New Painting, The Quest for Clarity

16" x 20"

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas
Available for online purchase here

“More important than the quest for certainty is the quest for clarity.” -Francois Gautier

If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans, right? Well, He has certainly had a good laugh on my behalf.

You think I would learn by now that good things only come from an authentic place, a place of clarity. This painting was a little light in the middle of feeling creatively tapped out at the moment. I have been working in the studio, a little too hard lately, with a sense of certainty...certain that I have to create something important, certain that this next piece will be my greatest.  After a week, it seems I ended up completely scrapping three canvases, just too overworked to salvage, and this one that was sort of my "test" canvas, my  "study" where I could be loose and free and not worry about the outcome so much, was the jewel.

Certainty can sometimes silence our strongest instincts–when, ironically, certainty is always an illusion.

The secure job could become obsolete. The dependable friend could move away. The stable relationship could run its course.

None of the things that seem secure and safe are guaranteed to endure–not forever, or for any length of time, for that matter. The nature of life is that everything moves and changes, ebbs and flows, with beginnings, middles, and ends.

We don’t get to know what will end when. We don’t get to know how long things will last. We can play the odds, try to align ourselves with probability for maximum longevity, comfort, and ease. Or we can instead focus on the possibilities that excite us and enjoy the journey to and through them, one moment at a time.

We can either make what seems to be the best choice for minimal loss and change; or we can get clear about what we want to do with the short amount of time we have, and then embrace the unknown, with our passion as a compass, finding our way as we go.

The irony about choosing the path that seems the most certain is that it generally guarantees only one thing: that we go through life wondering how things could have been if only we weren’t so scared.

Today if you find yourself clinging to something that feels predictable and safe, ask yourself: Are these the moments I want to remember when I look back on my life some day?