On my way back from a week alone on a spoil island in the Laguna Madre, a friend asked me if I felt like I was stepping back through the looking glass. No, I said. It feels like I was finally touching real life again and now I’m walking back into a world that makes no sense.

The South Texas Residency through the Art Center of Corpus Christi and Texas A&M Corpus Christi Coastal Studies was genuinely a life changing experience. I made friends with a Willet (bird.) I painted and wrote everyday. I could see my phone for the leash it is and set it aside to breathe.

My work has changed too. I recognize in it a truth in the connections and beauty of all life. I’ve delved deeper into meditation painting and understand better how it relates to my creative process and the way I choose to live my life. And while this experience is still cooking in the development of new paintings and workshops, I am forever grateful for this turning point in my creative and spiritual life.