Redtree Times

Natural Anthem– Coming to Principle Gallery

I can’t run no more
With that lawless crowd
While the killers in high places
Say their prayers out loud
But they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up
A thundercloud
They’re going to hear from me

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in

–Leonard Cohen, Anthem

This is a new smaller painting (6″ by 12″ on canvas) that is coming with me to the Principle Gallery for next Saturday’s Gallery Talk. It’s a piece that speaks to an island serving as a symbol of personal sovereignty, as it being a place where one can remain apart from the forces that shape the outer world.

A place where you are bothered by nobody and you, in return, bother nobody.

Of course, that place can’t truly exist in the real world. As John Donne said, no man is an island. We all interact with the world every day in more ways than we realize, in both beneficial and bothersome ways. Regardless of how hard we try to deny it, we are connected to the world as a whole.

But this idea of personal sovereignty, of seeing ourselves on this remote island, plays a vital part in dealing with the travails presented by the modern world. Well, it does so in my mind, at least. I create it for myself in my work and in shaping it from the art of others across the creative spectrum– music, literature, film, drama, etc.

I think this inherent symbolism is why I often go to the island as a subject in my paintings. It has an instant elemental feel that speaks to me and inevitably evokes a response from others. I believe it’s a mostly positive reaction, but I can never know how everyone reacts to any of my work. There might be a whole group out there who hate the island and see it as coldly isolating. I can see that.

I saw the violinist (or is it a fiddler?) here as playing the national anthem for this tiny sovereign state. I was going to call it National Anthem but settled on Natural Anthem as its title. It made me wonder what song I might choose as the natural or national anthem for my own tiny island of being.

I can think of many songs that might serve well in this capacity but perhaps it would be Anthem, a favorite song from Leonard Cohen whose lyrics began this post. I think the sky in this piece illustrate the idea of the cracks in everything where the light gets in. Give a listen and think about what song you might choose as your own natural anthem.

This painting is in a group of new works that will be coming to the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA on Saturday, September 28. I will be giving a Gallery Talk there beginning at 1 PM that is open to all and will conclude with a free drawing for one of my paintings that will go to one lucky attendee. Hope you can be there!