DEEP THOUGHTS FROM THE TIKI BAR...

BOHEMIA under sail

    A few years ago I was sailing my trimaran, Bohemia, down the west coast of Florida...I spent days sitting on deck or lying in the nets between the hulls and watching miles of beach pass slowly by. I would look over my chart in the morning a decide how far I wanted to sail that day and where I would anchor for the night. One particular evening, I pulled the boat into the inland waterway in Sarasota and found a little Tiki Bar with an anchorage out front. I rowed the dinghy ashore and pulled it up onto the beach...then headed straight for the open-air Tiki Bar and ordered a Margarita. As I sat there, licking the salt off the rim of the glass and relishing the cold concoction, I began reflecting on my life. It seemed pretty damn fine right then at that moment...cold drink in my hand...bare feet with sand between my toes...my beloved sailboat bobbing at anchor..

BOHEMIA at anchor

I had my paint box aboard so I could do my best to capture the beautiful sights I was seeing along the way...tiny mangrove islands with ibises and roseate spoonbills feeding in the mudflats...long beautiful beaches and swaying palms...and I began to ponder what it is that motivates people to do what they do.  I know it's different for everyone...but for me personally it's always been the quest to create a life that is well lived...and I have learned that the path toward that goal is not always a straightforward one. At times, it has been pure bliss...like stopping off at the Tiki Bar on the sail south...

 the Tiki Bar in Sarasota

and other times it has been pain and struggle...the stereotypical life of the restless artist, with all the creative angst, money problems, self-doubt and total lack of material security.  In spite of the challenges though, when I step back and look at the fabric of my whole journey thus far, I am pleased to say that, even with the ups and downs and challenges and setbacks, I am painting a picture of a life well lived...at least by my definition.  The two primary ingredients in my life have been travel and art and they shape and inform one another. I travel because the land, the ocean, the beauty of the planet feeds my soul, and I paint because it is how I express that beauty. When I travel I breathe in, and when I paint I'm breathing out...and it creates a rhythm to my life that has given me a sense of consistency where otherwise there would be none. There comes a point in most people's lives, though, where we begin to ask ourselves what good we are adding to the world...does our life contribute something of value or are our motives just self-indulgent? I think about that a lot, especially as I get older...and the first answer that comes to mind is, "well, hopefully the art I create will serve to inspire someone else", and that is what makes me strive so hard to get better as an artist...so I can create something that is good enough that it will inspire someone, maybe uplift someone...and because the paintings I create will outlive me, it is a way to achieve a kind of immortality...something of my own heart and spirit that will live on after I leave this world.

TRI-COLORED HERON painted on Bohemia

   
 There is another part to it though....because if I could have accomplished anything with the path I have taken, it would be to live the kind of life that makes people stop and think about their own lives...and the path they are choosing...and to live a life that makes the world a more interesting and colorful place...to live a life that adds more love and more passion and more creativity...to create a life intentionally rather than by default.  There are many people who's lives have done that for me...and I think it's the greatest gift I have ever gotten. When I meet or read about someone who is living life in full-blown living color, it makes me both dissatisfied and inspired at the same time...and it compels me to go beyond what is easy and comfortable.  It gives me the strength to get back up when life has knocked me down, and marshal my forces and keep pursuing the things that make life something more than just passing the time and paying the lousy bills. It takes courage and vigilance...there is a whole world out there that will try to convince you that you should conform and fit in and be normal. There is nothing wrong with choosing a normal life...I don't mean to suggest that there is...but it's those who choose to not be normal that make life really interesting.