Tonight, July 1, 2022 at 5:30-7:30pm, my artwork and I will be upstairs above the lobby and bar at the Riverside Hotel as the featured artist for July!
There will be appetizers and drinks, and I will be selling handmade cards and high-quality reproductions of some of my best-selling works!
The artwork in the show is my freshest. It includes this year’s Holy Week series and a brand-new series about Empathy.
Introducing Empathy
I’ve been moved to create art in response to suffering.
In this Empathy series, circles represent beings, bare wood represents suffering, and threads stretched by nails are good intentions and thoughts that connect sometimes, but also at times miss their mark, represented by directionless threads.
The Empathy series was born out of the inspiration to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the desire to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling.
In a polarized, violent, and suffering world, reaching out to others with kind awareness and action, as fragile as these threads are, is the way to help bring about healing and peace.
Empathy for the World
“Empathy for the World” is a response to the global pandemic, wars, tragedy, and violence.
There’s so much shared pain with the illness and death caused by the coronavirus pandemic that seems to persist, even after efforts to care for the vulnerable. And wars – both hot wars and culture wars – rage through our world, causing destruction and long-lasting damage of inner and outer harm. Gun violence and all kinds of abuse – including racial, misogynist and LGBTQ-motivated abuse, tragedy, and violence – plague our world.
The 18″x24″ high-quality reproduction available for “Empathy for the World” has the pictured threads of good intentions, but frankly, the original painting has one of the threads missing to symbolize the gravity of suffering and struggles to even reach out to others with these immense problems.
But we can, even in small ways. Taking care of others, peace, and healing are all possible, and start with each individual.
Empathy for the Earth
“Empathy for the Earth” is about human-caused environmental disasters and the ravages of climate change. Human-caused climate change and pollution are destroying species and will continue to harm the lives of so many. This painting is about empathy for that suffering.
May awareness of choices and kindness to the other living organisms we share the planet with motivate our good intentions and actions.
Empathy Over Time
“Empathy Over Time” is about the human condition. Every person, regardless of the point in human evolution, experiences suffering. Physical suffering, emotional turmoil, suffering of life events, and traumatic experiences happen to everyone.
However, in many ways that we fight bravely for, we cope with the suffering, find meaning in it, help others if possible, and move forward with hope and purpose.
Empathy Of Spirit
“Empathy of Spirit” is ambiguous because people have such differences of thought on this matter that sometimes seem in conflict and disconnected. One may wonder: may conceptions of the good and the right legitimately ground one’s political convictions in a pluralistic society marked by diverse and often conflicting spiritual convictions?
Diversity is to be respected, and divisiveness is weighty and difficult. However, this painting suggests that unity of spirit on a deep level is a possibility for every human being.
Every person suffers. In many cases, in the midst of suffering, it may seem unlikely that one wants to put energy into understanding what others are thinking or feeling. It’s true that evolution has dictated that in most cases one’s own survival is essential before others are considered.
However, humans have also evolved the capacity to consider the well-being of others beyond themselves or their tribe, and that capacity, that empathy, is crucial to the broader survival of not only our species, but of our planet. We’ve just got to reach out!
Visit Me At the Riverside
Come see this show in person tonight (Friday, July 1) by stopping by the Riverside Hotel as part of First Friday in the Garden City district!
This work is upstairs above the bar and lounge, and I will be selling cards and high-quality reproductions of some of my best sellers between 5:30-7:30pm.
But no worries! If you miss First Friday, the show will be up till the end of July 2022.
Thank you for supporting the arts and being a part of human connection!