It is the role of the artist to capture the color and light and hope in the world and transmit it to the people who need it and seek it. Much of the world makes no sense to us, but color and light – like the love of animals – seems to be an almost universal human connection.This is my purpose, my mission, my reason for existing.

I do not speak harshly of my life or my work, they might be listening. I am grateful for my life and what it offers me.

it is not my role to tell you struggle stories, to talk about how difficult my life is, to complain about money or success, it is not my role to give you unwanted advice or tell you what to do or how to live your life or how you ought to care for yourself or your animals or your work. It is my purpose to offer encouragement and thought, nourishment for the mind and soul. So I seek out color and light wherever I can.

I am not looking to be soothed, or to persuade you that my life is harder than yours. if I need help, I will seek it from a qualified and professional source, not from strangers on the other side of a computer screen. I take responsibility for my life, and for the many mistakes I have made, I will resolve my own problems. I believe in a creative life, a meaningful life, I will not live in fear and warning and alarm, the currency of the time.

Anger and rage are as much a part of me as breathing, I will not succumb to either, I will know myself and work to be authentic.

I seek to understand the true meaning of compassion and to practice it. As often as I fail, I return to the quest. I understand that a spiritual life is never fully and truly attainable, it is a path, a direction, a longing. Like so many quests, it is a shining city on a hill, I may never have the strength or the will to get there, I will never stop climbing. Every step makes me a better human being, I have so far to go.

I understand what Jesus and the Dalai Lama meant when they said we are all imperfect, flawed creatures, it is the flaws that connect us more than any other thing.  They are our common thread. There is no perfection in our world, not perfect person. Only the animals are pure in spirit, without malice and guile.

These flowers speak to me, as do some of the animals in my life, they remind me to reach for the color and the light, to remember what God said in the Kabbalah. Love is the point, it is the purpose. There is no reason or meaning in life without it. That is my faith. Love will triumph, even in an angry world.