Finding Freedom in paint

This is my latest piece, entitled Unbound.  As you can see, it's the latest in my abstract collection.  I thought I'd talk a bit about it and the inspiration behind it because I enjoyed working on it so much.

​  The first one I did was probably about 4 years ago and it both thrilled and terrified me at the same time.  It thrilled me because it was the first time I totally and completely let loose!  I let the paint just guide me.  Sometimes, there are emotions that an image, as in a "recognizable image" of an object or person or whatever, just can't quite capture, at least for me.  That's where the abstracts come in.  They allow me to express the very complex without words.  It terrified me because I'm a professional artist, I live and die by the brush, so I worried, of course, whether people would "get it", appreciate it, or if they would think I lost my mind.

​Following on the heels of that thought, is this piece.  I found myself today, painting as the sun streamed though my window, with just joy and reckless abandon!  And gratitude.  I'm finally in a place where I feel like it's all coming together, where I can be me and do me.  I can paint freely, without the shackles of fear and self doubt. There are no more voices chiming in those little digs of "what if" or "are you sure?", not from outside and better yet, not from inside.  And when you can become unbound by those fears and doubts, that's when the art can truly begin.

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