Inside/Outside

Inside the bus, the house, the mind are people, love, thought;
Outside is the worldthe world of guitars, mink coats, rainbows.

Inside may be warm and cozy, or cold and dreary, or bare but untidy.
Outside may be bright and clear, or uncertain and scary, or hard but rewarding.

Some choose inside with nose pressed longingly against the windowpane.
Some grasp the outside ring without regret, missing the gentler side of life.

The grass looks greener on the other side.
The view is rosier with tinted glasses.
The skies are bluer when the robin sings.

Whatever the seeming choice,
Inside is the person;
Outside is the world.

Fingerpainting was my way of joyful expression as a toddler. Pen and pencil copying of engaging prints and engravings found in my favorite classics, such as The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas, was my teenage passion. But that quickly turned to advanced experimentation with color and new mediums, including crayon, pastel, oil pastel, transparent and opaque watercolor, and oil. Somehow I never warmed up to acrylic or to methods of work that did not involve direct contact by hand with the finished product.

My solo exhibitions were composed of paintings of vivid color spread with palette knife on finely grained linen canvas, and drawings in pen and brush and black India ink on near-smooth-surfaced paper splashed with frequent additions of that wondrous glowing medium of gouache, an opaque watercolor.