In the Pocket of Time (2014)- Included in A Seedling Returns
Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings.
Not all things are blest, but the
seeds of all things are blest.
The blessing is in the seed.
–Muriel Rukeyser, The Green Wave (1948)
The blessing is in the seed…
Everything we accomplish or attempt has a seed, a beginning.
About five weeks back, I started a blog post with the lines above in a post titled A Seedling Returns. In that post I wrote about how instrumental the Gmeiner Art & Cultural Center in Wellsboro PA had been in my career as an artist. I was, as the post implies, a mere seedling as an artist. At that point, I was then showing my little paintings at the West End Gallery and had few expectations that this painting thing I had begun after an accident a couple of years before would become any more than a pleasant pastime or, at best, a part-time gig.
But two events at the Gmeiner changed everything for me. The first was an award in their regional at competition, something that caught me completely off guard. That was the first real nourishment for my seed, making me believe for the first time that this might actually be something, that there might be a path I hadn’t dared to consider.
This all took place around the time my mom’s life was coming to an end as result of metastatic cancer. I had painted a series of what I considered personal paintings, Exiles, expressing my emotional response to her struggle and death. I felt the series deserved to be shown together and approached the Gmeiner. I really had no idea if they would accept my proposal but much to my surprise, they did, setting me up for a solo show in January of 1997.
It was my first solo show.
That show was huge boost for me mentally. It changed my perceptions entirely. It was the first time I felt that my work was something more than nice colors and pleasant forms. It truly had something to say, something to express. Meaning and purpose. Something that reached across the space between the viewer and the painting and connected the two.
That shift of perception rattled my world.
Looking back now, I can see the significance of several moments of serendipity that have pushed me along this path. Both the West End Gallery and the Gmeiner loom large in that progression at that time. When I was asked to put together a small showcase in conjunction with Big Gems exhibit that the West End and the Gmeiner had collaborated on, I saw it as an opportunity to return to a significant starting point as an act of gratitude for all that it has meant to me over the years.
A Seedling Returns is not a retrospective in any way. The space for the showcase is too small for such a thing. Instead, it is more an expression of what has grown from the seed they first nourished.
Last week, the Big Gems exhibit, along with A Seedling Returns, opened. It is a take-off on the West End’s very popular annual show, Little Gems, but here combines the small works with much larger works of artists from the West End Gallery. The Big Gems exhibit is wonderful collection of work from eleven, me included, of the West End’s artists.
This afternoon, Saturday, July 25th, there is an Opening Reception for the exhibits that runs from 2-4 PM at the Gmeiner. There is also a painting demo from master painter Brian Keeler, whose two Big Gems glow on the wall of the Gmeiner. Brian’s demo is not to be missed.
I shared this song just a couple of years ago but felt it fit too well not to share again, This is From the Beginning from Emerson, Lake and Palmer.