All The Ages You've Been (final piece)

All the Ages You've Been

"All the Ages You've Been" - charcoal and acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, 24 x 30 x 1.5.  Ready to hang.  Available here .

What I'm learning is that age is not the distance from the beginning of our lives but the distance at any moment from the heart of our aliveness. - MARK NEPO

Oh Mark Nepo, you've grabbed. me again, stopped me in my tracks and made me pay attention.  How far am I from the heart of my aliveness?  Not far at all.  Practically sitting on top of it. The goal is to always have that place, the heart of my aliveness, within sight.  Which means stretching, pushing, saying yes even when my heart is pounding in my chest or my inner critic says HELL NO.  

My friend Nancy (an extraordinary abstractionist and wickedly smart human) says the answer is always yes.  Which I have begun to adopt (often, not always) - just answering yes  without stopping to overly analyze it.  Hike two mountains in one day?  Yes.  Begin the loftiest, most extraordinary collaborative book project ever?  Yes.  Stay up too late, nap too long, teach a chihuahua (the most unteachable of animals on earth) to walk without a leash? Yes.

Of course, sometimes there must be caution and boundary setting and reasonableness.  But in general, creatively, adventurously, experientially, saying yes has enriched my life beyond words.  And keeps me within sight of the heart of my aliveness.  Hmmmmmmm, yes​ as the fountain of youth?

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About the art:  beginning with a photograph, roughly sketched with charcoal and then spread with a water-laden brush.  Slowly adding acrylic paint, sometimes full strength and then diluted.  Liberal use of water sprayer, squeegee, fingers and paper towels.  Stepping away often; resisting the desire to overly define.