In the Night Studio

A NEW BEGINNING.
Clutter gone at last. Statements, bills, taxes. Filed, recycled, or shredded.
A fresh new sheet of newsprint on my art table, and the start of a sketchbook painting. Just playing with gouache and a wet brush. Too long away!

Near the lamp, a bookmark with this quote:
The best way to heal yourself with art is to make art. To heal with paint, paint every day. To heal with poetry, write a poem every day. ¶ Choose a medium that is natural for you. Begin with the subject that is most meaningful and compelling in your own life. Explore what you are attracted to. Allow yourself to be more creative, spontaneously, without censorship. ¶ When you allow your creativity to be seen, it will liberate you to get in touch with the healing within. ¶ When you paint with abandon, you find an aspect of yourself that knows the truth. ¶ Within your body is the source of your life, the wisest and deepest aspect of who you are. If you can make the connection to that part of yourself, it will help you heal. All you have to do is find the part of yourself that can state, "I am an artist."
-Samuels & Rockwood, "Creative Healing" [HarperSanFrancisco, 1998]

This first blip is in memory of my father, who taught me to use a Kodak Brownie when I was six and allowed me into the sacred space of his darkroom.