Whole worlds

A perfect (almost) summer night

Frida show again this week with Lila. We loved watching the silent videos of her and Diego. Specifically the one where Frida is visiting Diego as he paints an outdoor mural in a beautiful courtyard surrounded by plants. Frida is sketching in her fur.

Lots of rain this week. Everything is wet and growing. Makes it hard to finish painting the studio, but one coat is holding up nicely. We have a screen door now- life changing.

Babysitter, 30 mins to read outside (alone) at the museum before we ride across town to a concert, 70 degrees. A perfect (almost) summer night.

Theo has been asking to bring our trash picker with us as we go on walks, so we take a walk through a back alley and pick up trash. It takes 30 minutes, maybe more. We almost fill up a grocery bag. It’s hopeful (Theo wants to help) and incredibly sad (why is there this much trash hidden in plain sight? Why do humans do this?).

Babies should be allowed to grow up. They should be given a fighting chance. They should be left out of the messes that grown people make. They should be protected at all costs. Where are the pro-life voices for babies who live in Gaza? All babies are our babies. I look at Theo, I look at Lila. They are whole worlds. Those babies are too.

“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.” - James Baldwin

Channeling my hurt for our current world into getting Jay elected as Attorney General of Virginia. We made stickers and coloring sheets for our families fundraiser. It felt nice to use my art for something hopeful. Jay reminded me that I made his first campaign logo when he ran for Virginia’s House of Delegates. I reminded him that I taught myself Adobe Illustrator to make that logo (it was a struggle). We’ve both come a long way.

Going through old photos and journals as I pull together my artists talk for The Muscarelle Museum of Art. It reminded me that there was a time I wanted this exact life - I wished for it and worked for it. It’s easy to forget. But it’s also easy to remind yourself where you came from.