Believe In Your Dreams

“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”Shel Silverstein

Imagine if from the time we were little, we were encouraged to fearlessly and passionately follow our dreams! I think that pure magic and love would happen! Dream huge!

How Long Have I Been Sleeping?

My painting, "How Long Have I Been Sleeping?", is about personal "awakening".It celebrates those "aha" moments when I felt as though a veil had been lifted from my eyes and from my heart and suddenly I was able to see myself and others as never before.These experiences have led to significant personal changes, the most important being the rediscovery of my art and a whole lot of self forgiveness and forgiveness of others in my life.
"How Long Have I Been Sleeping?" is currently on display at the TriCity Arts event in Asbury Park, NJ.
The thing is, once we have been awakened to "who" we are and honestly consider our choices, our purpose and our dreams, it is difficult to fall back to sleep. Hmmm...insomnia is not always a pleasant state of being:)

"That she was seeing with different eyes and making the acquaintance of new conditions in herself that colored and changed her environment, she did not yet suspect."...
"The past was nothing to her; offered no lesson which she was willing to heed. The future was a mystery which she never attempted to penetrate. The present alone was significant..." ....
"I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me." quotes from The Awakening Kate Chopin 1899

An interesting read:Transforming Dreams: Learning Spiritual Lessons from the Dreams You Never Forget Kelly Bulkeley 1986

How Long Have I Been Sleeping?

These images are details of a larger composition, entitled, How Long Have I Been Sleeping?
It is another work "in process" and a significant transitional piece for me. It reveals a marriage of everything that I love about art and painting in particular: color, the human portrait
as subject matter, texture, pattern and symbolism. My daughter, Christina and Lillianna, the beautiful daughter of painter, Joseph Breza and his wife Emily, from Santa Fe, New Mexico,
served as models for this piece.

The title makes reference to the fact that I abandoned my painting for nearly 20 years. My "awakening" has made me more passionate and aware of the beauty that surrounds me, that is within me, that inspires me to want to paint every possible moment. Someone once
told me that even when I am not physically painting, I am still creating with my eyes and in my mind. At nearly 45, I have truly "awakened".
Only those who have awakened know that they were sleeping. -Jim Paredes