Evercool— Coming to Little Gems, West End Gallery
One of the many suppressed longings of creation which cry after fulfilment is for neglected joys within reach; while we are busy pursuing chimerical impossibilities we famish our lives… The emptiness left by easy joys, untasted, is ever growing in my life. And the day may come when I shall feel that, could I but have the past back, I would strive no more after the unattainable, but drain to the full these little, unsought, everyday joys which life offers.
–Rabindranath Tagore, Glimpses of Bengal (1921)
The painting at the top is new, an 8″ by 8″ piece on wood panel that is headed to the West End Gallery in the next week for inclusion in the annual Little Gems exhibit. The title for this painting is Evercool.
I think the strength in this piece comes in its contrasts. It feels cool yet there is considerable underlying warmth. It has motion yet it also possesses great stillness. It feels dark yet has much light.
Just little joys.
Appropriate for a Little Gems show. This year marks my 30th Little Gems exhibit at the West End Gallery. My first, in 1995, was my first experience showing my work in public. At that point, I had no idea that I could possibly do this as a way of life and that decades later my life would center around this work. But that’s the way things turned out and now I can’t imagine doing anything but this.
Another little joy.
For this week’s Sunday Morning Music, I chose a song that may not completely mesh with this painting and the always wise words of Rabindranath Tagore. It’s an acoustic version of the old Procul Harum song, A Whiter Shade of Pale, from Dave Matthews while on an appearance on the Howard Stern show. It’s a lovely version.
You know, now that I think about it, maybe this performance does fit in. It has a very bittersweet feel– much like that produced by the contrasts in Evercool.
Another little joy on a bleak, cold winter Sunday morning. All we can hope for.
Redtree Times 