Thought for The Day - Across

A Seed 8 x 11 Pastel

Took a road trip this weekend, a six hour overnight stay to Missouri to see my son. Now growing up, this was the extent of my yearly vacation trips when my parents piled up the car, visiting relatives in Kansas City, MO. But as a father of my own children, we took trips to Virginia for four years, taking my daughter back and forth to school. I fell in love with the mountains and the elevations. The roads seemed smoother - they actually are - and with the grand view as the car climbed a hill or you reached the top and looked down over the valley: SPECTACULAR! But Illinois is relatively flat and depending on what's on your mind, your thoughts become flat and monotonous as well. Missouri can be a bit scenic with it's elevations but for the most part, it's flat as well. Boring, right?

Where I am in at the moment, the life of my family and factors beyond my ability to describe, the scenery seemed exhilarating! The road is very familiar, traveled since I could remember and I could probably do it with my eyes closed. But it wasn't nostalgia, recalling road trips counting horses seen along the way. And it wasn't counting the number of signs for Merramec Caverns, either. No, it was SEEING ACROSS...

The sky, spread from where I sat, behind, before and on every side.
The lives of families and individuals in homes on the road side, connected to families, farms and apartment buildings I would never see from the roadside.
Truckers on long and short hauls, earning a living and a hundred thousand decisions made every fraction of a second.
Retired couples driving down the road, a life full of children in their rearview, parents on the other side and relatives on their road ahead.
Restaurants and diners, workers cooking, cleaning and serving hundreds in their lifetime and never realizing who they are sharing love with a plate of eggs, bacon and pancakes.
Water, mixed with concrete mix, becoming solid, hard and supporting millions of tires and lives for countless years.
Moisture, frozen and appearing white and grey and black on the road and hillside...

Across sky, land and lives, a connection exists, so integrated and complex whether one person or molecule should 'disappear,' not one second or emotion is lost. Everything remains intact no matter how many of us come and go.

We never really leave 'this place;' we are intimately connected to one another, whether we live in love or hate. For there exists a bond to all that only appears when we decide to open our eyes.

Thought for The Day - Fingerprints

I'm listening 24 x 36 Oil painting

The unique mark we leave everywhere, whether we want to or not. But isn't that every part of us? Every line and every word is an extension of our unique identity. We are composed of the same atoms, molecules and cellular combinations. We all have flesh, bones an organs and yet everyone of us is an amazing original. There may be Sarah Vaughn-esque performers or Elvis impersonators, but there will never be another Sarah Vaughn or Elvis Presley. But there will never be another you, or your brother or sister or parents as well!

I appreciate that we have built cities and technology that allow us to connect to one another. I'm glad standards for construction, medicine and even education were established and for the most part, it serves multiple societies well. But every person doesn't fit in the cookie-cutter molds we've created. I would dare say, more and more, people aren't fitting the mold and the shape is changing around us slowly but most assuredly. We are growing, friends and expanding and while we have this good foundation of structure, let's continue to build ourselves, our families and communities with caring and compassion. Explore your creativity and sense of innovation. Imagine a world where love and compassion rule, rather than "dog-eat-dog" as we have known it all of our lives. We've known that was not how life was meant to live, but we accepted it and somehow reveled in it. Before we destroy one another, let's find ways to connect and unify.

Thought for The Day - A Thousand Points of View

The Phoenix 18 x 24 Pastels

Surrounded by cameras and flashing lights, you are seen through a thousand lenses...

An average day, nothing special; maybe you're at work, maybe a weekend with errands and a day filled with tasks that can't be completed on a week day. In a moment, for a few minutes, you find yourself in another space and time. Oh you aren't losing your mind, you're perfectly sane, but it was a moment of feeling out of body. "Whew, got to get more rest," you tell yourself and it's off to complete task number 3 out of 28. But still...

Sitting in traffic, rush hour, a sea of brake lights everywhere around you and as many thoughts and emotions in your head; suddenly, once again, it's as if someone pulled back the cover on your ordinary life, as if you were caught up to the third heaven and sat among the saints and angels. A brief moment, awareness shifts slightly and you 'see' 10,000 others in a circle, in one voice, like the sound of an ocean. You feel the sense of awe for One...and suddenly, all eyes and voices are on you...

End of the work day, can't wait to get the heck out of there! Standing at the elevator, caught between the events of the day and the evening yet to unfold, you are at the bottom of the valley...and the bottom drops out. Not sure if it's real or imagined, you look at the walls to make sure they aren't moving and you aren't falling through the floor. And it happens again and again and again...

There is more to you and I than meets the eye. We are not sum of what is perceived and our life is more than the routine.

Thought for The Day - Of the Beholder

Of the Beholder 18 x 24 pastels

 

In the eyes of the beholder

There is beauty before them

But in the eyes of the beautiful

What is seen

Behind the eyes of true beauty

What thoughts go unseen

What mysteries and decisions

Are hidden behind those beautiful eyes

In the eyes of the beholder

Eyes, face, neck and body

Are wonderful to behold

But behind the eyes of the beauty

A world unknown

Though traces slip out

Made concrete

Yet the eyes

That mind

                     Are shrouded in the mystical

Thought for The Day - At a Distance watching Time Go By

Dancing Against the Rhythm 12 x 16 Pastels

Look up

The clock changes

9:50 becomes 9:51

as though it were a flit of an eyelash

Too many times I’ve been the observer

At a distance from it ALL

Watching

Wanting to be involved

But at a distance

Held away from the heat of it all

When I’m close

A part of me

Plays the spectator

Like the drama around me

Was acted in a theater in the round

Around me, happening

But me

Sitting in the audience

Safely away from the blood to be spilled

A smile, inappropriately appears on my face

I’m watching and involved

But that spectator reflex knows

It’s 53 minutes past the hour

And the plot resolution

Even with a twist

Is coming to an end.

At a distance watching time go by…

Thought for The Day - Here to There

Open Portal (working title) 12 x 18 pastels

On a journey... the road behind me is as visible as the road ahead...

Any given day, I am prone to love as well as hate my work. If I look at a piece in process or complete, there is a range of emotions and valuations made in a matter of minutes or hours. Please believe, there is no better place to be - for the moment - than my little studio and I love my early morning time in this space. But when I look at individual strokes or the piece entire, it's ugly and beauty are found between my ears.

Perhaps that is what we all feel about life in general; from one moment to the next, the path we've traveled and what lies ahead can be evaluated as a waste. I've read words from people we admire, celebrities who are thought-provoking and eloquent and in a moment of "truth," they admit they point out their flaws with disdain. I believe it is true: we are our worst critic! And rare it is we give ourselves a "pat on the back" having made it this far. Every now and then, we need to examine where we are at the moment and while it isn't where we want to be, we haven't done what we said we would and we've made MANY mistakes, Thank God for where we are!

A bit of neutral space for me is reflecting on this fact: I'm doing the work I've always wanted and for now, that is a beautiful revelation!

Thought for The Day - Rain Dance

Defying the illusion...

Typical for me these last few years, I've been awake for several hours. Regardless of the season, I'm awake well before sunrise. Growing up, on occasion, I would wake to use the bathroom around 5:15 or thereabouts and find my father, either in the living room reading the bible or praying, or in the kitchen preparing to leave for work. I remember thinking what a terrible time to start the day! And every now and then, the idea that my day might come would get a frown and shaking of my head. Well here I am around the same age he would have been at the time. Rising early has become so commonplace, sleeping until 6:30 feels foreign.

I turned a few minutes ago to look at my latest work, "Open Portal" and a thought came to mind: "this might be a waste of time; you might want to settle into your Quality Assurance role until retirement." That familiar frown and shaking of the head occurred, except like a strategic warrior, I'm fighting reality. The sky says I will wake tomorrow, board a train headed to the Chicago Loop and I will sit at a desk. I will test software and find defects, discuss the work with coworkers, etc. But in my heart, those colors I see on the paper over my shoulder, they are reality.

Like a rain dance, it's not practical, but it is necessary. I am defying what is before me in hopes of recreating reality. You see, while the world seems to be composed of what we see, there is a world that exists behind the visible world. It is the world I bring to bear on paper and canvas. It is the world where life is vibrant and energetic; where possibilities are ENDLESS!!!