Mystic’s Way- Coming to West End Gallery
Miracles in mysticism don’t occupy such an important place. It’s metaphor, for the peasants, for the crowds, to impress people. What does mysticism really mean? It means the way to attain knowledge. It’s close to philosophy, except in philosophy you go horizontally while in mysticism you go vertically. You plunge into it. Philosophy is a slow process of logic and logical discourse: A bringing B bringing C and so forth. In mysticism you can jump from A to Z. But the ultimate objective is the same. It’s knowledge. It’s truth.
–Elie Wiesel, Elie Wiesel: Conversations, 2002
I showed this new painting several weeks ago as a work in progress. It has hung around here for that time and I would periodically put it back on the easel to make a few adjustments. Nothing drastic, just a little more light inserted here and a bit more red there. Small and subtle changes but changes nonetheless.
The one aspect that didn’t change for me was the feeling of the painting. I originally called it Mystic’s Way early into its progress. There was something in the tone and color of it that spoke to me of some mystic pondering or longing. Maybe it was the Red Chair and its placement. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is about this piece that inspired the title. But it stuck and still feels right for me.
After the piece was finished, I came across a passage from a 1984 interview from the Paris Review with author Elie Wiesel. I immediately saw how this painting visually articulated his words for me.
The Red Chair can be viewed as the starting point, the spot where the mystic or philosopher begins their search for knowledge or truth, symbolized here by the rising sun on the distant horizon. The philosopher follows a path that takes him up the steps, past the Red Roofed house and the ever-vigilant Red Tree, alongside the stream and across the water. A logical and direct path. A to B to C and so on.
The mystic transcends those steps of logic and jumps, as Wiesel says, from A to Z. It is as though the mystic sees the destination and moves through the air in an ethereal manner, unhindered by the need for absolute logic, to get to that destination.
I think I can see Wiesel’s definition in this painting. Even its orientation replicates the vertical path that Wiesel describes for mysticism.
Neither manner of getting there is right or wrong, better or worse. They are simply different ways of attaining truth and knowledge.
I guess either is better than just staying in that Red Chair with your back to everything…
Here’s a song that feels right for this post. It’s River Man from British singer/songwriter Nick Drake. Drake died in 1974 from an overdose of antidepressants at the age of 26. His work never achieved widespread acclaim in his lifetime but in the years since he has been a major influence on a generation of musical artists incuding R.E.M., the Black Crowes and many others. The song Life in a Northern Town from Dream Academy is written about and dedicated to Drake. The river his River Man may have been watching over may well be the body of water in this painting.
Who knows?
PS- This painting, Mystic’s Way, 10″ by 25″ on canvas, will be making its mystical journey to the West End Gallery in the next day or two.
Redtree Times 