Redtree Times

In the High Country– Coming to West End Gallery

The pause—that impressive silence, that eloquent silence, that geometrically progressive silence which often achieves a desired effect where no combination of words, howsoever felicitous, could accomplish it.

—Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain

I was looking to write something about the painting above, In the High Country, which is part of my solo show at the West End Gallery, opening next Friday, July 21. In doing so, I came across this blogpost from about four years ago that seemed to sum up what I was seeing in it– a high and quiet place.

A place to pause and gather oneself in the stillness of nature. It’s a theme that runs like a ribbon through my work.

I think the following essay and the accompanying composition from Arvo Pärt fit the bill this morning.

We live in a time of chaos and confusion, amidst a constant bombardment of information and misinformation, an indecipherable babble of yelled opinions and enough stupidity to fill all the oceans and flood every coastline of this planet.

And that’s on a good day.

This morning I found myself longing for something, some music or reading, that would take me away from this maelstrom of madness. I came to the music of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt whose piece Tabula Rasa was a big influence on my early work.

His work is the antidote to the turbulence of our time. It is what I would call slow music. It is the sort of music that requires you to pause to hear it fully. Doing so slows down the elevated heartbeat, syncs it to a pace that seems to be a meditative drone that has forever resided within us though we have long set aside our ability to tune in to it.

For quite some time I have rediscovered that ability to find pause in things with Pärt’s work, including this adaptation of My Heart’s in the Highlands. It is derived from a 1789 poem/song from the Scottish poet Robert Burns. This version is performed by vocalist Else Torp and organist Christopher Bowers.

Listening to it reminds me of the time spent alone wandering in the woods and fields in the hills around our home as a youth. Those times had that same pace, that same heartbeat and silence that made it so memorable in my mind.

Many times I have found my mind wandering back to those times and the spaces and silences that created a sense of home within me. Burns’ words speak a truth for me especially in these times so filled with sound and fury.

Allow yourself to pause for a moment and give a listen. Perhaps you will find your own heart in the highlands…

My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here,

My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer –

A-chasing the wild deer, and following the roe;

My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go.

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North

The birth place of Valour, the country of Worth;

Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,

The hills of the Highlands forever I love.

Farewell to the mountains high cover’d with snow;

 Farewell to the straths and green valleys below;  

Farewell to the forrests and wild-hanging woods;

Farwell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.

My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here,

My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer

Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe;

My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go.