One night I was practicing with acrylics on my sketch pad.  I bought a bottle of blending gel and decided to see where things went.  I made a large circle with the clear gel first.  Next I put down a healthy amount of yellow.  Ah, a nice bright sun.  My daughter, who was playing a Jumpstart game on the computer nearby, looked over and offered me some artistic advice.  I should put some big eyes and a smile on the sun!

I opted for a gob of red instead of the face.  And then I began to blend.  I mixed the yellow and red into a warm orange that slowly lightened into the yellow.  Not bad.  Needs more yellow.

During this time, an old friend called to make sure I was doing ok.  We chatted as I painted, just catching up on things.  More red again.  The paper was starting to warp a little. My mind began to focus more on the conversation as I painted in the background.  I recall cleaning the brush, changing colors several times, and just swirling the paint around on the page.  Just as we were about to end the call I switched my focus back to my work.  I gasped!  It was a beautifully blended sphere.  Well actually more of a peach shape.  In fact it WAS a peach.  Right there, I had absent mindedly painted my first fruit, and with it I was well pleased!

I admired my peach.  Added a little bit of detail, and some green leaves to one end.  I began to think about how blending is not only something you do with paint and colors.  It is a way to live.  Blend.

Everyone tells me how important our individuality is.  How important it is to be true to yourself and look out for yourself first.  So much of everything is just about the self.  But in my worldview, where we are all very much connected, such aversions to outside influence are not only pointless, but a lot less rewarding.

I have been chastised by more than one person because I incorporate traits and preferences of the people I am with into my own life.  For me, I am learning from the experience. I am allowing myself to see and feel things in a way that I could not have alone.  The yellow paint can only be yellow.  The red paint can only be red.  If we are so careful that we simply admire each color, we can still see the beauty of red beside yellow.  But there is MORE.  However it is hidden within the two colors.  When they mix, they can see the orange.  They change.  They blend.

Life is about blending. It is about each of us being a color that can interact with every other color.  As we move in and out of each others’ lives our colors change into sometimes beautiful and exotic new shades. Sometimes, the blended colors might be dull or even downright unattractive, but it’s ok.  Each of us is a constant source of our own color.  And as we move on, our pure color washes over us again.

Red moves away from yellow.  Red is red.  Yellow is yellow.  But they never forget orange.

They never forget that there is so much more to themselves, than just themselves.