Gina Fiedel
Red was my favorite color as a child. On vacation, when I was about six, I was convinced I would find my dreamt of perfect red sneakers in the Puerto Rican forest just waiting for me behind each and every next tree. I knew back then that anything could happen. I wanted to be a fireman probably for the red trucks more than anything but instead, I let myself be enamored with all the colors and became a visual artist. I grew up in the dance studio and acting, making music, singing, but somehow, the spiral of those things led me to find my place with painting. I went to art school and set out on my career which went pretty well until I turned my back on it. After a seventeen-year break, I began painting again. There are times when I find myself trying not to identify as an artist but I’ve realized it’s not always about what I do, it’s something about how I am.
But if you ask me, I’ll tell you there are these other things too: I am most captured and immersed when writing. Time outdoors and the things I encounter out there mean the world to me. My dogs can shapeshift my soul into laughter at a moment’s notice. My koan practice, tripped into accidentally several years ago, is a treasured companion as is our local sangha, Coral Moon Zen, a local Pacific Zen Institute practice center led by Roshi Allison Atwill.
For work, I am lucky. I have natural conditions for tapping into the various parts of me in the business I own with my husband designing and making websites, assisting individuals, companies and non-profits in their process of discovery, communication, and identity introspection.
Pieces by Gina Fiedel