With snow still on the frozen ground, Aynsley Nisbet has somehow found herself where everything is coming up roses.
The 26-year-old local painter has a very big year ahead but can’t say that’s how she planned it. In fact, she claims to have no plans at all and is just going with the flow.
If that’s the case then she must have great karma. In addition to recently making the cover and being featured in the current issue of Mosaic: The Mind, Body and Spirit Magazine , she is also preparing for exhibits in this summer’s ArtWalk event in St. Albert and at Steeps in Old Glenora. She will be involved with the Heart of the City Festival in Edmonton for the third straight year.
But those are just the side projects. What really keeps her energy levels high these days is the major news she will be the headlining visual artist at this summer’s Astral Harvest Music Festival, just a few months after she opens up her own gallery in Edmonton’s Strathearn neighbourhood. The business, to be called Organic Zodiac, is also going to be combined with her other passion in life, a holistic health studio. She is in her second year of the holistic health program at Grant MacEwan University.
With all of these things on her calendar, it’s amazing she still has the time to paint (which she does often, for herself and for many commissions). All the good things happening in her life is just the universe’s way of showing her it approves.
“I think it comes from finding your purpose and accepting it,” she started, saying that she was an atheist years ago but things didn’t work out. “I just completely thought that I had control of my life and the more I tried to gain control of my life, the more I lost control. So now when I actually just put my heart and soul into one thing that I know I’ve been given, like this gift of art or music or whatever that I feel I do so passionately, then fate is there. The universe will reward you.”
Nisbet added she now has faith in the energy of a higher power that ties the world together. For her, it’s just a matter of knowing how to tap into that energy and use it to grow.
“There’s a certain spirituality that I have now that I didn’t have before. I think that’s what keeps me in balance, just accepting the world as it is and believing that you’re connected to everything and a higher power which can even be your higher self.”
This perspective fits with her art as well. There are apparent cubist and abstract influences but it’s hard to imagine even Picasso having this much spiritual impact on people who viewed his paintings.
During one showing at the Heart of the City Festival, a man walked up to Nisbet with tears in his eyes after viewing a print of her work called Finding Your Peace of Mind. He said he had never before felt so emotional from looking at an image.
That side effect also fits in well with her exploration of the healing arts. On top of her artistic pursuits Nisbet also conducts workshops on exploring chakras where she teaches people to trust their intuition. She has one taking place this weekend with a few open spots remaining.
As for the business, she is hoping to line up a variety of holistic health practitioners and therapists to make their services available.
To check out Nisbet’s other works and activities, or to contact her with interest in her business, workshops or commissions, visit http://aynz.livejournal.com
