Six Reasons I Get Out of Bed to Paint Every Day

People sometimes ask me how I stay motivated to paint every single day. The truth is, it’s not about motivation, it’s about gravity. These six things pull me out of bed whether I’m ready or not.

1. The Light Won’t Wait

In Hawai’i, the light changes fast. One moment the horizon is a soft watercolor wash, the next it’s molten gold spilling over the ocean. If I don’t get up and catch it, it’s gone, and so is the mood it carries. Painting is my way of bottling that fleeting magic before it slips away.

2. The Work Is the Reward

I’ve done jobs where the best part of the day was clocking out. Painting isn’t like that. The act itself, the smell of the paint, the drag of a brush across textured paper, the way colors collide and settle, is the payoff. Even on days when I’m tired, the process wakes me up.

3. My Kids Are Watching

Kids don’t listen to what you say nearly as much as they watch what you do. I want my children to see that it’s possible to build a life around what you love and that it’s a real, viable, joyful path.

4. Stewardship Through Story

Every painting is a conversation with the land; real or imagined. Aloha ʻāina isn’t just a phrase to me; it’s a responsibility. If my work can make someone pause, feel connected, or see Hawai‘i’s beauty in a new way, then I’ve done more than make an image. I’ve kept a story alive.

5. The Mythic Thread

I’ve always been drawn to the space where reality and imagination overlap. Where a coastline might be real, but the clouds above it are carrying whispers from another world. Painting lets me follow that thread, tugging it into something tangible. Without that daily pursuit, the thread frays.

6. Because I Can

There was a time when I couldn’t. When injury, doubt, and circumstance kept me from making art at all. I remember that version of me, and I don’t take this life for granted. Every morning I get to stand in front of a blank surface is a small victory over all the reasons I might not have made it here.

Long story short: I don’t paint every day because I’m endlessly inspired or because I have some mystical discipline. I paint every day because it’s who I am, because the world keeps offering me things worth capturing, and because I’ve learned the hard way that the chance to do this is a gift.