Breaking Joy–Now at West End Gallery
The drum of the realization of the promise is beating,
we are sweeping the road to the sky. Your joy is here today, what remains for tomorrow?
The armies of the day have chased the army of the night,
Heaven and earth are filled with purity and light.
Oh! joy for he who has escaped from this world of perfumes and color!
For beyond these colors and these perfumes, these are other colors in the heart and the soul.
Oh! joy for this soul and this heart who have escaped
the earth of water and clay,
Although this water and this clay contain the hearth of the
philosophical stone.
— The Drum of the Realization, Rumi
I hear words like joy and optimism more and more in social media and on the news in recent weeks. It’s a huge and welcome change from the doom and gloom that has plagued us for the past eight years or so. It creates a light that washes away much of the darkness and illuminates a more positive path into the future.
And that, in my opinion, is a good thing.
I never intend to inject a meaning into a painting at its onset. I prefer to simply let the painting come together in its own way then determine what I am seeing in it after it is done. This feels more organic than trying to force an interpretation into paint.
In the painting at the top, the word joy immediately came to mind as I finished it. Maybe it was in the light and brightness of the sky. Or maybe the triumphant stance of the Red Tree as it stands above the crowded congestion of the Red Roofs. Maybe it was simply in the geometry of its elements.
It’s hard to tell exactly why it seemed to exude joy for me. But it does. As a result, I titled it Breaking Joy.
And in light of the events of the past couple of weeks, I find even more symbolism in it. I see more clearly the two paths running to the future, one to the right and one to the left. The path to the left runs directly for the sun and the light. I can’t tell exactly where the path to the right leads but there is more darkness in the right side of the sky here.
In the lower part of the painting, where the path breaks into left and right, the group of Red Roofed buildings seems to point to the left, as though it was offering a subliminal suggestion that this was the path to follow.
Now that’s my reading. You might not see it that way at all and call my reading here hogwash. That’s okay. You’re entitled to your opinion. As I am to mine. And whatever anyone else see in it, this piece makes me feel a bit of joy and hope.
And that is always a good thing…
Reminder:
Gallery Talk at the West End Gallery in two days!!
Saturday, August 10, beginning at 11 AM.
The talk is free and open to all. There is a painting to be given away and something for everyone so try to get there on Saturday. In honor of the Olympics currently taking place in Paris, I will be giving the talk while performing a routine on the Pommel Horse.
Or not. You’ll have to come to find out.
Redtree Times 