‘Synchronicity’ is that series of events that brings something to your focus again and again in a way that feels more than coincidental. I love it when synchronicity happens.
Over and over again, in the past year I’ve seen this quote from Albert Camus, the French philosopher.
‘A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.’
This resonates so deeply with me. I think most of my life I’ve been seeking to rediscover those things that first opened my heart - and most of those moments involved the breathtaking beauty of everyday landscapes.
In my creative journey as a painter, I’ve often wondered why I was drawn to such seemingly insignificant items in the landscape: haybales, a tree, a mailbox.
It’s because in each painting, I rediscover a deep emotional connection to the seasons, the clouds, the woods, and the everyday sacred things that make up my life. Each time I pick up a brush, I honor those things in whose presence my heart first opened.
It’s no accident that this quote keeps popping up in my life at the same time I‘ve been wondering whether I will ever figure out a way to feel at home with the whole creative process of painting. I’m learning to replace some old and ugly ways of thinking with some healthier ones and I think that Camus’ insight is a good place to rest for a while.
There is healing power in painting those things in whose presence my heart first opened and I trust that, in time, I will discover - or rediscover - the joy of the whole process.
Wishing you a rediscovery of the things in whose presence your own heart first opened.
