The future ain’t what it used to be.
–Yogi Berra
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I like winter and winter weather.
Maybe that’s part of the contrarian streak in me. I don’t know. But even I am kind of surprised at the way this year’s winter has bared its fangs for much of the eastern part of the country and find myself looking forward to warmer weather. You know, temperatures in the high 20’s and 30’s.
This new piece is part of the series of paintings that I have been working on lately that feature snow as part of the composition.  This piece, which I call Brighter Days Ahead, is on paper and measures 14″ by 24″. There’s a lot of bands of texture swirling through this piece and a lot of embedded layers of color throughout. Here in the studio where you can take in the depth of its texture and the contrast between the dark linework and the color, this piece has quite a striking appearance. I am not sure my photography can fully capture the effect.
There is a real feeling of optimism and warmth in this painting, which gave rise to the title. The colors of the sky and the sun rising in the center represents a warmer and gentler future, which  is obviously optimistic. The future should be optimistic. Anything less means that we have caved in to our fears, seeing only the worst scenarios,  and lost faith in our ability to persevere.
I sometime fall into that trap and follow the lead of my fears. But history tells us that there are always two futures– those that we imagine and those that we make– and that the two most often are not the same. Throughout history, we have always seen the worst in the future. Doom and gloom, the end of days descending on us. But somehow we always make it past that imagined future and beginning forming the next future to dread.  And it will come and not meet up with our fears. Oh, it will not be everything we hope because things, by nature, change and we always resist change.
The future is a foreign land to us and we will never be quite comfortable there. It might not be perfect but perhaps it won’t be so bad. Just a bit different. And if we remember that, we might even see the sun that will assuredly still be shining above. And begin imaging a new future.
Redtree Times 
Thank you for the reminder.
Thanks, Claire. Hope all is well on your end.
On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 9:25 AM, Redtree Times wrote:
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I’m afraid I can’t help but think that anyone who thinks things are getting (or are going to get) better isn’t paying attention.
My point is that at almost every juncture in history, going back to the ancients, there have been people with prophecies of imminent doom for the species yet we continue to exist. How we view this existence or the existence of future generations is all a matter of perspective. With apologies to Dickens, every period of time has been the worst and best of times and the future will be the same. For myself, I have to believe that there is hope for the future in some form. I would rather live with that view that you might call naïve than with the bitter belief that there is only darkness ahead. It seems to me that those who only expect and look for the worst in things are often rewarded with just those things.
On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 12:24 PM, Redtree Times wrote:
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The gap between “what if?” and “what is” can be considerable. As for “what will be” – I’m not as sanguine about things as I used to be. But I also recognize that there are plenty of people who profit from keeping everyone stirred up with their predictions of imminent and unreasonable doom, and I do my best to ignore them. I figure there are enough real problems to deal with as it is.
I do love these snow paintings. Even though they differ from each other, there’s something compelling about them all. Maybe it’s the optimism showing through – the anticipation of spring.