Lately, I have been realizing that I am often more in love with the process than the finished work.

That realization first came to me while painting. I found myself drawn to the act itself — moving color across a surface, responding to what was already there, and noticing the work shift as it evolved. The process felt alive, and in some ways more compelling than the moment of completion.

It made me reflect on how unfinished work holds an energy that finished work can lose. A sense of movement. Openness. The feeling that something is still revealing itself, rather than settling too quickly into a final form.

I think that is part of what I am drawn to — not only in painting, but in photography, ideas, and in life itself. The in-between. What is still taking shape. What has not yet been pushed too quickly toward completion.

That is part of what NOLA makes room for.

Not only finished pieces, but notes, fragments, and beginnings. Things that are still forming, but already meaningful.

Perhaps part of living artistically is learning not to rush what is still waiting to emerge.