How to be Alone

It’s not something I talk about often. In America, we often go about our days surrounded by people.. we hope they’ll be caring and gentle with us. But when I decided to become an artist, and to work independently - I found I had a new and daunting task — make friends with Aloneness. Quarantine has brought “isolation” into people’s lives like never before. And most of us fight it… even I do. But to really get to the roots of who you are and what you’re capable of, I believe that a little alone time is crucial.

Everything trickles through you while you paint — thoughts, judgement, excitement, fear, self-criticism. I was lucky to also find Meditation at the same time I began my artistic practice, and so I had a way of understanding that my job was not to reckon with the thoughts directly, but to see them, observe, and yet bring the focus back to my work. Back to my subject, and my paints - the visual field, the decision-making that one engages in when creating. Some days, my paintings have told me things about myself I hadn’t know. Some days they speak of the beauty of the world, or of the difficulty of struggle. They all present new challenges, and give me new tools. In creating each art piece, I’ve had an opportunity to go beyond myself — to take my internal circumstances and transform them into something useful, that might bring joy to another. That is my goal. Even on the days when not a soul is watching, art is speaking.

Here are some new works, 3 of 4 from Quarantine.

Thankful to have found this as a path, and thankful - enormously - to those who have supported me. xoxo J.Heloise