This congruence of gifting and calling opened new doors to find beauty in every place and to point others in that direction. In order to see beauty one must become interior to the work and enter into its radiant space and spell. To quote a phrase of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Earths crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God: and only he who sees, takes off his shoes.” Seeing has consumed me as I seek to see and express through my painting the beauty of the ordinary, the true and the suffering of the cosmos and all its expressions. In Ms Barrets words I have removed my shoes.

Gary's personal motivations for creating visual art is summed up in this quote by Dorothy Sayer…..

“Professional standards, the standards of ambition and selfishness, are always sliding downward toward expense, ostentation, and mediocrity. They tend always to narrow the ground of judgment. But amateur standards, the standards of love, are always straining upward toward the humble and the best. They enlarge the ground of judgment. The context of love is the world.”