steady flow of Angel/Spirit Guide commissions. And in the Fall had the Reconnection Healing Session that changed everything. Three angels appeared to me and guided me to realize intentions once set after the dream in 1999.

In April of 2008 I opened The Angel Room in Mashpee to create The Angelic Light Project, guided by this profound vision. I began seeing clients for Reiki sessions after receiving my Level Three Master Atunement in the Fall. The following July the Angel Room moved to a larger location and became a Wellness Center and co-operative of 12 wonderful and talented practitioners. The Angel Room had a life of its own from the start....it was definitely the Angels' room.....and truly became a beautiful healing center....i was deeply honored to be assisting them in its creation. But after three years we had to close this April. I began a new chapter and relocated to my hometown, Mendon, Mass. I found a wonderful nearby center to practice out of, Franklin Yoga, and commute to the Cape twice a month to see my Cape clients at The Sanctuary in Mashpee. I continue to paint in my home studio and live on a 250 cow dairy farm with my highschool sweetheart Peter Hawkes.

I strive everyday to brighten this world with my art and with my life. Thank you for visiting my site.

Namaste

Nicki

nicki@artbynicki.com

774-521-4402

Nicki@Artbynicki.com 

www.artbynicki.com