HEART OF THE MOUNTAIN – A PAINTING INSPIRED BY MOUNT SHASTA

There are mornings when the light touches the mountain just so, and something in me lifts—unasked. After nearly a year of living with a direct view of the western face of Mount Shasta, this quiet expansion has become familiar, but never ordinary.

One morning, I awoke with a clear inner sense that something had arrived. I felt more here, more woven into the land beneath my feet. And with that grounding came a rising—an inspiration that wanted form. Heart of the Mountain is the painting that emerged.

This work was born from that view I see daily from my porch—the twin talus slopes of Diller Canyon curving into a shape my dear friend once called a heart. Since she said it, I can’t unsee it. But more than the mountain’s shape, it’s the feeling that I’ve tried to capture:
A vast, impersonal love.
A lifting of the heart.
An energy that is both rooted and transcendent.

Mount Shasta is known for its spiritual presence. For me, it’s a teacher—not in words, but in essence. And Heart of the Mountain is my attempt to express the deep sensation that this place evokes… an internal geography shaped by light, stillness, and wonder.

This piece is created on wood panel with a traditional gesso ground—a method I use to keep the surface energetically permeable. The paint is water-soluble wax and 24k gold leaf, chosen not only for their archival and non-toxic properties, but also for how they hold and transmit subtle impressions. I work from meditation and states of deep stillness, allowing the energy of the subject to “imprint” itself in the painting.

The composition centers around the western face of Shasta, with the heart-shaped canyon at its base. But there’s more than landscape here:

In the sky above the mountain, I painted the sacred geometry known as the Squaring of the Circle, an ancient symbol of the union between heaven and earth, spirit and matter. It’s surrounded by two hexagons, forming a radiant twelve-pointed shape—a symbol of wholeness.

A single white vertical axis stretches from earth to sky through the center of the painting, echoing both the volcanic uplift and the energetic channel I feel within when I sit in stillness with the mountain.

At the base of the panel, gold-leafed drips represent the underworlds—mystery, roots, and unseen realms.

The sky transitions through layers, each symbolic of different states of consciousness—from the tangible to the transcendent.

These elements come together in a visual prayer, holding both structure and openness. Stillness and movement. Earth and light.

This piece is the second in my Faces of the Mountain series. The first, Mt. Shasta Alchemy at Panther Meadows, was painted soon after I arrived in this area. But Heart of the Mountain feels more internal, more abstract—a turning inward that reflects my growing relationship with this sacred place.

Where the earlier painting was an introduction, this feels like a conversation. A deepening.

I believe it’s possible to experience spiritual realities while fully embodied—while standing barefoot on the porch, watching clouds drift over a snow-dusted peak. This painting, like the mountain itself, is a reminder. That beauty can be a bridge. That landscape can become language.

And that sometimes, just seeing is enough to open the heart.