As I worked on this painting of a walking path into the late summer fields of Hill-Stead I found myself thinking of the meandering nature of time: How it weaves and wanders and all too soon disappears from view, as 2023 has quietly done, to join its brethren of the past.
For each of us different years have more or less personal significance, and for many of us the turning of the calendar provides a clean slate, a new canvas, a fresh start. Usually that’s me too: Forward focused, and goal oriented. But this year feels different. Not to be Debby Downer and maybe it’s just my age, but I feel it in my heart that the many things that have been getting worse in recent years are starting to accelerate. I‘ve decided it’s actually healthier for us to be talking about it rather than pretending it’s all gonna work out in the end. I don’t know exactly what that means, or what happens next but it feels to me that there are too many things heading in the wrong direction to think some miracle will pull us back to yester-normal. A lot of us have been feeling it (often subconsciously) for some time and I believe that by acknowledging it, considering it, expressing it, we can move from fear and fantasy to acceptance and emergence into this uncertain time.
It helps me to focus on what is important: Love of family and friends; Kindness and compassion; Laughter; Beauty. These are the things that make me grateful at the end of the day. These are the things I want to paint. These are the things I want to share. Perhaps my pessimism is misplaced, but what have we to lose in focusing on that which lights up our lives and which in the darkest of days shine only brighter?
May your year be filled with sparks of love, laughter, beauty, kindness and joy.