July 4, 2022 — Painting is freedom for me, really it is. It is the most amazing feeling to step into the studio. I feel incredibly grateful for the talent that was given me, and also for discovering it while I was young enough to develop it. Though, I didn’t feel young at all at the time of discovery. When you are 41, in real time, it feels super old! Later it appears super young. But there it was, the talent exposed, that was my age, and you can’t change that. What was changed was the rest of my life. From that moment.
Beyond the talent, I am also grateful for the fact that I AM DOING IT. That I had the guts and confidence and plain old stubbornness to jump out of a plane with no parachute on pure faith that I would learn to fly before I hit the ground. Indeed, that I would not hit the ground. So, for all the people and circumstances that led me to the decision to paint full time with no plan B, I am also grateful for you.
Funny how it all works out
Funny how it all works out isn’t it? How the worst things become the best things.
Painting is freedom here on this day of July 4. I painted today, like I paint most every day. The fireworks just went off over the Sacramento River in Redding. I can see them a little bit through the trees from my balcony. Besides painting today, I prayed for my screwed up country, the oldest democracy in the world. One I never dreamed would be in a major spasm of division caused by a prevaricating treasonous tyrant, who is still lying to his followers in plain sight and getting away with it. Still committing acts of treason in plain sight, unpunished. Until these crimes are punished, democracy in the US lies in the balance.
And so I stay educated. I read daily news, I watch the hearings, I read books, about 50 a year, many on history and current events. And I vote.
And I paint.
To sign up for this year’s Art Giveaway, go to this link. That will make us both feel better. https://laurenforcella.com/art-giveaway/
