The Separate Reality of Painting

Did you ever find yourself totally engrossed in creating, so that you look up at the clock and hadn't realized that hours had passed? That's the power that art has over the artist. It's devious.

Everyone who gives into their creative muse experiences lost time. I often look up after long hours of painting to find that my studio is cold, it's dark outside, and I'm hungry. I've given in to total concentration and become totally wrapped in the world of my creation. It's kind of an Alice Through the Looking Glass experience -- I live, during my painting hours, in a separate reality.

I choose to make that separate reality beautiful; a place where I meditate with the landscape I'm painting. I choose to give that place vibrant colors, serenity, peace, and joy. I live there as often as I can -- I paint almost every day. And it's interesting that when I stop painting and come back to the physical reality, beauty still pervades my life. My painting is a way of self-hypnosis, where I program myself to snap my fingers to wake up, yet still perceive the beauty remains all around me, all the time.