The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom..
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
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When I look at this new painting, a 24″ by 24″ canvas, it gives me a sense of conscious dreaming, of taking those deepest and largest internal wishes and making them known to the world, bringing them into the realm of possibility. I think there’s something potent in the idea of this sort of imagining, of seeing oneself in different circumstances, in different lights. It sets courses and opens windows of possibility. It unsettles us and stirs change.
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It also makes me wonder how this sort of dreaming changes over the course of our lives, I know as a child I was always immersed in daydreams that took me to far-reaching places under the wildest of circumstances. Yet while I still daydream, as an adult my dreams have changed and become far more limited and smaller in scope, much less expansive than they were in my youth. Perhaps it is a product of pure practicality, of having realized my own limitations and what is possible for the person I believe myself to be. Or maybe my desires have have lessened by virtue of simple acceptance and comfort in the present.
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When do we lose the capacity for the large dreams of childhood? Is it when the world loses some of that sense of wonder that came with the fresh eyes of youth? Is it possible to imagine unlimited possibilities when the sight of a bright and full moon rising fails to inspire you?
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Maybe that’s what I see here, a recapturing of that wonder in seeing the moon and all that is possible under its gaze.
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This painting, Moonlight Revelation, will be at the West End Gallery as part of my solo show there, Layers, which opens July 25.
Redtree Times 
You’ve done a remarkable job here of conveying a sense of night, moonlight, and shadows. The Red Tree clearly is itself, but the color is perfect – just the way I imagine it would look in moonlight.
Thanks, Linda, I appreciate that.
[…] Layers show at the West End Gallery that feature the moon quite prominently. I showed one, Moonlight Revelation, earlier in the month in a blog post. I like these pieces as there is usually a certain […]