Winter's Gift

It has been a long winter in New England and beyond. The snow outside my door is still waist deep and the temperature far below freezing. I didn't succeed in embracing the great outdoors this winter even though my snow shoes were daring me to hit the trails. I have to say I much prefer temperatures above zero! The month of February is now coming to an end and I find myself thinking about the warmer days ahead, longer hours of sunlight and taking long walks on beautiful mountain paths.

What I did instead this winter, was spend time reading about art and planning my next series of paintings. There's a wonderful book I've just finished reading, The Mission of Art by Alex Grey. If you haven't read it, I hope you'll consider doing so. It has reaffirmed art-making as part of my spiritual practice. Sometimes I need the quiet space between projects which allows me to go a little deeper and listen more carefully to the messages within, knowing that when I emerge it will be with a stronger vision and voice. That was the gift of this winter.

 And really, spring can't be all that far off; can it?