The 3 works of art I chose to submit are from 3 moments in my life when I turned to art to ground myself. The first is an acrylic painting of the view from my driveway, which I painted on earth day in 2020 during quarantine. Next is a gouache painting from a walk along the river that runs through my college campus I painted during my freshman year of college. Finally, an oil painting of one of my favorite types of prairie flowers which grow near my house, the coneflower. In each of these moments, I turned to nature because I was seeking a way to break a monotony that I felt was weighing me down. As an artist who loves to explore the surreal through subject matter and color, it can be hard to continuously find sources of inspiration. In moments when I am thrust into a new world, whether that be the world of quarantine or college, my mind races with the thoughts and worries that prevent me from discovering that spark to get my creativity flowing. However, when I go out into nature and observe the world around me, I can find a moment of surreality that I can inject into a plein air painting. A shifting sky can make each element you paint appear from a different moment in time. Colors can be heightened to remove them from reality, and a breeze can make the petals of a flower dance around the canvas. Even during uncertain times, nature is a constant. So when I feel lost and confused, and when I know art is the only thing that can take my mind off of whatever is bothering me or help me work through it, I know I can always turn to the world around me.