Why Oh Why I Love the Sky!

As I look over the camera roll on my phone, I see that I take LOTS of pictures of the sky. I do the same thing when I am traveling. Oftentimes, these images show up in my art, but it may not be so obvious, as they usually become an abstracted background pattern behind the main subject.

The sky is important to me. It is steady and constant.

It brings us together as we all gaze up and share the same view.

 

 

I'd even give complete credit to the sky for saving my life.

Literally.

Here's the story:

One fine afternoon several years ago, I set out in my car to run some afternoon work errands. I was heading out to the bank, the post office and FedEx. But I never got there.

Instead all my plans were tossed in the air in a single moment, and instead I found myself in an ambulance heading to the hospital for emergency surgery.

 

 

You know how when you've driven the same route so many times, that you can do it on autopilot? Or that you can feel so comfortable with the road that you pay more attention to fiddling with the music or hunting the chap-stick out of the center console? Well this was that day.

I was driving and noticed out of the corner of my eye that a big rig truck was approaching the upcoming intersection. I distinctly remember thinking that it was coming too fast to be readying itself to stop at the stop sign. And sure enough, I was right. The truck came into the roadway, right in front of me. And I was waaaaay too close.

I hit the brakes -- practically stood on the brakes. I waited. And I watched. I watched the perfect blue Texas sky become replaced in my view with the dusty white side panel of the truck as I collided head-on and then got dragged with the forward motion of the truck. Like I said before, this was several years ago, and even now it's hard to write this to tell you.