Orange Season

Orange Season
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

"There is no blue without yellow and without orange."

-Vincent Van Gogh

Street in Berlin

Street in Berlin
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"

This is my holiday gift to the mysterious stranger walking the streets of Berlin. 

(Hope he likes it!)

"It is all a matter of love.

the more you love a memory,

the stronger it is."

-Vladimir Nabokov

Rose in the Cafe

Rose in the Cafe
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"

Art is like a bright star up ahead in the darkness of the world.  It can lead peoples through the darkness.  Art is a guide for every person who is looking for something.

-Thornton Dial

As my fall classes wind to a close I have been thinking a lot about how art is a language.  We use paintings to express what we cannot say in words. There is so much that we all want to share including the sacred beauty around us. As the earth quiets with the stillness of winter may you all find the voice to express what you are longing to say. 

"The human heart is full.  Each pulse beat draws us towards new frontiers.  The life within us calls out for expression.  This is what creativity serves.  It endeavors to bring some of our hidden life to expression in order that we might come to see who we are."

-John O'Donohue

Bouquet in London Cafe

Bouquet in London Cafe
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"

When I was a teenager I went on a trip to France.  I was very, very excited about the trip.  I had studied French language and art for years beforehand to prepare.

When I arrive I had a wonderful time.  I had a host family that served me five course meals from their seafood restaurant every evening.  It was lovely but inside I felt a bit let down.  France wasn't perfect.  It wasn't Shangri-la, a mythically divine place.

One day toward the end of the trip I was walking along the streets of Paris with my friends just below Montmartre.  I looked up and hanging from a window was a large banner in English which read:

"Bloom where you are planted."

Often happiness feels like it is just out of reach.  It is as if we are climbing a mountain trying to reach the summit of bliss but the mountain just gets taller.  It feels as though Shangri-la is just out of our reach.  The Buddhists might say that this is because all life is suffering.  If we can accept where we are we can learn to bloom anywhere.  We can learn to create happiness by allowing our roots to sink down into the soil of wherever the wind takes us.

If you can love one person, you can love yourself.

If you can love yourself, you can love anyone.

If you can see beauty in one spot on earth, you can see it anywhere.

Thanksgiving Roses

Thanksgiving Roses
Copyright 2014 Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"

"The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest."

-William Blake