Allison,
Hold onto to it. (That feeling of bliss that you can find only in the quiet.)
Better yet, remember it, as if your Life depends on it.
It does!
Your real life, the reality that counts (always) starts from within. It . . . begins with the peaceful (quiet) state. We, our selves — you and I — create the colors on our canvas outside of the Self. (All canvases start off blank. Our views that we project daily create the color, texture and depth — or the lack of color, texture and depth that emerge into our individual worlds.) We can paint beauty and love using vibrant acrylics, or charcoal (prints) in all shades of gray which is simply blackness covering a white background.
But, we choose what to put on and into our Life. (It is that simple. Really!)
Don’t muddy it up; don’t create a negative that can only be understood by looking from the outside in.
Let all see the color, form and beauty that is truly you.
___________________________
You can create a master piece. You already have it in you. Now share it. Better start with a new clean brush. Throw out the old one. Start afresh. Just like you do when discovering the bliss that opens to the empty void, the canvas devoid of all desires and attachments within. A new canvas each day. Each minute can be Allison’s artistic rebirth. Like Venus on a Clamshell.
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Contoveros 
Michael,
This post brought to mind a moment in a studio exercise in Vitznau Switzerland when an artist guided myself and a group of executives through an hour of self-expression on canvas in acrylics. None of us were artists but after the hour, we went off to dinner. The plan was that we would return for a closing talk a few hours later on in the evening. When we returned, all of our work had been framed and hung on the walls. we were captivated by the color and he varieties of compelling images. Everyone shipped their work back home to their respective offices.
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Sounds like your art aimed more at the process than the completion.
Who’s to say the starting brush strokes are not the finishing strokes?
Hope you still have your work framed and on display.
contoveros
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*smile*
I was smiling while reading – thinking that Allison is fortunate to have a friend in you.
And then, well – my mind does odd leaps at times and when I came to the end of the post where you suggest a symbolic (and artistic) rebirth as depicted in the portrait of Venus on a Clamshell?
My mind supplied me with ‘At least it isn’t Venus on the half-shell’ as my own interpretation of the adage ‘it could always be worse’.
And then, since I have also been told that ‘Oysters are said to be best in the months that contain the letter ‘R’ in their name’ and that each truth is actually a ‘Pearl of Wisdom’…
I toasted your wisdom and Allison’s artistic rebirth with some hot chowder and crackers while wondering if any pearls were found while shucking the contents.
Then I realized that true wisdom is probably just as rare and unique as the pearl I was pondering and that I really shouldn’t mix shellfish in chowder because it was hard to tell what was a ‘clam’ and what was an ‘oyster’…
The point of this weird and rambling comment-?
When you share meaningful and heartfelt words – you never know who you might inspire (or where the inspiration may lead them)
So, all the best to both you and Allison *wanders off for another bowl*
M.L.
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M.L.
Like you, Allison is seeing the light, and unlike you, I don’t think she ever mixes oysters with clams. (Actually, I never have eaten either one, except in a soup w/clams and a cracker someone said was an “oyster cracker.”)
Funny how things inspire. Funnier yet, is how one can get hooked on inspiration, going around feeling “inspired” all the time but with little, or almost no, follow up.
What’s a painting that’s only partially begun? You gotta follow through, finish the portrait or landscape and preserve it in order to reach completion. Inspiration alone is like falling in love but being unable to determine for whom or to where you should give or place that love.
(By the way, Allison, to me, represents all persons who stumble onto “bliss” when discovering the quiet inside of themselves. True Love exists in the now, the present, the in side.
contoveros
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Oyster crackers – they are a must with clam chowder…and pretty darn tasty if you are into that sort of thing.
I have been a painter and I am still a visual artist, so I thought about what it means to finish a painting – had a long involved comment on how I have never truly felt any painting was ever ‘done’ – how it just would reach the point where I was able to say I started it – I gave it what I could and took what it offered me in return and then agreed to move on to another for more experience…
…and realized that maybe that would be what one might be able to consider as a ‘completion’ of sorts.
New beginnings can be very seductive and alluring, following them through to any sort of conclusion is often hard (and rewarding) work – the difference between infatuation and true love is what is often found somewhere near the end I think.
Reading here today gave me a chance to think about a few things in my own life that have been making me a little anxious lately Michael – thanks for that (and thank you ‘Allison’)
M.L.
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