January 19, 2009 – These have been long dark days for many people. They fear for their jobs and incomes, worry about the future, and some are struggling through a hard, unsparing winter. Like others, I have also gone through painful changes in my own life, and yet have rarely been more hopeful.
  For me, a hard winter means a sweet Spring. There are creative challenges everywhere – my writing, photos, friendships, search for peace and meaning. I am not a political person, yet I am lifted up by the energy and change in the air, and I loved the feeling of the inaugural concert yesterday. I felt quite proud to be living in America, and it was a strange sensation, yet familiar.
  I love the new notions of simplicity, meaning, and sensibility in the air. I am looking at windmills and solar panels, buying milk in glass bottles, giving up purchasing things that come in packaging that cannot easily be recycled. For the first time in years, there is change that I want to be part of.
  One thing that gives me special joy is seeing how so many people are seizing the moment to reconsider their lives, and liberate their creative spirits. My friend Ray Smith is a joy. As happened with me and my photography during a challenging time, Ray’s innate artistry is exploding, and I relish going over to see it. He has just embraced a new style of painting called “Tonalism,” which uses colors and strokes that are suggestive, not so literal. In the lovely landscape above, he plans to take out the fisherman, because it is more detailed, and out of sync, he thinks, with the rest of the painting.
  While visiting I took photos of his wife Joanne’s impressive sheep and wool ribbons and awards. Joanne does nothing that she does not do well.
  Ray is a landscape architect, but he is also an artist, and these times have freed his powerful and creative energy. I look forward to this year. Bedlam Farm is going green, and so am I. I want to challenge myself by returning to fiction and by going to another level photographically. I am gaining much ground in my lifelong battle with fear. I am much less into panic and more into solutions, plans and creativity. Ray Smith is an inspiration to me. He is sending a powerful signal to the world that when fear does not govern our lives and decisions, we can live our lives and truly be fulfilled.
  A woman from Germany e-mailed me this morning that the website has brought her light in the long dark days of winter. That is just how I feel about Ray Smith’s emerging art, and about what is beginning to happening in the world around me. It is true that light follows shadow, and that one cannot live without the other.
  Ray embodies the notion of creation. Create, create, create. Learn more, and then create some more.