Art is one of the most magical gifts we have

Art is one of the most magical gifts we have. I’ve always been a painter, but as of last fall, I’ve been very lucky to have a new studio space to paint in, a short walk from our home in semi-rural New Hampshire.

Dr. Yong frequently talks about jeongseong in Morning Devotion: commitment, sincerity, investment. The result is fruitfulness in any field of human endeavor and I’ve been discovering its power in my work as a painter.

First of all I revel in the process of creation itself - the playfulness, mess, freedom and search for beauty, and the development of new skills.

Marc Chagall: “If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.”

Some subjects are more challenging than others, especially commissions, when the subject is not familiar. Sometimes I get discouraged. However, effort is never wasted but makes a foundation for later work.

Kimon Nicolaides: “The sooner you make your first five thousand Mistakes, the sooner you will be able to correct them.”

Some days I’m barely inching forward. Other days, when I’m immersed in the work, I lose track of time and a deeper reality emerges.

The more I can express the love, life, beauty, personality and complexity of God’s amazing world and its people, the more joy I have as an artist and as a person. When others also derive joy from it, I’m very grateful.

So, thank you for letting me share some of my art and thoughts with you.

Let me close with a final passage from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s much longer poem, “Morituri Salutamus, that he read at the 50th reunion of his class of 1825 at Bowdoin College:

“What then? Shall we sit idly down and say The night hath come: for it is no longer day? The Night hath not yet come; we are not quite Cut off from labor by the failing light; Something remains for us to do or dare; Even the oldest tree some fruit may bear;”

May we all continue bearing fruit as long as we live, both here and in the next world!