( 5/03/2011). Don't Read Yourself Into This. Few and Far Between.

The emotions are as follows.( 5/03/2011) I am here in Spokane Washington in the process of painting a mural for a famous homeless shelter. I say famous, because it has served over 5,000,000 meals to the homeless and has been around for over 60 years. Yesterday was my first day of work on the mural. Its size is 4 feet high and 16 feet long. The theme that we all decided on yesterday is “ Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the Law of Christ.” In truth I believe this will also be a time for me to consider my actions in my life in bearing another's burden. 

I talk myself into assuming friendships for my personal comfort. But since I have arrived at this state by self pity, my creativity is dried up for true inspiration in engaging a friend. Friendships can be selfish, but that is after both friends have agreed upon suitable selfish boundary's that the other one can express to them. When we go out starving for friendship I can only assume that we eat anything that appeals half decently to us.

The man's name was Gal. He had a gray beard to be envious of. He was the Lead Carpenter at the Union Gospel Mission in Spokane, Washington. I spent three and half days at the mission this last week painting a mural for them. On the first day I meet Gal he was with two other men from his team. We all were talking shop, since I was to paint a mural on boards spanning a height and width of 4feet by 16feet. The image was to mounted on the wall. The crew of contractors were debating the process of mounting the boards. It was on that first day that I heard Gal drop a few key references in regards to art work. I told my friend's “ Gal is Arty.” Sure enough on the last day of my paint, Gal came back around by himself to talk to me. Is was not long before I was in a wonderfully rich conversation about art work, the hopes, the dreams, the failures and the pursuits. Gal is a wonderful print maker, who has allowed himself to get busy with life and has not found the excitement to do artwork as of recent. The last few words that we exchanged with one another were, “ Thank you for talking artwork with me.” We both expressed that conversations as such were few and far between.