POETRY | ART | LIFELINE
Contentment
Through Art
What joy I feel with fingers full of chalk gliding across sanded paper creating landscapes
blackened fingers scrawling details envisioning sculptures out of rock formations
creating hallows and thorns to scare and amuse delighting in the textures marveling at the hues
planting gardens on paper deeply rooted in love filling my soul’s desire for contentment through art
©2021 Lori Carlson. All Rights Reserved.
2021 began on a bit of a sour note. I was restless and experiencing bouts of writers' block. I turned to Youtube as a means of escape from the doldrums of my life. And that’s when I came across a Youtube channel of an acquaintance I’d met a couple of years prior. She is an artist and was having one of her late-night art sessions. I sat watching her paint and listening to the nice music she played in the background. And then I had a sudden urge, desire to get artfully creative again.
I hadn’t done any artwork since the late 90s. I wasn’t even sure I remembered how! My favorite medium had always been watercolors, but I remembered it took me years to get the techniques down well. I opted for pastels instead. I bought a cheap set and some paper and began playing around with them to see what all I could do. I’d only tried pastels once in college and never really got into them. Now they’ve become my favorite medium!
As I sat, night after night, painting away, I slowly released the restlessness. And became surprisingly content. Not only with my artwork, but with life in general. All it took was doing something that I love. I even got my desire for writing back. No more writers’ block. No more restlessness. Just pure joy and contentment.
I want to thank Sahil Patel for his prompt that reminded me of how 2021 began and how wonderfully it has turned out. Cheers to you, Sahil, and cheers to me too!
In the spirit of giving back to others, please check out these beautiful December Gifts
Lori Carlson writes Poetry, Fiction, Articles, Creative Non-Fiction, and Personal Essays. Most of her topics are centered around Relationships, Spirituality, Life Lessons, Mental Health, Nature, Loss, Death, and the LGBTQ+ community. She is the Owner/Editor of Promptly Written and Not For Bedtime Stories. Check out her personal Medium blog here.
