I am not going to write about politics. I am going to write about my thoughts on what has been thrown at us the last several weeks. We have been inundated with video of actual murders. I had a terrible time trying to avoid it on social media. Stabbing, assassination, school shooting, beheading and hangings. It’s all so very much. And then we have the frustrations, panic and blame that come out of all of that. If you have a heart, how can you not feel something? Unfortunately, people seem determined NOT to understand one another and the doubling down into our “cognitive dissonance” never seemed so outrageous. Compassion and sympathy overshadowed by vitriol. Exaggeration has become reality in the mind of too many. My soul aches.

For me, I find solace outside, whether it’s teaching dressage, just enjoying nature or making my art. Thankfully, I can take some of the outside and bring it into my studio. Creating art has become a need and I feel I can breathe again after even an hour with my paints or charcoal.

I recently began watching a YouTube channel called “Stop the Starving Artist” for his business content, but it has turned into much more. One thing Lennon brings up is how every business transaction boils down to reciprocity for service. When humanity seems so bent on exploding with so much hate and hurt, painting a little picture doesn’t seem like much of a service to offer. Are the arts still important?

More than ever, I think they are. If a painting, a poem, a book, a song or watching a dance can bring a moment of humanity back into an individual, then that service is provided. In my case, I love rendering animals and nature. I believe deeply we must connect with nature on some level to remain sane. A growing comment on social media is “touch grass” to say: get grounded and stop with the rhetoric. I wish people would take it literally and step away from all the hype constantly thrown at us. My advice is to try to unplug before you are a statistic, making you a part of one of the (anti)social contagions that seem to be growing exponentially. Find your humanity and seek it in those around you. The world is not as black and white as we would like it to be. We must see the grey for what it is: a mix of both.

“Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.” Vincent Van Gogh

So for this, I shall continue to paint and draw. Continue to put the love in my heart into what I create and hope that small offering into the world can brighten a day and maybe, just maybe, shine a little light in the dark.

Art when the World is on Fire

Finding Purpose