One Afternoon

One Afternoon

Bellied up to the kitchen counter
I bite into a pear and chew,
watching the empty hammock shimmy
in the yard. The wind sweeps gray
cotton balls overhead, rushing
them to some destination eastward.
Rubies and topaz fall from tree
branches. I stare, mesmerized,
as juice drips from my chin.

-Kathryn Harper

“The Perfect Pear” by David Gallagher, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 

The Surface of Life

 "Work keeps you on the surface of life. Without work you will sink down into your mind: ‘I don’t like this, I don’t want this, I can’t do this.’ You will drown there. So you must work. Nothing to make you rich, but enough to stay on the surface."

-Humans of New York

River Stones

 

Watercolor Play

Art Meditation

When I make art, especially when I am "just doodling," peace infuses me. I cherish the flow state. I remind myself that my journal is a playground, that I get to experiment, that crappy art is permitted, because it's the process I'm looking to engage with, not the product. I do enjoy when art I make is appealing to me or others, and yet my mental and spiritual health require this daily practice of flow, which is easiest to enter when all is permitted and nothing is judged. 

A Little Art

Completed a painting I began a couple years ago. Then I re-worked another painting from eight years ago. Spent the whole of Sunday making art, and it felt wonderful.