July 2023 – Stephanie Richey Art

Paradigm shifts

Does absolute truth exist? Why are there so many different perspectives?

Stop sign, with signs underneath indicating you can't go straight, turn or go any other direction.

I’m back at learning about paradigms again, along with marketing and the newest one, life coaching. Not sure if any of that will lead anywhere for anyone but me, but I have been enjoying the learning process anyway. Today I thought I would share some things I find interesting about perceptions.

This world we live in has one single reality. Truth exists and is not in flux like a lot of people would have us think it is, but, short of Jesus Christ, whom I think perceived reality completely, the rest of us perceive things based upon our own experiences and we each skew reality a little bit, or sometimes a lot.

Six or nine. Just because you are right does not mean I am wrong. You just haven't seen life from my side.

Our road map, or the experiences we have had throughout our lives shape us into who we are today and how we view our world. But we each have had different experiences in life, even when we go through the exact same things as someone else. I have 4 children, and each one has a very unique personality. Disciplining was done on a child by child basis because each one responded differently to the exact same discipline.

It’s funny sometimes to hear my kids telling stories about growing up. The things they remember sometimes I have no recollection of, even though I was one of the key players in the story. Often, because it didn’t have an impact on my life like it did on theirs. Age differences and maturity levels also have played a factor in how my kids remember the exact same experience so differently.

If we all see things so differently, then how can we ever get anything done? That’s kind of the direction my learning is going recently, and it is through a shift in paradigm. Just like the number above, if we’re willing, we can walk around the number and see it from the other person’s perspective. This takes a willingness to admit that even though we were right from our perspective, that doesn’t necessarily make the other person wrong.

So if both people are right, then isn’t truth relative? No. The truth in that picture is that there is a number on the floor that can be viewed from different points in the room. The truth is that it was written intentionally to look like either a 6 or 9 depending on the persons position in the room. That truth exists regardless of how we view it.

I am learning that as we set goals, the reason people usually fail at their goals is a basic problem with their paradigm, either of themselves or the situation they are in. I am excited that I have new things to learn about, some old things to revisit, and opportunity to improve myself and maybe help others along the way. I’ll keep you updated on my journey along the way.

A Typical Day

Routines are great, and I love my morning routine, but I also love my afternoons for spontaneous activities.

Good days give happiness. Bad days give experience. Worst days give lessons. The best days give memories.

I don’t think I’m a very busy person. I feel like I spend most of my time at home in a pretty set routine, which is where I’d like to be spending my time for the most part anyway. I enjoy the quiet in the location I live in, as well as the beauty that surrounds me here.

But, I have people want to come drop stuff off or pick stuff up at my house, or want to come and visit, and that’s when I realize I’m not always home as often as I think I am. I got to thinking about a typical day for me, and it really truly depends on the time of year, the kids, my husband’s job, so many different variables.

Summertime we are here quite often, but not during the middle of the day, and when I am home, if the weather is nice, I am not inside, but out in my garden, or wandering the woods with the dog. Winter I am home and inside much more as I am not a fan of the cold weather, but even then, I find myself out and about much more than I may think I want to be, but it makes the winter pass more quickly so ultimately I enjoy getting out, even in the cold.

I do have a fairly regular routine in the morning, afternoons are more spontaneous. I always read my scriptures in the morning. Most mornings I exercise, I try to get all my regular cleaning done in the morning, and I try to get as much of my mundane business stuff done in the morning so that I have the afternoons free to do fun stuff. Afternoons often involve painting, sometimes running into town, that’s when I generally do my gardening and food preservation, and on occasion, when I’m really in the mood, I will get some deep cleaning done in the afternoon that has been bugging me for a long time, like cleaning out large areas or rooms, or washing windows or something along those lines.

Today I had the opportunity to be home until midafternoon and it was very nice. I was able to get my morning routine done and have my kids help me with weeding in the garden. Later in the afternoon my husband asked if I could drive his truck up to his new jobsite while he drove his work van and had his forklift hauled up by a friend with a big truck and trailer. He needed a ride home. Spontaneous afternoon adventure. I said I would be willing to do that. He then had the kids drive vehicles out to the end of the driveway and I met him out there a few minutes later. I didn’t realize I was going to be towing a trailer behind the truck. Although I’ve done it many times, there’s always this little fear that creeps in initially.

We headed out in a train of work vehicles after the forklift was loaded on the trailer and drove north about 18 miles and then about 6 miles down a side road to the job site. Everything worked great, the trailer always tows well. My anxiety soon subsided. It was a beautiful day, and a beautiful location we arrived at (I hadn’t been to this job site yet). I ended my drive with more confidence in my ability to tow things, although it’ll be enough time in between that I’m sure the anxiety will kick in again next time I have the opportunity.

I love having routine. I am grateful that my mornings have a routine that is almost never interrupted. But I also love having the ability to be spontaneous, like this afternoon. It makes life interesting and enjoyable, and many memories are made, especially when that spontaneity leads to hard things, but getting it done usually ends with more confidence more confident in the end. It was also nice to ride home and visit with my husband, even if it was just for 25 minutes.

What Do I Put My Faith In?

Do you hang on to bad situations simply because it’s your comfort zone?

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a many could stake his life on it a thousand times.

My mom recently told me of a comment someone had made, that really got me thinking. I cannot remember the exact quote, but it went something like, “you sure put a lot of confidence in your shortcomings.” It got me to thinking about where my faith is, not based upon what I say, but based upon how I react to different situations, do I have my faith firmly planted in God, or do I prefer to stay rooted in my comfort zone?

Faith in God is not intended to be comfortable necessarily. I think we sometimes have the misconception that if we trust in God, everything in our lives will be peachy all the time. And if something bad happens, then we didn’t have enough faith. That’s not true. The rain rains on everyone, regardless of how much faith we have.

Confidence in God provides us with extra support when things get hard, because they always do in life. We can end up more compassionate because of the experiences we have had or more hardened. Watching my kids play sports, and watching all the kids that play with them, I have gained a new appreciation for coachable youth. I have also learned that a coachable youth usually turns into a coachable adult. When we become coachable we start to put our trust and confidence in something besides our shortcomings and realize that maybe we don’t know everything.

This comment has made me analyze the different situations I have been in recently. Some of them I have sailed through, confident that the Lord was there helping me all along the way. Sometimes I have struggles. I am sad to say, in some instances my hard experiences have not always made me compassionate, but judgmental when I hear people complain about similar situations they are in. Instead of giving advice and helping them through I have judged in my heart.

I have also not been humble enough to allow others to help me in a number of situations, instead deciding to rely upon my own strengths, even excluding the Lord to some degree, and I have made it hard on myself because I didn’t listen. I wanted to stay stuck because it was more comfortable than change. I am grateful we get to learn though, and I have now gained a new perspective. Actually not new, I am coming at the problems from a different angle. I will continue to ponder on this new perspective, but it’s been good to start thinking about it recently.

Start to Finish Watercolor

Painting is a step by step process. Here’s some of the steps I take in creating a beautiful watercolor composition.

Painting is a process. But I love the process. I thought today I would share my process from start to finish of my most recent painting. This particular flower is called Blazing Star. The inspiration for this painting came from a garden and art tour that I was participating in a couple of years ago. After I was finished selling my art I walked around the garden and spied this bee flying toward these flowers. I got several pictures, this little bee behind poking out of the flower being my favorite.

Photo taken in Alaska during a garden tour.

This painting is 12 x 22 inches. The first step to any painting this large is to stretch the paper. I do this by wetting the paper under running water until it feels like thick fabric and has become fairly flexible. This is only done on 100% cotton paper (this paper is Arches 100% cotton watercolor paper). I then staple it to what’s called Gator Board. The paper then dries overnight, and the next day it’s ready to be taped down for a clean border and to protect the staples from getting wet and possibly rusting. Then I transfer my image onto the paper.

The first color laid down on the Arches Watercolor Paper.

I then begin laying down color, starting with the lightest color. Once I have a wash of the lightest color, I move on to the darkest and dark mid tones. This helps me see how much darker the lightest parts of the painting still needs to go and usually the darks have to go even darker eventually as well. I also add other colors like the leaves to give balance and compare colors along the way. Putting the first color down in a new painting is hard, I never want to mess up the expensive paper. But putting down the darkest darks is even more scary. What if I put them in the wrong place or go too dark too soon.

All the colors have been applied and most of the darks have been added.

As I go along I begin adding mid tones and texture with more specific brush strokes, and adding additional colors that I might see from the photograph. Rarely is purple just purple. Often there are reds and blues depending on how the sun is hitting that particular point in the composition. That has been a hard thing to learn, how to see color, but once you start seeing color, you realize how few subjects are just one flat color. It’s the variations that give the variety and dimension from one petal to another, or from one rock or tree truck or piece of fur to another, and so on.

The last thing I added was the background. Sometimes I do the background first, sometimes I don’t add a background. This one I hadn’t decided when I started. When I was mostly done with the painting I decided it needed something, but I didn’t want it to be too much. I like how the background gives color, making the flower pop forward, but how it’s muted and unspecific as well.

That is my painting process in a nutshell. this painting probably took around 6 hours of actual painting time, over the course of about 10 days. The next step will be photographing the painting and then digitizing it so I can use it for note cards, paper and canvas prints, and possibly make a fabric panel out of it as well.

10 Truths

If you had to list 10 truths, what would they be? Here are mine.

The thing about truth is that it exists beyond belief. It is true even if nobody believes it. Dieter F. Uchtdorf — I love Elder Uchtdorf!

I believe there are things that are true regardless of whether or not people believe in them. So today I will share 10 truths that I have learned, some are personal belief, but most cannot be rationally disputed I don’t believe. I will share first the ones that people could dispute, but if you know, you know they’re true:

1 – I was raised by awesome parents. I am sure there are people who may disagree, I don’t know who they are, but they probably exist. My parents are not perfect, but they did their best to raise our family in truth. They taught us how to be good people. They taught us that hard work pays off, and that gaining knowledge is so important. Not that we all went to college to gain that knowledge, but wherever it was available we should seek to learn.

2 – My husband was raised by awesome parents. Again, there may be those who disagree, but if you knew them you wouldn’t. They had to be tough to homestead in Alaska, and they taught their children lessons about life that most people could never have imagined. They worked hard and they sought out opportunity to help their neighbors, no matter who they were. They were great examples to me.

3 – I love my children more than life itself. I do allow my kids the opportunity to struggle and learn. But if ever they really need something, I will be there to help or support them as best as I possibly can.

Now for the things that many might try to dispute, but I know these to be true without a shadow of a doubt:

4 – God is real. He is our Heavenly Father. We existed before we came, in a family with Him. He created this earth for us to come to, to gain a body, be tested, and hopefully return to live with Him after our time here is done.

5 – Jesus Christ is real, He taught us how to live by living, He died and was resurrected the third day, and He lives now. He came here to save us from sin and He doesn’t leave us to walk this path of life alone.

6 – Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us more than we can even fathom. They are not vindictive or jealous as they are often portrayed. They are caring and kind.

7 – Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want to be a part of our lives. They are more in the details of our lives than we could ever imagine, but when we start looking we can see their tender mercies everywhere in our lives. The heavens are open, and they lead us and guide us through the Holy Ghost as much as we will let them do so.

8 – Satan is very real. Good and evil exist in this world. Satan tries really hard to camouflage himself, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t exist. He is real. We need to be aware of him, and we need to fight against his tactics and temptations.

9 – There is only one way to true happiness. Not the fleeting happiness you get from your favorite piece of dessert or even the best day of your vacation, but true, lasting happiness and peace. That is through Jesus Christ and His teachings.

10 – Service to others is one of the best medicines for mental health and happiness. Getting too caught up in our own lives and focusing too much on ourselves can quickly cause depression and anxiety. We need to take care of ourselves, but focus outside of ourselves as well. Taking time to help others is healing for the soul.

I am so grateful for what I know to be true. What are 10 truths you know to be true?