Life Artists, a family

It is said people become families that share food together. I know this as Chris and I are a foodie couple and love to cook with other foodie couple friends, claiming them as family. My artists friends that I paint with started as artful friends, and are now family. Real family, too. Often, we set off to a designated place and embrace all things food and art, and have become groupie creatives. The group is ever embracing and expanding to others, but the core is the same. Colorful, appreciative, smart, wacky, sharing and supportive artist friends we are. Sometimes we don't see each other for months, but this one week a year or spontaneous stolen days or weekends, we are forever bonded. We envelope each other with time well spent, good healthy food, and we compare ourselves as professional artists while we share spiritual work ethics. Holy quality time, mindful brain picking, ahaa moments of "howd cha do dat one, teach me dat trick?"

And we do teach each other, not only with how to paint, but with why we paint. None of us paint alike so the sharing is qualified with appreciation. I can't do what the other can do and they can't do what I do. It is as simple as that. We marvel at each other and appreciate the differences. No worry or jealousy. We lift each other up. Other groups pale to compare to our connectiveness. We all our married and have supportive spouses that understand the need for this bond. Wouldn't it be nice if the world could function as appeciatively? Why is the question, it is WHY we all are in this unique arty world together and why we need each other to bring validation and support to each other. And the big one is, why have we found just the right ones to bring conscienceness to what we are as artists. Because, we have found each other so when the time comes that any of us feel the rest of the world thinks we are crazy or not good enough, we can call each other to hear and understand the "I know that, I live that and I feel that too."  Being together in one place for a long time brings a much needed arty fix. Our paintings shine with color and pizzazz.  

We paint like a house on fire, we share like we are only alive for a short time, we eat well and laugh long. The earth becomes more shiny, and only our group of openminded groupies will spring into action when one of us says, "come... here... now, look at that light!" We all hang in the window at dawn to see the colors of a sunrise like there will never be another one. We race to the sunset magic hour light to see if there is another chance we can capture 'just that one' on canvas. We are one with the earth and the earth is our soul sister because we feel so alive with the joy of it. We paint it, we talk about it, we marvel at it and we are interconnected with it. IT being the thing that fills us up. IT being anything anyone puts out there to share. IT being us that we that love what we do and don't think of it as a job. IT... as a wonder we all fit together interconnected as artful people. We think of it as a priviledge to be bonded as life artists, and we appreciate it down to our fibers of our core canvas.

M.E. Fraser left her easel on the beach, took a picture and called it Self Portrait. This photo says it all. It says to me, "Thank You God!" We tell each other weekly by e mail, text and letter... a thank you, and another thank you and yet another thank you. It is the one thank you that is really heard as we don't take this one earthly delight for granted.