Redtree Times

The Natural Life— Coming to West End Gallery

Are we more vitally conscious than an Egyptian 3000 years B.C. was? Are we? Probably we are less. Our conscious range is wide, but shallow as a sheet of paper. We have no depth to our consciousness. A rising thing is a passing thing, says Buddha.

–D.H. Lawrence, Apocalypse (1931)

I wasn’t sure how to write about this new painting, The Natural Life. There are a lot of things in it, obvious strengths, that could send its meaning in a number of directions for anyone viewing it.  My own perception was that it represented the Red Tree as being not only part of the natural world; it was the natural world in itself.

I don’t know that I can fully explain what I mean by that or what I am inferring beyond it.

One analogy would be that there are musicians who play music, often at the highest skill levels. Then there are musicians who are music. Their instincts and understanding of music are part of their being, ingrained in them, so that nothing that is music is alien to them.

The music is them and they are music just as nature is the Red Tree and the Red Tree is nature.

Does that make any sense at all? It’s just after 5 AM and I am sore and tired, so it might just be a jumble of words. I did point out at the beginning that I wasn’t sure how to write about this painting. You were warned.

That thought sort of glides into the passage at the top from D.H. Lawrence’s final book, Apocalypse. The Red Tree, being nature and part of it, has a consciousness of all those things in the natural world that surround it. It deeply understands its purpose, knows how it fits and harmonizes within the natural world.

A harmony of being.

To Lawrence’s words, we were once like the Red Tree, enmeshed in and part of nature. In effect, we were nature.

But over the ages we have become less and less part of nature. Harmony has been lost. Our knowledge of the world has grown exponentially but the average person is less conscious of the natural world around them. It is knowledge without understanding.

I often think that the ancient cultures and even those farmers working small farms in the 1800’s had a greater understanding and consciousness of the surrounding natural world than we do in our time with all its advances in technology and science. Their very existence depended on this knowledge and their ability to find harmony with the land, water, and weather. We, on the other hand, give little thought to the natural world outside of how it sometimes inconveniences us with bad weather that knocks out our cable or internet connections.

This is beginning to sound like an old man rant.

It’s not, say the ranting old man as he stops shaking his fist at the sky. I am disengaged from nature as well, sitting here at 5 AM writing this in front of a glowing computer monitor, listening to streaming music. To be honest, I didn’t even look up at the night sky as I walked over here. Couldn’t tell you if it was clear and starry or cloudy. I can tell you that it was not raining and that I did hear the distant hoot of an owl far into the woods. I don’t think either of those qualifies as a consciousness of my part in the natural world.

Yet I aspire to have that consciousness. To understand my place and purpose in nature. To be nature, even in the smallest of ways, if that’s possible.

In short, it’s that aspirational aspect that this painting represents to me, even if I gave a tortured explanation in getting to this point. The elemental feel in its representation of water, land, and sky make me desirous of finding the sort of harmony I find in its lines, forms, and colors that allow me a glimpse of what once was and what might one day be again.

But then again, that’s just the opinion of the old guy out shaking his fist at the sky.

Not sure if any of this makes sense. Take it for what it’s worth. Here’s song as reward for sticking with me this long today. This is a favorite that I last played here in 2009. Guess I can play it again now without feeling that I am overdoing it. This is People Got a Lotta Nerve from Neko Case. It may or not have anything to do with this post. It’s your call.

 The Natural Life is 18″ by 24″ on canvas and is included in The Jubilee Dance, my 25th solo exhibit at the West End Gallery that opens Friday, October 16. There is an opening reception at the gallery on October 16 that runs from 5-7 PM. I will be there. Just look for the uncomfortable looking gray-haired guy ranting and shaking his fist.