The Birth of Flags

In 1978 I began painting at the Painting Experience Studio in San Francisco. This is it for me. I fall in love with painting. I fall in love with the freedom to express anything and not having to plan or decide what to paint. I find out that the process is far more important than the result. The more I paint the more I touch the deep, powerful intelligence of a creativity that carries me and all that I can dish out. There are no taboos or boundaries about what to paint and anytime I think cross the line creativity meets me with open arms and acceptance, insight and aliveness. No matter what I do, painting only takes me to a deeper place inside.

My closet holds thousands of paintings and I still have them all. Over the years there has been a desire to share the work and the excitement of this process and I became a teacher. The paintings stayed in the cupboard. The images are powerful, scary to some yet, we long to know what is honest and real. They invite us to let go. For me the paintings are wonderfully intense and alive because I know this is how it feels to paint them. They are real because they come from an honest place of surrender to the greatness of creativity.

Not knowing how to share the work in a way that feels true, I keep painting and teaching and one day I hear about printing on fabric. Slowly, it is revealed that this might be a way to share the work. So, the flags are born. The form of a prayer flag gives respect to the spiritual nature of this work and with time allows them to melt back into the mystery from which they were born. Now the images are finding their way to other uses and places to remind us to soar beyond.