Painting, Vegetables, and Climate Change

It's winter, and warm outside. I swear it's Global Warming. A glance to the mirror and I'm out the door, across the street to the grocery store to buy some vegetables because I feel better when I eat them.



I have spent much of the day painting another depiction of a human head; this one is a bit more abstract. I paint because something inside me tells me to. It's the same reason I will greet those I pass in the street and the same reason I travel whenever possible. All this to say that I have no idea why I paint. I have no idea why it seems like a good idea to collect canvases and then one day make the time to jump into a new painting that will very likely resemble the ones I have painted before.

Today I am buying a cucumber and some broccoli, maybe some squash. In my mind, I imagine the color green washing my insides and strengthening my molecules. I feel deeply whole.

I walk into the store and find the produce section. I inhale deeply. I think for a moment about farmers then the mist starts and I am awakened. I sort through the piles of vegetables and look for produce without scars, but I know scars don't affect the flavor. I pay in cash and ask for paper. As automatic doors slide shut behind me, I say hello to a man out front with a clipboard who, in response, asks if I'm a registered voter. I say yes, but decline to sign his petitions. I don't feel like it today.

The air is growing colder, but I enjoy the short walk home and plod noisily up the steel stairs to my apartment. The door closes behind me and I hang my keys with a jingle. I find my painting where I left it next to my brushes, so I squint and stare then cock my head and squint and stare again. It looks the same. Perhaps I will paint over this one, I think to myself, or perhaps I will sit down to it and add the perfect stroke and want to show everybody.

Looking out the window, I notice the blue sky being replaced with white and gray, so I put on a sweatshirt and start a pot of tea to seal the deal. Maybe Global Warming will kick in next year, my mind says, which starts me laughing.