Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.
–Omar Khayyam
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This is another painting from the Home+Land show that opens this coming Friday, July 17, at the West End Gallery. Titled Melding to the Moment, it is a 24″ by 36″ canvas that, for me, pretty much holds the same message as the words above from Omar Khayyam. I see it as about being totally in the moment, in a sort of harmony with all things.
Using This moment is your life… as a rule, it is in finding those moments of contentment and happiness that can define your view of your life. To be able to stop and block out regrets of the past or worries for the future allows one to enjoy the pleasures of the present, that slice of life immediately before you– that small wonder that might be lost when we are immersed in thoughts of what we have done or what we will do.
The song of a bird. The smell of the grass. The way the light comes from behind a cloud or the feel of a warm breeze on your skin. All small things, small moments. But all moments that create the textures of life if we allow ourselves to simply pause and meld to the moment.
At least that’s how I see this piece. It was one that was a long time coming, growing in small fits and starts. I would work on it for a while and would see it going in a direction that didn’t quite suit me in that moment so I would put it aside. Several weeks, perhaps even a couple of months, passed and I would pull it back out and do a bit more and where I thought it was headed was not at all where it was going.
So I waited a bit longer. Finally, a few weeks back I went back and it transformed into the painting that you now see. It is nothing like I originally envisioned it in its earliest stages. It went beyond where I thought it would be and that is always a pleasant surprise.
A pleasant surprise, a pleasant moment…
Redtree Times 