Passages: New Worlds Revealed— Soon at Principle Gallery
The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them beholds, that each of them is.
–Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past
I’ve been looking at the new painting above for several months now and still get the feeling from it of suddenly having a landscape open before me that is at once strange and wondrous yet not alien. As though I am looking at the world I know with eyes that have never seen it. The normal, that which is recognized yet often unseen, seems new and vibrant with these new eyes.
Maybe that’s what Proust was referring to in the passage above. Maybe we all need to try to see things with new eyes– and perhaps new ways of seeing things– every so often. Maybe we need that new sight and perception in order to restore the sense of wonder that staves off the weariness that often comes the longer we live in this world.
Perhaps this sense of wonder is the source of that fountain of Eternal Youth that Proust mentions. And maybe art is a form of seeing through the eyes of others, of reaching other universes that we fail to see with our own eyes, of maintaining a sense of wonder in this world.
I like that and it makes sense, at least at 5:30 AM. I would like to believe that my work serves that sort of purpose, that the viewer sees that which feels familiar to them in a different way. With new eyes, if you will.
I am not sure that this song completely fills out today’s triad but I like having it here this morning. This is Find the River from R.E.M.
**********************
The painting at the top is titled Passages: New Worlds Revealed and is 12″ by 36″ on canvas. It is included in my upcoming annual exhibit at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA which opens Friday, June 9.
Redtree Times 