How amazing is this world we live in? Sometimes I feel as though I am dreaming, it is so colorful and alive. To travel and to paint this life, well... that is my dream.

The style in which I paint is inspired by my first experience of freedom as a painter. Before that, painting for me was exciting, but it was also suffocating in a way. I felt that the work I produced had to emulate the work of others before me, of those whom were deemed "good" by myself and society. Imagine squeezing your passion, your inspiration, into a box with its walls made of conditions, restrictions, limitations. Limitations that I set and the whole time I didn't know that I set them. I felt squeezed.

I was taking a painting class at the local college. We were given an assignment to find a picture that we wanted to paint and purposely abstract it. Up to that point I had only worked minimally in abstract art, focusing on creating realistic paintings which were so exact that it was difficult to determine whether they were a painting or a photograph. But I had never combined the two: abstract and realism. Excited for this "grand experiment" I searched my archives. I chose a photograph from within a book my father had given me from one of his travels to the mysterious country of Turkey. It was a photo of a Greek Orthodox church in Istanbul. It had all the qualities I was looking for: a tight composition, the round lines of the dome of the cathedral complementing the linear lines of the trees in the foreground, and it was a place that I knew nothing about. That I had no pre-conceived ideas already in place to hold me down to represent it accurately was perfect!

I was very much into color at that time, for me, color represents the joy of life, the character of this world we live in, life itself expressed through art. As I painted the scene I remember saying to myself, "Can I really make the trees this orange/yellow color? Trees aren't orange/yellow. They are green, or different shades of green, or maybe sometimes they are orange like in the fall, but this isn't the fall, this is spring! Can I really skip the amount of detail that is actually there in the doorway to this magnificent church?" And with one stroke I did just that. All the detail erased with one stroke and one color. What about the people? Can I nix them from the scene all together? At this point, all I was feeling was, "Why not?" I made the green trees orange and the detail in the doorway one stroke of color, painting the scene with no people in it. I was doing exactly what I wanted. I was overwhelmed with freedom and creativity. The box I had been painting in didn't just expand. It vanished! I could literally see myself painting anything I wanted in complete freedom. What a realization this was! My elation carried me through the painting, from the deep ultramarine blue sky and the intense purple/blue outlines throughout.

With my new found freedom, I began taking my oils outside. I would set up my easel at different points of interest around San Diego, California, where I was living. There was the Self Realization Fellowship, Balboa Park, Point Loma Lighthouse, Hotel del Coronado, OIivenhain Town Meeting Hall, Tom Giblin's Irish Pub, and all the beautiful landscapes just outside my front door. The sun would bake me for hours, the wind would try to take my easel, cars would whizz past (sometimes cheering me on with an occasional honk), people would pause to chat, and life would happen around me as I stood painting with freedom. And at the end of the day, I would return home to my one bedroom apartment with a painting filled with the sights, sounds, and essence of the places I painted.

I was so inspired by this new found love and freedom for painting, that I decided that there was no time like the present to live out one of my other dreams - to travel to Europe, visiting the places which inspired the Masters. To visit the places I had read about in books, seen in movies, and imagined over and over again in my imagination. Two weeks wasn't going to be enough time to visit all the places I wanted to go. I needed three months. Three long months to really immerse myself in the European mindset, three months to relax and feel like I had nothing to come back to. Three months to express the essence of Europe in colorfully alive paint. I realized that I had to get the funds for this expedition and knew that my part-time job at the frame shop wouldn't be enough. I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to share my grand adventure with my community and in doing so, maybe I would inspire others in their lives. After all, who isn't inspired by color and travel?

Stay tuned for more of my adventures in paint

Gazing into a Grant Pecoff painting, you are drawn into an atmosphere where vibrant light and electric colors transform the familiar into the extraordinary. Pecoff's art is an invitation to slide into a state where we feel alive and awake, into a setting of passionate depth and radiating energy where our hearts and imaginations are filled with possibilities. Take a trip into Grant Pecoff's art and share his vision of our magical world.

Pecoff paints cityscapes, coastal views, buzzing cafes, the people interacting in them and, always, the light. There are such amazing variations of color within the leaves of one tree, for example, the light filters through creating cool and warm greens complimented by the contrast of shadow and light,” says Pecoff. His expression of light as it reflects on water is particularly stunning. He makes the light appear as if it is dancing on the waves and recreates the movement of the water using electric blues, rich oranges, and fiery crimsons. His deliberate distortion of images as they are echoed on the water is whimsical and surrealistic. John Shore, editor of Décor & Style magazine refers to Pecoff’s compositions as dreaming-while-awake oil paintings.”

A native San Diegan, Pecoff received his formal training at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. He soon realized that his real classroom was the world around him. When I was a child, my father traveled to remote places across the globe, searching for rare plants, Pecoff reminisces, His stories of those experiences were enchanting to me. He taught us to notice life around us and to express our feelings. It encouraged the development of my playfulness and imagination. Pecoff has dedicated himself to traveling the world and finding the limitless inspiration everywhere.

At the heart of Grant Pecoff's talent is his ability to share the way he sees life with the viewer. His art calls us in and shows us a new way to experience what we see. Through Pecoff's painting, he communicates he essence of a culture and helps us to feel the commonality we all share. Perhaps it is this expression of our universal similarity and oneness which have created such enthusiasm from collectors near and far for Pecoff's paintings. As his work evolves, it is certain to continue to speak to us, to shape us and to influence the way we see our world.

I’ve always been a writer.

I remember walking home from the bus in grade school, entire poems appearing before me, fully written and swimming in my mind. I sat on the sidewalk, where the grass tickled the backs of my knees and scribbled them into my notebook.

I wrote my first full-length novel in the seventh grade, a love story, where the guy definitely got the girl. I was never without a pen.

In college, at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, I discovered the law. I fell in love with the Constitution – in awe of this aging document whose words breathed energy and life into our nation’s every day.

I decided to pursue a career as a lawyer and, at Duke Law School, in Durham, North Carolina, I used my skills as a writer to debate both sides of many issues, constantly sharpening the tip of my ballpoint pen. I learned to use words to win.

I began my legal career as an Assistant District Attorney where my writing took on a whole new significance – the clarity and persuasiveness of my arguments and briefs determined the outcomes of real people’s lives. Choosing the right words became critical and intense.

I later opened my own private practice, Lyons Law, where my writing was required to be fast, on my feet and on the spot in the courtroom, as I defended the rights of my clients, the children of Atlanta, Georgia. My mission was to provide education for my clients, to assist them in understanding the confusing world of the court system so that they could make empowered choices for themselves about their lives. I rediscovered the rewarding and nourishing power of words.

In 2002, I met my husband, my great love, Grant Pecoff. Grant is a fine art painter and I fell in love with his brilliant intense colors and his soft playful spirit. I spent the next couple of years writing Grant’s marketing and promotional materials, always in the close company of words. Being surrounded by Grant’s beautiful paintings my own creative energies were lit up and with his encouragement, I began writing creatively again.

As a writing project, I made tiny thumbnails of 50 of Grant’s paintings and I laid them out on our dining room table. I waited. I watched. After a few days, the idea for a story linking them together appeared – the concept of joining the paintings together with my words to take readers on a trip around the globe visiting all the wonderful and unique places that people call home. Open Your Heart was born.

In the meantime, Grant and I had set out on a four-year journey, exploring our planet’s tropical islands. We started in the Caribbean, worked our way up to the Bahamas, where we spent a year floating on the aqua seas in our boat, Blue, and recently have completed the tour on Hawaii’s lush volcanic lands.

Our latest book, Live Your Dream is a result of these travels. I’m living my dream every day. I’m on an endless honeymoon, traveling across the Tropics, playing with words and meeting wonderful people who touch my soul. The experience of connecting with them and hearing their dreams inspired me to write a book about the dreams that live in all of our hearts. I believe our dreams are waiting for us. What’s yours?

Lately my words have taken on a whole new dimension. When they are paired with Grant’s art, they come alive and dance with depths of color. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to share my words with everyone. Thank you for reading.