Mary Oliver

Pisew Falls, Northern Manitoba  Oil  24 x 36

I recently came across a quote from Mary Oliver who is my all time favorite poet.  It goes, "I did not think of language as the means to self description.  I thought of it as the door - a thousand opening doors -! past myself.  I thought of it as the means to notice, to contemplate, to praise, and, thus, to come to power."
It occurred to me that I could easily substitute the phrase "I did not think of language for "I did not think of painting" and the paragraph would easily apply to my life as an artist who paints with oil rather than words.  Mary Oliver, whom I usually read every morning before I do anything else, is a gift to a world badly in need of healing.  I am grateful for her existence and her compassion for the natural world and urge you to read her work, it really is so wonderful.