In 2010 my world changed forever when my husband of 20 years committed suicide. There were many dark days.  As I picked up the pieces of my life I helped my daughters do the same.  It’s a choice you know...to keep going.

I bought an old historic home for our new beginning. It was a grand home with a good foundation but needed some restoration...and so did we. It gave me a reason to get up each morning, and soon a local artist invited me to take art classes in her studio.

These weekly classes led me to an “Art Women & Wine” tour in Italy where I spent the most glorious, life changing 17 days of my life. We toured mostly by foot each day all around the Amalfi Coast, Florence and Rome, as we sketched in an art book with a black sharpie pen in hand. Our guide would call out, looking from behind our shoulders, “Can you give me a dot? Now, can you give me another one? Now, give me a line.” over and over again until a cathedral, or Cypress trees, or a seascape appeared on the pages of our journals. I began transforming, as did the cathedrals, poignant against the blue sky...one dot, one line at a time. The sweet fragrance of orange blossoms filled the air as we sketched after breakfast in the light of each morning.

I began to see the light. 

Then, one afternoon before my mother died in 2016 I was sitting next to her bed holding her frail hand with tear filled eyes and asked, “How am I going to live without you?” She replied, “Be kind and tell the truth!”

They were such simple words that gave me comfort as I continued to paint and paint, but this time with my fingers. I could feel my emotions coming through my fingertips as the dark paints moved across the canvas cold and thick, until they started to become light. Just as when a child begins to paint, there were no borders to the page. It was messy, but so freeing.

As the days and weeks went on, so did I.

Once again, I began seeing the light in places where, before, there had only been darkness. Connecting with others and gathering around tables, I began spreading hope out of the darkness into the light through my paintings to show people they are loved, that they matter and that there is hope.

One dot-One line at a time

xoxo, Heidi