Life is Good

Photography by Luke Miller

Life is good. Anybody in Central Florida, stop by Aly’s Gallery in New Smyrna Beach at 7 p.m. for Cal Koomer’s one-man show.

Aly 

Life With The Color Drained Out

Photography by Luke Miller

I woke up this morning, and all the color had drained out of my life. Do I have a future of beige and cream and white? If color seeps back, will it ever be as brilliant as I remember?

Aly 

The Painting of My Life

Photography by Luke Miller

The painting of my life is never going to hang in the Miami Art Museum. Irreversible errors were made early on. Not that I am valueless. I’ll cheer the Sarasota city hall or the Volusia Mall or someone’s living room. My life is what it is.

Aly 

Do Flaws Really Add Depth, Luminescence to Art?

Photography by Luke Miller

Flaws add depth, luminescence, beauty to a masterpiece. Call me self-absorbed, but my mistakes only trash me. I’m the Coors can, crumpled and kicked to the side of the road.

Aly 

The Purpose of Transcendent Art

Photography by Matthew Adamson

Sometimes art sends you a different message than life does. What to believe? The beauty that exudes from a work and makes your heart hope? Or the bleakness of your personal reality? Perhaps the purpose of transcendent art is to foster hope where there is none.

Aly 

Good News Couched in Pain

The best news in the world can come at the perfect time and at the worst time. Sadness weaves through the joy, making it somehow richer, weightier. I wish you good news, even if it’s couched in pain.

Photography by Matthew Adamson

Aly

The Last Stroke

Like a kid tagged in freeze tag, my arm halts in mid-air. The work cries for that one last brushstroke. But I can’t do it. Not yet. I don’t know when I’ll be ready. I don’t care how long I have to walk around the easel, stubbing my toes on it. The last stroke could be the one that makes it a masterpiece or a tragedy.

Photography by Matthew Adamson

Aly 

What's The Focal Point of Your Art/Life?

photography by Matthew Adamson

Like a life, every good piece of art has a focal point. When I started The Art of My Life six years ago, I thought my focal point was my blog—for about a month. Then, whatever relationship I was in, my career. Finally, I found my focal point in the Divine. What’s yours?

Aly 

Before Its Time

photography by Matthew Adamson

Have you ever had a painting or relationship that was snatched away before its time? What do you do with the agony left in its wake? I don’t want to waste my suffering. Or worse, distill it down to bitterness.

Aly