The Elegance of Growth

This piece was created in the middle of transition. I was between homes and creating in a space that felt stifling and dark. I needed life and color and light; so I turned to the few places that never cease to provide that kind of comfort. Poetry, paint and prayer. 

The Elegance of Growth uses minimal but vibrant colors rich in hope and abundance. This piece is a wish and a “thank you” to the wind carrying fallen petals or blades of grass,  to the expressive movements of color rising upwards - symbolizing the prayers/hopes/ wishes we so faithfully lift in celebratory and uncertain times.

The term elegance is often understood as delicate, perfect and gentle but I’ve found that elegance more relevantly means Grace and beauty in movement - a peaceful yet powerful presence. Grace is love given when it’s hardest to do so. How unlovable and difficult do we feel can we be when we’re growing? I don’t know about you but I’m pretty sure the term “growing pains” isn’t always referring to the one who’s growing. The combination of soft transitions in the background and the rough and vivid strokes of the foreground reflect the grit and grace of growth.

My hope for this piece is that it comforts and encourages other restless hearts as the making of it did mine.

There is a poem by Mary Olive titled, “How Everything Adores Being Alive. I encourage you to read it if you’re unfamiliar. It pulls our focus away from the complications of our day and back towards humble moments in nature. She redirects and sweeps us away to places full of flowers, insects, a warm breeze and simplicity.

How Everything Adores Being Alive - Mary Oliver

What / if you were / a beetle, / and a soft wind

and a certain allowance of time / had summoned you / out of your wrappings, / and there you were,

so many legs / hardening, / maybe even / more than one pair of eyes

and the whole world / in front of you? / And what if you had wings / and flew

into the garden, / then fell / into the up-tipped / face

of a white flower, / and what if you had / a sort of mouth, / a lip

to place close / to the skim / of honey / that kept offering itself -

what would you think then / of the world / as, night and day, / you were kept there -

oh happy prisoner - / sighing, humming, / roaming / that deep cup?