I’ve never really traveled in the way so many of my friends do. When I hear them compare cruises, they’ve been on or hotels they’ve stayed at in Italy or Greece or other continents, I have nothing to add to the conversations. It’s not that I’ve never been anywhere at all. When I count the states I’ve been to in my own country, there are more than I realized, but other than Mexico, I’ve never been to a foreign country. I keep telling myself that in my next life, I will travel The world, but in this life, I think I’ve missed the boat (no pun intended).

My sister has been everywhere and has even written a book about her travels – – The Reluctant Traveler. She may have been reluctant, but she went anyway to such exotic places as Kenya and the surrounding jungles in Africa, to Tunisia and Israel in the Middle East, and to many countries in Europe. Reading her book made me realize how much I’ve missed as I was raising children and building a career right here at home.

What would I have done if I had visited all those countries? Would I have immersed myself in their cultures and gone to the places the natives go, or would I have played American tourist and only explored the outer edges of each place I visited? What would I have learned about how other people in other countries live and work and play? Would I have tried to learn their languages? Would I have expanded my worldview and realized that my home country is not the center of the universe?

I often ask myself if I had the resources and freedom to travel, would I have felt the wanderlust I know many of my friends do? The answer has surfaced in an unexpected way. I have been painting my way around the world. My imaginary travels began with small, rustic hideaways, wherever I could find them on the Web. Since I seemed to be hooked on houses, I moved on to the architecture of Saint Augustine, Florida, where I live.

Saint Augustine is a fascinating place. It’s the oldest city in the country and it is filled with many historic landmarks. That became the subject matter of my next series of paintings. I couldn’t explain my fascination with buildings—with anything, in fact, that had straight lines and arches and geometric shapes.

I painted beautiful doors from around the world, houses in my neighborhood, and the most beautiful buildings in the world. The Internet is an endless source of images of such buildings, which are indeed beautiful. I have a feeling this project could go on forever or at least until I get tired of this particular subject. I don’t think I’m going to run out of beautiful buildings.

My classmates in art school asked if these are places I had been or am planning to go to. They are neither. But the wonder of art is that it can take you anywhere you want to go in the best of all vehicles—your imagination. You can use any medium you like—oils, watercolors, chalks, colored pencils, acrylics, clay, wood, or marble. You can illustrate your destinations as abstracts or collages, sculptures or spaces, two-dimensional or three.

You know what you want to see, where you want to go, and what that looks like in your mind’s eye. You can travel the world without leaving your studio. If no one else recognizes what you see so clearly, it doesn’t matter. This is your journey. and art will take you as far as your imagination can reach.