What Is Art Good For

 

Featured image: Kaleidoscope Of Raw Reality: We Are So Small – Northern Lights

Recently, I came across a question in an art magazine that made me pause: What is art good for?

It’s a good question—and it got me thinking. If you really consider it, art isn’t "useful" in the traditional sense. It's often seen as self-indulgent. We don’t need art the way we need food, water, or shelter.

And yet, many people responded to the question with deep conviction.

Imagine our culture without art. It would feel robotic, mechanical, empty. Don’t you think?

Do we need art? Or do we need something we call art? Isn't that the question posed by the film The Matrix? Doesn’t art make things feel real? Doesn’t it also question what we consider real?

Isn’t that the very issue we face today—and one we’ve faced for a very, very long time? Hasn’t this question existed since the beginning of consciousness and our recognition of “reality”?

What is art good for? It’s a huge question, one that can’t be taken lightly. The answer is something we must keep thinking about—and even fighting for.

If the answer is lost within our society, if it disappears from our culture and never reemerges—which could seriously happen in today’s world—it would be unimaginably tragic.

I don’t even want to think about that possibility.

Still, we have to.
We just have to.

Art is good for everything—but perhaps most importantly, it protects our freedom and preserves our free spaces.

Dance

 

Featured image: Celebrate, Celebrate Dance with the Music

Abstraction, unknown, emerge, uncertain, unbound, freedom, discovery, exploring, unlimited, uncharted, magical, intoxicating.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

These words—and others like them—when hummed silently to me while creating, have become my personal, secret hallelujah chords, with minor falls and major lifts, to the song Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen and Mikael Wiehe.

Creations. They are my personal secret chords and are part of what an artist is—and should be—about.

All are part of an abstract artist's vocabulary, and all are part of an abstract artist's palette. All are part of an abstract artist's concepts and ideas, awaiting discovery, challenging her to explore, connect, and bring something exciting to life through experimentation.

These concepts—these hallelujahs—enable the magic of creation. The magic of being should constantly be navigating the uncharted waters of the sea or the vast wilderness of a desert.

I do my best; it isn't much, and even though things often go wrong, I always believe I will stand before the Creator and sing:
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

This painting is all about this dance of creation, as the sunflower rises from the darkness of the precious earth and arches toward the glorious light.

Inspirational

 

Featured image: Rainbows In My Studio

Many people think I’m a gifted artist, but I don’t see myself that way. I’m just an average artist—nothing special.

But I’ve come to suspect that being “average” is exactly what helped me discover the real secret to being an artist: becoming a deeply spiritual one, and knowing and following my dream.

I’ve been driven by this dream my whole life—except during a recent downtime, and a similar period about 20 years ago, when I lost my way, my energy, and my soul. While I continued to create during those times, I only occasionally produced something truly remarkable—a powerful artistic manifestation I would even call inspired. Something wholly my own, original, one-of-a-kind.

When I create this kind of work—as I do now with my 3-D pieces—I feel I’m tapping into something greater than myself. It feels like the energy of the entire universe is flowing through me and surrounding me while I work.

That energy has strengthened my belief in a higher power—God, for me—who is greater than myself. This creative power is behind the growth of all things and is connected to all things.

I’ve come to realize that the work I’m doing, and the inspiration I feel, isn’t so much about the finished product. It’s about the state I reach while I’m creating. That place of joyful immersion. I want to visit that state as often as I can—and begin tracking not only the outcome, but the creative process itself and the emotional space it opens.

It’s not always easy to stay in that space. Thoughts creep in—like what colors are trending, or whether the work feels sophisticated enough. And I can’t tell you how crushing it is when someone walks up and says, “Oh, this would look great in a child’s room.”

In those moments, part of me wants to pull the piece off the wall. But I don’t—because another part of me wants to recoup the money I invested in it. And so that mindset lingers, because I’ve come to believe that, to be considered inspirational, one must also be commercially successful.

Still, I’m excited about my new 3-D works, and I sincerely hope you will be too.

Blessings to you all,
c

Connections

 

Featured image: Our Connections

My connections with earth, land, water, sky, and the heavens are renewed every morning.

I sit along the edge of the woods, where the land and soil are thick and rich. Water drops from the morning dew glistens in the sun.

Slowly, I listen to my breath and breathe deeply, closing my eyes, and opening my mind, becoming part of the earth, water, and sky. I am home.

Right and Wrong

 

Featured image: Friends

Opinions about right and wrong, good and evil, represent a dualistic belief system that involves moral judgment.

Rugged individuals have no need to judge others—no need to question why others are not like them. They understand; they accept what is.

They have freed their minds and souls and have made room for peace, joy, and love—things that are unencumbered by judgment.

In order to be “fair” to all, we must be willing to see and change—without the control of judgment.

This painting, Friends, represents two different individuals accepting each other and their differences.

Rolling Stones Accepted Into Exhibition

 

I’m honored and deeply grateful that my painting Rolling Stones has been accepted into the San Diego Watercolor Society’s 45th International Exhibition, held at the SDWS Gallery in Liberty Station, San Diego, California.

With 746 entries submitted by 403 artists from 30 countries and 36 states, it’s a true privilege to be included in such an inspiring and talented group.

The exhibition will be on view from September 28 to October 31, 2025 at the San Diego Watercolor Society Gallery.

Thank you to juror Kathleen Conover and the entire SDWS team for this opportunity to share my work among such incredible artists.

Feeling It

 

Featured image: Life is Like a Box of Chocolates

I can feel it

I can find it

the journey is

worthwhile

sitting quietly, grasping

all that is real

the natural way

and

our place in the world

and

finding; wilderness

naturalness

the yes, yes of life

I can feel it

the journey

Is worthwhile