We were lucky to catch up with Hilja Keading recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hilja, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

At the moment, the paintings I am working on based on my father’s bonsai, a 25-channel video installation I’m completing called “The Gospel According to This Moment,” and my ongoing psychic consultant appointments provide much meaning and joy to my life.

My father left a collection of over 60 bonsai, and I had the chance to meet his bonsai master. This man told me that he started his journey with bonsai when he returned from the war and was deciding which direction to take his life. He also said that every bonsai has a story to tell. I approach the paintings as though I am telling the story expressed through each bonsai, while contemplating our own. I really like the quality of paint and the process of working with it.

The Gospel According to This Moment is a piece that  is a leap of faith for me. I began it after I had finished a video in which I interacted with a live trained bear named Bonkers. While editing the video I learned that my questions about the difference between performing and being were no longer relevant. Afterwards, I felt whole and lost at the same time – a complete free fall. The Gospel embraces the fear of the unknown and engages with consciousness, nature, and human nature. I worked with 9 adolescents in the Great Plains that I had never met, in a landscape with which I was completely unfamiliar – and recorded the youths speaking directly to the camera about their concerns, fears, and what “lie within the silence”. We set up the cameras and then left, allowing them to speak without supervision. The next year, I returned to record the same youths watching the footage of their younger self, expressing that which their younger self could not have understood at the time. For decades I had been concerned about ways in which we project adult fears and desires upon children, and then blame them for it. This was my attempt to remedy that dynamic; to give agency back to them. What resulted was a profound expression of mortality, consciousness, and beauty.

My most direct interaction with consciousness is within my current psychic consultations at Intothemysticnow.net. I’ve had the gifts of clairsentience all my life, and had been studying psychology, mystic concepts, and spiritual issues for decades. But it wasn’t until after I had a significant visitation that foretold of a difficult scenario, that I began to take these gifts seriously. As a fine artist, I receive benefits while making the work. But with psychic readings, the client receives the benefit immediately, and I get to connect with something larger than myself. There is profound joy and satisfaction in connecting with someone in such a deep and meaningful way. I believe these gifts were meant to be shared, and the immediacy of it is life affirming to me.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a fine artist who specializes in video installation and painting, and a psychic medium who provides in-depth understanding, insight and practical steps for moving forward. I have a direct approach to my fine artwork, resulting in emotional and visceral understanding. There are no scripts or rehearsals in my videos: I trust in the moment, and connecting to the consciousness of the environment. The paintings are lush and evocative and equally emotional. As with the video installations, the visceral quality provides understanding outside the limits of language.

At the start of a psychic consultation, I quietly focus on them and ask for advice, or a “prayer” on their behalf. As with creating artwork, one has to trust in the process, and I trust that the messages I receive will be for the highest good of the client.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is that when it is successful, it expresses understanding that can be shared. When I see work that I connect with on a deep level, I feel less alone and tremendous joy.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to learn my own definition of success. Once I did this, I had to summon the courage to embark on my own journey and believe in it. I have concluded that we are in service of our gifts and talents, not the other way around.

Contact Info:

• Website: hiljakeading.com; intothemysticnow.net
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@intothemysticnow