Finding the Joie in the Vivre

We Make the Rules and We Can Break Them

Woot, Margot Potter for Margot Potter Studios 2024 COPYRIGHT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (Sold)

Hello, Friend,

Another day, another animal in a party hat.

Woot.

That’s the name of the painting, BTW.

Sheep have a very non-plussed attitude. As lambs they’re full of life, skippity and hoppity and gleeful. They lose that joie de vivre in adulthood. The sound they make sounds much more like ‘meh’ than ‘bah’, as I’ve opined in the past. Meh. Most humans are like this, too. Vivre can really kick the joie out of you.

I try to find the joie in the vivre, even with the current chaotic evil we’re all navigating.

Some days are better than others.

Lately I’ve been feeling a lot more ‘meh’ than ‘woot!’ I don’t think I’m alone in this sentiment. Making art helps.

The thing about painting animals is…it’s fun. They’re fun. They all have little personalities that emerge as I paint. They have stories to tell that I try to convey. I get lost in the making of these and it’s good because it helps calm my restless brain, soothe my anxiety, and elevate my mood. I honestly can’t tell you how I paint them because I never took any real art classes. I’m just stumbling around trying to figure things out like shadow and dimension and perspective. Color, however, is my jam. I am not afraid of color or to color outside of the lines.

If you look at a garden, you’ll see that all the colors on the spectrum can live together in perfect harmony.

This is true in art and in life.

Our limitations are mostly self-imposed. We tell ourselves that the rules we’ve created are absolute, because it makes life easier. That’s just the way it is. We can’t do that. Don’t rock the boat. We do need some rules, because without them things can get out of control, but we also need to remain flexible and remember that everything is evolving, including us. We’re all just making this shit up every day, including the people with power and reach. They’re just free-balling it most of the time.

If we remember that we’re all just making this shit up every day, we understand that we have the power to change our story and also work together to change the bigger picture story. We have to be willing to color outside of the lines. We have to be willing to defy the rules. We create our own limitations. We can start over, make new rules, and in doing so, perhaps, we can find a way for all the colors on the spectrum to live together in perfect harmony.

That’s how we put the joie in the vivre!

Woot.

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