A Painter's Life

I wake up in the early mornings when it is quiet and the day hasn’t quite started, and I simply observe the shadows of my bedroom. If I actually venture outside, then I take in the fog and/or early sunlight. I shiver in the chill or sweat as the temperature rises. When it is night time, I observe the clouds, stars, and sometimes the firelight of the fire pit that my husband has lit. I enjoy the warmth but not the mosquitoes as they bite. For me, these are the times to have my cell phone so I can take pictures of the atmosphere for when I attempt to grab that feeling when I am painting. That wondrous feeling of living in a moment of perfection.

Being an artist means inviting other individuals to see the world the way that I see it. Whether that is good or bad or somewhere in-between. I find myself having engaged conversations with others about how they may see a blue sky, but I see a sky filled with blue, green, purple, yellow, pink, red, and white depending on the time of day. Grass is not just green, it is yellow and brown as well. A person’s skin tone isn’t white or black. It is beige, pink, purple, red, brown, umber, and other individual colors. The importance of seeing and not just looking cannot be underestimated. A person can look at another person, but it takes seeing that person to begin to understand what they are about. A person can look at a sunset and think it is beautiful, but seeing it can reveal what type of day it will be.

I feel these overwhelming urges to create art for any and every situation. I see my beautiful and goofy pitbull, and I want to paint that lovable side to him for everyone that thinks pitbulls are vicious. I want to create beauty in a time that things seem dreary and horrible. I want a viewer to look upon a painting and smile, feeling uplifted with the happiness that I have created. However, I also want to paint the serious and terrible situations that convey strong emotions that prompt a viewer to take action. I want the world to see that there is beauty in pain as well as in happiness. I want them to see this because it is life. I want a viewer to appreciate the world around them and what each individual represents. I believe that there cannot be good without the bad. If we as a society always had good events happen to us, then we will eventually take advantage of the events. It is the bad events that put the good ones into a true perspective.

Painting gives me a license to evolve as well. I can begin a painting feeling one way, and by the end feel a different way. For example, a chilly spooky midnight can turn into a sad melancholy dream. It is an ability to adapt that I can bring forth into other aspects of my life. I can start a different career feeling cautious and wary. In a few days or even months I could love or hate the job completely, acknowledging that it might not have been the path for me. These is a personal awareness when one creates something. Each artist puts a little of themselves into everything they create-from the author to the clothing designer. It is not about being famous, because there are much easier ways to do that. It is about creating something that lasts.

A good artist creates an emotion for that one moment. An excellent artist creates that emotion for many years forward.