In the midst of creating, in the daily running of a business of spreadsheets and taxes and yearly planning and answering emails; in between creating and critiquing and website maintenance and social media; during the moments of thinking and sketching and researching and learning, it is easy to forget the why.
Why do I paint? Why do I put paintbrush to canvas, pencil to paper? Why do I use color and movement and line to capture the world around me?
I create because I don’t want to forget all the beautiful things I have seen. I want to remember all the moments of my life. All the beauty, all the color. All the times I was struck with wonder.
“I want to create something that will outlive me.” – Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton
Every time it rains and then the sun comes out, I rush to the window in hopes of seeing a rainbow. It’s not always there, but when it is I am enraptured by its beauty, its promise. I remember my grandmother. I thank God for the beauty He’s created. It’s a wondrous moment. Every. Time.
The world is never short of wonder. There is so much bad, but there is also so much good. And we need to notice the good, we NEED it, to have hope. And I strive to create and capture that good, so it can live on forever and be shared. I believe that art is meant to be shared with others: for art is love, art is hope, art is beauty, and art is wonder. It crosses barriers, it speaks when there are no words.
It’s more beauty than one person can handle. And so I share it with others. I share it with you.
“Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? -- every, every minute?”
“No. Saints and poets maybe--they do some.”
-Thornton Wilder, Our Town
photos by Anna Meyer Photo
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