flow

24x30", acrylic on canvas

sold

when you’re out there – one rotation into the next, the wind rushing past your ears, the ground running under you, no walls or motors or computers or distractions but air and space around you…when you feel like you’re observing but belong - there is no explanation required anymore for doing what you’re doing.

a friend explained to me one day the concept of "flow”.  it’s about being so absorbed in the present that time and negative emotions somehow evaporate and there is an exhilarating feeling of transcendence.  it’s a mindfulness that occurs when the challenge of activity matches skill level.  Csikszentmihalyi wrote in 1990 that when flow is achieved, “...typically people feel strong, alert, in effortless control, unselfconscious and at the peak of their abilities.” 

being a cycling enthusiast myself, i wanted to describe flow in this painting.  i wanted to show the limitless sky, the richness of landscape spreading out around the rider, the imperfect but unending road ahead, and that what is behind him no longer matters.  i wanted there to be a point to this ride; that being on the ride is the point.  maybe there’s a terrifying hill up ahead, or maybe one was just conquered – it’s irrelevant – it’s right now, this moment, that is the gift.