"Wild Child Never Ages" Abstract Face Multi-Media Original Artwork

When we look at each other, we see the outside - clothes laying on skin. Maybe smiles and eyes give away some of what's going on inside, but largely everything past the skin is a mystery to us. 

I paint portraits of people's insides, the qualities that radiate from those mysterious depths.

This woman is loud, animated, funny.  Her acquaintances say she's "energetic" and "outgoing", polite words they use to mean "wild" and "kind of scary".  

She has a certain sparkle about her that makes a happy person laugh, and a frightened person resentful.  Always on the go, dancing more than dusting, she knows life is so short, and she's not going to waste a moment of it living up to the expectations of furniture polish commercials and snooty uninvited guests. 

Almost never alone, she gets her energy in crowds, remembering everyone's energy and story more than their name, and making connections between people who she just knows in her gut should meet each other.

Whether at a party or a funeral or a fund-raiser or an art opening, she always sees someone she knows, always has a friend in tow, and is always up to something fun and interesting. She absolutely insists on enjoying herself and sees the best in everyone around her.

She has two lifelong lessons. One is to remember to do all the basics of self-care :: eat sensibly, drink water, sleep.  The second is to have at least one or two friends who know the deep parts of her too, so someone knows she gets sad, feels lonely, and gets angry now and then. Life can't all be lived on the surface - someone has to see our deep down parts, or we're not really seen at all. 

While this painting shows her colorful and funky and creative "insides", this person's outsides - their skin suit - may actually look very different. Might be any gender, any age - very old or young, might look conventionally "beautiful" or average or even unappealing to you. They may be wounded or have a disability of any kind. They could be your neighbor, your sister, the "weird" aunt you make fun of.  Could be you.

One of the great human skills, I think, is for us to learn not to let the skin suit and outward appearance keep us from seeing a person's inside capacities.

Who in your life is this person?

"Wild Child Never Ages", abstract multi-media artwork © Lisa Johnson Arts
Original artwork ~ 9" x 12"