Spring Cleaning

 I creep out of the winter, its' tendrils still keeping a slight grasp, and turn to the approaching spring with excitement. I can't help but think about all of the quiet days of introspection which lead to many more days of staying in the house through the polar vortex.

Winter brings an awaking of grief and deep buried sadness that rolls through my mind and ultimately asks to escape through paint and brush.  I am quiet in this time, working on commissions and such, but my most intimate language waits for its' release with the promise of spring.  I feel it starting to simmer, asking to be released.  Exhaustion keeps the bubbling at bay, as I know when I enter the studio a mania of release will ensue. 

I have always worked by engaging in long periods of thought, emotional/psychological processing and finally releasing old patterns, which leads to the illustration of this period and the new found freedoms and peace in the paintings that follow.  This inner process fuels the expression that ultimately completes the cycle, until it starts again. 

It can be incredibly isolating to be a creative at times, but it is balanced by the supreme beauty of the process.  I am blessed to understand my inner see-saw and allow it to flow through me. 

The idea of spring cleaning has such a large meaning beyond the obsessive need that I have to take inventory of every physical item in my home and studio and make them shine,  purging what I don't need, to simplify.  It really is an amazing mirror of the inner landscape, and I know you all are experiencing this in your own individual way.  How will you dump the old junk and birth a new you this spring? 

We are not so different, you and I :  )