“The last 10 years have been a gestation period, an alchemical forge, and ‘Kósmos’ is the result,” writes visionary artist Marlaina Donato in “Kósmos: A Journey of Emergence,” published in support of Donato’s upcoming exhibit of the same name.

The powerful body of work features 18 paintings described by Donato as a labor of love. “I felt that I had gone through an energetic birthing process,” explains the multi-talented artist, writer, poet, photographer, composer and recording artist.

“‘Kósmos’ is my visual meditation on dark matter—the hypothetical, unseen web that holds galaxies and heavenly bodies in place. What holds the cosmos together also holds us.”

“Kósmos” (an ancient Greek term representing a harmonious, ordered universe, and the root of the English word “cosmos”) is informed by questions as vast as the cosmos itself:

“What if we didn’t wait until death to walk through the door we intentionally avoid in our daily orbits, and then another, allowing each opening to open us?

What if we understood it all not intellectually but cellularly?

What if we became the eye of the storm, stillness observing the Entirety?

What if they told us the most important thing to accomplish is to embody Love?”

Gaining insight to these questions and more would lead to a journey that burned Donato to her core and birthed the body of work to be shared at her upcoming exhibit at the Narrowsburg Union, her first since choosing to stop doing solo exhibits in the conventional ways. 

As revealed by Donato, the artist’s life plans were derailed in her mid-20s by a sudden onset of myalgic encephalomyelitis, a chronic debilitating illness she would battle for two and a half decades. Art was a lifeline and catharsis as she dove into professional portraiture, art of the sacred feminine and naturescapes with a focus on magnificent trees and windswept heavens. For 20 years, she had solo exhibits in Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Jersey and New York State, but a life-altering physical health remission in 2016 forever changed how and why she creates.

“When I healed, my full heart fell madly, deeply and exquisitely in love with the world,” said Donato.

After the relentless 25-year battle, Donato underwent a major restoration on the cellular level. “Something magnificent and life-altering happened to me, impacting both my physical and internal emotional life.

“On the inside, every nerve ending seemed to be an open channel… I felt responsive to the electromagnetic biofield of plants and animals, and my already-keen intuition and inner sight became razor sharp, worlds beyond the tactile coming face to face with a profound realization: There are no divisions between what we call science and what we categorize as spirit. Everything is frequency and frequency is everything.” 

Donato’s ability to create art expanded and she instinctively retreated into the sanctity of her art studio, focusing relentlessly on the body of work documenting her inner process of renewal that also coincided with a radical inner shift.

“My art took a deep dive into the energetic; colors became sounds beneath my brush, and Eros—the sensual life force of the cosmos—unapologetically pulsed in the fibers of the canvas… My art became figurative with bodies penetrating the firmament, lovers birthing worlds with their ecstasy. No longer catharsis, painting was a process of exquisite felicity.”

“I began to see the immediate world with totally different awareness. I learned the complex difference between empathy and compassion, destiny and free will, seeing all sides simultaneously, and ultimately, allowing all of it,” Donato explains. 

In many ways reminiscent of birth, the process proved both brutal and beautiful, wrenching and profoundly transformative. Donato submitted to and embraced all of it.

“The creator must be willing to be hollowed out,” she asserts. “This does not mean we become a mere channel, but for the brush, the voice, the hand, the instrument or the body to bring forth light, we must be burned into another self.”

Reflecting on the outcomes, Donato says, “I like to think that my latest work is a culmination of personal epiphanies and observations over the past decade. 

“I hope I have left some of this energetic gold within the brushstrokes, reminding all of us that we are much more than we realize, our provision is infinite, and reality is far more magnificent than our finite minds could ever fathom. That joy is the road Home, beauty is sacred, and worlds are infinite and overlapping. That multidimensional healing IS possible, but we must first love ourselves enough to allow it. Self-honesty is paramount, and we must work with the energy of Love; without it, NOTHING is possible.”

For a deeper dive into Donato’s compelling work, visit riverreporter.com/stories/in-the-eye-of-the-storm,265962.

Marlaina Donato

Contributed photo

About the artist

By MARLAINA DONATO

Marlaina Donato is a third-generation painter forging her own path and living the creative process as a sacred act, one intended to bring the view closer to the infinite beauty of existence. In addition, Donato is a national health writer for Natural Awakenings magazine, a multi-genre author of 15 books, a poet, a photographer and a composer-recording artist.

Donato’s show, “Kósmos: A Journey of Emergence,” features new, dynamic works that give the viewer an intimate glimpse into the universe and the inner human landscape. Her large, jewel-toned oil canvases celebrate the mystery and magnificence of the cosmos and our place within the Big Picture. Key pieces in the exhibit are draped with lush fabrics, inviting the viewer to pause and remember their innate connection to the Unknowable Whole. 

“Kósmos” is dedicated to Donato’s paternal grandmother, Ethel Lowell Cole, a portrait artist and photographer based in Philadelphia before she became an invalid from radium poisoning. 

To learn more, visit WildflowersandWoodSmoke.com and www.amazon.com/s?k=marlaina+donato&crid=2IU3TLVR2K65O&sprefix=marlaina+donato%2Caps%2C121&ref=nb_sb_noss_1 .