As Jack sailed out of the familiar bay and into the more open waters of the sea, he was both nervous and excited. He kept his focus on the play of the sail as he moved away from the shore.

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04.07.2021

I thought perhaps Jack’s launch would be a bit more dramatic, but here it is. When I look at this drawing, the two things that come to mind are cardboard boxes and staying present with the work in front of you. Both of these can feel commonplace and even somewhat dismal if I let myself continue thinking that way, but they hold a great deal of possibility in the way that they can be simple building blocks for new things to come.

I have grown to love cardboard as a surface for drawing and painting and as a medium for sculpting with. Soon after my daughter was born, I made an elephant costume out of cardboard that I could wear as I rode my bike down our street. On the last day of school, I led the loaded buses of students out of the parking lot with it. Cardboard is so often ready to be tossed out. It is one of my favorite things to try to get one more interesting use out of it before recycling.

Doing the work in front of me has been an important discipline for my creative, dreaming mind. So much of the time I would prefer to ruminate on things I’d like to do down the road, places I’d like to be, etc. Little by little, I’ve been getting better at doing the next small task, embracing the common movements of the day. As I do, I enjoy seeing how they all fit together to make more possibility. As Jack attends to the sailing at-hand, I’m excited to see what he might come across.