A HANDSOME GUY I KNOW Painting

Artist Statement: Art blesses all our lives. It can open hearts, minds, hands, and give us courage to express our deepest secret selves. It comes to us in the guise of books and music and games and toys and nature and family and everything we encounter when we are young. Some of us are lucky enough to study and persevere and make our lives reflect our art, our hearts. But even those reflections can be misunderstood, misinterpreted. Art is a process and the product of the process. It can happen outside the strict lines drawn by our lives and the institutions we support. The artist voice inside each of us is the one that says "yes" that understands that change is inherent in humanity, that sees the other and feels a oneness. Art is an urge and a calling and it cannot be stopped. If we allow it, it can shock us out of complacency, throw our own dirt back in our faces, wake us up, make us better. Art is not a luxury. It is the next thing sought by humans after our basic needs are met. Look at the first art we know. It is inseparable from who we are, who we aspire to be. It is the means by which we express ourselves to the world. The concepts of art and love have much in common. Both can degenerate into immature sentimentality if they are not recognized and nourished as bulwarks of a society. Both demand responsibility, to self, to loved ones to enemies, to the universe. Sara Morsey is a professional regional theatre actor in the USA. She is also an Outsider Artist and narrates audiobooks from her home studio. Sara has been making art her entire life. Her visual art has homes all over the United States and in England, Bulgaria, Germany, New Zealand and Canada. She is also a mail artist and a member of the International Union of Mail Artists