Collection: Lelia Davis - Attention

To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work. - Mary Oliver

Stop. Look. Listen. It’s funny how a phrase I learned in grade school about accident prevention (or railroad crossings?) continues to be relevant throughout my life. It must have been repeated often because those three words have defaulted into my subconscious. Without it, I would miss what is easily overlooked.

The way the sunlight filters through a single leaf making it more vivid than the others. The shapes that a mountain shadow creates across the valley. The sound of a creek as it moves through the canyon and echoes off the rock faces.

Sometimes I don’t know if I’m stopping or looking first. The sight of something magical can make me stop, and sometimes my subconscious tells me to do so. Either way, I am thankful for this refrain. Stop. Look. Listen. The beauty right in front of me became the inspiration for this series. My attention turned to light, shadows, and nature’s symphony of birdsong, moving water, and the breeze as it traveled through leaves and tall grasses.

Each painting is a combination of these phenomena with the emotions that moved through me as I experienced them. Joy, melancholy, sadness, relief. Sometimes all in the same moment. Stopping and allowing these emotions to have their say. Looking at where they came from. Listening to what they mean. Stop. Look. Listen.