I paint because I feel better when I paint.

Painting is my form of meditation.

Mediation clears the mind so we can hear our heart.

We live in a world seemingly growing and shrinking at the same time. It’s the “Big Bang” ad infinitum as our knowledge base grows and our time space continuum seems to shrink.

We feel disconnected by distance as our families grow and move (migrate) from one job or state to another.

We feel marginally connected when we see family, friends, and acquaintances on Facebook, Instagram, Snap Chat, and “flavor-of-the-month” social media platform.

Painting, the simple act of putting brush marks on paper brings our world back into focus. Even just 15 minutes a day helps!

Time spent feeling truly, deeply connected to our selves (e.g. painting, meditation, yoga), is calming and healing. It moves us out of our heads and into our hearts.

We’ve had a long love affair with our head (brain). I’m not sure when it began, perhaps at the dawn of the industrial age?

I don’t know about you, but when I listen exclusively to my head,
I get in trouble.

Don’t get me wrong, our brains are great, they just don't tell the whole story. Our brains (and our computers) operate on logic.

Logic is only one leg upon which we stand. We do best when using our head, our heart, and our “gut” (intuition).

I go to yoga class once a week to remind myself of how good it feels to take care of my body in this way — and to be flexible.

Once upon a time I did yoga daily — on my own!

I don’t do that any more. Maybe my world (my head) is too full of other things that “must be done” first.

I go to a yoga class because I feel better when I go, I feel better when I’m there, and I feel better for days afterwards.

Sometimes life feels hard. Anything that can ease our angst and doesn’t cause harm to others is valuable.

Painting, like yoga and meditation, quiets the mind, opens the heart, and provides us with the opportunity to hear our intuition.

The head, the heart, and our intuition are the three legs upon which to stand and from which to choose how we live our lives.

We must be able to “hear” from each of these legs if we want a stable base upon which to stand.

One leg alone or two legs won’t do.
It takes three to provide stability.

Paint to come alive, to relax, to clear your mind, to open your eyes, to see more of the world around you, to unwind, to enjoy more of life, to refresh your spirit, to give you a stable footing in the world, to round out your life, to have FUN.

Simply Paint.

A better question is what don’t they have in common!

Math immediately came to mind, but that’s not true. Artists do use math, just not in the same way scientists use math.

Both scientists and artists use the scientific method of experimentation regularly.

Every time we begin a painting, a sculpture, a story, a dance, or a piece of music, we are experimenting.

We continually change our variables: color, tone, volume, temperature, meter, structure, etc. and we eagerly watch while creating to see what more we need to add, subtract, or change.

Artists are the constant variable in the equation of art.

Curiosity is a driver, a motivator of both science and art … What will happen if … How does X affect Y? (Math!)

I took my first art class in college (Art for Non-art Majors, while in the Nursing program) as a Pass/Fail course.

I had NO, I mean ZERO confidence in my abilities.

The real problem with the idea of pass/fail is that I no longer believe in failure.

The common, oft-repeated phrase is that Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times before discovering the tungsten light bulb.

Thomas Edison didn’t see it that way. He knew that he had discovered 10,000 things that didn’t work before discovering the thing that did work.

Imagination is not an option; it can’t be turned off. We all have one and we all use it daily.

Imagination is a tool we can use to help us or to hinder us.

We decide how we’re using our imagination with every option we weigh and with every decision we make.

Are you looking at your painting/sculpture/music/dance/life through the lens of possibilities or through the lens of pass/fail? You decide, every time!

Since we have the ability to learn from everything, failure isn’t really an option either.

There were myriad small changes made to this painting during the month that I painted it. Subtle yet important changes. My intention for this painting was to paint the energy of the ever-expanding universe.