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As I have found many wonderful artists through Orly Avineri so too I found this gem Galia Alena!  This little lady has a plethora of talents and she reels you in with her words, wisdom and images wether it be paint or photos. I have immensely enjoyed exploring her and her work and I am pretty confident you will too! She has so much to offer so let’s dive in together.

Galia Alena:I’m a visual poet working in just about any medium I can lay my hands on although I am a professionally trained photographer and a so called “self-taught” artist (of course there have been many teachers on that path). I’m in love with the creative process. I’m a beauty unveiler, light huntress, moment caresser and visionary poetess.
Ultimately, all of my work is about helping people peel back the layers to experience the intense beauty of each moment allowing access to both their intuitive wisdom and a deeper connection to spirit and self. (Because the beauty of this life cracks our hearts open and it is through the cracks that light can flow both in and out and connect us back to our divine selves)
That is what I do and I do it through photography, art, journaling and teaching.
I live in the insanely beautiful Blue Mountains, just shy of Sydney, with my family, our cat and all the winged ones who frequent our garden. Each day here is a wondrous delight of tiny miracles through either the glorious light or magical mists.
I would love to work with you, have a look around and see where you are called…

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Lets start with the most fundamental question why do you create?

Hmmmmmm, I just have to, to make things, things of beauty, to be connected to those things of beauty, to manifest my soul, my heart, my desires, my being, to express, to swirl and dance with the universe, to take something and magically, alchemically, turn it into something else, to be part of it all. I have the magician as my birth card, some would say its my soul path to create and manifest things, I just know I have to. It’s a deep desire that drives the hand, heart and soul to work in unison and create.

The feminine figures that often show up in your work, do they have their own story?
Yes, we all have stories, especially women, we are all just stardust fallen into stories, so of course my feminine figures are made of stardust and stories. Sometimes real stories and sometimes mythical, always archetypical. Many of the stories come to me as seeds or images in my dreams and then reveal more and more of their stories as I spend time with them unveiling, exploring and getting to know them on the canvas. Their stories are my story and probably yours too, all of ours, of being human, of being feminine and of being divine.

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I feel a certain spiritual aspect to what you create, does spirituality play a part in your art?
Mary Oliver said that “to notice is the first step to devotion” and for me my practice is very much about paying attention (to pay attention, this is how I pray), paying attention to the way the light moves through my day, how the shadows fall, the birdsong, the way the steam rises from my coffee, or the clouds hang low in my garden, a new thing growing, the way words are formed into magical beings and the whispers between the petals, all of it, I pay attention, I drink it in, it feeds me, it is sacred, all of it, so yes, everything is spiritual.

Do you have a sacred space?

Everywhere is sacred space.

My own sacred space is my home, with my babies, where I create and dream: sanctuary of trees; & the forests I walk through: cathedrals of trees.

What does sacred mean to you?
Sacred is that which connects us to our highest selves, to each other and to universal energy (by whatever name you wish to label it). It is what steps us into our Brightest, our potential beyond ego, beyond personality, beyond the individual, our connectedness, our oneness. It is a portal to our soul and beyond, it is what brings us into the fulness of the moment.

Anything, and possibly everything, is sacred if it allows us to remember.

Do you have any rituals?
Many rituals from morning coffee- letting the dreams slowly lift as I clasp my hands around a warm cup looking out the window at the day breaking through; to taking out the compost- recycling what we don’t need, nurturing the worms and earth, turning over the dirt, keeping it all flowing. I think anything can be a ritual if it is done with mindfulness, attention and intention. As I’m thinking about this question, I’m feeling that “practice” might be a more interesting idea to look at. All the things I do as ritual can be done fully present or not, I could walk through the motions of rituals without mindfulness, without intention, without presence and on one level they would still be ritual but not a deep and meaningful ritual. What is more important to me is “practice” and this is anything that I do to deepen my connection to presence, to source, to myself. My practice takes many forms but to name a few, hitting the mat, walking in nature, meeting myself on the page or the blank canvas. When I hit the mat I often have to gently remind myself “there is nowhere else I need to be, nothing else I need to be doing- just breathe” as the busyness of all I want to do calls to me I have to release it to the moment. By a walk in nature, I don’t mean that walk you do to burn off calories or tick the exercise box on your to do list, nor the walk to catch up on some podcast or audiobook (although I do love to take some soul-thinkers and poets with me on occasion), I’m talking about that walk that is just me and my breath, and the pulse and breath of nature.

Practice is that which pushes the edges and boundaries of my presence, that takes them deeper and allows my rituals to be more imbued with meaning and connection.

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What do you collect? Why?
The why is easy- I love things of beauty especially when they are layered in meaning and significance to me. The what, well… The main things I love to collect are “trinkets” from our travels and adventures, these are touchstones to memories and experience; art work from the hands and heart of people I know, these are touchstones to the people and the creative collective; stones, feathers, sticks, pods, seeds- these are touchstones to mama nature, to beauty and fragility, to the fact we are all just tiny stars.

What does your inner rhythm look like? Feel like?
It’s cyclic, its always been cyclic, between quiet reflection, observation, listening, seeking, germination and then a flurry of creativity, production, movement and then back to quiet. A continual spiralling, with always many cycles at any one time.For me balance is not a static point nor an ideal to try to achieve but an intersection as I oscillate trying to juggle a multifaceted life and being. The inner rhythm is always in movement, even when dormant and incubating it is moving slowly back to a time of creation. Always cycling it is these opposing points which keep each other balanced. I think this idea of balance holds so much freedom and permission. It allows life to be messy and fluid. It allows me to be unproductive and floss about with the fairies, when I need to because I know I’m going to circle back and have a bout of creative explosion and then that will naturally burn out and a time of introspection will begin. Knowing this allows me to relax into it more readily and not to try to force the rhythm. Even knowing this I still struggle with time but when I am doing my practice and practicing presence I am more likely to be able to keep the overall scales balanced and be sure not to linger too long in anyone phase.

What lights you up? What turns you on? What makes your heart quicken?

Snow- silent white magic,
Light- the dance of the day,
Shadows- where I can see clearly,
Creativity- the soul at play,
My babies- they are magical beings and infinite teachers.

How do you nourish your wellbeing on a typical day?
Notice, create, move/flow, love.

Lastly, tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
To stay open. No plan, just on path, noticing, course correcting, flowing, growing, unfolding my story and gifts:

becoming myself- we are not wounded, we are just unfinished…

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 THIS! Of the heart: Making an heirloom. >>>———————->(Watch this video.)

        My daughter will soon get her moon time and I want to celebrate this auspicious occasion and welcome her into the beginning of her womanhood journey. As part of this I am putting together a Red Box with gifts and wisdom from her female tribe and I’ve decided to make her a very special and unique book, an heirloom, a keepsake, a treasure and a treasury of love from me. And so this course and this project was birthed.

If I received a book like this I would surely fall into a mess of magical tears! Don’t you want to gift your daughter one of these? Perhaps she is about to pass the threshold into womanhood or about to get married? This would be a stunning heirloom! Inquire and sign up HERE! 

Oh and there is this: Journal Circle is a sacred and dedicated time just for YOU. A date with your creativity, allowing you to slow down, go deeper and listen to your own wisdom. To Meet Yourself on the Page. You can join a journal circle HERE, as well as discover much more about it and see Galia’s personal journal pages!

You can also come say hello on her website HERE or on Facebook HERE!