When I first met Maria, she was restoring houses. She had not worked on her art for sometime. One of the first gifts she gave me was a beautiful quilt, soft and muted in its colors. This creation, “There’s A Butterfly In My Eye” mysteriously erupted yesterday and I was so touched to see all the color, life, joy and energy in it. I just loved every part of it, including the strange dog in the corner, the colorful hypertext,  the dancing woman, and the butterflies stitched in. She put it up on her website and sold it in about two seconds. Monday, at 3 a.m., Maria woke up, popped up and said she had a dream, and in the dream, she said she had a “Butterfly In My Eye.” Both of us said, at the same time: “streaming piece!” and went back to sleep.

I thought of my own photographs, seeing this wonderful thing.

Somebody asked me why I focus so much on color and light in my pictures, and I said because, from the first, each and every photograph I take is a love letter to Maria, who has brought light and color and love and beauty into my life. When we first met, the only way we communicated was through my photographs. I have shown every photo I have ever taken to Maria, and whatever she is doing, she tops and looks at them and tells me what she thinks of them. I do the same with her art work, although she is shyer than I am, and sometimes reluctant to show her work to people, even to me.

Whenever I take a photo, I think of Maria, and the color and light finds me. I see this appearing in her artwork now, and it infuses it with so much feeling and energy that I am reminded of how committed each of us is to the creative life of the other. See what love and encouragement can do. Find it, give it.