Boundaries / No Boundaries

What better time for an artist than the beginning of a new year to set boundaries as well as – much more importantly – explore new horizons without boundaries. The emphasis here is on artist, as I include not only us writers, but painters, musicians and all those who create something emerging from their talent, passion and perseverance.

Today, my admiration jumps from the written word to the painter’s canvas. I have a wonderful long-time friend, whom I knew first from our workplace where we both spent our days (and many late nights) hammering out bureaucratic and legal documents. It paid the rent and allowed us to retire.

And it was then that our true souls emerged and our creative juices urged us to escape the boundaries of our formerly productive yet restrictive lives.

I am so proud to introduce not only a wonderful friend, but

Victoria Smith Porcello,

The Painter

“Pele” 30 x 30 Acrylic on Canvas

© Victoria Smith Porcello

(Posted by Special Permission from the Artist)

This is my favorite painting of Victoria’s.

Victoria also has a way with words. This is her own definition of respecting boundaries while fearlessly also soaring above them:

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BOUNDARIES, NO BOUNDARIES

Boundaries may create safety and security, or they can restrict and isolate.  A lack of boundaries creates chaos, while stretching or reaching beyond our boundaries can be fun, exciting, and sometimes dangerous.

Boundaries are made by the physical, a fence or wall for instance, or political, such as the borders drawn by different states or even ideas.  Boundaries can be cultural and societal, determined by history or by the march of modernity.

As we mature in our lives, our sense of boundaries changes, our experience of boundaries changes.  Our challenge is to look within and without and ask ourselves, are these our boundaries or someone else’s that I have been asked, or forced, to accept.

As an artist, I am challenged with each painting I create to assess whether to accept or possibly change and expand my artistic boundaries.  Each painting is also an invitation to explore my own life boundaries.  This exhibit is just such an invitation for each of us.

Victoria Smith Porcello © 2014

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Through February, Victoria will be the Featured Artist at the Sandstone Gallery in Laguna, California.

That's a great honor. I only wish I could be there.

Congratulations, my Friend,

and Much Continued Success for 2014.

Please, visit Victoria Smith Porcello’s amazing Gallery

on her personal website:

http://www.victoriasmithporcello.com/index.html