Slow Dance in Blue— Coming to the West End Gallery
With my ninth mind I resurrect my first and dance slow to the music of my soul made new.
–Aberjhani, Visions of a Skylark Dressed in Black (2012)
This aphorism from American poet/author Aberjhani (b. 1957) stood out for me this morning while I was looking for something with which to kick off this post. It seemed to mesh well with what I was seeing in the new painting shown here, Slow Dance in Blue.
Now I don’t know if I have or have had nine minds. I may well have had more than one, maybe three or four. Maybe even five or six. But I can’t vouch for nine. In the end, I guess it doesn’t matter. You work with what you have at any given moment, for better or worse.
Sometimes it feels like I am out there without even one mind.
I am, however, intrigued by the idea that if I indeed had multiple minds, I might use a later mind to resurrect my first– the original, I suppose– and, by doing so, my soul is reawakened, made new.
A reboot. A clean slate.
A soul made new, now that is reason to dance. But how do you dance to such a thing? Is it a dance of jubilation and energy? Or is a slow dance, one where you move to the rhythm of the world that is unique to you? A slow dance that expresses both the sorrow and joy of being? A slow dance that finds the joy in our sorrows and the sorrow in our joys?
A slow dance that expresses our solitary gratitude for simply watching the moon rise?
I don’t know. Maybe it is all of these things. Maybe it is none.
In this case, knowing is not nearly so important as instinctively responding to the feeling that fills the moment.
Sometimes that results in a slow dance in the moonlight, alone but not lonely. Not quite sad and not quite happy. Just content to be there, softly moving to the music and rhythm of that moment.
That is what I see in this painting.
This 8″ by 16″ canvas is soon heading to the West End Gallery for The Jubilee Dance, this year’s edition of my annual solo exhibit there. The show opens on Friday, October 16, with an Opening Reception that runs from 5-7 PM.
Here’s a song that feels custom made for this painting. It’s from Miles Davis in 1959, his version of an old Rodgers and Hart showtune from the 40’s, It Never Entered My Mind. It is blue bit bright. Lovely stuff for a Thursday morning in a sometimes-anxious September.