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As artists we are often asked why we paint. We even ask ourselves, in thinking about a really good reply, what is it about art that makes me want to live it, sleep it and sometimes eat it, although that isn’t highly recommended unless your medium is food.

Last night while laying in bed, unwinding from the day, it came to me that painting is all about the light. Of course every artist already knows that the light of the day affects everything we depict: the colors, the shadows, the shapes and even the emotions of the painting. And we all know that without light there is darkness and nothing can be seen if light is totally missing and objects only begin to reveal themselves as the amount of light increases.

I live out in the country, where there are no street lights. There are no neighbor’s porch lights or yard lights to illuminate the landscape at night. There is however the light of the moon and the stars which changes too with the cycles of the moon. On cloud covered nights with no moon it is quite dark and it was on such a night as this recently when I came into the house, after the days work and realized I had forgotten to leave on my night light. The inside of the house was pitch black and I couldn’t really see anything until I flipped the light switch and the whole room was once again illuminated.  

We artists pay attention to little things such as that and that is what hit me while in bed thinking. Give us some paint or a pencil, something to paint on and as soon as our brush connects with that paper the light within us goes on. Just like that lamp, our being is illuminated and all is right with the world. We want to go forth and enjoy capturing the glory that light brings to us each and every day. Like a moth fluttering about we can’t seem to get away from it. It calls to us. It interrupts our sleep and our waking hours without notice and the only way to calm it down is to paint. To feel that electrical charge as our thoughts and feelings course through our bodies and onto the canvas and then back is what it is all about. Then the addiction sets in and we spend the rest of our life trying to figure out how to make it better, how to express more emotion, more movement, more excitement and we continue until our personal light is finally extinguished. What is left behind are all the images of the little love affairs we had with our work to hopefully bring some light into someone else’s life.

So the next time someone asks me, “Why do you paint?” I am just going to say… “Because I am a moth and I can’t help myself.”