11x14x1.5” original, acrylic painting on canvas

I was thinking on a word for the new year… half pondering/half praying. In all honesty, my word usually drifts into my head rather quickly. (In fact, several years ago, I was actually internally scoffing at how “trendy” a word of the year was when wouldn’t you know it, a word very clearly popped into my head. Haha! God, has a great sense of humor.) Anyhow, the word “light” set itself aside in my mind as the word for 2023. And I think of it in more than one meaning. It’s really challenging for this to not sound completely cheesy, so I won’t even attempt to be clever.

I want to reflect light through my paintings, through my words, through my way of being in the world, but to do so, I must be filled with light by getting in God’s Word each morning and outdoors whenever the sun makes an appearance in our cloudy, winter valley. I also want to be light-hearted. You know that sound a fresh can of soda (or for me, La Croix) makes when you open it, and how that first sip is going to taste just so refreshing and crisp? That sound plus a hearty giggle of a child, that’s the soundtrack of light-heartedness. To be light, to receive light, to carry light-heartedness in a heavy, heavy world: these are the thoughts I have for this new year.

So by golly, I’m going to paint lots of things that make me smile and a new year of limes, lemons and hydrangeas, even if you can only find them in supermarkets this time of year, just feels fitting. I was going to take photos of these paintings like it or not on a cloudy day, when the sun made a sweet appearance that felt like a wink and show off the texture of these new year paintings.