Sketchbook notes...

I love my job. I love to paint and think and paint and think some more. I started some new work this past week. I've been working through some ideas in watercolor and in my sketchbook. The theme (which is not really represented above) is, A Thousand Little Fires. I got the idea from a quote I read ...When you come right down to it, all you have is yourself. Yourself is a sun with a thousand little fires in your belly. The rest is nothing. (Picasso)
I interpret it not as being all about myself, but that I choose how and what I feel. All I am responsible for are my actions. None of the rest of it matters. I only need to worry about how I am treating other people...not anything else, my actions and my words. It's the opposite of being all about myself, it's being aware of what is outside of me and being aware of myself in relation to the people in my life.
I come around often to the fire inside of me idea. I feel like that. I feel that fire and I want it to warm others, but not burn them. I want to do some paintings about enlightenment. Enlightenment is a better understanding of something. Light...I can see something better if I put a light on it. I feel lighter with that knowledge. That's that same thousand fires inside of me. I think that's one of the beautiful things about art work, that it can be a tool for enlightenment, to teach. Once in a while I see or hear something like that. This Sunday at church the congregation was singing a song and I heard the line...to purify with fire...and I was enlightened about something I didn't understand. I'm grateful that I get to paint and I'm grateful to others who share their art and help me understand.