Becky Ripley, lover of life & card making

Until the past few years, I hadn’t experienced much loss in my life. Elderly grandparents, sure. But not the “gone much too soon” variety. And then one of my dearest friends dropped dead at 67. My mother’s dementia progressed to where we lost her many months before she died—at the start of Covid lockdown. So instead of the huge funeral we anticipated, the gathering was limited to my father, my eight siblings, and me. It was intimate and, in many ways, a gift. Now I experience my heartbroken father disappearing without the love of his life at his side. Then on June 22, 2020, I suffered a totally random profound neurosensory hearing loss that left me deaf in my left ear. 

I feel these losses daily, and in April of 2021, addressed one of them head-on when I received a cochlear implant. My brain is learning to translate robotic digital sounds to something resembling hearing. 

Every day of my life is filled with delights, occasional disappointments, outrage at our nation and climate change, and learning. Always learning.

While I continue to coach leaders and work on other projects I love, I spend more and more time exploring life’s big questions with my women friends, planning the future with my husband of 44 years, and playing with art.

My paintings draw their inspiration from the heavens – starry night skies, storm clouds, the impossible beauty of a sunrise, a wink of moon through the trees. But at heart they are about the emotional magic of color and shape. When I paint, my right brain comes alive and my childlike wonder returns. I rarely plan an end result. I shed workaday concerns and engage fully in the moment. I play with paint and paper, and let the piece happen as it will. Often hints of mystery appear – goddesses and spirit dancers and Native American masks. With watercolor painting and card making, I lose all track of time and simply enjoy the experience of creating. I am “in the zone,” my happy place.

"Golden Rise"

Over the past few years, I’ve painted five versions of Rise for family and dear friends, filling the skies with hope and luscious color: Rise, Red Rising, Rise Up, Rise Beyond, and this one: Golden Rise.