On a Mission

Purpose Part 2

“To live a life of excellence as a force for good; always striving to use my artistic talents to create beauty in all that I do; bringing love, peace, joy, hope, healing, happiness and enrichment to all who encounter my art.”

The statement above is my personal mission statement; the product of many hours of deep introspection. Knowing your life’s purpose and having a personal mission statement is all well and good, but it’s meaningless if you aren’t actually living out that purpose.

It’s not difficult to imagine how a life lived in alignment with my personal mission statement would look outside of the prison fences. It’s playing the violin in a symphony, in chamber groups, in the pit orchestras of operas and musicals, at church even. It looks like singing in choirs, musical and church. It’s doing graphic design and editing. It’s continuing to paint, even doing more murals. It’s continuing to write.

Perhaps it is more challenging to see and find purpose fulfilling activities inside. But the land here is surprisingly fruitful. Over the last dozen years, I have been fortunate enough to have many purpose affirming experiences and opportunities.

I am lucky enough to have regular practice time for violin, voice, piano and even guitar. I’ve had opportunities to share music through performances at graduations, a Prison Fellowship Hope event, veterans events and Kairos church events.

For a season, I pushed the boundaries of my painting and drawing talents. When someone would ask for a custom project, I’d often reply, “Well, I’ve never done that before, but I’ll try.” The result was innumerable painted coffee cups, handkerchiefs, socks, tee-shirts, shorts, boxers and even a few tattoo designs. I painted on anything that paint would stick to, within reason of course. Most of the items were intended as gifts for friends and loved ones. Hearing how much the recipient loved their finished product always made the time worth it. (For the record, I no longer have an ‘art shop’ so to speak. Not only do I no longer have the time for it, I just don’t feel right about breaking the rules by creating contraband in DOC’s eyes, no matter how beautiful).

During my time with Prison Fellowship, both as a participant and a mentor, I was able to create many pieces of art for our living areas and to enhance the learning spaces.

Each year as graduation season rolls around, I look forward to the task of designing and laying out that year’s graduation program. Some years I even get lucky enough to use my abilities for facilities outside of my own.

Additionally, I had the privilege of providing over thirty individual pieces of art intended to decorate the ‘Mothering Inside Unit’ at Virginia Correctional Center for Women. Perhaps the second most incredible and humbling opportunity came through the nearly two years and over 300 hours of painting a whole room ‘under the sea’ mural in the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women’s visitation room. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the opportunity. Every time someone sees it for the first time, or tell s me how much it made them or their kids smile, it reaffirms my purpose. While I was working on it, I would have told you that the mural was the most impactful thing I would do with my time. Not so anymore.

I am beyond grateful, for each and every one of these opportunities, but perhaps the most purpose affirming event to date was the TEDx event at Fluvanna, sponsored by Proximity for Justice. I had the privilege to be included in a group of 44 presenters that day. I gave a talk called “Beats of my Soul” and then played the piece of music I described in my talk with the help of my incredibly talented friend and accompanist, Lisa B.

The feeling of being under the bright stage lights to speak and play felt as natural and right as breathing. As if that wasn’t enough, I was lucky enough to have my artwork chosen for the event program cover, the stage backdrop and had a number of pieces of other artwork featured in the event art gallery.

Artwork for the music I played

Brochure for the event

Backdrop for the event

When the event ended I left feeling lighter than air; thinking and feeling that this is what I’m meant to do with the rest of my life. It filled me with so much hope for the future and the life I can and will live on the outside. This is what it feels like to fully live and walk in alignment with my purpose, what I was created for. This is ikigai.