I took Carolyn Gale’s painting, which I bought two weeks ago for $200, to a framer, it will cost $160 to frame the watercolor in this bright blue frame with a bright white matting and it will be ready in two or three weeks.

I plan to hang it on my study wall.

I first saw the painting when it was posted on the Creative Group At Bedlam Farm, an online community of people who wish to share their creative work with one another anyone else who wants to see it. People apply to join, and are lightly screened to make sure they are creatives. That’ s about the only requirement.

That, and that there is no nastiness.

The interesting thing is that I have never met Carolyn Gale or spoken with her, I have no idea what she really even looks like. She lives in New Zealand, and I doubt that I will ever meet her or speak with her.

All I know about here is that she is a strikingly original artist who uses bold colors and paints with great feeling and skill and emotion. I have no idea if she trained with someone or trained herself. I wasn’t the one who admitted her to the group, I am grateful to the person who did.

I created the Creative Group at Bedlam Farm (originally called the Open Group at Bedlam Farm) because I have, for years, been fascinated with the idea of the online community, especially one for creative people.

The Internet is drowning in hatred, hostility and argument.

Could a real and supportive community be created online, one which encouraged people rather than diminished them or argued? Could a group of creatives come together and share their work openly, without fear of being attacked or ridiculed?

Could we escape the poisoned rhetoric and grievance of the left and the right?

Could  people really come to trust one another, befriend each other, sometimes even meet one another and form face-to-face relationships? It was a bumpy ride. At first, more than 800 people signed up and it was chaotic.

We reduced the group to two or three hundred, and it got even more chaotic, in large measure because I didn’t understand how to manage it or communicate my strange ideas to people, many of whom didn’t like it or share my own values, or had their own agendas. There were a lot of people on the group who had no idea what it was really for, and who I didn’t trust or respect much.

This was my fault.

Three years ago, a group of 50 or 60 talented people, a close-knit community within the group,  left the site after months of quarrels and drama  to form their own group with their own rules, and it was a good and healthy thing that they did, for them and for the group.

They have done well with their own group, and I assume they are content.

Out of this sometimes painful schism came the group I wanted and finally learned how to deal with. The ones who stayed behind – 70 per cent of the group – wanted to be there. It made an enormous difference.

I found five or six respected and committed people who cared about the sight and turned it over to them for the management and leadership that was required. I redefined my role, and the rules and goals of the group.

Really, the more I stayed out of it the better the group did. I was the lightning rod, now I’m just another member.

My major campaign was to make sure there was no longer any hostility on the site of any kind, to work to build a community of trust and freedom.

Thanks largely to the people who agreed to help run it, screen new members, and encourage the ones we have in productive ways, we created the community I always dreamed, every there is a daily outpouring of good writing, photography, blogging,  painting, fiber art, jewelry, collage and a dozen other forms of creative expression.

We have members – 202 of them – from all over the world, most of whom none of us will ever meet.  Creative people like Carolyn Gale. We have been conflict free for three years now, we trust each other, support each other, share our work with one another.  We paint, blog, write books, sew, quilt, glaze and write poems.

This is the community I always dreamed of, but could never quite figure  out how to establish. The key was letting it happen naturally and organically. Wee screen people, look for creatives who leave any hostility or anger at home, who reject office politics, cliques or envy. I can’t remember the last nasty or snarky message.

Who speak up privately when there is sensitive feedback,  complaints or questions. There are few. We like each other, we listen to each other, we celebrate one another’s work.

It is a joy to read the offerings of the group every day, so much creative work, so much color and light, so many surprises. Take Carolyn  Gale. I loved this painting from the minute I saw it and want to see it on my study wall.

The painting arrived a couple fo days ago and I couldn’t wait to get it to the framer. Thanks Carolyn, for your work, for your presence on our creative group, for letting my buy this painting.

My wall needs  this color and radiance, and so do I.

it is a kind of hanging muse for me.