Looking ahead to a new year......

As I look to the next year, I am anxious to see the next discovery, the next new travels, and the next new experience.  As in this drawing, the little boy in me is watching the trolley coming into town and wondering about all the will happen next.
The past two years have been a very bumpy ride.  I had lost two people in my family, I quit being tied to a school system, my father-in-law who lived with us passed away. I was becoming too close of a friend to funeral directors and I was released from the chains of work. I guess my blogging began in the beginning of that second year.
I really believe that the blogging has helped me to smooth out a lot of the bumps of my live changing experiences.  It has helped me to find friends all over the world as well as to improve my learning of the things of this world.
The drawing that I created was one done for a man who remembered the trolley, interurban railway, that came into town daily.  He was revisiting his childhood through my drawing.  I can see the drawing as the beginning of my first artwork created after leaving work at school. As my wife says, if I don't do visual art creations, I get caught swinging a hammer instead, using my creative juices up in a different way. I like to do both.  I also get out in the garden in our short season and create with color, as long as the weather cooperates.

This next painting was my first painted work since leaving school.  I had called it "A Brave New World" at first and I now call it "A Brave New Journey." It is my new theme for this year.  The two years of changes has left my wife and me standing on the cliff of the mountain looking out in wonder, it is a time for changes.  We haven't really had time to be so selfish to make decisions that are just for ourselves.  Our personalities are both the kind that allows people to lean on us first, and we take care of ourselves second. 

It will be interesting to see what the year will bring. I want to make time for painting.  I want to build new things with wood. I want to travel. I want to grow things.  I want to still share my life, but with less demanding pressure and more spontaneous giving.  I am hopeful for a good year.

A brave new journey is one that says the hope is strong, the interest is great, and there is life yet to live.
 I hope you have a great New Year.

Thanks for sharing your time with me.....