Why?

Can anyone truly explain the "why" of the artistic urge? The desire to create? I don’t know why I have this need, I just know that I do. I imagine it’s that way for all artists, with or without an audience.

Critics will say, "What’s the use? Where is the value in art?" There are as many answers for those questions as there are artists. Let me give you an example where art is used to enrich and, in a way, save lives.

James Hopkins has begun a micro-finance program in Nepal where he pays women to make quilts which are then sold online. All the money raised through the sale of these beautiful works of art is used to send their children to school for one year. Use this link to hear James tell his story.

Quilts for Kids

Watercolor

Yesterday was a watercolor day. I take painting classes at the local Arts Center with a wonderful teacher and Thursday afternoons are devoted to painting. Besides getting instruction , I enjoy the give and take of working with other students.

I love color. I love to squeeze the pure colors onto my pallette. I love to drop colors onto a wet sheet of paper and watch them run and mix and do what they want. Of course, I have to control it to a certain degree in order to accomplish what I want. But I almost always get something wonderful that I did not expect.

Painting is about balance: far and near, dark and light, hard and soft, warm and cool. I am nowhere near to mastering it but I improve with every finished piece.