Total Immersion as a way to grow

is a classic method of learning something new - and not only learning - but achieving a level of mastery. There is nothing like offering your shaky version of a question in a second language, and getting the answer back in the unchecked speed used by a person not trying to accommodate your lack of fluency. Somehow, somewhere your tiny bit of newly acquired knowledge hit home; you've got a secure landing spot, a place to grow from. That's how I've felt these past 8 weeks with using the color red. Who knows why - this is a question for my therapist - but red has felt like dangerous territory for me in the past. A request for a commissioned painting gave me the push I needed to fill my palette and paint buckets with all kinds of cool reds, warm reds, dark reds, orange reds, fire engine reds and more. I began to play, to make marks, to allow the paint to stain raw canvas, to see which colors from my previously blue and green palette worked well with these new neighbors. The result has been exciting, energizing and is giving me a new place to be comfortable in my art.

One of the red paintings completed August 2020