Kathleen
Elliot 
Our
American culture is crazy. We live in a rush of busyness, hurry, trying
to get ahead, to achieve the American Dream of being rich and beautiful
with perfect children. We are surrounded by advances in technology in
every field, with more and more mass-produced products, machine-produced
things, Hollywood in our faces every day with its surgically altered fantasy
of the movie stars and the dream of perfection, the fashion industry with
its version of what’s sexy now, marketing bombarding us everywhere
we turn. This milieu produces flatness and dullness, a lack of humanity,
creativity, and individuality that can seep into our marriages, families,
health, and careers. People can forget their own humanity, lose forgiveness
and appreciation for themselves and others, lose sight of the opportunities
we have to be creative with our own lives.
Art returns us to a mood of wonder and appreciation, helps us stay centered in the face of our culture. Its beauty, strength and clarity can be inspiration for us in our own lives. Art reminds us of human virtues and the wonders of nature. Its richness and depth can inspire us to rise above the mediocrity of drifting in the cultural norm, to live our own lives artfully.
My own art is inspired by such wonders as flower petals, the patterns of veins in leaves, the sweet golden color of my children’s sleepy faces when they awake in the morning, the shiny blackness of crows, the rich smell of the forest floor, changing colors of autumn leaves, seed pods and acorns - a hundred intricate and intimate moments in a day that can take my breath away if I remember to stop, listen, look around.
The purpose of my art is to inspire and remind myself and others that we can be awed by even the most simple things in life. Allow your breath to be taken away by the beauty of a leaf, allow the intricacy of a flower to remind you of the awesome gift of life, be amazed by the shape of an acorn and the smoothness of its skin, be awed by the delicate, stunning work of art that a bird’s nest is. We are surrounded by amazing wonders every day and my art reminds us to notice, appreciate and be grateful for them. My art reminds us, no matter what we do or what our work is, let us live our lives artfully!