Chapter 2: Lost in Art, from The Painter Who Lived Inside the Painting / Not Art Theory by Everybody the Artist
The following day, the painter set forth from their cottage back down the path in search of their painting, but upon returning to the very spot where they had laid their final stroke, it seemed the picture of everything was nowhere to be found. They began to search high and low, day after day, through towering mountains, endless forests, over boundless deep seas, and whispering desert sands. Every landscape reminded them of their work, yet the canvas they sought remained as elusive as the stars at noon.
Every day, resigned, the painter would return to their little cottage at the edge of the woods. There, surrounded by the trappings of a painter who no longer felt the passion for painting, doubt began to gnaw at the painter's heart. had their masterpiece been merely a dream? Weariness crept into their bones as the days turned into months, and months stretched into years, UNTIL over time the memory of the painting slowly faded from the painter's thoughts.
Then, one morning, stirred by a flush of light from the rising sun dancing upon their face, the painter arose and looked towards the window facing the meadow outside. their eyes opened wide! In that moment, seeing the world through that window frame glowing with dawn's golden light, they finally saw what they had been searching for all those years.
Laughter, pure with understanding, filled the cottage. There, before them, was their picture of everything. It was never lost, but all around. The very world they had been living in was their canvas all along. In their neverending search, they had been unable to recognize their artwork because they had become a part of it. Their art had become their life.
the painter now knew that true Art was not a thing to behold, but something to be lived in, breathed in,to be a part of! With a lightened heart, the painter picked up their long-neglected brush and palette, approached the window, and began to paint the grass with a vibrant red, and the cows in the meadow a whimsical blue, smiling, for they knew they were not merely changing the colors on a canvas; they were changing the Colors of their life itself!
