https://www.nikihilsabeck.com/art/it-is-well/
Sometimes I start a painting, and then life gets in the way.
This painting began with a photo I took at Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco almost 15 years ago. I loved the peacefulness of the garden there, even in the midst of a bustling city.
A few years later, I started a painting of that photo, wanting to use the same colors I had used in a few previous acrylic paintings. I thought I would paint it and send it to my grandma, who was in her nineties and still making paintings for us. She was much better at finishing her paintings than I am, and she raised four boys. I think she’d be pleased to know I finally finished this one.
I got fairly far into the painting after starting it, but never seemed to find the time to finish it. In the meantime, there were children to raise, pets to care for, festivals to participate in and classes to teach, and of course a disruptive few years thanks to the Covid phase. Throughout that time, I took the painting out off and on and reworked it. If I got tired of looking at it, I put it away for a while. When a young visitor exclaimed over it after seeing it on my easel, I knew I needed to follow through and finish it sooner rather than later. And even then it took me a couple more years of reworking the details.
In the course of those sometimes tumultuous years I’ve learned to put my trust in God. The peace I first felt after being baptized has only deepened with each challenge. It doesn’t mean everything turns out the way I want it to– sometimes it’s quite the opposite. But in the end, the blessings always shine through. I’ve learned to accept the outcome with the knowledge that I don’t expect or need to be in charge, and there is great peace in that knowledge.
It was strange to know that this painting was finished, and yet it was peaceful. It took many hours of painting and personal growth to complete it, but now that it’s done, I look forward to the next one. It was a bit like a years-long puzzle that needed time, diligence, and growth– much like us as we travel through the phases of our lives. May the Lord be with you as you travel through yours.