Art. Why Bother?

I work intuitively.
Regardless of what's going on in my personal life or in the greater world filled with fear and sorrow, my work continues the same.  I may have ideas of burning hearts, outstretched hands into nothingness, shattered bodies, but none of that ever expresses itself in my work.  I look at my finished pieces and wonder how they can express beauty, hope and peace and I think perhaps that is the message I'm meant to share.

As Picasso said,“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
Art, for one thing, consoles. It activates thinking. It troubles and pokes at the things that are wrong with the world. Art, in a certain sense, is the world. Art provokes, it makes us feel, it takes us out of ourselves. Art fills in blanks, it takes us places we wouldn’t otherwise go. Art enlivens us, emboldens us, and fills us with wonder and delight. Art calms us and soothes. Sometimes art makes us angry or distressed or melancholy. In short, through art we have a ready means to explore those things that make us human.