Faith

Faith, to my mind, is a stiffening process, a sort of mental starch. ~E.M. Forster

As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit. ~Emmanuel

This painting has a story. It's for my friend James who has been out of work like so many other people for such a long time. After reading his expression of frustration the other day, the word faith was bouncing around in my heart and mind. I found the above words and was surprised by the opposing images they portrayed -- one is about fortitude while the other is about flexibility.

So I set out to paint. I wanted structure, holding on to the order of things even when everything feels disorderly. I was painting my little boxes meticulously when I accidentally knocked over my cup of water all over the painting! Everything started running together! Oh, I was mad! (And said a few words I can't repeat here.) At first I was tempted to throw the darn thing away but knew I wouldn't have time to start from scratch. So I worked with it. Yesterday and today. And now I'm quite pleased. It's different than I had expected -- more gradations of color, but isn't that more interesting?