If we pay any attention to the media these days, it seems current events defeat logic.
It’s all depressing and makes us feel separate from each other and alone.
So I will continue painting because it cuts through the noise. When I paint, I am a part of something bigger than myself. I am connected to a lineage of painters and artists who explored what it means to be human through their work.
Making art and looking at it builds empathy. When we look at a painting, we are standing where a painter – another person, stood before us. We are confronted with what they saw when they painted, seeing what they saw through our own eyes. We find stories in paintings, and connect to those stories through our own experiences. When we look at art we connect to other people we may never meet.
When we look at art, we think about something bigger than ourselves. We are reminded about what is real and what matters. Because my experience outdoors fuels me as a human and as an artist, painting is a reminder to go outside and BE and look around myself and to be appreciative.
When I paint shapes and their edges bleed into each other, I am reminded of the truth of what it means to be human. Walls fall away. We are all more similar than we are different. We are connected by our experience as human beings.
So I will keep painting. I’ll keep waking early and staying up too late, puttering around in the studio and pushing paint, and trying to make some sense of things with my colors.