Redtree Times

Passing Through Blue– Now at West End Gallery

May the countryside and the gliding valley streams content me. Lost to fame, let me love river and woodland.

–Virgil, Georgics (29 BCE)

As the events of yesterday proved, we are going through a tense and dangerous time in this country. All is uncertainty. I know it and you know it. So, I am not going to dwell on it this morning. We all need a break, something to transport us away from this aspect of our reality if only for a short while.

For me, that transport comes in the form of art and music or in the forest surrounding my home and studio. Like sandpaper on wood, it smooths the edges that have been roughened up by the darker realities of this world. 

Or to use another metaphor, it clears the stream ahead for me so that I might flow easily once more.

In the new painting at the top, Passing Through Blue, I am not sure if I see myself as the Red Tree or as the river. Maybe both? Perhaps there is a force between natural beings and things that binds them as one.

Hmm. I don’t know, of course, but the thought is distracting while the feel of the painting soothes me. 

Transports me.

And that’s all I can ask on this Sunday morning, to be moved to a place filled with color and solitude as the stream flows easily by. Or is it me flowing easily by?

I forget.

Let’s move on to this Sunday Morning Music, this is a little-known cover I just came across of a favorite Beatles song that has been shared here several times in the past. This is the late bluesman Junior Parker from 1971 (not long before his death in November of that year) performing the transcendent Tomorrow Never Knows. Junior Parker is best known for writing and performing the original version of Mystery Train, a song which Elvis later popularized. His rendition here is smooth and austere– like a river flowing easily through.

 Passing Through Blue is a 24″ by 24″ painting on canvas included in Persistent Rhythm show at the West End Gallery in Corning, NY. The exhibit officially opens next Friday, July 19, with an opening reception that runs from 5-7 PM. Flow on in if you’re so inclined and we’ll talk. Or not. Your call.