Inspiration Fridays! Where will gratitude lead you next?

Where will gratitude lead you next?

Yesterday, Naomi stood in the kitchen peeling apples for a pie, while my daughter played through a few Christmas carols she’s been learning on the piano. I missed it.

“WHAT IF, TODAY WE WERE GRATEFUL FOR EVERYTHING?” – Charlie Brown

I’d been locked away in my recording studio for days writing and editing videos, but I tried to come up for air, and for some tea. I took a breath. Walked away from my screen, and looked at my family.

Gratitude is like the tonal underpainting on a canvas. Easy to miss, but critical to everything that follows. Like the underpainting itself, gratitude asks that we pay attention, that we look beyond the obvious for the richness that comes from slowing down.

In art, we talk about the importance of value, the balance of light and dark that makes artwork solid and alive. Life has its own contrasts: joy and struggle, abundance, simplicity. Gratitude lives in these contrasts and helps us to find beauty in their interplay.

This season, as we come together around extra tables filled with food, laughter, and a sprinkling of chaos, I want to invite you to reflect on the art of seeing. Within the rituals of the mundane everyday, live the keys to our happiness. Recognizing this truth as ever-present in our lives is at the heart of what it means to be an artist, and hopefully a human.

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8paint Inspiration Friday

Infinity – acrylic on panel – 30″x60″- Gabriel Mark Lipper

Introducing The Artist’s Tool Kit

In the spirit of this season, I’m thrilled to share something new I’ve been working on with you. A free workbook designed to help you deepen your craft. The Artist’s Tool Kit is an overview for artists that explores the essentials of form, value, color, hierarchy, and the access to passion. These foundational concepts aren’t just tips and tricks, they are introductions to techniques that you can weave together in any way that you choose.

This toolkit is my way of saying thank you to this incredible community of creators and supporters. Whether you’re picking up a brush for the first time or returning to it after years away, I hope it inspires you to see the world, and your art, with fresh eyes.

There might be a little overwhelm waiting in the wings for us this holiday season. Let’s try to see the light and dark with equal appreciation.

Sign up below to receive The Artist’s Tool Kit and start exploring the foundations of your creative journey. Thank you for being part of this artistic community.
You inspire me daily.

 

The Artist's Toolkit - DOWNLOAD!

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How does creativity help you slow down?

What beauty have you overlooked today?

Where will gratitude lead you next?

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Inspiration Fridays! What are your favorite opposites?

What are your favorite opposites?

Last night, the wind grew fingers and tried to pull our metal roof off the rafters. Rain clawed at the windows, and the cold looked desperately for a way in.

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” – W.B. Yeats

Outside, the normally colorful hillside across the valley had a new white coat and seasonally gray skirt. I watched her with a hot cup of tea in hand, as she disappeared into the storm.

I grabbed some wood outback and was drenched by the time I got back to the house. It was our first fire of the year. With help from the gas assist, the flames took quickly devouring the punky wood and casting a warm, flickering glow across the living room floor. Crouching with my face dangerously close to the hearth, I began to get some feeling back in my fingers. The young fire’s brilliant eyes stared back, like something alive, something primal.

Icy grays turned to black and the fury of the storm drifted out of focus. Inside, my eyes were dancing. Hypnotized by the deep green-blue base of the flames, I watched the vibrant yellows and oranges licking at the air.

8paint Inspiration Friday - What are your favorite opposites? Fireside Gabriel Mark Lipper

Fireside – Gabriel Mark Lipper

In art, we often talk about how color evokes emotion, but here it was playing itself out in real life. As the fire pushed back the cold, it reframed  it. The blackness outside gave the warm fire’s glow a heightened sense of weight and brilliance. Magical contrast.

In our bid to avoid, uncertainty, discomfort, or even a few gray days, we can inadvertently give up so much more. We clip our own wings because flying could prove difficult or dangerous. Creativity works the same way. Every brushstroke, every choice of color, is a balance between creating tension and maintaining harmony, light and dark, fire, rain, and risk.

Color is never just about what comes in the tube. It’s the interplay of opposites. Warm against cool, bold against soft. When we lean into these contrasts, whether in art or in life, we create the potential for something new and alive.

 

 What “contrasts” are you avoiding that might add richness?

Can you find beauty in the gray?

What are your favorite opposites?

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Inspiration Fridays! Can art create resilience?

Can art create resilience?

Art serves as a vessel for what we can’t contain, a kind of silent witness to our experience. When we create, it’s an expression that is both deeply personal and collective. A way to take a stand, or sometimes more importantly, just to take a breath.

“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished; that will be the beginning.” – Louis L’Amour

It gets dark here early in the northwest. Today the clouds were thick and the rain steady. It was easy to stay inside. The dark came in too. It’s in these moments of feeling “finished” when our confidence wanes, the light seems far off, and our creativity becomes a lifeline. There’s comfort in holding a brush or giving something a shape. It grounds us in the present, even when it feels like the rest of the world is beyond our control.

Art, in its most honest form, comes with the power to lead us. Its threads suspend us between the heavens and the underworld. Picking up a brush in defiance of despair or choosing color to express our joy is enough. These creations are the seeds of our beginnings. Our art comes armed with the ability to move through doubt and even get past anger.

8paint Inspiration Friday - Can art create resilience?

Refuge – Gabriel Mark Lipper What keeps us safe? What is that worth? In this abstracted floral bouquet, each discarded life jacket represents a human being.

The best art comes from our ability to live with uncertainty. To embrace it and use it. Creating isn’t just therapy. It’s a way of defining our own path forward.

It’s a space for intention, purpose, and if need be, even peaceful protest. Art, in all of its forms, offers us a way to discover beauty in the ugliness. Slap some paint on an old canvas or sculpt a new world out of leftover materials, each is a symbol of new possibility. Reconnect with your hope and work toward something better.

If it feels too big, start small. Even if you don’t feel the light yet, it’s there. Every act of creation is a quiet act of resilience. Art has the power to reestablish our connection to those infinite threads, to help us express what words might not convey, and ultimately, to inspire the changes we wish to see.

 

What can we learn from the darkness in our work?

Can art help you navigate uncertainty?

Does art create resilience?

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