I started this early in 2020, back before things became 2020’s new version of intense, and then paused. Inexplicably, I couldn’t understand the piece anymore, and therefore couldn’t work on it. I felt like the piece had a life of its own and abandoned me.
I knew I had at one point wanted to create an image that represented the communication between the brain and the heart, and my fascination with the electrical current that runs through the brain. But while my own brain short circuited under the pressures of 2020, that connection went dead, and so did my ability to create an image of it. It sat in my garage, untouched, for over 6 months.

At the end of 2020, I started being drawn back to it, and in December, I finally added the electrical current connecting the brain and the heart. It kinda (totally) felt more than just symbolic that I could work on this piece again. I was thinking straight again.

I’m not going to remember 2020 as the sh*t-storm that it felt like it was for most of the year. I’m going to remember it as the year we gained another grandkid, I became a runner again, and Eric’s mom survived heart surgery. I’m going to remember it as the year we beat a tyrant, protested the heck out of systemic racism (and made some massive progress) (but we aren’t done), and the country learned to cook sourdough (I didn’t). It’s the year I made a ton of friends, ran a half marathon (and got my first black eye in the process), camped a bunch, and proved that love multiplies faster than hate when dealing with the small but strong contingent of racists in Petaluma (and the hundreds who have stood up against them). And, it’s the year I patched up the connection between my brain and my heart. Not all bad.

If I were to do it again, I would add a stomach, and some lungs too. Our breath and our gut, connected to our brain and our heart… and then I’d figure out something to represent our spiritual selves too. But meh, that’s enough deep thoughts for now.