When I’m in a stressful situation I find myself cut off from those realities more often than I’d like to acknowledge. My usual creative problem solving powers -- the exact resources that would help me navigate a difficult passage with skill and pluck -- fly right out the window in a fight, flight, or freeze response.

Speaking of stressful --  It’s pretty stressful right now, arriving at the culmination of these four years of Twilight Zone horror and finding ourselves at an historic crossroads.

I hope that what we’ll experience in the unfolding of the 2020 election results is a washing away of this dumpster fire of an administration and the first steps in a new era toward a more peaceful and just world. Meanwhile… it’s stressful. I think we can all agree on that.

Communing with the arts in some form brings me back to myself and allows me to connect meaningfully with the world again. We’re on an incredible, momentous journey together right now, and so I’m writing today with my small offering: a little art boost fortification. 

➽

I moved to Los Angeles from New Orleans in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina and it’s taken a long time for California to feel like home to me. This group of paintings is part of my meandering conversation with the state. California, how do I dance with you?

I don’t want to tell anyone how to enjoy their art intake, but what I hope is that you’ll enjoy losing yourself for a moment in the variations of these twelve pieces -- the colors, the gestures, restrained elegance vs wild, beautiful mess --  and that you’ll carry away with you an enhanced sense of playfulness and can-do to use in the days to come.

We’re in this together. It will get better.

VIEW SERIES HERE: California, New & Magnificent