I don't know about the rest of you, but this haywire political environment has got me feeling turned upside down. I try to take news-vacations, and I do things to distract from the chaos, but still. There's just a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach most every day.
My father-in-law, Avrum (of blessed memory) would say, "everything's going to be OK." I yearn to hear that phrase roll off his tongue. I miss the days when he'd say it, because I really would feel better. After all he survived (being ordered to leave his town in Romania or else he'd be killed the next day, for starters) I had no reason not to believe him.
Another wise person, Keith Davis (photo curator at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) helped keep me on track during the fall of 2001. I was spending full days in my darkroom printing the pictures I'd made at Nazi concentration and death camps and felt paralyzed by 9-11. I told him I couldn't muster the strength and conviction to continue working on my project. He encouraged me to be constructive in response to the destruction. That making something counteracts losing something.
Making pictures (and now making paintings) is medicine for me. These activities usually do reduce fear, anxiety, and anger.
Yesterday I finished a new painting called "String Game." With each brush stroke, I really could hear both my father-in-law and Keith cheering me on. Thanks, guys.