Staying Home

undulating cobalt blue ripples
Ripple Effect (work in progress) oil on board, 20" x 20"

Emergency response mechanisms in our bodies increase our metabolism, heart rate and cellular respiration. We get ready for action, prepare to give it our all. Yet, in our current worldwide emergency situation most of us just stay home anxiously prepared for. . . .staying at home.

I’ve cycled through a lot of emotions in the last couple of weeks and I’m trying to stick with the ones that are most helpful. A sense of gratitude for those who are tending to the sick or keeping the food supply up. A sense of joy in the quiet solitude of my studio. A deep resolve to be present and not give in to fear.

I know someone who was born in 1917 and therefore was alive during the 1918 pandemic. He’s 102 and lives in central Italy. If he survives this pandemic that’ll be two.

From what I’ve read about the 1918 pandemic everything shut down and people were advised to stay home. So this is what one does during a pandemic.

For me that means staying home and making art. Lately I have been simply drawing circles and circles within circles. Ripples symbolize how energy spreads, how everything spreads and connects. Circles expanding into larger circles and bringing joy, love, inspiration or fear and anxiety. It’s important what we do, what kind of ripples we create. We don’t even have to touch each other. Invisibly we effect or infect one another.

My hope, my goal, my lifelong pursuit is to generate ripples of consciousness and to nudge those that come to me toward the spectrum of humanity and joy.