"Our ability and willingness to see things from a different perspective is always the genesis of growth."

 

 

As I stood looking at a painting by Henrietta Berk, it became clear that to be able to express the landscape as she was, a reframing of how I was seeing the landscape would be vital. I would have to look and learn to see with new eyes. A lifetime-long journey began in that moment.

 

In “Learning to See,” I have assembled the first steps of this journey.

 

Over the past year, I have immersed myself in painting. I have entered the landscape I have spent a life in afresh. I went to see these familiar hillsides, valleys, stream beds, and lakes, as John Muir said, “hitched to everything else.” Driving dirt roads, hiking creek beds, and early morning walks became essential for the slowing down required for attention to flourish. 

 

I have been drawing and painting this land, trying to understand and relate to it more deeply.

 

Often, we see with a glance, a quick assessment, but to learn to see is to approach life with curiosity, wonder, and discovery.

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