The fraternity

There is a short video some might even call it a commercial, which often airs between programs on the local PBS channel. In the video, the music from “Dances with Wolves” plays as a camera pans across the landscapes and landmarks of America. Text begins to fade in and out over each new image that simply states “This is Yours!”

The message implied is not easily lost, that each of us has a stake in this country. That we as a people own this land, that it was left to our charge, to protect it for our children and for those that Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain might call “the generations that we know not of” so that they might walk upon the fields, along the banks of rivers and the shores of lakes and oceans to ponder and to dream.

Something about that video always stirs and inspires in me my creative juices. Perhaps because much of my work echoes the same sentiments I try to instill into my paintings; it always makes me want to get out my paints, pastels, camera or easel and capture those feelings of pride in our country, the spirit of place, of belonging to the earth and to the country that we all share and own.

With creative implements in tow, and as I step across the sun drenched fields, or enjoy the serenade of the waves upon the rocks along the Northeast coast, I am truly humbled as I attempt to capture in strokes of color, the sights, sounds, aromas, and sense of place; a fraternity of feelings and emotions to which I am eternally pledge in hopes that by my creating it and then sharing it with each you, it will leave you equally as breathless and inspired as I, in the beauty that resides outside our doors.

Thanks for listening, and see you at the easel “Painting the Soul of America”