Redtree Times

White in the Moon— At West End Gallery

What we call our destiny is truly our character and that character can be altered. The knowledge that we are responsible for our actions and attitudes does not need to be discouraging, because it also means that we are free to change this destiny. One is not in bondage to the past, which has shaped our feelings, to race, inheritance, background. All this can be altered if we have the courage to examine how it formed us. We can alter the chemistry provided we have the courage to dissect the elements.

–Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin (1931-1934)

I think this passage from The Diary of Anaïs Nin fits the painting above from my current show at the West End Gallery very well. The way I read this piece, titled White in the Moon, is that it is about the figure in the foreground revisiting their past.

The house, along with the tree, represents their childhood and their early home while the path from it symbolizes the road they have followed away from that place and time. The fields through the path winds represents the patchwork of memory and experience that has brought them to this point from which they now look back. 

The light from the moon brings it all alive. It reminds me of an animation I once saw of how the brain works.  It pointed out that certain thoughts and memories awaken parts of the brain which was illustrated by that part of the brain suddenly glowing with light.

Maybe that is how memory of our past works– as though we are shining a light on it so that we may get a better look at it.

Nin points out that while we carry the past with us in the form of memories and experiences, we are not anchored by it. We are free to move beyond this past, as well as any other thing that be used to hold us in place such as those she mentions– race, inheritance and background. 

Yes, we carry these things of our past with us. Yes, they have shaped our feelings and define us to a degree. But only to a degree. We should live as evolving creatures, continuously adding new experiences and perspectives.

While we may look back at that childhood home from which we came from time to time, it is no longer our home. We now live in a different time and place as a very much changed being.

Examining how we came to be this version of ourselves, to see how the various parts fell into place, allows us to set a course forward, to choose how we may change even more. That can be a scary prospect for some, especially for those who have anchored themselves to the past, but it can be a liberating and expansive feeling.

The road that runs away from our past can be very much open to us. We just to make conscious decisions to follow it forward.

I hope this makes sense since I am clicking the publish button without rereading it. White in the Moon is 18″ by 24″ on canvas and is part of my Persistent Rhythm show at the West End Gallery. The exhibit comes down after the end of the day on this Thursday, August 29.

Here’s what I believe is a fitting piece of music for this post as well as a lovely way to start your week.  It’s from contemporary composer Max Richter and is titled She Remembers.