In Voyages Past (2006) — Coming to West End Gallery
When my life is over, my time has run out
My friends and my loved ones, I’ll leave them no doubt (leave them no doubt)
But one thing’s for certain when it comes my time
I’ll leave this old world with a satisfied mind
—Satisfied Mind, Red Hayes & Jack Rhodes (1954)
We’ve talked about artistic satisfaction, or should I say dissatisfaction, in recent days. I am ending this week with a song for this Sunday Morning Music that is about a different sort of satisfaction– the satisfied mind. To my way of thinking, the artist can view their work with dissatisfaction but can still find and maintain a satisfied mind.
That seems contradictory, doesn’t it?
Maybe it is. But I believe not finding that ultimate and elusive satisfaction in your work doesn’t preclude the artist from finding satisfaction in their life and in their mind. After all, just being able to seek that artistic satisfaction, as maddening as the search sometimes seems, is a great privilege that most folks don’t experience in their life.
But it is an internal search. So long as the artist finds deeper levels of love and understanding, both in the giving and receiving of both, in their outer world, satisfaction is indeed within reach. It is possible.
I have often struggled with that inner artistic satisfaction and probably even more in finding a place where my mind feels satisfied. But as the years have passed, I am finding myself with that satisfied mind more and more often. It often comes in simply stopping and looking at the sky. In running my hand down the back of one of the cats. As I look out the window now, simply watching the snow fall brings a great sense of satisfaction.
I am alive. I have love. I have friendship. What more do I need to feel satisfied?
This week’s song is Satisfied Mind performed by the great Mavis Staples from her most recent album. She is the latest in a long, long line of artists who have recorded this song since it was written in 1954. It is considered a country music song and was written by Joe “Red” Hayes and Jack Rhodes. Hayes explained the origin of the song in an interview: “The song came from my mother. Everything in the song are things I heard her say over the years. I put a lot of thought into the song before I came up with the title. One day my father-in-law asked me who I thought the richest man in the world was, and I mentioned some names. He said, ‘You’re wrong; it is the man with a satisfied mind.'”
That pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it?
The painting shown here is a bit of an anomaly. It was painted as one of the pieces in my Outlaws series from 2006, but I never felt that this character truly fit outlaw as I was defining it with my work. I am always intrigued by this piece. He has always been a bit of an enigma to me, as though he is carrying untold secrets from a distant past within, yet finding his way to some degree of satisfaction in the present.
Isn’t that how most of us live? Maybe he’s not as much of an enigma as I thought. I am trying to get this piece, called In Voyages Past, ready to go the West End Gallery as part of a small supplemental group for their Little Gems show. It’s been slow going since both Cheri and I now still are feeling the effects of covid.
Even so, my mind is satisfied this morning. And that’s all I can ask.
Redtree Times 