Beheld— Now at West End Gallery
… I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
-T.S. Eliot, East Coker, The Four Quartets (1940)
“Whenever I read this passage from T.S. Eliot, I am inevitably moved by his words. The interesting thing is that while my response is always strong, my personal interpretation of it, how I relate it to my own experience and knowledge, sometimes varies wildly.
And I suppose that is much like looking at a work of art. The day, the moment, the circumstance and context in which we see it– these things and more often dictate our response and our relationship to art.“
I have been spending the morning looking at paintings that would satisfy the requirements for the painting to be given away at the Gallery Talk I will be giving at the West End Gallery next Saturday, November 1.
You wouldn’t think there would be requirements or rules for such a thing but there are.
First, it has to be a real painting, something I would proudly show. Not something that makes me go “Yikes!” when I come across it now like some experiment from the distant past that makes me wonder what I was thinking when I did that.
I have plenty of those and wouldn’t push them off on anyone.
The selected painting must also have to be substantial, not a tiny little piece. That means it has real value, yes. But more than that, it means that I dedicated a lot of time, effort, and maybe even a little thought in creating it. I say maybe for the thought part because sometimes thinking less works better for me when I am working.
The painting I choose also has to have meaning for me personally. It has to hurt to see it go. These are usually paintings that have spent a little more time with me here in the studio and, as a result, my relationship with them has evolved and changed a bit since they were created.
I found that especially true while going through a group of paintings that have been narrowed down to as the finalists for my choice. I wrote the two short paragraphs at the top that accompanied the beautiful words of T.S. Eliot several years ago, writing about how our perception of some art is not static and always the same. It changes because we change, the time changes, our mfood changes, our experience changes, etc.
Something we thought of in one way then can often strike us in a different way now. The feeling that was once so near the surface deepens as layers of personal meaning are added over time.
I still have to make the final choice. Maybe I’ll let you know tomorrow. Maybe not. Who knows? But rest assured it will meet my requirements, and it will be painting that will make me both happy and sad to give away.
The painting at the top, Beheld, is 12″ by 12″ on canvas. Note that it is not the painting to be given away. It is included in my current exhibit, Guiding Light, at the West End Gallery. The show is hanging until November 13.
A week from today, on Saturday, November 1 I will be giving away the aforementioned and still unchosen painting at my Gallery Talk at the West End Gallery, beginning at 11 AM. As always, the Gallery Talk is free and open to everyone.
Here’s a song that has been stuck in my head in recent days. It’s Out With the Crow from a group called the Haunted Windchimes. Kind of Halloween-y, right?
Redtree Times 