"Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks." -Plutarch
From time to time, I take time off from work as many of you do, to get some much needed maintenance done around our home. I grew up on a farm and have a hard time hiring others to come in and do this kind of work. Doing the work myself is a release from the normal kind of job I get paid to perform. So it is both 'therapy' and 'enjoyable' to perform this kind of work; plus it saves money...always a good thing.
One big project I completed not long ago was painting our previous house. There were tall and short ladders, lots of paint and dodging rainy weather kept me quite busy. Yet the work progressed and slowly became a work of art so to speak. Okay, so maybe it was not a Van Gogh or Picasso painting but I did have a canvas and used both brushes and paint. I like to think of it as a minimalist painting style. I would also like to think that Dali might have been amused by the bizarre connection between a painted work of art and a house painted.
Yet painting itself is not just the applying of color to a surface such as a house or canvas. Painting is also what each of us do in creating our life. The actions and thoughts we create each day paints the type of life we have.
The canvas is your life while the paint and brushes are your actions and thoughts. If negativity pervades your mind, then your life's picture will probably contain darkness and depressing images. A positive one will create a life full of color and wonder. The images created are yours and no one else can paint the picture for you.
No one but Leonardo da Vinci could paint the Mona Lisa.
No one but Monet could have painted Water Lilies.
And no one but you can paint your own life. Only you have the ability to make your life what you want it to be.
Paint a wonderful life for yourself and those around you. Even if the picture has already been started, you have the ability to repaint; to reshape the life that has already sprung forth from you. Grab your ladders, paint cans and brushes. Your canvas is awaiting you.
Stay inspired my friends!
