I am embarrased to realize how much time has passed since I last wrote here, and even more so to realize how little I have painted in the last 3 months. I get busy with the obligations of employment and time races on with a creschendoing inertia that takes intentional steps for intervention to slow it down.
True, I was here for announcements for the website and to mark calendar commitments through the fall but I didn’t work at nurturing my art’s very source. I forgot to nurture my spirit.
Now Christmas holidays are upon me and I’m amazed at how many days it has taken me to to slow the vibrations inside. Yesterday, I finally sat down in my studio, took a deep breath, and began to paint. I honestly don’t know how I allowed so much time to pass away from the easel. I know that when I don’t paint I become imbalanced. Then when I do sit down it takes discipline to force through those stiffened creative muscles just as someone who’s been away from the gym experiences. I had to tinker and to think creatively; I had to find that rhythm again; and I had to reimage a picture in my mind that needed painting.
This week will be about me reestablishing the correct flow, reestablishing the priorities that my soul needs, disallowing outside stress to drive my processes, and regaining my art disciplines that have been pushed into their shoeboxes and up on the shelf. I can run for a while without art being at the forefront, but inertia cannot sustain me and without my art all of the rest of it unravels.
So my New Year’s resolution will be to systematically reestablish my priorities for a happier and healthier physical, emotional, and mental well being.
As for today, the step that I must take to begin that process is to paint. I hope you enjoy this painting of a tree that I did yesterday. It is a tree like any tree in any forest, but it is the beginning of my reset.
I offer you this 11″ x 14″ oil on canvas board of ..trees.
Kelly E. James 