“Now it is coming time to spiral up and out — time to rise and shine.” ~ Barbara Brown
Introduction: Barbara Brown, barbarabrownart.com, is an artist, author, filmmaker, and forest-walker from the wilds of British Columbia, Canada. She combines her deep connection to the natural world with her mission to bring the beauty and wonder of the forest to others. She captures the essence of the woodland as her love for it shines through.
Barbara’s art is in numerous collections. She has exhibited and won awards in many exhibitions I have curated including “The Healing Power of Color” 2026. She is also a member of the Manhattan Arts International Online Gallery
With her permission it is an honor to present this profound, spirit-rising article from one of Barbara’s Newsletters. She describes so eloquently what many of us feel yet are unable to articulate the way she does. I know this will inspire and enlighten you.
You will find a link to read and subscribe to her “News From the Forest” below. She states, “Welcome to wanderings, paintings & ponderings from the forest. I am thrilled (and humbled) that you are here to accompany me in my creative endeavours, sharing my love of the woods with you.”
“Groundhog Day Greetings!
Imbolc Blessings!”
By Barbara Brown
This Winter has been feeling somewhat like a back-eddy in the flow of my own becoming —a time of downward, inward deepening. Cleansing and freeing the dark depths of old woundedness. Letting dreams of what-may-be circle and simmer below the surface, refining and rendering, readying themselves for when their time might come. And now, feeling the approach of Spring as Earth turns to this new year of the Fire Horse —this year when in the heavens all the planets will be shifting into new Zodiac signs, this year of unprecedented potential for the awakening of humanity —I am myself feeling the shift to rise, to spiral up and out of the spin I’ve been in —to face outwards again.
Like the seed, sleeping and dreaming in the cold still dark forest floor all Winter long, we now begin to feel a stirring of Spring on its way, and our casings begin to crack, a tender root begins to push out and down, a tentative shoot thinks it might just be able to push upwards, and in our dreams we begin to feel a momentum toward flowering and eventually fruiting.
May humanity rise with this impetus and awaken. Let us—all of us who value compassion, empathy and love as the guiding principles of our evolving —let us catch the wave and ride it out of the back-eddy where we’ve been deepening. We’ve been finding and shedding the old wounds that have been keeping us fearful and separate. Now it is coming time to spiral up and out —time to rise and shine.
Barbara’s art was featured in the Manhattan Arts International “Love, Peace, Unity & Hope” Invitational Exhibition in 2025. When she submitted her painting “Through”, shown above, she wrote, “Today’s world cries out for Love, Peace, Unity & Hope, and as artists we rise to the call. I want my work to bring the forest to people. Connecting with Nature brings profound peace, as we find ourselves at one with all creation. So I try to conjure up for you the feelings of PEACE that settle into you—and the feelings of belonging, of UNITY with all of life, that envelope you—as you sink into the forest’s healing greenery.”
You may also want to read Beth Shadur, Barbara Brown and Mark Weller Received Special Recognition Art Awards.
Visit Barbara’s website barbarabrownart.com
Read and subscribe to Barbara’s “News From the Forest” Newsletter barbarabrownart.com/newsletter-email
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