A letter from the Editor

Dear Friends:
The botanical art certificate program launched this past fall at the Ringling School of Art and Design, School of Continuing Studies and Special Programs completed its first ten weeks with evidence of good promise. Unsuspecting students with very wide eyes took in much and produced very exciting results. They came to learn about art…they came to paint like the painters of the famed Vélins de Roi…they came to learn how to paint flowers from their gardens…they came to experience something new.

Although the experience may have been new, the task is an old one. None of us are unfamiliar with resurrecting within ourselves the strength, the courage, and the resolve to move our consciousness forward. We may find many ways to accomplish this one goal, but in the end we seem to face the same old song. If we want anything, it takes the presence of mind and soul to accomplish it.

Equal talent is never the issue. Equal effort is. As Thomas Edison once said, “It takes 10% inspiration, and 90% perspiration to achieve anything.” And so as I watched these students move from the unknown to the known, from the misshapen to the shape, I witnessed glowing hearts shine through those very wide eyes. Their well of resource had been tapped. Each discovered something in themselves that was not there when they began -- each one perfect within themselves.

This experience of art is truly a connection to the surreal. When we place ourselves within the zone of our imagination and hope, we touch upon something that is so magical, so dear, so heavenly. We open ourselves up to all that there is, all which came before. We paint with the masters and connect with the light of our growing understanding. We “observe the wonders as they occur around [us]. [We] don’t claim them. [We] feel the artistry moving through and [are] silent [in our awe].

May your new year be wondrous and joyful.
God bless. OM

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY
OF BOTANICAL ARTISTS (ASBA)
Calling for artists and art students
to join its now forming
Sarasota Florida Chapter.

Olivia Marie Braida Chiusano: gojolly@comcast.net

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