Art as an Anchor

My intention for this website blog is to help people see beauty and enjoy nature. As an environmentalist that has been battling with apathy constantly in my work, I find it necessary to enjoy the very thing that I have been dedicating my career to save.

There are so many reasons to be depressed so many reasons to be angry or feel helplessness. Media is this omnipresence that I feel beholden to like a daily duty. I really should know what is going on in Gaza or the Ukraine today. And I feel myself deflate the sadness and seemingly helplessness of it all. And then comes the understandable need to binge watch something fun or remove from reality by going to the fridge and popping a beer or perpetually brewing another cup of coffee.

My escape seems necessary from a reality such as this. But what if there was another way? Something more subtle, something that brings more satisfying and long-lasting benefits. Something that is real in the way it actually anchors me to the world, not escape from it.

I think that answers are different for each one of us: maybe basketball, dance classes, hang-gliding, rock-climbing, anyway you get my drift. I’ve been finding the activities that make me feel alive as a means of catharsis fascinating as I get older, and hopefully more mature. It helps me heal and grow resilience to a very difficult place.

Perhaps we are meant to go towards what brings us joy. Why is that such a difficult concept for me to digest with a morning snickers? But personally, I don’t see the point in survival unless there are wonderful things to embrace and having that as a constant practice in my life. It must be something I consciously make time for, otherwise I lose my grip on reality.

Finding the motivation can be difficult when I have been feeling disconnected, tired, and just lack of desire to leave the warmth of my bed. Today I will choose to focus on the redwing blackbird outside my window. I am curious about that man in the expensive suit who stands on the corner of my building like clockwork and speaks into his earpiece. Is he a Secret Service agent, a bodyguard or some sort of hitman? Today I will make the time to take a walk in nature and make sure to make at least one observation about surroundings even if I have walked this path 152 times before. Is that woman taking her pig for a walk? I really don’t think truffles grow here on the side of the road. Not the right soil conditions. I’ll google that when I get home to be sure.

My point is, my reality is what I choose to focus on. I know there are countless realities that make the world seem dark and limitless reasons to feel guilt, shame, anger, and anxiety. But I have no control of all that other than my volunteer efforts and my donations of money and time to all things I care about. My angst doesn’t help but my happiness will. The world doesn’t need another charity case like me. It needs my love. And I love sunsets sunrises and this annoying cat that dances on my head in the morning, “Get up you lazy human and feed me!”

My aim with my art practice is to help me to keep falling back in love with the nature around me. I fall in love constantly with the process and what I discover about myself. And only then can I keep up my positivity. I will try my best to project that outward. Maybe that will start to make a little positive change around me.