Random portrait paintings of men

Art journal

Today I’m sharing some random portraits of men in my art journal, and a poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. I’ll leave a link below to her blog.

Please
If you are one who has practice
meeting the pain of the world,
we need you. Right now we need you
to teach us it is possible to swallow
what is weighty and still be able to rise.
We need you to remind us we can
be furious and scared and near feral
over injustice and still thrill at the taste
of a strawberry, ripe and sweet,
can still meet a stranger and shake
their hand, believing in their humanness.
We need you to show us how
we, too, can fall into the darkest,
unplumbed pit and learn there
a courage and beauty
we could never learn from the light.
If you have drowned in sorrow
and still have somehow found
a way to breathe, please, lead us.
You are the one with the crumbs
we need, the ones we will use to find
our way back to the home of our hearts.

—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

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Today is a strange day for me. It’s the anniversary of the death of my grandmother, my husband’s father, and also my dog, Big Red Fred. They didn’t pass away the same year, but one by one, they ceased to exist on this planet on today’s date. Today I am choosing not to be sad, but instead, I’m holding the three of them in my heart. Later tonight during puja, I will send them metta (loving kindness) when I meditate.

I was listening to this gentle soft chime music the other morning with almost 7000 others at the time. It was a beautiful way to start the day.

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My work is available on Daily Paintworks, and eBay.

You can also find me on pinksky & blsky.

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