Tortuga Brown

I just got back from an island in the Caribbean where I was vacationing.

My favorite moment of the trip was catching a sea turtle, lifting it out of the water, and for the first time in my life seeing the color brown as a beautiful color.

Why did it take so many years to notice?

Brown is no longer neutral, dull, boring. It is now a color, thanks to a random encounter with a sea turtle.

And I am changed.

A Single Carrot

"The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution." Paul Cezanne

Only an artist could make that comment and be convinced to his core of the truth found in it. Being a creative person means noticing everything, like a single carrot, and conjuring from it a thousand beauties. "Freshly observed" means using new eyes, seeing connections, following unapologetically where your thumping heart takes you when it notices something un-carrot about a carrot.

It is then that you change.

Then imagine, if a carrot can change you, what of those who begin to notice you? Will they also be changed?

There is a densely packed revolution stuffed into every carrot, ready to change the world.

If you're bored with a carrot, it's not the carrot's fault.

Purple Came To Life

I have a painting in my house that I bought from an artist friend about three years ago. I often move it to new locations around the house, on purpose, so that I can admire it in different contexts. This one makes me smile all the time, while standing close and scrutinizing the textures, the brush strokes, and the beautiful accidents. The details astound me.

But the colors are what make me ache--my visceral reaction to beauty. I have a touch of insanity when I look at very colorful things--gardens and paintings in particular.

And I have known this painting for three years. Yet today, for some reason…why have I never noticed these purples? I have stared at this painting for hours, and only today…

The purple came to life.

It’s a whole new painting--like I am seeing it for the first time. And I can’t not see the purples now.

In my head, I hear my college roommate Bart’s voice, from twenty years ago, imitating his favorite lines from a movie we had just finished watching.

“I think it pisses God off when you walk by the color purple in a field and don't notice it.”

Part of a conversation between two sisters in a field of flowers:

Shug: More than anything God love admiration.

Celie: You saying God is vain?

Shug: No, not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off when you walk by the color purple in a field and don't notice it.


Celie: You saying it just wanna be loved like it say in the Bible?

Shug: Yeah, Celie. Everything wanna be loved. Us sing, and dance, and holla, just wanting to be loved. Look at them trees. Notice how the trees do everything people do to get attention... except walk. Oh, yeah, this field feels like singing!

Well today, the purple came to life. And I noticed.