During these warm September days I am grateful for an outside pool to swim laps. With the flow of water and the warmth of the sun on my skin, swimming becomes a meditation.  My mind’s chatter fades.  I am inside a rhythm, turning from side to side, reaching with long arms, taking a quick full breath.  A wavy pattern of sunlight reflects on the bottom of the pool. Edges of light vibrate and dance below me.  I am fully in the moment. There is music here, and poetry.

The centered, peaceful energy I find in water is the same state I try to reach when I paint. Like other artists, I know when I’m in this zone.  The process is more spontaneous, fueled by a passion that is quiet and true.  I return to the rhythm and flow of swimming, sensing an undulating line—like the upbeat and downbeat of a conductor’s baton, like a wave writing on water.  Inside that motion I connect differently to time and space, to my essential self, and to something much more profound.

I’ve learned to take a few moments when I enter my studio to swim into the room, leaning into the creative current and letting it take me where it will.

Leaning In  (16″ x 16″ oil with cold wax)