During 2020, like so many of us, I was missing my friends. I had a habit of getting together regular with friends, co-workers, or people from my church for lunch or coffee. My kids – who have been diagnosed with a mitochondrial disorder – were susceptible to be impacted more deeply by COVID-19, so I remained fairly quarantined for a good deal of time. During that time, I started doing some live Facebook “lunch” meetings with friends called the Brown Bag Sessions. We would gather our lunch, meet online on Zoom, and go live on Facebook so others could eavesdrop in on our conversations. (I’m thinking about doing this again. It was a lot of fun!) In session 3 of 4, I had three artist friends join me to take about how we interact with art emotionally, during crisis, and how art can be healing. There was a point in the conversation in which they challenged me to consider myself an artist and to be creative with no expectations.
I’ve always been an artist in some ways. I write poetry, music, and I love to cook. I used to love to draw when I was a kid. But somewhere along the way, I moved away from some of those creative outlets and found that the only place I was really being creative was through church leadership, planting churches, missionary work, and preaching. I had simply stopped doing much with my hands. So, during the pandemic, I started using my hands again. I started baking sourdough, drawing, and painting. Since then, when I have some down time, I try to put my hands to work. I’ve recently picked the guitar back up, and after some upcoming life changes, I’m planning to get a new piano. In any case, here are some of my paintings and drawings from the past couple of years.
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
-Pablo Picasso
Much of art, particularly in the early stages, is a form of imitation. In fact, I’ve heard it said that imitation precedes innovation. In any case, very few of these are “originals,” in that they came from my head and eyes alone. Many, if not most of them, were inspired by looking at and imitating another artist’s work. So, I am indebted to the many artists out there sharing their work online. It would take a ton of time to go back and give credit to each artist where credit is due. If, however, you are one of those artists and you would like me to give you credit here, send me a message and I will be glad to do so.
Click on an image to get a closer look!
