Life always bursts the boundaries of formulas. Defeat may prove to have been the only path to resurrection, despite its ugliness. I take it for granted that to create a tree I condemn a seed to rot. If the first act of resistance comes too late it is doomed to defeat. But it is, nevertheless, the awakening of resistance. Life may grow from it as from a seed.
–Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Flight to Arras (1942)
What awakens us?
What are the sacrifices that created us and brought us to this point in our existence?
What seeds have been condemned to rot so that we might stand on this rock?
So many questions.
Few, if any, answers.
It sometimes like we have evolved enough to ask the questions but not enough to recognize the answers.
We are left standing on this rock with only a vague sense of what that answer might be.
A nebulous feeling of what is and what is not.
And sometimes that feeling is enough in the moment to sooth whatever it is within us that asks such questions.
It is enough to allow us to feel as though we have been given an answer.
The real question is: What do we do with that answer?
I don’t know if any of this makes sense to you this morning. It just felt right for what I was feeling from the combined stimulus from the passage along with the painting at the top and the song below. There seemed to be some thread of sense running between the three, containing some sort of answer to whatever question I was asking.
But then again, I could be delusional. I wouldn’t be at all surprised– I hear there’s a lot of that going around.
The painting shown here is The Awakening, 24″ by 12″ on canvas, that is included in my solo show, Guiding Light, that opens at the West End Gallery next Friday, October 17. The Red Tree in it represents, for me, the growth from that sacrificed seed, the newly formed consciousness that feels the wonder of the world into which it has emerged. It seeks to understand the answers it feels it is being given.
The song below is a new song from the new album from Robert Plant called Saving Grace. It features the vocals of singer Suzi Dian and the group Plant. I really like this recent performance on Jools Holland’s show and felt it fit well with some of my work, including this new painting.
Feels like there’s an answer in there somewhere if I could just make it out…
Redtree Times 