“Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love.” ~ Rumi
This painting with pink magnolias hung in a couple of exhibits over past months until I brought it home from the last one a week ago. I liked having it come back to me, as if the time apart had given me new eyes and a new way of looking at the piece. I still liked it, but....there were new adventures to be found. A few days ago I picked it up and made some changes with oil paint. It's not like I really needed to do it either: commission paintings need to be worked on and finished around here! However, sometimes the little voice nags on my shoulder, and it frees my spirit to be brave enough to jump off the edge and take the unknown path. February is the month of love. Artists must be in love with what they do, to create and breathe their art. As ever, a painting or sculpture will take me on a long journey: it's a story. Mine. Yours. Layers build up, disappear, new images and colors bloom. Sometimes inertia sits there forever, until the day comes: I pick up a brush, paint, and reconnect the heart and soul without fear. The twists, turns, pitfalls become something of beauty, of light, of truth. There it is: life unfolding.
Winter in February brings buds emerging. I picked two daffodils last evening, walking River dog along the street. Climbing over dry grass and brambles in a long-abandoned lot, I picked yellow sunshine to bring back home, holding them in my hand the whole way home, sniffing the light scent of spring. Joy in those little things! Those promises that life does go on all around: the robins coming in, forsythia dancing along branches. An emergence of this world.
