The post below, from early 2012, is a favorite of mine. The idea that each individual has their own unique strength and quality–their own lever, if you will– is what I see as the basis for my work. This post also serves as a reminder that there is never an obstacle too large or a foe too powerful that can’t be moved with the proper lever. I think it’s something we should think about during this time.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth.
– Archimedes
^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is actually a condensed and long accepted version of Archimedes‘ words. It was really about the power of lever in physics. He actually said: Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I will move the Earth. But the lever has been dropped over the 2200 or so years since he lived and has come to signify something more than a statement about physical mechanics. It is an almost existential statement about the power of the individual in changing the world. The small somehow defeating the overwhelming forces set against them.
David versus Goliath.
The biblical David’s lever was his intelligence and the sling and stone that he used to offset the lever of the Philistine’s size and strength in order to take down the giant. Every underdog has somehow identified a strategic advantage that has enabled them to triumph against all odds. Something that plays to their own strengths and magnifies their greater opponent’s weaknesses.
What is the lever you will use to move the Earth?
I call the painting above A Place to Stand after these words of Archimedes. It is a new piece that is a 24″ by 30″ canvas that is a very simple composition that relies on the juxtaposition of the single Red Tree set against a powerfully set sky that seems ready to overwhelm the diminuative tree. Yet, against all the elemental force of wind and weather that the sky can muster, the tree perseveres. It uses the flexibility of its trunk and limbs to absorb the wind and its bark protects it against the heat and cold.
It stands alone, without protection for all the world to see. Yet it stands. Just standing where you are with resolve is sometimes a lever powerful enough to change the world.
Perseverance is often its own victory.
Persevere.
Redtree Times 