Yet More Portraits and Thoughts about Passion

A Wonderful Tuesday Off, catching up with Sally, who's retired and having fun just planning a garden and taking hiking trips with her ex-husband.

Another great visit with Barbara Light, at the left, my massage therapist and friend. I think we help keep each other sane...friends are SO IMPORTANT that way! We both have to keep working, in spite of aging bodies, and minds that maybe enjoy play a little more than work, even though we both do important work that helps others.

I'm reading THIS TIME I DANCE by Tama J Kieves, another in the long list of self-help, find-and-follow-your-bliss books that I've read...each person's path is different, and sometimes it's difficult to pick out the Overwhelming Direction message among the many entertaining side trips there are to follow.


One thing I'm beginning to learn from my now 63 (!) years of experience is that I just have to keep working at the tangled knot of my Life, picking away at it to see what shows up next.

I KNOW I love painting these portraits, and have gotten used to them not looking exactly like the subjects. So I keep working on portraits, not even worrying about how they might bring in some dough. At least I paint them on paper, so they don't cost me too much. Come and see 4 of my portraits on Exhibit, Sunday, March 14th, 2-4 at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center and Peninsula College...(23 other artists' work, too).

I used to be intimidated by painting, maybe because I was scared to expose myself in an arena that means so much to me.

I'm not working in the kind of frenzy I was when I did the 8 portraits in 7 days, but I am trying to be aware of not over-working, so there is still a certain spontaneity. There is always that Question about whether to try to make a living with what one loves, or get other work and not sully the treasured activity with money. I still don't know the answer. I know that writing is so much a part of my life that I do it every day, in lots of different ways: online classes, books, patient charts, my daily journalling. Can I make a living writing and painting??? Best keep the day job for now.

I feel Very Lucky to be living in a time and culture that allows me the freedom to even contemplate these questions.

By the way, the second portrait is Mike and Katie, my good friends who moved to AZ last fall...I miss them, but in a way we are ALL CONNECTED...Be Kind to each other, and YourSelves!