I love artists of all kinds that leave me feeling connected to the world, even and perhaps especially, if

they depict a world far from my imagination and experience. Is there anything better than the film A

River Runs Through It with that rolling river and the words “ I am haunted by waters.” Musicians like

Bob Dylan and Van Morrison, and anything written by Maya Angelou nudge my imagination.  The surprising

colors and shapes of Gauguin and Van Gogh remind me that feeling is a way of seeing.  Grandma Moses

and Birger Sandzen take the ordinary and make it glow. I am lucky that in my family there has always

been an easel in the corner and pots of brushes on the bookshelves. The people who I sat down with to

turkey dinners also kept my walls covered in original art and taught me to see the world through a

painter’s eye.