Aptly named “The Next Chapter,” this piece was the first work I painted where I drove my new van to paint, instead of having the comfort and ease of my home to paint. Elapsed time to roll out my art cart from my front closet and start painting on my kitchen counter would be 3 minutes MAX! This new process took longer, considerably longer, almost an hour and a half until I started painting. Here’s the breakdown, it took 30 minutes to drive to the location, 10 minutes to find a parking spot on a dirt road, 15 min of camera setup time, 20 minutes to carry my paints to where I would be painting. To cleanup, it would normally take about 10-15 minutes MAX to put everything away. This time, I added 30 minutes of flying (and almost losing) my drone. If you have ever flown a drone, the process is a little intimidating when you can only see it on the screen of your phone. It took 10 minutes to clean up the site and another 10 minutes to pack up the van and 30 minutes to drive back to the place I was staying. The whole process took 3 hours (not including painting time since that varies on a piece by piece basis.)

As you view, this piece was inspired by nature. There was something different about painting in nature, next to trees. I really enjoyed the process. To honor the environment, I want to paint with plastic down on the desert. I enjoyed talking with people as they passed on their hike, one had lived next to the mountains their entire life.

One thing I am observing in “The Next Chapter” of my life is that things are less convenient and less efficient and more fulfilling (in some cases.) Over the years, I have gotten so accustomed to one click shopping (with Amazon) that we have forgotten the nuances of needing to go to the store and buy something. Sure it’s easier to click on our computer and are we better off for it? How have we gained this much time to still be busier and busier? I invite you to challenge yourself and your next chapter (which begins) each day, week, month. How will you invest it for the greater good? How can your presence on the planet makes someones day better? Zig Ziglar said it best, you can have anything in life you want, if you help enough other people get what they want.” How are you serving others to get what they want?

In joy,