Portrait of Ben

Portrait of Ben
Oil on Wood
8"X6"
Often when I am in the car I hear a snippet of something on the radio that hits home so hard I can't quite believe it was a purely random act. Today I encountered the last minute of a Karen Armstrong lecture. (Click the link, scroll down to hear the whole lecture.) All I heard was the word "compassion" and something about being awake. It turned my whole day around. It stopped the free flow of negative thoughts. It made it possible to paint. That in turn put me back in touch with what I do. As Oliver Stone said in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine interview, "I might as well be myself. Everyone else is taken." Words to live by.