Redtree Times

GC Myers, Painting Fragment 2023

invent yourself and then reinvent yourself,
don’t swim in the same slough.
invent yourself and then reinvent yourself
and
stay out of the clutches of mediocrity.

–Charles Bukowski, No Leaders Please

This morning, I was looking for a photo on my phone of a page from a book. It had a paragraph that resonated with me and I thought I might write about. But in whizzing through the images on my phone– my feral cats, paintings in progress, a tick bite on my wrist, and so on– I came across the image at the top of the page.

It was simply a closeup of a segment of a new painting where three blocks of color converge. I don’t really remember taking this photo but it must have spoken to me in the same way as it does this morning, even with the uneven lighting on it.

After just a quick glimpse of this small detail within a painting, I could see numerous other pieces rising from its inspiration. It felt like looking at a portal that transports one to a different dimension filled with different possibilities and potential, one that allows you to see yourself as a different version of yourself.

A fleeting glimpse of self-reinvention.

There’s something exciting in this quick view of what could be. It presents itself and you take it in, seeing its possibility. It then becomes a challenge. A dare to move past the what-is to the what-might-be.

Do I dare?

I don’t know yet. We build up all sorts of reasons to ignore the possibility, to stay safely within our boundaries, that which we know to be. A fear of the unknown. Like the maps of old times used to say: Beyond this point lie dragons.

But  growth, artistically and personally, requires the courage to at least take tiny steps into that unknown at some point.

Do I dare?

I don’t know but most likely, the answer will get to a yes at some point.

Art is reinvention, after all.

Maybe studying this fragment a bit more will get me there.

In the meantime, here’s well known Charles Bukowski poem, No Leaders Please. I was surprised at how many videos of this poem were online. A number of them use the Tom O’Bedlam reading from SpokenVerse along with a variety of background music and imagery. Of these, I like the one below though they don’t use the Bukowski title, instead opting for Reinvent Your Life. But it works.