Sometimes a pivot is what’s needed
For more than two weeks now, I have been lost in what feels to me like "the color swamp" - dragging three different paintings with me. Layers and layers of paint, lots of radical obliteration of layers, shifts in direction ... No matter what I tried, the work remained...
Sometimes we need to question and challenge the process
The wisdom of practicing appropriate scepticism, advocacy and agency when dealing with human-designed systems and processes We are all subject to numerous “human designed” systems and processes. Health care. Banking. Food safety. Immigration. The school system....
To trust – and how not to trust – the process
What do we really mean when we say “trust the process”? When is it helpful – and when is it not? How can we “trust the process” with discernment, overcoming our often unhelpful need for control, while avoiding naïve optimism? The idea of “trusting the process” has...
Being in process
I have been thinking and writing about opaque processes: ones where we do not know, indeed cannot see, what's happening, nor can we know what the outcome of the processes will be. We live much of our life embedded in and entangled with such opaque processes. And the...
Always in process
The painting at the top of this post is one of several pieces that have emerged over the last few weeks. It is clearly showing something in process. Something is happening here, something not yet complete. And yet, the image leaves much unanswered. What is the nature...
The pure energy of black and white
What is the purest way to express the energy of a moment in a painting? Time and again, I return to pure black and white line paintings for this purpose. A white surface and black paint - either straight from the tube or mixed. Just one tool. No distraction of...
Seeing through the fog
Fog. A form of water that, like snow and rain, can transform our world in a matter of minutes. Whatever the landscape - coast, mountain, dessert - fog can roll in and cover everything that we could see clearly only minutes before. Where are we? Where are we going?...
Discovering the delightfully unexpected
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. And color has become a special object of affection the last few weeks due to its scarcity. Toronto had its grayest, foggiest December this winter. And so far January is continuing the trend, with the promise that this is likely the...
Instructions for living
“Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. “ — Mary Oliver. These are Mary Oliver's instructions for living a life. Simple. Yet profound. Wise advice that I try to enact in my own life. And advice that I like to share with clients. A recent walk around the block...
Wishes and hopes for 2024
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” - Desmond Tutu As we head into 2024, there is much we cannot know about what lies ahead. Uncertainty is an integral part of human life. We can be sure, though, that the new year will bring...
Breathing in our summer of fire and smoke
“I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.” — Greta Thunberg, “Our House Is On Fire” speech, World Economic Forum, 2019 A few weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night with a sense of deep unease....
How are you curious?
How curious are you? How are you curious? What does it actually mean to be curious? And why does it matter? Or does it matter? Curiosity is one of those everyday constructs that we often take for granted, without more deeply questioning what it is and how it...