Creating Recovery

Solitude and meditation gave me an awareness, a perspective which I have never lost: that of solidarity with the rest of mankind.

~Vincent Aleixandre

When you look at the painting above, do you sense tranquility or disharmony?

Does the tree seem to be a naturalized part of the landscape? Or alone and out of place?

When the painting was first completed I saw beauty, strength, unity. Several months later, the sight of this lone naked tree made me want to weep. Both times, I had worked in solitude. Only during the latter did I feel alone. Not because there were no other people in my presence, but because I had recently experienced loss. In quiet solitude I recognized that my need, at that time, was to grieve.

~Painter’s Notes

Solitude provides opportunities to putter and ponder, to regain our senses, to recover our selves, to reconnect with the beauty and strength within and all around us.

We are never truly alone. Feeling that way is simply a sign of our humanity, of our need for each other.

In solitude I am free to putter and ponder, to regain my senses, to reconnect.

I am strong. I am beautiful. I am human.