“Harmony Shift” and “Flourishing In the Darkness” at Art Sail Clear Lake, IA July 2017

Dear Creative Friends,

Over the last days and weeks I’ve been revisiting my “WHY?”

Why do I paint?

Why do I feel the deep need to create?

Why do I share my art?

Why do I love to inspire you to create?”

While it is not out of the ordinary for me to go back to these fundamental questions, I’m well aware that this latest bout of deep thinking has intensified since I’ve been faced with deciding on a title for an upcoming art show at the Ankeny Art Center in October. Over the winter my goal was to concentrate on painting, but now I’m at the stage of stepping back and looking at this body of work and pondering such things as “Is there a cohesive theme here?” and “What are the common threads?”

The reoccurring thought that hasn’t let me go was the word “FREE”.

Close Up of “Unraveled Fears” painting to be featured at Ankeny Art Center show October, 2017.

What does it look like to paint free?

What does it look like to freely live an abundant creative life?

What does it feel like to live and walk in internal freedom?

What does it mean to live free?

I hope I’m never done exploring the answers to these questions. I hope I revisit them over and over again coming to deeper conclusions and convictions. But, for now, I’m acknowledging that this, too, is a journey and I don’t need to have all the answers today.

What I do know is that I long to continue to say yes to my creative freedom, to say yes to painting freely from that which is within me waiting to come out in line and color, and to say yes to living my life free to make choices that are healthy for me.

I’m also keenly aware that the the contrasting side to this journey involves simultaneously exploring the things that stop me from living and freely creating with passion. It is within this juxtaposition that we live as humans-this is where the juice is…the messy middle as we each walk our pathways toward freedom.

With Passion,

Melynda

Mark your Calendars now: Please join us for FREE: Pathways Toward Freedom, a solo art show by Melynda Van Zee at the Ankeny Art Center, 

1520 SW Ordnance Rd, Ankeny, IA, October 3- November 29, 2017. Artist Reception Thursday, October 12 5:00-7:00 pm.