Care Erases the Walls

"Care Erases The Walls" - mixed media on cradled wood panel, 16 x 12 x .75.  Ready to hang.  Available here and at Artfinder

After almost seventy years, I confess that though I have struggled I have never been lost and have never stopped loving—everything. And this has enabled me to inhabit life authentically. In the beginning, there were goals I was taught to work toward and these longings for worth were honed in time into personal ambitions, which all fell away. For staying true to the love of everything as our teacher has turned out to be the most enduring ambition of all. This love has made me get up when I have fallen, and has given me the strength to enter the breaks in my heart where I have retrieved my gifts. And so, I have very little to offer beyond the confirmation that unending love without preference will lead us to drink from the Mystery without leaving the world. Unending love without intent will fill every contour of existence the way light fills every hole. So, there is very little to teach. Just that love awakens everything. And care erases the walls we build between us. - MARK NEPO

The world is a bit messy right now.

But maybe it is always messy - always has been messy.

Care Erases the Walls

There are walls between us and them.  Idealogical walls, religious walls, political walls, walls of opinion, perception, assumption - so many walls. It makes me weary, these walls.  When I read Nepo's words in this passage, my eyes welled up and my heart sighed.  Never stop loving everything.  Whoa.  Love without intent.  Love without preference.  Again, whoa.  Erasing walls.  Yes, please and thank you.

Here's some unending love from me to you, dear reader.  You show up here, in this little haven of art and musings, walls down and heart open.   I adore you.  Thank you for being here.

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About the art:  beginning with a layer of black gesso and adding a rough pencil sketch over the top.  Building the layers of color and paint, mixing background paint with white gesso to keep it chalky and matte.  Layers of gold leaf interspersed, pulled forward and then pushed back.  Water sprayer and rubber wedge used, but not too much.  Finishing with colored pencil lines and scribbles, adding that final layer of texture.