The filling of my lungs is a reminder of how interconnected our body is to the natural world. Breathe In represents that flutter in your soul when you focus on the breath and allow your senses to absorb all that is around. This piece came to me after I had been journaling and the word joy wouldn’t leave my side. This is typically how God works in inspiring me. I was reminded of a photo of my young daughter sitting on the beach, fully present basking in the light of the sun on a crisp day on the beach. After sketching out the photo I wanted to push it in a different direction and change the narrative because I had been neglecting being fully present.
This painting is a call to breathe in, to take that beat. My spiritual practice often allows for this however I felt it had been missing in recent months, then the painting emerges.
God is in the details of life. This inkling of being present is something I had been wrestling with. How do you do it? What does it look like? I wonder if I should read yet another book on it? I was reminded that it is as simple as just taking a breath, listening and receiving the world around me. You don’t have to be on a beach to experience this, you can simply just take a beat.
Breathe In, not bound by a reference, gives the sense that it could be anywhere and everywhere. The original gesture came from a photo of my daughter when she was young basking in the warmth of the sun on a cold day. Kids have a way of handling just one emotion at a time, as I have gotten older it seems I feel I must manage more than one emotion. Whatever the right approach is I do not know but in the moments I created the piece I was reminded simply to Breathe.
