Redtree Times

GC Myers- I Was Lost, 1997

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

—Henry David Thoreau

I think I’m beginning to understand…

The painting above has been on my mind lately. I was going through some older work and stopped, as I always do, when I came across this painting from 1997. It’s titled I Was Lost and was an experimental piece. I don’t think it ever showed in a gallery but don’t hold me to that.

It’s been with me for all these years and never fails to make me stop and think when I come across it. I can’t say exactly what it is in it that speaks to me, even after 27 years. And that might be part of its appeal.

One thing about it that I do recognize is that it speaks to my own feelings of sometimes feeling lost. The way forward seems blocked and present seemingly endless challenges.

Had that feeling of standing before these trees too many times before. And now. I imagine there are many of us who feel like the forest is too deep and foreboding to pass through at the moment/

But me and many others have made it through. We may seem lost but so long as we understand who we are and hold on to that, not becoming something that we are not, we will pass through somehow. That is all we can do. Persist as we are.

To put it another way, as in the lines from Christopher Fry’s 1949 verse play, The Lady’s Not for Burning:

The best
Thing we can do is to make wherever we’re lost in
Look as much like home as we can.

Know and hold on to who you are and keep moving forward.

I am letting go of I Was Lost, taking it to the West End Gallery later today. I am trying to get better at letting certain pieces go and figured this was the right time for this painting. It has served me well and maybe it can help someone else in the same way.