The Familiar and the New

The two most engaging powers of an author are
to make new things familiar
and familiar things new.
~ Dr. Samuel Johnson

I love this quote because it describes what we, as artists do.

Ordinary water lilies on a pond? Claude Monet helped us to see them like we never saw them before. A breathtaking view of water, reflections and lilies.
The familiar became new.

Van Gogh’s ‘A Starry Night’?  We find ourselves taking a second look at our own starry night and really seeing it—perhaps for the first time.

And those intimate moments of mothers and children captured by Mary Cassatt? We know these women and children, even though we have never met them.
The new became familiar.

It IS what we do as artists.
We make the new feel familiar to the viewer.
And conversely, we paint something familiar and make it feel new again (hello, Georgia O’Keefe!).

The endless beauty of creating is long and fascinating. Enough to hold our interest for a lifetime and more.
We are all creative, no matter our line of work or endeavors in life. We bring renewed interest to things that have been forgotten. We take the known and create something new.

It is priceless.

Jar of Sunshine,  9 x 12 Oil