We could have never imagined the scenario that we are currently living through. The world is under siege from an unseen virus and from a rigor of our own self realizations that we are actually flawed and fragile creatures that survive only because we are part of a larger whole and overseen by a higher power.

It is a time when many of us, even those not inclined to do so, are slowing down and becoming introspective to some degree. We spend time alone and think about our place in the world. We think about our priorities of family, work, and life. We come to realize what truly brings us joy, and peace. We identify what our physical needs truly are such as food and shelter, and what our spiritual needs also truly are.

The gravity of a worldwide pandemic certainly disrupts our routines, scares us, and rattles our trust – sometimes making us lash out in fear. It breaks normal patterns, and makes new ones. It creates new priorities and we discover our new, evolving normal. We also begin to realize that mankind cannot thrive without creativity. It is in fact, the dreamers and creative thinkers who not only provide us with the visual arts, dance, music and more to sustain our spirits, but it is they who find workarounds to sharing resources, who discover the vaccines, and who find ways to sustain us quite literally like humanity’s connective tissue.

When creative people are quarantined they reach for the knitting, and they reach for the guitars, and they reach for the paintbrush, because they know that it is just as important as the sustenance of food. Just as Kandinsky found correlations between music and color, we too must find correlation between the lovely quiet that has started to emerge from stay-at-home directives and a sub level of sound where music and wind chimes and children’s laughter and our own voices become the light and color of our souls. Those who don’t remember how to hear that level within themselves are the ones that are panicking by not being out in the public. They need us to help.

I am thankful every day for my life. I am thankful every day for those people that I have surrounded my heart with for they are the thinkers, and the musicians, and the painters, and the knitters. They are the ones who carefully steward mankind’s spirit during times of crisis and share it back to those in need like fabulous little morsels when the world is starving.

Despite the fear and the anxiety that is prevalent right now, I know that we will emerge from this as humans with a greater love for each other, a greater tolerance of each other’s flaws, and a stronger mankind overall. We must never let the louder voices be the voices that we follow blindly. We must instead be quieter and follow the much more subtle voices of silver thread networked between each other.

When I was growing up we would go on long car rides and my mom would always say, “Oh look, there’s a white horse! Quick kids, make a wish.”

I have since heard that making a wish on a white horse tends to be an Irish tradition. I don’t know how much truth there is in that but I will always believe. Now, whenever I’m going down a road and see a white horse in the field, I happily hear my mom’s voice in my mind and I think of her, smile to myself, and with a slight bit of superstition … I make a wish.

Sharing with you today, my reminiscence of that happy superstition. Make a wish.

We all have our favorite subjects to paint or favorite pallete we tend to use and drifting into those comfortable places when we sit down to paint is perfectly ok. After all, we paint because we love what we do and time is often at a premium. It is easy to just launch and not search for a subject that makes a new statement but is instead a tried and true image or formula.

That being said, sometimes we need to stretch our creative muscles.

Occasionally I will look at photographs I have taken and think of what attracted me to the view or image at that moment. Was it redeemable? Could it be a worthwhile painting? That question is what stops me today and makes me wonder, ‘what is my purpose for any particular painting session?’ And yes, the reason can vary!

If our reason to paint on any given day is purely to relax and have fun then that can be enough. If, however, we decide that we want to expand our abilities beyond the improvement that occurs with practice, we might also be heightening the risk of failure. I wonder how much pressure I place on myself for the time at the easel to be fruitful, and equating fruitful to time wasted and the potential loss of revenue.

Although I may say I am not painting to make my living, I must admit I don’t want to purely paint in my own vacuum and store work or gift it like I did early in my career. Perhaps I am not being genuine when I say it then? I do want to sell most of what I paint. I would like to share what I do with others. It’s gratifying and lucrative and therefor, helpful.

That begs the introspection of assessing why we’re painting in any given day and as a result, the potential censure of painting something that may fail because to fail means it won’t sell. That’s a self defeating loop. We need to continually challenge ourselves and gamble with potential failure. Yes, sometimes we need to paint for the pleasure, and sometimes we need to paint for revenue. Improvement is dependent on challenge so perhaps we should also include, sometimes we paint to stretch.

As for myself, I know I need to continually stretch outside my comfort zone so that I can expand the perimeters of that comfort zone, improve the quality of my work, and succeed more often than I fail by facing the challenges head on. It might actually, potentially, result in more sales.