When All Else Fails... Make Art.

I have been at a loss for words lately.
I have been feeling all sorts of feelings, but I can never seem to find the right words to express them.  

When I was little, I was painfully shy.  (So shy in fact, that school conferences were arranged to discuss my shyness.)  While I had a difficult time speaking up in the typical verbal sense, I discovered a way to communicate that didn't involve words... Art.  Throughout my life, I have found that even when I don't know what to say, I can turn to my familiar friends, drawing and painting, to help see me through... It's my visual voice.

Since I currently find myself in the all-too-familiar predicament of struggling to verbalize my feelings, I was excited to read this post by Alisa Burke.  When she shared the #artistsforlove movement that a beautiful and generous group of artists have started, it felt like a call to the easel.  
This is my offering...

Click here for a hi-resolution downloadable & printable version.

Please feel free to download, print, and share this image.  Or, if you feel called to do so, create your own image for the #artistsforlove movement.  I love the idea of humans around the world creating beauty for a common purpose, don't you?

No matter where you live, no matter what you believe, I think we can all agree that we could all use a little more kindness right now.

(A painting I made of Patience in February 2014.)

Even though I often struggle to find the right words, I am very grateful to know people who don't.  My friend Patience Salgado is a kindness revolutionary, and her words are magic.  I am so happy to be able to share them with you...

Kindness is not doing acts to appease our guilt

or to try to prove our goodness,

Revolutionary Kindness asks us:

.....to be bold in our resistance to what we know is not right/true

for our fellow humans…

...to be honest with each other and ourselves about the state of our nation (and hearts) and the ways we have individually contributed…

...to be willing to be uncomfortable while we learn the nuances and implications of our white privilege…

...to keep trying when we get it wrong…

...to be quiet and listen to the groups of people who have a different

skin color, religion, sexual orientation and abilities…

...to be ridiculously bold in our belief of the power of empathy and kindness…

...to act, to serve, to give - not because we are good people,

but because we *know* and deeply feel our own humanity...

and know just how much we need each other

and how much we need kindness ourselves…

...to believe that kindness can change or touch something

when no one else around you can see or believe it…

....to take kindness to places where none seems to exist, or to seek and discover it in the unimaginable…

...to try, just try kindness as a way of understanding the world and yourself…

...to offer what we have and nothing more, not to save the world, not to fix, but to follow our call as humans - the outcome is not our business.

This kindness humbles you, makes you fierce, stretches you in ways you didn't see coming, checks you, heals you, reveals your biases, comforts, disturbs, empowers, surprises...it changes *you*. ❤️

-Patience Salgado

You can read the original post at:

https://www.instagram.com/kindnessgirl/

Still Paintin'...

Like most weeks, I have been faced with a number of distractions 
(some good, some not-so-good).
And, like most weeks, I have continued to make art every day
(some good, some not-so-good)!

Here are just a couple of the things I've been working on this week...

A personal project.

A professional project (continued from last week).

In the interest of sharing (and of holding myself accountable, preventing distractions from getting the best of me & keeping myself on track), I am letting you know that I will share the finished painting next week!

Hooray!

It's Art Every Day Month!
(And, I've decided to play along.)

Here is a new project that I've just started this week...

The first sketches in my notebook.

A larger sketch that I transferred to 140lb watercolor paper.

Please check back next Friday for more of this project, and more of the art that I create every day!