Today’s alchemy painting is very special for many reasons. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to tell you why. I know the maker of this list. She and her husband have collected my work for the past four years. They both took a chance on an idea I had back in 2006. I invited 30 or so people I knew to “invest in an emerging artist” (me!) and commission a painting where they would serve as my energetic muse as I spent the summer of 2007 traveling and painting in Alaska. Mind you, they were paying for a painting that didn’t exist at that point. I was asking them to believe in the language of energy and trust that I would create a piece that resonated with their taste and was meaningful to them. Both sides of that stick took some courage. Here I was claiming myself an artist and asking folks to invest in me in the same sentence. Oy! I spent most of the money I'd saved to follow through with the idea and found myself getting very nervous when one week passed, then two – no response from anyone. I remember throwing myself on the couch and having one of those teary, vulnerable, “what was I thinking” full on surrender kind of moments. And then, like magic, the responses started rolling in with the day’s mail. Helga and Manfred were one of the first to respond. Yes! They would like very much to be a part of the project and they believed in what I was doing, saying they were impressed that I was going for my dream and backed me one hundred percent. It is because of people like Helga and Manfred, people who believe in art and the artist that I sit and write you today. Thank you to ALL the people who stand next us on the edge of our seemingly impossible dreams and cheer us on, lift us up. These are people who believe it is possible even when you doubt it. They are my kind of humans and they are changing the world.
Yukon River, Alaska Summer Collection, 2007 Inspired by Helga and Manfred
With great applause and a humbled heart, I give you the twelfth painting in the Alchemy of Connection series….
Helga
1) lie in bed all day when I have a cold and read a wonderful book;
hearing the wind beating the rain against the window
2) riding my bike through the multicolored Franconian autumn forests
3) cooking a delicious Italian meal while sipping from a glass of good red
wine from time to time
4) going for a walk on a golden October Sunday with Manfred
6) celebrating a party weekend with my family, sisters and families
7) sitting outside a café and watching people go by
8) having a sunny breakfast with boiled eggs in our kitchen
9) lie in the sun in my wooden deck chair on our veranda
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