Where I Want to Be

6x8 Acrylic

“Progress is impossible if you always do things the way that you have always done things.”

This is a quote from the late Dr. Wayne Dyer, a man I’ve learned much from over the years, and continue to do through his life’s work. 

Progress. The idea of doing things differently. Hmmm.

So this past week I tried really hard to jump out of myself and do something different with my painting, just to see where it might take me. Well … it took me here, to where I wanted to be in those moments … back in the islands as a young person, buzzing around Oahu’s windward shores with Bill Dove, Tommy Holmes, and a few other crazies, looking for places to surf. Dreamy, colorful days. Indelibly magnificent days. 

As I was following my paintbrush through this small, lighthearted piece, I thought of how I’d done just about the exact same thing with my writing when I jumped out of my young adult work and into Calvin Coconut’s world. I’d just decided to double back and revisit my easy-going younger days in Kailua. Whoa, was that the right move! I wrote nine Calvin Coconut books and had more fun than a golden lab at a dog park.

So here I am again, taking a jog over to where I started out … as a kid in a magical world. I can’t even begin to show my gratitude for the childhood I was dropped into. Honestly, I don’t have one truly bad memory of those days, from crawling over to stick my finger in a light socket (for reals) all the way through high school.

Does “Where I Want to Be” show any progress as a painter? Eh. Who knows? But for sure it’s different. And it made me happy. I’ve done five of these small pieces so far. I think of them as original art for the young (and young at heart).

Enjoy! There’s still something young in all of us.