The Return to Hope

                                                            Goat Island in Autumn 14x11

It seems that everyone I know has been in a nervous waiting mode: waiting out the pandemic, waiting for Trump to finally be gone, waiting for the tensions to ease enough to find pleasure in creating again.  But the wait goes on and on.  The brief celebration we allowed ourselves when word of Biden's victory came out did not erase the tension of knowing that the divisions are still here, and may only get worse.

I've found it hard to settle enough to want to paint, and when I have tried, the attempts seem half-hearted.

Wrangel, Alaska 8x10

Fanno Creek, 10x8

I've tried some new techniques, but the results have not been as I hoped.  It may take some time to get back to the heart of painting, with inspiration and desire, which have been crowded out by concern for the world and those in it whom I love.  So far, we are surviving.