"I have spent most of my adult years erasing the layers that cover the beautiful truths of childhood." - Ashley Collins 1998

In many ways, it has become a template for her journey in paint. For the more experience we gain, the more wisdom, the less those layers of rules have meaning. We learn that a butterfly is classified as an insect. A child sees the beauty of "floating yellow." We are taught that trees can't talk; a child knows they can. We are taught the things we cannot do; a child knows life is limitless. How strange those teens' and 20s' efforts seem - hours spent trying to be recognized as an adult, not realizing that there is no such thing. I am still the same child within that I was at six years old, but the world tries its hardest to cover that child with "should do's," "ought to be's," and "the way it is's." Years of formal education that increased labels added what were called facts, and in the process, separated the joy in my heart from the world outside. In fact, they clouded my vision of the miracle that is today to such a degree that I could barely see.
It is time to take the Chisel, and take all that away.
Remove the layers of "should be."
Remove the layers of "ought to be."
Remove the layers of "the way it is."
And, like the painting, the layers are torn away. And, bit by bit, piece by removed piece, I can breathe the air like a child - the scent of grass! I can see the floating yellow!... I can talk with the trees!
I. Can. Be. Me.
It is time to take your Chisel and remember how beautiful the World around You, and the World within You, truly is.