News

Think about the symbolic doors we can be right now. Fresh stARTs and second chances happen when we open a door to something new. Doors provide comfort, security and protection when needed. Yet they can also promote hospitality when thrown wide open. Are there any new doors we might open in 2022?

As Covid continues to spread throughout our communities, some days it is hard to feel hopeful and energized. The past 20 months have left us exhausted and the pandemic has impacted everyone and everything. Healing is necessary and a fresh start is needed. 

In response to this somber period, I am organizing a new collaborative group project called the fresh stART project. Creativity will play an important role; however you do not need to be an artist to participate. You just need to be willing to try it all. There will be opportunities to write poetry, make music, arrange flowers, bake, write letters, journal, paint, draw and find inspiration in nature. These activities will happen on your own timeframe and will be a part of your own fresh start as well as be material for our group project. I hope you will join us. 

On a whim, I imagined a large art project to foster community and encourage hope and healing and I made it happen! I was able to recruit 18 diverse artists from 8 different states thanks to social media. These men and women represented both coasts and were extremely excited to use their creative gifts to help. My hope was that through working on the project, each artist would find joy and our collective joys would provide comfort to a broader audience. 

To me, Spring is the season of Hope.  As the days grow longer, I find myself relishing the daylight. Hope feels warm and bright like sunshine and reminds me to stand taller, climb higher, reach wider and always be kinder. Hope tiptoes in every morning, gently whispering that it will be ok. Hope never whines or sulks like anxiety. Hope turns me in the direction of love, courage, and optimism. Hope is a hallelujah as well as an amen! Hope, as well as Love are essential and are the simplest and most true gifts of all. Even in times of doubt, fear and uncertainty, they are present.

My wish is that my art will be a small part of the solution. I used to focus on caring for the earth with each piece created. I now find it more important to expand this mission and focus more directly on spreading care, kindness, and compassion to others through my art. With so much loss, uncertainty, political and social unrest on top of pandemic fueled isolation, it is no wonder there is such a sense of unhappiness all around. It is an honor if I can use this platform and my art to encourage and promote more cheer and more joy. I hope this quote resonates with you as much as it does with me. "We are not on this world to see through one another, but to see one another through." (Gloria Vanderbilt)