A Little Smile of Discovery

I took Nicholas Wilton's 2023 Art2Life Free Online Workshop this past week, during which several live painting demonstrations took place. 

The funny part was that in one case I found myself becoming one with the artist at hand doing the demo. As she made certain marks that created instant impact—most often because of very pleasing contrast, my own (empty) hand involuntarily stayed in motion continuing to make more and more of those dynamic marks … even when she did not!

I broke into a little smile of discovery. I have new insight into how some of my paintings turn into chaos that leaves me not knowing how to navigate. I now see new choices about how to direct my energy. With any given painting, I might choose to put no brakes on making marks that are exciting to my eye, for the sheer joy of expressing myself in that way, end result be damned! But I might not. I might choose to limit or subtract some of my runaway mark-making for greater impact to see what I learn. Win, win.

Fun!

All the Living We've Ever Done Happened in Some Now
7 x 8.5"; acrylic, oil pastel, and collage on paper
abstract scribble inquiry
2023

Across the Silence

To pray is to enter 

into a humble receptivity. 

It’s to realize the familiar self’s 

inability to deeply know. 

Most fundamentally, 

to pray is to open to wisdom 

that’s available 

to come to the heart 

in a time of readiness. 

This is not 

the emotion-saturated heart 

cramped by desire or need, 

but the open one 

that’s receptive to truth, 

painful or otherwise.

—Jan Frazier

The Ways We Are Changed by the Answering Silence
4.5 x 5.5" greeting card; acrylic, collage, and pastel on paper
abstract landscape
2020

What I Am Today

A frozen caliper grinding away in my rear brakes.

A fresh sparkly windy July day with dry air.

A handmade knockoff Cabbage Patch doll with Chapstick all over his face.

Two dried prunes.

An improbable storyline unspooling in a novel.

An eighth-grade watercolor painting of a black canvas shoe.

A bunch of scraps, glue, straightedges, oil pastel.

Spaciousness.

Inner stillness.

Raynaud Buckles Up and Walks the Train Trestle
4x5"; acrylic, latex, India ink, watercolor, collage, and oil pastel
abstract
2018