Anchor- Soon at Principle Gallery, Alexandria
Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.
–Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
I look at this new painting a lot here in the studio. It’s 30″ by 24″ on canvas that is headed soon to the Principle Gallery in Alexandria for my annual June exhibit there. It’s a piece that gives me great satisfaction. It has a stilling effect on me.
It feels like a piece of Craftsman-style furniture– its beauty not in adornment but in its simplicity, strength and stability. For me, it has the feel of one’s home, no matter how humble it might be, serving as an anchor for their life.
A place of refuge and safety. A place of contentment.
I suppose that is the reason behind the title of this new painting– Anchor. The Red Tree here serves as a symbolic pillar of strength for the little community of Red Roofs that represent home. The anchor for the anchor.
I thought the passage at the top from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World was fitting for this piece, especially that last line: Happiness is never grand. We so often look past the happiness that is at hand and seek it in other places, envisioning how happy we would be if we only had a magnificent house and yachts and planes and all the other trappings of wealth. We don’t just look past the contentment that is available to us at any time– we deny it as we spend our time desiring more and more.
This piece is about recognizing our own contentment in where we are and what we are. About identifying that anchor. It’s a piece that has made me realize how happy I have been in recent days when I took a minute from being busy to simply look at the trees I pass by every day. They often become an unnoticed background as I pass by throughout the day. This piece serves as a reminder to stop and notice them so that I might realize how fortunate I am to have such beauty around me to serve as an anchor.
And I am content in that moment.
All I can ask.
Anchor is included in Continuum: The Red Tree at 25 which opens Friday, June 14, 2024, at the Principle Gallery in beautiful Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. I will be at the opening on the evening of the 14th so I hope you can make it into the gallery so that we might chat.
Redtree Times 