Jodi’s Blog ... From the Artist’s Heart — pear

Our humanity lies not in the ordinary. We do the things we have to in order to stay alive. Alive. But to really live, we have to do the unnecessary. We create extraordinary things. We gather ourselves in music and art and dessert. And this is where we really live. And oh, how beautiful. This beautiful stillness. It was never necessary for an apple to be beautiful. It could offer the same nutrients in a plain package. In fact, we could take vitamins, and maybe get the same thing. But there it is for us, in all of its unnecessary beauty. The brilliant ball of red, and green and yellow, that fits perfectly into the palm of your hand. What...

Painting these every day is such joy. And it is surprising how much you can learn, every day. To see how yellow is not just yellow, but green and brown and white and red... It's like when you paint skin tones... and you see that there actually is no black or white... just a multitude of colors, and to achieve this feeling of life, of depth behind the colors, the skin, the peel, you have to be loose, free, and let it just happen. And then the beauty comes. And maybe that's the line right there, "And then the beauty comes..." Today, it might be in the letting go, it might be after the rain, it might be after the...