in the garden of the next best thing

€236,95 collect Save

“in the garden of the next best thing” 25 x 20 oil on framed glass.

Creating this painting was fun, soothing, meditative, and relaxing. It was also very time consuming, intricate, and required a lot of patience getting the colors to fade the way I intended them too. It took over a week to complete. Halfway through this painting I had the intense urge to create something else. I paused and worked on another painting. Returning back to it, it felt exciting all over again but there was a little part of me that wanted to try out that new technique I’ve had my eyes on. I let that flow by, jamming to music, drawing my unsettled mind back to the present moment. The present moment was fun, light, and pleasant. Why do I always feel the need to rush to the next best thing? As much as I’m enjoying whatever moment I’m in, there’s still this ticking thought in the back of my mind planning the future. Excited to see what’s up ahead. Flip side, anxious to see what’s next. I’m either constantly reliving the past or worrying/fantasying about the future. It’s exhausting, and doesn’t show gratitude to the present moment. There’s so many memories I look back on that quickly I envision what i was doing that day, or the humans i shared it with. But i don’t stop to think about what I was probably thinking about in those moments. I know I was somewhere else. Right now I’m looking back on what used to be while in these new moments, while thinking about what I must have been thinking about back then is a mind f*** in itself. While diving into these thoughts I now have lost a lot of my day instead of having an empty mind to fill with new experiences.

My goal is to keep practicing mindfulness techniques to call my brain home, back to my body and the present moment. Seeing how much I do this and how much time it takes out of my day has been enlightening and devastating. How many beautiful moments I’ve missed day dreaming about what’s next. How many moments could of been happy if I wasn’t hijacked by the thoughts of “what if” and “when it happens”.

Reprogramming my brain has mainly been trying to keep track of my anxious thoughts and replacing them with new ones. This painting also reaffirmed that I must keep practicing mindful consciousness and show gratitude to even the most mundane moments. I am tired of looking back on my life and loosing time to my own thoughts. I hope you allow “In the garden of the next best thing” to be your reminder to show gratitude to the present moment by fully appreciating what you have right NOW and not what’s next to come.

inquire below to request a custom painting using this original piece as inspiration.