Author: Kim Blenkhorn

Where Beauty Begins

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As much as we romanticize—and want to believe—that beauty comes solely from light, we are mistaken when we cling to such shallow ideas. In both the art world and my personal life, it is darkness that gives beauty its depth, its mystery, and ultimately allows light to reach its fullest potential.

Is this blasphemy? I don’t believe so. I have no intention of denying the power, purity, or exquisite nature of light. Rather, I seek to suggest something deeper: beauty requires balance. Light and dark are not enemies. And more often than not, beauty begins in darkness.

This truth is not only artistic—it is sacred. In the beginning, the earth was formless and full of darkness, and God brought forth the light. He did not erase the darkness; He infused it with light. He preserved what was necessary for the world to exist in fullness. Darkness was not a flaw to be corrected, but a foundation to be transformed. 

The same is true in art.

Darkness gives form to light. Shadow creates dimension. Contrast reveals truth. Without darkness, light has nothing to speak against—and nothing to illuminate.

Artist Tip: When painting, begin with your darkest colors and shapes. Let them establish the structure and emotional weight of the piece. From there, introduce light intentionally. This approach creates richer depth, stronger dimension, and a more honest visual story. Your final work will feel grounded, alive, and true.  

Sparrow Hawk

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Photo and painting by Kim Blenkhorn

Oils on Canvas

Here is a painting of a sparrow hawk that hangs around our backyard in the summer time. Every once in a while we will hear a screaming and see him carrying something in his talons to a near by limb. He is beautiful but vicious I cannot decide if I like him because he is beautiful or hate him because he preys on the innocent baby birds and chipmunks.

Ellie Wiesel

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Ellie was sent to a concentration and a death camp in Hitler’s Germany during WWII because he was Jewish. He survived ; his father did not. He tells a most important historical event through the eyes of one who lived it, who starved through it, who died inside because of it. He tells it well.

Adolf Hitler determined that all Jewish people were corrupting his idea of perfect race. Hitler was a madman. He killed 6 million Jewish men, women, and children, old and young alike and many more of various races and reasons. Many of the German people during WWII went along with him either out of fear , ignorance or hunger for power; and some helped the people whom Hitler targeted. “War is like an x-ray” I cannot remember who said it, but it is painfully true. It reveals what is inside each of us. Is there good or evil? War will tell us.

We must remember the Holocaust. We must read and learn and not forget the terrible crimes committed against the Jewish people, especially now, as painful and difficult as it is to remember that humanity could be so cruel and inhumane to other humans. If we forget; God help us all. We cannot forget the evil that lies within us. and we cannot stop asking God to remove it. In his time in the concentration camps, Ellie lost his faith and abandoned the idea of an Almighty God, his question – Where was God? I get it, I do not judge him, or critisize him. When we suffer, we ask; when we suffer we lose faith and sometimes we reject God, we blame him. I think in some ways that is why God came to us, broken and bloody and then died. He came so we could blame him and we did. We all did.

We are so weak, we are so frail and fragile.

Outside the Comfort Zone

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Kim Blenkhorn

I have to confess I am a creature of habit. I love to rely on what is safe, familiar and comfortable.  I live in my comfort zone, too often, but I do enjoy visiting new things on occasion, because its exciting. Trying something new gives me a rush of both fear and intoxicating adrenaline. the fear tries to convince me to never try anything new or different, it could be dangerous. but the adrenaline, wants me to live! I almost never regret trying new things, I usually feel proud of myself and a little smarter too. It takes courage and bravery to try something new, like last week when I drove into Boston for the first time ever in my life…alone. But I did it, I survived and I felt so incredibly inflated with pride and confidence that my world expanded a little. Now I can drive into Boston and go to Blick art supply store.

I am finding more and more that in order to discover my potential I must without question or hesitation, try new things. So I dipped my little toe in a drawing class. I am self taught and drawing lessons are something I have never ventured into. To my eventual delight the teacher, Kat, had me trying new mediums each week. I dabbled with charcoal, I always thought too messy; I tried colored pencil, I always thought to unforgiving; charcoal lifting, which i didn’t know was a thing and figures, which i assumed to difficult. What I learned is I was able to do them all very well. i needed someone on the sidelines pushing me, cheering me on, shouting from the bleachers “don’t give up, you’ve got this!” Another thing i learned is that i am a terrific artist, not just with a pencil but pretty much with anything I can create with, the creativity is in me, and i can do things that are hard and uncomfortable and things I don’t always want to do if i just dip my toe in and finish. originally when we were assigned the gorilla, did not want to draw him, i thought he was creepy and I wasn’t excited about it. In fact, I tried to get out of it. In the end when the teacher insisted, even though I wasn’t into it and i didn’t think i would succeed, the gorilla turned out to be my best drawing yet and the teacher displayed it. naturally my confidence got a boost. but those are the things that happen when you go for it!

you might not be an artist, you might never have picked up a pencil to draw in your life, and i promise i am not trying to convince you to draw. But what are you good at? Do that! Do more of it. Is it travel, singing, building things, learning, surgical procedures, exercise? The world needs you! maybe its conversation or working with children or making people laugh. There is something you enjoy doing if you are alive. You enjoy it because your good at it and we were designed for pleasure. We don’t find joy in things we fail at, we find joy in our strengths. Here is my challenge to you: in what way can you expand that skill or talent? Find a new angle for an old trick. Can you go a step further? Can you step perhaps outside your comfort zone and challenge yourself. Perhaps it’s going up ten pounds next time your weight lifting or running an extra mile, or going for that extra degree or signing up to perform in front of an audience or traveling to a new city or heck a different country.

If we do not test ourselves with new obstacle and stretch ourselves to new lengths, we will never know what we are capable of. We will never rise to our potential and then what? What happens when we refuse to try new things or meet new people or sprawl out into the world? Nothing. nothing will happen. Is that how we want to live, consumed by nothingness?

When i signed up for this drawing class, i had never had formal drawing lessons before and i was skeptical if they could teach me anything. i was proud and stuck and then i joined the class, and began to learn things, then i was humbled and moving forward. i think sometimes we have to literally get out of our own way, get over ourselves and how we might look, or how we might fail, or what will others think. and that is why humility and success often travel together, it permits us to take risks rather than white knuckling what we are already good at and refusing to let go of what has worked in the past. I have a lot to learn and i am learning it. As i improve in one area of life, it’s sort of like a rub-ix cube, i automatically grow in a totally different area of life. it makes me feel like I’m not the greatest being in the universe I’m just a regular person that is growing and learning with the rest of the human race and I’m alive!!

Change can be unsettling but it can also be beautiful and adventurous and force you out of a comfort zone that keeps you stagnant. To all my fellow artist please try something new this week, something you have never done before in regards to art, try a new medium, take a class create a website, form an art club, teach what you know to others. Do something and it will almost like, keep your heart beating. For everyone else who might be reading this – comfort zones are check points not dwelling places. Moving outside of what is familiar and safe is frightening but necessary, if you want to grow. None of us would ever have decided to be born if we knew what labor and delivery entailed. None of us could grow beyond 10 or twelve pounds had we stayed inside, thank God we were able to find a way to leave our comfort zone, forced out of the warm safe environment of our mothers womb to a world that is sometimes terrifying and sometimes exhilarating sometimes successful sometimes a bloody failure, but life is all about experiencing both! so, don’t relegate yourself to what your comfortable, safe and familiar with – try on your potential, take a risk do something that sparks your interest and see what your made of for heaven’s sake.

The Art of Letting Go

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I’m in the early stages of cleaning out my life, closets, drawers, entire rooms full of bins, pictures and dried up tubes of paint. For an old house with very little storage we sure do have a lot stored. I say, we, my husband would correct me. It’s not we, it’s me. i save everything! I’ve started with my “art studio”, which is really a spare room, which is really a storage room with a desk in the corner. I’m not sure if this is the right timing. My youngest is headed to college in four weeks and that comes with all sorts of crisis and to do lists. i don’t have time for this, but my inner something is telling me, screaming at me, it is time. in reality I need something to do and I’m so ready to throw things out, reset and unburden myself from the years and years of collected things.

I know I’m not alone. Humans seem to have a supernatural ability to collect things, hoard gather and save. lets be honest, most of us just don’t want to let go of things, people, memories, money, time…or else we don’t know how?

but it’s so natural, letting go is built into our anatomy for our good. Think of how the human body functions, it naturally lets go every single day and sometimes twice if your regular. It pushes out all the un-useful stuff and we are left healthier and happier. we get rid of all sorts of stuff with or without our approval, we cry, we cough, we vomit, we blow our nose, as women we shed our uterus lining every 30 days, we get rid of tissues and cells routinely, we even get rid of air trapped in our bellies. When we purge what we don’t need, we are free to enjoy all the more what we have. We must purge things we no longer need, things that will reak havok and disease if they remain; Cleansing is necessary for life and vigor. How can my body be so smart? My colon knows what is useful and what is freeloading and harmful in three hours and it has taken me 20 years and I’m still paralyzed with indecision about what should stay and what should go.

I don’t know why I have saved so much stuff. I don’t know why I struggle even now after 20 years of not using things why do i hold on? what is so important about that octopus Hannah made when she was 11? . My mentor said, “Kim when you begin to clean out your going to find yourself.” i hope to God she’s right. maybe i am in there somewhere hidden behind all the lost hopes and unpublished words and thoughts in my crusty journals.

I’m hoping I’ll find what is holding me back and toss it aggressively in the trash.

I’m hoping I’ll clear my mind and heart and desk and start over again.

I’m hoping that in the mess and remnants of the past I will find the reason I kept all that stuff in the first place.

and i wonder is this what my brain looks like, my hormones my inner makings, my past? What is this cleanout really about?

the blissful imagination is that i get cleaned out and have a beautiful art studio and writing lab when finished to think clearly and neatly and stay on task and become a famous artists someday. Ok maybe that’s a stretch

But even if i can just get through the cedar chest loaded with baby clothes blankets and stuffed bears that will be good and helpful. I was going through it today. I am truly ready to get rid of some stuff. Some stuff I’m happy I kept, like a tiny baseball glove that Joel wrote his name on with a backward J. A little pair of worn baby blue slippers, a tiny bathing suit and Mr Moose. i don’t need 50 onesies. i can see that now.

but when i step back and look i realize, I have covered myself with the things I haven’t known how to let go off. I have built a fortress of things. These things represent more than what meets the eye. They represent hopes, ideas, comforts, joys, victories, strengths, memories, hardships and loves. They are me all parts of me, my voice, my fears, my life. and some things i ought to keep and some i ought to toss and that is what my friend means, I’m going to find myself in the midst of all the clutter of my life. perhaps i have saved it for this very moment of organizing. Perhaps for this moment of seeing that i have been a good mom, a faithful servant, a helpful wife and a honoring daughter. i am surrounded by a slew of material items that i can finger slowly and see who i have been and more important who I want to be. I wanted to wait until i had time to really see myself in all the collected things. I didn’t want to say goodbye to soon or in haste. I needed to wait until this moment.

I keep things because no one kept my things and how i would love to thumb through some of my baby clothes or toys or books and remember and know someone cared about me.i want evidence that I was important and what was important to me was important. i wanted someone to save my childhood, but the truth is my childhood wasn’t worth saving. Not one doll, not one book not one pair of shoes. I never want to throw away my kids things, paintings, treasures, homemade cards and toys because i never want them to believe that what is or was important to them isn’t important. maybe someday there future will be more valuable and defining their their past and then they can throw these things away. but until then I want them to know they were important and the things they loved were and are important because they bear their fingerprints. They were valuable enough to remember. They were loved desperately and tenderly and they are so incredibly important.

so maybe its really all about them. I don’t need this stuff and they say they don’t need it or want it and deep down i know even if i get rid of it life will go on and they can still be successful and happy one day. But no really It’s not about letting go of their baby clothes and their middle school art projects, it’s about letting them go. It’s about letting them fly and letting myself move on. Maybe that is why my inner voice is telling me to let go now, clean out now, because my baby who isn’t really a baby is going in four weeks weather or not I’m ready. and I need to be ready. I need to let go.

My older sister has an entire bookshelf of her youngest sons “things” ceiling to floor. Little toys he made, favorite stuffed bears pictures, pins, trinkets books. Its like a shrine. What value does it bring him, what does it do for her. How is it keeping him or them tethered to the past? Why do we collect things we love, why do we struggle to let go of things that were meaningful to us? and do we need to get rid of the past before we can move on, before we can be healthy and happy and true to our purpose.

Once I learn to let go of the past and the things that keep me from making decisions, I am going to be a better artist and a better writer. In essence that is what art is all about. it’s not really about adding, it’s about taking away. It’s about editing, It’s about knowing what to keep and what to erase or chisel away or scrape, what adds value and meaning , what muddies the image and what makes it beautiful and interesting.

Keep Going

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Keep going because, as artists, what other option do we have? If we stop, we cease creating artwork then we feel like fakes.  If we stop half way through we will never finish that painting or that drawing or that sculpture.  The fear of rejection and disappointment and “not good enough” are powerful enemies that keep me from the finish line, whatever that line may be on any given day; the painting, publishing the post, finishing the chapter, putting the for sale sign up. there are a hundred ways I convince myself to stop before the conclusion. It holds me back and keeps me from moving forward improving conquering winning succeeding.

I’m in two art classes presently, watercolor on Tuesday and palette knife on Wednesday. It feels like learning two languages simultaneously. This week I had a little melt down in palette knife and scrapped my painting. “I’m a fraud” I told my husband. “I’m not a real artist because I’m not consistently good, and I never went to art school and I wasn’t able to deliver…again! The reality is I didn’t push through. I was afraid of the outcome or the failure but in essence that was a failure because I didn’t produce anything. Beginnings are easy and exciting for me, middles are hell, and the end, if I can get there, is satisfying. But when I don’t finish, I feel like I’m a fraud a wannabe artist a failure.

But we learn more from our failures then our wins. And I learned something valuable. I don’t see small things like cherries and mushrooms well from a distance. Now that I know I can adjust. I also learned I don’t like to paint food- I can ignore that, and keep trying until I learn to paint food better and It’s really hard working with different mediums simultaneously – but again with practice and hard work I can improve. I learned that I need to remember when I’m struggling to keep going because I can’t let the fear of disappointment control me or dictate my efforts and work.

Knowing these things about myself can make me a better artist if I’m willing to adjust rather than give up. if I learn to push through the hard stuff the meltdowns and the learn from failure. If I only do what’s comfortable and not what challenges I am doomed to live within my own limited and dysfunctional habits, routines and understanding. Avoiding painting “still life” will never help me learn to paint still life, even though it may prevent meltdowns. But my goal should not be to create a sterile environment that keeps me from tantrums. The goal ought to be to continually place myself in situations that trigger the tantrums and meltdowns so I can learn how to conquer them, how to rise above them, what is not working, where I am needing to adjust my attitude, my techniques and my skillset.  My inner meltdowns reveal a need to learn how to function more like an artist and less like a child.

Joy comes in stretching ourselves beyond what we think we can do. It’s like faith. Stepping out of the comfort zone doing hard things sticking with the painting, not giving up, finishing my race and somewhere in the finishing I win even if I come in last, that is the place I succeed.

I don’t like to finish. I get bored. Its harder for me, but God wants me to complete things I started. Its not all about the fun in life which is beginning new things for me its about the hard work the elbow grease the difficulties and the pressing on.  I’m concerned about disappointment, I hate finishing bad movies, diets, blog posts. I love beginnings I hate endings. I love starting new paintings, buying new clothes, implementing new ideas, first chapters and meeting new people. I’m a genesis addict, its easy for me to start; much more challenges to push through. What’s the solution?

Do the hard things. pushing through becomes a choice which is DEFINITLY OUT OF AN ARTIST’S COMFORT ZONE. We operate on feelings and inspiration.

For me, finish lines don’t have the same intensity as beginnings so they don’t have nearly the appeal, I’d rather start ten paintings then finish even one.  I don’t give endings the time and energy they deserve, that is a me problem and I need to work on this.  I’m terrified of disappointment and finality. I’d rather avoid a goodbye altogether then be awkward and disappointed with the outcome. But I can’t control the outcome, and what I learned this week is that finishing strong doesn’t mean tight control, but slow release. Like raising children to become young adults.  For artists’ , a strong finish is about learning to release, not holding on , not continuing to add more and more and more paint. It’s a looser grip, less paint, less brush strokes, a signature and a price tag. There is a lot more backing up to see and observe what small changes and adjustments can be made to finalize the details and then stop. Its sort of like death the true and final end and necessity in the cycle of life. There is an art to endings and I can learn it…I must learn it. There is a necessity to book covers and last pages, opening curtains and rolling credits, underpaintings and varnishes it completes something brings it full circle, closes the loop and ultimately the only thing that can truly leave an artist feeling a sense of satisfaction.  

My tip based on this past week figure out are you a beginning middle or end person. Once you know use it both to your advantage work through your weakest place by just keep going, you’ll be glad in the end even if it’s not the best art work in the gallery, even if its not in the gallery you can learn something even from the failed pieces.  

I’m letting Jesus be my exampleJ


“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6