3rd Annual holiday card

The first winter after I started painting I decided to send a holiday card. The first was sort of a Madonna look, mother and child with a Rumi quote. The second was an ornament with another Rumi poem.

Here is the latest, a king with hope for the future in these dark days. For those who won't get one (let me know if you want it), here is the quote inside from Václav Havel:

Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more propitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper the hope is.

Havel finished his discussion of hope with the following:

Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

The New King. Oil pastels on paper. 12 x 9