They were made for each other
Has it ever occurred to you that life is just one great big collaboration with all your past and future selves? It has recently occurred to me.
I’ve felt some changes coming. I’ve been processing. I figured it out. I think it’s less about change and more about my own clarification.
For well over a decade, I’ve run a website and blog about sustainable living. It started as a response to feeling despondent about the state of our world. Watching the news left me feeling hopeless.
Not good. Hopelessness spawns “why bother” thinking.
Spread Good Stuff was born to showcase suggestions for lightening our footprint and living with intention. I wanted to spread the idea that modest actions can actually matter.
In the meantime, I was painting, referencing small everyday wonders. But as I’ve thrown myself into my canvases over the last few years, I’ve felt a little sting at not tending SGS as I’d committed to so many years ago.
Eat Your Greens - 20” x 16” - 575
It especially smarted when I realized I’d completely missed my annual dandelion rant this spring.
I quickly repurposed last year’s post about it to ease my conscience. I reposted my Eat Your Greens painting, created to support the idea that dandelions are useful and that dumping more poison into our dirt to kill them is not.
As I was lamenting to myself about not keeping up, the thought occurred to me that I wasn't abandoning my mission. I was just using my brush to say it instead of the keyboard.
Camellias with Bellingrath VIP - Acrylic on Canvas - 36” x 24” - 2500
Spread Good Stuff and Jean Campbell Art were made for each other. SGS is leaving the old place and moving in with JCA. The Spread Good Stuff website will retire, but nothing about the art will change.
I'm still painting imagery that stops me in my tracks, inspires awe, and instigates contemplation. I’m recreating scenes that urge me to care and ask the viewer to pay attention. Why would I do this? Because paying attention is an act of reverence, and humans take care of what they revere.