Comes a Time– Coming to Principle Gallery Alexandria
Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.
–Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist (1988)
There’s an idyllic quality to this new painting that somewhat masks the underlying desire that I see in it. I think that a first glance would lead one to believe this was a dream achieved. In reality, it is only the representation of the dreamer’s hoped-for destination– the imagined and vaguely defined object of the dreamer’s search.
It is an elusive thing, this object of desire that drives the search. Most likely, the dreamer will get but a fleeting glimpse of it. But that momentary burst of its transcendence is ample reward for the travails endured that it took to reach that moment.
When all is said and done, the dreamer finally discovers that the importance comes not in attaining that which you seek but in simply having and maintaining the dream. The search ultimately reveals so many things that the dreamer never thought to imagine in their initial vision and brings an awareness of such things in their life in the real world.
The search clarifies and deepens.
I might represent the object of my search as an idyllic landscape but it is probably better defined a search for understanding. And maybe that is what this painting represents for me– the time of arriving at understanding.
There’s more to be said about this painting but I am going to leave it at that this morning. Let’s add a song for this week’s Sunday Morning Music that will make sense since I borrowed its title for this painting, Comes a Time. The song is a longtime favorite from Neil Young and there’s something in it that feels akin to the feel of this painting.
Comes a Time is 36″ high by 18″ wide on canvas and is included in Continuum: The Red Tree at 25, this year’s edition of my annual solo show at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA. This show, which is my 25th with the Principle Gallery, opens June 14, 2024.
Redtree Times 