Hold On To Your Color

Cold windy days, full of clouds threatening rain can actually be fun if you pass the time with art.

This painting started out as a dragon fly and ended up being a flower made of dragon flies with one dragon fly in the right hand corner. It’s another example of starting out to paint one thing and ending up with a totally different picture.

As I zoomed in the check the integrity of the painting I realized I liked the head of the flower by itself too so I cropped it. It reminds me of something I’d see at a children’s hospital on the wall. At Riley Hospital for Children here in Indianapolis the walls have art created by the children. They’re usually filled with colour even though the kids are very, very ill. I find that inspiring. What’s different about sick kids as opposed to sick adults is attitude. I’m no expert but I believe sick adults sometimes give up faster because of having been through so much in their adult lives. I mean think of it, a sick woman may have raised kids on her own, struggled with her inner self, had hard time after hard time, bad relationships, lost love ones back to back and THEN falls sick. She might give up a bit faster than a child who hasn’t been nearly as beaten down by life as she has. Or take a guy who survived abuse as a child, has 3 failed marriages, goes from job to job, feels rather beaten down by life and THEN falls sick too? Again, he might fight as the woman may but adults get tired because of their past and sometimes we give up and we lose our colour. Kids seem to hold onto their colour longer, only out of fewer bad experiences I suppose but at any rate I think they hold onto their colour with a tighter grip. It is my hope that despite a difficult background I never, ever let go of colour.

It is so hard watching UK give up. It’s hard but it’s also a wake up call for me, a reminder to find a way to not be overtaken by life’s beatings. Never allow myself to get that tired. Always look for help. Use my voice, it’s the only way people will hear me. I think about how she must feel, how ready she is to go and I wish before anything that she finds the peace she wants. I guess I’m saying I understand. I understand why she chose to not get treatment and I understand why she’s so tired and ready to stop, stop for good. But for me, I want peace right here, right here in vivid, blasting, loud and full blown colour! I want every step I take to be motivated by a bouquet of violet, orange, green, sunburst yellow and of course a bold, full and beautiful red.

Austin’s August