Enlightenment

"Moonlight Record 9", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 5"x5", 2010

I reside with untainted harmony, on the back portico of my studio home. My evening dose of enlightenment has arrived. A pipe with Almondine tobacco burns in my right hand, a glass of ice water in the left; and I sit with my feet propped on the stone wall separating my life from the desert below.

The even mood and curious relaxation it produces is directly related to the earlier day’s fevered painting prowess. Both activities produced a singular mindset, a manner of focusing beyond the innumerable voices to that one outstanding expression of perfection. The evening’s half-moon is just one more faultless complement to the afternoon’s paintings that served to document the planetoid’s multiple impressions upon the landscape.

Despite popular notions, enlightenment is regularly achievable, though not always easily. We have all attained it at some point or another. The trick is recognizing that occurrence of subtle bliss for what it is… a private moment to rule your world unabated. - North