The original "Conversation of Lines" happened in ancient Greece. The contemporary Conversation of Lines is happening here!

I've been trying to come up with a nickname for 2020—something to remember these tough times by.

I've been considering monikers like "The Year That Time Stood Still" (because doesn't it kind of feel like that?)

Or "The Year That Time Forgot".

Or “The Year That Never Happened.”

Or “The Year We All Stayed Home.”

These might be good titles for a film or a novel, but I realized that they are all too flippant: too jokey without addressing the very real destruction that many of us are facing individually, and all of us are facing collectively. Crisis follows crisis follows crisis—and how we respond will define us as individuals and as nations.

2020 isn’t The Year That History Skipped. 2020 is The Year That Matters.

That thought struck me a few days ago, and I’ve been sitting with it and pondering what it means for me as a person and specifically as an artist. If nothing else, the spectre of mortality can bring our values and desires into sharp relief and shove our faces right into those decisions (usually the most important ones) that we’ve been trying to avoid making.

Personally, I’ve got some very tough decisions to make in short order. One of those decisions will be the centerpiece of my next newsletter (which I will be pushing out early precisely because of what is happening in my life. Stay tuned!)

Another impact (I can’t really call it a ‘decision’) that covid has had on my life is a definite change in direction of my artistic pursuit. It started as a theme (people falling), but the theme seemed to dictate a new technique, so I have been drawing in a way that is unrecognizable compared to my previous work.

And it’s exciting!

I’ve been much looser with line, nearly oblivious to the contour (or “outline” of objects), and employing multiple drawing techniques and media in a single work. I feel that I have discovered an artistic drive that was lying dormant until the right trigger set it off. (I will share some examples with you when they are a little closer to being ready.)

I don’t know exactly where it will take me, other than deeper into my artistic pursuits of light, and form, and beauty, and the human figure. And maybe I’ll still produce fairly traditional still lifes and portraits and figures, but with a slightly changed sensibility. I don’t know. I hope I do and I hope I don’t.

Early on in the quarantine, I had a When-Life-Give-You-Lemons moment: I thought, “This isn’t going to happen again in our lifetimes. Let’s make the best of this unique time. Let’s hunker down in our homes and learn something and emerge better people.”

(Can I help you do that? Do you want to learn to draw and paint? If so, contact me about private lessons, or keep an eye out for some online classes that are coming up as soon as I’m a little more settled. And watch for my next newsletter!)

Looking back, I’m pretty sure those of us who lived through it will remember 2020 as The Year That Mattered.

What will you do with this time?

(Leave a comment! I'd love to hear from you!)