025 | A Morning Thought
07.18.2025
“Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you love.” - Rumi
Recently, I have felt an unbelievably strong pull toward painting, drawing, illustration, etc… Why this sudden urge? I can’t really say for certain. I have a muse, she is quite inspiring, and exhibits an outlook that which has reframed my perspectives and views of objects and colors in life, amongst all other things. I realized at some point recently that objects don’t always display themselves in reality in the same manner as they do in our minds. I have begun to see color differently, shading, and its role in providing the illusion of depth. I used to look at art pieces and observe their meaning intently, but in approach to my own work, I couldn’t figure out how to bring the vision to life. To really show what the piece is trying to say. Photography helped this, but in photography I am capturing what has already been created. It can be altered in post, but most of the job has already been done. In painting, drawing, writing, the piece exists, but in no location other than your mind.
All this is to say that I was oblivious to the pull toward what I love. When painting a building, I didn’t realize that within a single brush stroke may exist an entirely unique world of its own, and within that the same, and so on. Pulling back and away from the up close detail work on a larger canvas, an entirely new world may have formed because you allowed the pull of what you love to take you wherever it desired. Whether this art is good or not, I do not know the answer. And to when a piece is finished, I’d say the same thing. Another realization I’ve had is that you can always just start over, cover the canvas in a heavy stream of dark green oil painted brush strokes, and begin again searching for those new worlds and new pulls toward that which you love.
A similar experience occurred for me when I started taking photography seriously, as has now occurred with this other form of art. Life became more interesting, and enthralling, because everything I saw became an opportunity for a photo. I started to look at the cascades of light on buildings and side streets, notice the geometrically pleasing corners of alleyways, all aspects of life that my prior brain let my eyes just pass by. Now, presently, the same thing is happening, but with color, and shading. There are an infinite amount of colors in the world, even in the darkest, greyest of times. On a gloomy, rainy, cloudy day, the brighter end of the spectrum may be more difficult to observe, but the greys are there, and consequently the blues if you look hard enough. Naturally, these observations lend themselves to an enhanced outlook on life.
Rainy days are often frowned upon, but what if they aren’t so bad after all? What if you find a new shade of grey and blue when a bolt of stark white lightening strikes across the night sky? Sounds pretty cool to me. The notion of infinite worlds existing even within this single pen stroke has expanded my view of people, and things, all of which I have come to think are living. The question is, then, how deep do you want to go? How much do you want to see? How far will you let the strong, silent pull of your love take you? Sometimes, it goes nowhere. But other times, you might be willing to explore a little further, for reasons unknown. Don’t ask questions, just do. Let good sense fly to the wind, and just follow that which is pulling you toward love. In the end, you may just find it, and if you truly do, the most special realization you’ll have is that, well, it never really ends - it just gets better, and better, and better.