Making Art

The earliest known people made art. Symbols on rocks, drawings in caves, drawings in charcoal, paintings in earthtones and blood. We have a fascination with mark making, but there is something beyond rendering what we see in our immediate surroundings. What is it we are trying to say?

When I was a child I used crayons and pencils to show boats, water, my family, pets and the fields and forests around me. I tried to learn to convey how things looked. When I was older, working in advertising, I learned to convey only the most important aspects of objects, leaving out details that did not help to sell the product. But through all these years I have tried to convey more than what I see. My dreams, anxieties, hopes, fears – all of it comes into my paintings in some way. Now that I am painting for my own purpose and pleasure I find these more universal, even spiritual aspects of my work more important to me – and I hope to you, my friends and fellow artists.

Make some art today. By yourself or with your children or friends. Make art with a pencil or a full palette of oil paints. Make art with things you manufacture or things you find on the sidewalk. Make art to sell or make art for your own pleasure. But make something that you feel in your soul, that lets you lose yourself for a few minutes or hours. Make art your daily prayer.