Redtree Times

The Song That Brought Me Here

All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.

–Martin Buber, The Legend of the Baal-Shem (1955)

Been busy trying to get a new group of small paintings together for the annual Little Gems show at the West End Gallery, which opens this year on February 10. This year will be my 29th year showing in the Little Gems show which was the first show, back in 1995, in which I ever displayed my work publicly. It’s been a favorite show ever since.

That brings me to the little piece shown here, a 3″ by 4″ watercolor on paper. The first of my pieces I am displaying for this show, it is a return to my roots in a way.

Just some water, pigment and a bit of paper.

Those things that set me on the journey that I have been on for the past 29 years or so, the things that brought me here. I certainly had no idea back then that a bit of paint and something on which to put it would end up being my life, would provide for me a way of living and thinking that I never knew of beforehand.

Fittingly, this small piece is titled The Song That Brought Me Here.

29 years ago, that song was still forming, the tune not quite fully composed. I don’t know that this song will ever be complete. And maybe that’s the way it should be. Maybe it’s a song that keeps adding verses, shifting its notes and sometimes changing its tempo and timing.

The same but never the same song.

Whatever the case, it’s the one song I know inside and out.

Here’s a song from longtime favorite Martin Simpson. The title of this song inspired the title for this painting. This is Trouble Brought Me Here.