Redtree Times

Ecclesiastes (1995)

To everything (Turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (Turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

— Turn! Turn! Turn!  Pete Seeger (1959)

The painting above was painted in 1995 and for probably the last 27 or 28 years been in a closet, in an unseen stack of old work, most of which deserved to be in there. I pulled it out recently and took it out of the cheap frame that held it so I could better examine it. There was so much I liked about it that I wondered why I had kept it under wraps for so long.

It has an earthiness in its colors, an organic quality in the roll of its lines and forms, and an overglaze of cobalt blue that left a wonderful sedimentation in the sky that excites me now in the same way I am sure it did 31 years ago. It also had a title that tells me that I held it in high esteem at the time: Ecclesiastes.

I have mentioned a number of times that I was not raised with any religion but some of the stories and literature of the Bible came to me in other forms. I learned a lot from my reading, from grade school presentations where a local church lady would tell biblical stories with a felt board, and, surprisingly, from watching Jeopardy with Art Fleming in the 60’s and from my reading.

And also, from listening to music.

It would most likely have taken me many years to discover the book of Ecclesiastes if not for the adaptation of its words into a folk song, Turn! Turn! Turn!, written by Pete Seeger in 1959. And I only learned of that from The Byrds’ cover of it in 1965. Their single was never far from the turntable of our stereo console in the 60’s and those opening chords still give me a satisfying chill.

My use of that painting’s title stemmed from that song and meant that I saw something important for me in it back in 1995. Why I had chosen to ignore it, even hiding it away, for so long remains a mystery. And I guess it doesn’t matter. I have had it out with me in my painting area for a couple of weeks now and it gets many look every day. I am really intrigued and pleased by it, maybe even more that I was when it was first painted. That probably comes from me seeing in it the importance it then held for me as a leading edge of what I was doing then.  Even though its mine, I don’t know that I could paint this today. It would be different and most likely not better in any way.

You can never fully recreate those things which truly capture a moment in your development, in art and in life.

For now, I am enjoying this painting’s presence and the reminder that comes from its title, that to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.

Here are The Byrds and Turn! Turn! Turn!.

I was going to tell you to Git! but I think I would like you to stay and give a good listen.

I am enjoying your company this morning,