For ages I’ve wrestled with the ethics of painting with a medium that requires the purchase of little plastic tubes of pigment that will ultimately end up in a landfill. My neurodivergent brain perseverates on the idea that all these creations will end up at a garage sale, and then the landfill. Does the world really need more pretty pictures of landscapes?

I know when we move to a city next year, I will paint the things that I find beautiful there and I wonder again, does the world need more pretty pictures?

As election season gets uglier, however, I realize the answer to that is a resounding yes!

I paint the landscape Vermont, because it is increasingly developed and less wild, and I want to share a beauty that I think is worth protecting. When we go to the city I’m always drawn to parks, filled with people from different walks of life, and I don’t want to get better at painting people. That expression of community is also rare and precious.

As I was standing in a field, trying to remember how to paint (not quite there yet), I was able to remember exactly why I need to meet these things. When I’m standing there, I feel like the little mermaid if she was middle aged and fat and still wanting to be part of those precious parts of the world.

So there won’t be anything profound or deep. There’ll just be more pretty pictures (I hope), but I think it’s actually maybe, just maybe what we do need.