“Change is never a loss. It is change only.”- Vernon Howard
This month’s painting is a fitting one for me for many reasons. I have had many opportunities to practice patience and gentleness with myself as
I experienced many personal changes this month, some of them joyous beyond words and some painful beyond measure. Yet, all of them I
have sat in gratitude with.
“ Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else
can it be? The deeper the sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” – Kahlil Gibran
The month of July also found me moving my home and my studio as well as teaching a week long summer art camp called Envision U, at the
Winthrop Rockefeller Center on Petit Jean Mountain. It was an absolutely amazing experience, not only for me, but also for the high school
students that participated in the camp. It was a blessing to watch them dig deep within themselves in search of their Soul’s Voice and that
Infinite Wellspring of Creativity, that Reflection of the Divine, that we all have within us. It was a rare gift to watch them find it and come out
transformed from the journey.
We all have personal journeys of transformation whether our eyes are open to them or not.
Let me tell you about this painting….
I was blessed by a dear friend of mine to come and paint while a transformation was in progress. I was asked to bear witness to a story of
new beginnings. So, I began to show up on Saturday mornings at the Theresa Hoover Neighborhood Job Training Center / Community Garden
at 12th Street and Oak. Now, many people driving by in the past probably would not have given this house much more thought than maybe,
“Oh, there is another building in my neighborhood going into decay. But now, it is in a constant state of transformation, rebirth, and expansion.
Walls are torn down to be again rebuilt, earth dug up, moved, and sculpted. Seeds are being planted. Earthly and Spiritual. Mental and
Emotional. The ground is more than fertile there, fed by the dreams and visions of those who can see past the surface of a building, an idea,
and more importantly a person.
This job training center will give people a chance to unearth their buried Light within, and bring it forth to shine not only for themselves, but to be
a new beacon for everyone in their lives and all those around them.
So, I set up Saturday mornings and painted on the porch, to the sounds of walls being demolished, debris being shoveled up, pick axes being
thrust into the earth, dirt being scooped and tossed, Luna’s occasional bark, and much laughter. I was surrounded by the smells of a house that
has been left and taken on the headiness of abandonment. Some days it rained, some days the sun shone with intensity. I was surrounded by
the visual stimulant of a community coming together to take part in a bigger picture. A picture of change.
And the painting took on that transformation. It went through many stages, many layers, was constantly shifting and turning directions. At one
point on a day when Wind was being especially playful, the wet canvas fell face first onto the dusty concrete floor, embedding the house’s
history into the surface. There is brick dust in the foundation of this painting, both literally and figuratively.
Towards the final stages of the paintings birth, I noticed something beautiful when I stepped back and could see both my surroundings and the
canvas. The yellow of the paint mirrored that of the little yellow flowers peppered across the grass. The roses that grew along the fence
sprang forth and flourished in the same exact red of paint, while the tone of the clear blue sky also peered through.
If you would like to see this amazingly beautiful project in person, come on by on a Saturday from between 8am and noon, and ask for a
visionary tour.
And here is A New Beginning…..
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