SMALL WATERFALL WITH MULTICOLORED ZEN STONES. phogography and digital manipulation by Michael Forbus The way a man speaks and how one hears what a man says sometimes makes one cringe with shyness, misunderstanding, and sometimes the same poetic licence is understood between the two. Often the uttering of love out loud makes one retreat. Oft times one or the other has fear and takes no risk. The painting that has been worked on so diligently is an off colored smear. Thanks to the intervention of the deities a masterpiece is later painted. We as channelers of the arts only want to please. Gods first, humans second. As of late I have found some of us to be faint of heart at a risk on the canvas and we paint that which has been safe and acceptable. What I find to be true, is I lose the thread to the pool of creativity. It takes me a few more canvases to clear the palette in order to get my honor for the arts back. Interestingly enough I find the human experience to be so similar. We risk little, want for deeper and sincere love as if the perfect finished image on cloth. But we are quick to retreat, as if the last canvas was but convoluted smears of color. The last canvas being, the last time one let out all the stops, trusted the wings of Icarus, knowing the congruent behavior of the other was to be more then adequate to paint, love, serve the other a masterpiece of elegant love. Love that one can count on. Love made of stone. Made of water. I wager that painting and the intensity one feels when love is so encompassing is similar. Today I felt that this is why one loves painting as much as one loves another. Author Michael Forbus