Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Lost in Memory

Posted in Uncategorized on February 2, 2025| 2 Comments »

Lost in Memory— At West End Gallery

Every man has some reminiscences which he would not tell to everyone, but only to his friends. He has others which he would not reveal even to his friends, but only to himself, and that in secret. But finally there are still others which a man is even afraid to tell himself, and every decent man has a considerable number of such things stored away. That is, one can even say that the more decent he is, the greater the number of such things in his mind.

–Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground (1864)

This very small piece, Lost in Memory, is another included in the annual Little Gems show opening this coming Friday at the West End Gallery.

This painting may be little and simply constructed but it packs a potent punch, at least for me. It has its own atmosphere, one that reminds me of deeply hidden memory that sometimes pokes its head out when you least expect it. The kind of sharply felt reminiscences that are more like suddenly revealed secrets about yourself. The kind where a memory of a past moment suddenly takes on a new shape and form, one that you had either missed or denied at the time.

And its disconcerting because it changes your understanding of much of what came after that moment. In some cases, it brings new understanding. In others, it only raises further questions that may never be answered. It remains hanging there in the void of your memory, occasionally bumping against your consciousness to remind you that it still lingers with you.

You may or may not understand what I am saying here. It’s not something one can fully clarify without releasing parts of themself that beg to remain packed away in their secret store of memories.

That is what I see in this little piece. Something in it– perhaps the saturation of the colors or the placement of the sparse elements– adds a quality that is hard to put a pin in.

To go with this Little Gem, this week’s Sunday Morning Musical selection is a jazz standard that seems to possess that same sort of atmosphere that I am getting from this painting. It’s Goodbye Pork Pie Hat from legendary jazzman Charles Mingus in 1959.

It’s a song written as an elegy for saxophonist Lester Young who had died several months before and was known for always wearing that particular style of hat. This song has been reinterpreted in multiple ways by a wide variety of artists and had a couple of differing sets of lyrics added to it but the original stands alone for me with its depth and moodiness.

Read Full Post »

Eye of the Trickster

Posted in Uncategorized on February 1, 2025| 1 Comment »

Eye of the Trickster— At West End Gallery

You have but little more to do than throw up your cap for entertainment these American days…. Farmers’ sons will stare by the hour to see a juggler draw ribbons from his throat, though he tells them it is all deception. Surely, men love darkness rather than light.

–Henry David Thoreau. The Succession of Forest Trees speech, 1860

This is another Little Gem that like King of the Night Forest, which I featured here several days back, is a bit of a departure from my normal landscapes. Like that painting, this one, The Eye of the Trickster, is based on a mythology not yet fully formed. Not sure it ever will be completely fleshed out.

Maybe it doesn’t need to be. I think we all understand and recognize the role of the trickster, the charlatan, in our world, though it is seldom, if ever, a necessary or beneficial role. Maybe the purpose of the trickster in myths around the world is to warn us about being deceived by diversion or sleight of hand or of being too trusting of those who promise us magical results. 

I hadn’t thought of this until just now but perhaps that is what the eye in the upper right-hand quarter of this piece represents– an appeal to us to keep our eyes sharply focused on the trickster, to not fall prey to his attempts to divert our attention away from the true nature of his actions. 

As I said when writing about King of the Night Forest, I enjoyed working on these unusual pieces as well as how they emerged in the end. Going into each piece, I never know who or what is going to emerge. Or why. Maybe that uncertainty is what makes it a very satisfying process, along with the fact that it takes a lot of focus to maintain a constant balancing of color and shape and marks.

I end up feel a little like the juggler Thoreau referenced in the passage above. A lot of balls in the air and when done, I will pull a seemingly endless multicolored ribbon from my throat.

Maybe the Trickster here is me? 

Could be. I never said I wasn’t. A true Trickster would never admit to that.

But then again, maybe the trick is on me and everything that seems real to me is just illusion. I end up not being the trickster, only a pretender. 

Hmm…

Here’s a song that kind of ties into this. It’s a song to which I have always responded strongly but for some reason often falls out of my listening rotation for many years. This is The Pretender from Jackson Browne.  

Read Full Post »

The Resistance

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on January 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The Resistance– At West End Gallery

We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds: we have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretense; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open; intolerable conflicts have worn us down and even made us cynical. Are we still of any use? What we shall need is not geniuses, or cynics, or misanthropes, or clever tacticians, but plain, honest, straightforward men. Will our inward power of resistance be strong enough, and our honesty with ourselves remorseless enough, for us to find our way back to simplicity and straightforwardness?

–Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

I see this new painting, The Resistance, as being about the willingness to stand one’s ground when the prevailing winds bellow against, trying to force you in a direction in which you do not want to go. You can read that interpretation as being political, topical, or merely symbolic of one holding tight to their principles. It’s a painting, ostensibly a piece of art, so that’s up to you.

Whatever the case, it’s a little piece that speaks loudly for me which is why I had not hesitation in coupling it with the words at the top from Dietrich Boenhoeffer. He and his writings, especially his posthumous Letter and Papers from Prison, are the subject of what has easily been my most popular blog post, On Stupidity.

Dietrich Boenhoeffer (1906-1945) was a German pastor and theological writer who stood in direct opposition to the Nazi regime and spoke out against its programs of eugenics, euthanasia, and genocide. He fled Germany and had an opportunity to stay in the US in the late 1930’s, safe from the reach of the Nazis. But after only two weeks in NYC, he insisted on returning, believing that if he were to rebuild the German church in the war’s aftermath, he must endure the conflict with its people.  In June of 1939, he returned and joined the German resistance to Hitler and Naziism.

He was imprisoned in a German prison in 1943 and later transferred to a concentration camp. He was implicated in a plot to assassinate Hitler in April of 1945 and was sentenced to death after a court martial trial in which there were no witnesses, evidence or any form of defense provided for him. He was hanged in the final days of the war. The legacy of his courage and the strength of his resistance are still celebrated around the free world today.

As I said, this painting may represent that sort of resistance for you. You might well just see it as simply being about a strong wind blowing against a person and a tree. Or you might be a bit of a contrarian (as I am) and see it as a symbol of not being swayed by popular opinion as symbolized by the wind’s effect here. Or you might expand that reading of this painting and see it in an existential sense. Again, that decision is your privilege and responsibility.

However you see it, I hope you see something for and of yourself in it.

This small painting, The Resistance, is 3″ by 3″ on paper, and is now at the West End Gallery for their annual Little Gems exhibit. The show is hung in the gallery for viewing now and the opening reception is next Friday, February 7.

Here’s a song from Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band to go with this all. Maybe it’s a little too on the nose but the song is Against the Wind. For some unknown reason, I have never shared anything from Bob Seger here even though I was big fan of his work, especially in the 70’s and 80’s. I think it’s just a case of holding on to some things and losing track of others. But it’s almost always solid stuff.

Read Full Post »

Cloud Flyer

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on January 30, 2025| 2 Comments »

Cloud Flyer– At West End Gallery

In a time of sceptic moths and cynic rusts,
And fattened lives that of their sweetness tire
In a world of flying loves and fading lusts,
It is something to be sure of a desire.

Lo, blessed are our ears for they have heard;
Yea, blessed are our eyes for they have seen:
Let the thunder break on man and beast and bird
And the lightning. It is something to have been.


–G. K. Chesterton, The Great Minimum (1917)

The new small painting at the top is titled Cloud Flyer and is now at the West End Gallery as part of their annual Little Gems exhibit. I showed my work for the first time ever at their first Little Gems show back in 1995. The show has proven to be one of their most popular shows every year since. I know it’s one of mine, both in painting for it and seeing the small work of the other artists.

It seems to go against logic but there seems to be something freeing in painting on a small scale. Maybe it’s because it feels less daunting facing a small unintimidating surface than being confronted with the broad blankness of a large canvas.

Or maybe because of the size there is only one take, to use a movie term. There are no preliminary sketches or studies. I know many artists who work in a 3-step process of first creating a small loose study then transfer it to a slightly larger version that is a bit tighter in its painting. They then attempt to transfer everything they have gleaned from the first two studies to a large and totally finished final painting. With few exceptions, when I get to see all the stages of a painting done in this way, the first sketch is generally the most alive of the three. It is fresh and free and, unlike the later stages, not trying to recapture something that may have been unintended when it emerged. The final painting often ends up feeling like a copy of something else other than what it is.

I don’t work that way. My belief has been that every painting ends up being a rehearsal for the next. Therefore, you should strive to paint each piece, no matter its size or significance, in the same manner. I think it creates consistency in the quality of the work, something that transcends its size. I feel that every small piece I have done for all the Little Gems shows over the years is a work unto its own.

That’s certainly how I feel about this small painting. It has things in it that I know I would be hard-pressed to recreate it on a larger scale and still maintain the original unique feel of this one. An angle here or there would be off, the composition and colors would be altered in some way, and it might feel a little stilted. Contrived. It wouldn’t be the same. And for me, that’s the way it should be.

This piece has its own life and a sense of freshness. This was one of the first pieces I worked on for this show and I can’t tell you how much I springboarded off the energy this little guy provided. It was like a little jolt of lightning hitting me at a time when I needed it.

That’s the reason I chose the section from the G.K. Chesterton poem, The Great Minimum, at the top. That final line– And the lightning. It is something to have been. — just kills me. The rest of the poem, as I read it, is about the small joys of being alive, how each small thing brings value to this world, and nothing is insignificant.

Little things mean a lot.

Of course, I could be wrong. We all read things differently with our own set of filters and desires for what we want to see and hear. 

For me, it fits this painting. And this exhibit.

Below is a version of the poem performed as a song by the Nicole Ensing Band. I liked this better than some of the dryer straight recitals of it. They do a nice job with it. Below that is the whole poem if you would like to read along.

The Great Minimum

It is something to have wept as we have wept,
It is something to have done as we have done,
It is something to have watched when all men slept,
And seen the stars which never see the sun.

It is something to have smelt the mystic rose,
Although it break and leave the thorny rods,
It is something to have hungered once as those
Must hunger who have ate the bread of gods.

To have seen you and your unforgotten face,
Brave as a blast of trumpets for the fray,
Pure as white lilies in a watery space,
It were something, though you went from me today.

To have known the things that from the weak are furled,
Perilous ancient passions, strange and high;
It is something to be wiser than the world,
It is something to be older than the sky.

In a time of sceptic moths and cynic rusts,
And fatted lives that of their sweetness tire,
In a world of flying loves and fading lusts,
It is something to be sure of a desire.

Lo, blessed are our ears for they have heard;
Yea, blessed are our eyes for they have seen:
Let thunder break on man and beast and bird
And the lightning. It is something to have been.

— G.K. Chesterton

 

Read Full Post »

A Secret Sun

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on January 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

A Secret Sun— At West End Gallery

And they’re only going to change this place
By killing everybody in the human race
They would kill me for a cigarette
But I don’t even wanna die just yet

There has to be an invisible sun
It gives its heat to everyone
There has to be an invisible sun
That gives us hope when the whole day’s done

–Invisible Sun, The Police, 1981

After finishing this new small painting, it reminded me of something but I couldn’t figure out what. I wanted to find the connection so that it might help me find a title for this piece. That’s how I often title my work, from subtle — and some not so subtle– nudges coming from the work that spark loose connections in my mind.

Was it something I saw or read? Was it because of the red sun? It bugged me for a while but I finally let it go and just worked from what I was seeing.

The red of the sun here made me think that it was not normal, that it had a significant difference for those that saw it. The way it was partially obscured by the trees made me think it was trying to remain unseen, as though it were not for everyone’s eyes.

A secret sun? That’s pretty much how the title to this small painting, A Secret Sun, came about.

But that first reminder of something I couldn’t put my finger on still vexed me. I carry bunches of these vexing little questions around in my head– names, faces, movies, songs, books, and so on that I can’t quite remember. Every so often I will be painting or doing something else, maybe making my way through the woods to the studio in the morning, and suddenly the answer to one of these questions pops into my head.

The initial question and everything around it seems suddenly clear. I sometimes yell out, “That’s it!” like I’m Charlie Brown after the psychiatrist Lucy asks if might be suffering from pantophobia, the fear of everything.

Just remembering the answer one simple and sometimes stupid questions that naggingly lingers in my mind is as satisfying a thing as I can’t think of at the moment. I will probably think of something else later and will be equally pleased then.

Just the other day, the connection that couldn’t recall to this little painting, suddenly came to mind. It was an old Police song, from their 1981 Synchronicity album. It was a favorite album back in the day but one that I hadn’t heard fully in many years. The song was Invisible Sun. which was about a sun we couldn’t see but gave us warmth and hope.

It fit perfectly with what I was seeing in this painting. It seems today that we almost need a secret sun to keep us warm and hopeful as the one that we all can see now gives us heat but not much hope.

And maybe that secret sun is not even a sun. Maybe it is something else that fills us with hope but goes unnoticed by many others?

I don’t know. That question will nag at me, no doubt. But I feel pretty good about getting the one about A Secret Sun out of my head.

Here’s the original Police song, Invisible Sun.

A Secret Sun is 3″by 5″ on paper and is now hanging with the Little Gems exhibit at the West End Gallery. The show opens with a reception on Friday, February 7 but the work is up and available for previews and presales.

Read Full Post »

Blue Flow

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on January 28, 2025| 2 Comments »

Blue Flow– At West End Gallery

“To overcome the anxieties and depressions of contemporary life, individuals must become independent of the social environment to the degree that they no longer respond exclusively in terms of its rewards and punishments. To achieve such autonomy, a person has to learn to provide rewards to herself. She has to develop the ability to find enjoyment and purpose regardless of external circumstances.”

― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

This is another new small painting now at the West End Gallery in Corning, NY. It is titled Blue Flow and is a tidy 2.5″ by 2.5″ on paper. It is right on the mark for the annual Little Gems show at the gallery which opens on February 7.

I chose the passage above from late psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi to go along with this painting today. Csikszentmihalyi first introduced the concept of flow in 1975 and his 1990 book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, which I have discussed here in the past, became a classic in the field of positive psychology.

Flow is basically being in the zone in a creative sense, shutting out all external noise and distraction to deeply focus on the task at hand. It is described as being at that point of balance found when one’s skill level meets its highest challenge. Flow has become a well-worn term for musicians of the highest skill level. You now often hear the word used to describe the soaring solos of guitarists like Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughan.

I often use the term rhythm in describing that hyper focused state of creating. It also involves doing whatever is being done for the sole purpose of doing it. It doesn’t depend on the approval or consent of anyone other than its creator.

It’s a letting go of that which is outside– fears and doubts– and just going with the flow.

There’s a lot more involved in his book on the subject but for my purposes today I am going with the simplest form of flow and how it symbolically relates to this little piece. I see the blue stream as being the flow of creativity and the distant sun as its endpoint. Everything around it is in tones of gray and black, their colors lost in the act of focusing on the flow of creation.

It’s a simple reading of it, of course. But sometimes the best pieces find their power in that simplicity. I think that’s the case here.

I came across a song from an artist who was not on my radar. His name is Shawn James and the song is fittingly called Flow. I liked the song a lot, both in sound and meaning, and have enjoyed listening to his other music this morning. Solid stuff. Look forward to hearing more. Here’s a taste:

So you think you got it all figured out?
All this money in the bank and the women all about
Well, now what you gonna do when your ship starts to sink?
Caught in a monstrous sea and you won’t be able to think
Yeah, and it’s there you’ll learn what I know
That all of this world will fade
You gotta learn to let it all go, oh
And flow like the river

Read Full Post »

Balance/ Wyeth

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on January 27, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Andrew Wyeth-That Gentleman

It’s all in how you arrange the thing… the careful balance of the design is the motion.

-Andrew Wyeth

I am running a bit late this morning but wanted to share the post below from several years ago, to feature the paintings of Andrew Wyeth but to also highlight the importance of balance in any work of art. I have lately been trying to reconcile the desire to have large fields of color within my work that will have instant visual impact with the need to also have balance and a sense of motion for the eye within the piece, even in pieces that depict stark stillness. It’s one of those esoteric conundrums in every piece of work with an answer that is only known after the fact– you don’t know what it is until you see it and even then, you don’t know how you got there. 

It’s something I can’t easily explain, if at all. But for this morning it serves as an excuse to look at some wonderful Wyeth pieces.

I recently read this quote from the late Andrew Wyeth then looked over a large group of his work, examining each piece with these words in mind. I could really see the importance of the placement of the elements in his work, how it was the characteristic that truly defined his work. It was this that gave his work a poetic feel.

His use of negative space is masterful, the empty areas taking on an important role in the overall feel of the work. Placing the central character, the focal point of the picture, in any in any other spot would change the whole piece, would make it feel less.

It would feel off balance, at least in the form that Wyeth defined it. That balance is his signature.

And I think that is true for many artists. This idea of balance and motion makes up the artist’s eye. Every artist has a slightly different way of seeing things which creates their own unique visual voice.

Myself, when I feel stuck or blocked or feel that I have painted myself into a creative dead end, I look back at older work. It is often the balance and motion with the composition that affect me the most. It serves as a reminder to not lose sight of this idea of balance, to not focus too  much on other parts of the painting that, while important, may not have as much effect on the overall impact of the piece.

Balance in the design creates motion. Good advice from Mr. Wyeth.

 

 

 

Andrew Wyeth– Spring Fed,1967

Read Full Post »

Eclipse

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on January 26, 2025| 4 Comments »

Nations, like stars, are entitled to eclipse. All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul.

–Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (1862)

Eclipse– At West End Gallery

Perhaps all people sometimes live through periods of eclipse, times when the light on which we depend seems to go away. Science tells us now that the light will soon return but to those who lived in the earlier ages of man, the sudden departure of light must have felt apocalyptic. I can only imagine the fearful panic and worry that must have filled them, not knowing if the light would ever return. Wondering if their lives, their futures, would be forever changed. How would they survive?

Maybe I don’t have to imagine. Maybe we are now in the time of a great eclipse.

I don’t know. But those feelings that our distant ancestors must have felt when the last bit of light they saw was obscured seem closer to the surface now, not lost in the mire of our long dormant DNA memories.

I want to believe that like the natural type of eclipse, the darkness of this cultural eclipse will soon give way to a reappearance of light. And I think it will.

The question is how long will this eclipse linger? Will our desire to see the light once more hasten its return? Or will we learn to dwell in a state of constant darkness, forgetting all that the light once gave to us?

Again, I don’t know. Not sure than anyone out there has a credible answer, one way or the other. All we can do is bide our time, lighting candles and torches against the darkness. Keeping light alive somehow.

After I finished this small painting, Eclipse, I knew that I liked it on a surface level. I liked it simplicity, forms, and colors. It seemed to work, to have a life energy. But I also felt that it was offering a message beyond its surface appeal.

This symbolic idea of an eclipse was the first thing that entered my mind at that point. I often attach symbolic meanings to my work that might only apply to my own interpretation. You might not see it that way at all. After all, we all perceive the world around us in different ways with different preferences and prejudices.

You might think that an eclipse is just an eclipse, and a cigar is just a cigar. That’s okay. We all take what we want and need from art. In this case, I see the bigger symbolism of this little piece and find myself waiting for, as Hugo put it, dawn and resurrection.

For this week’s Sunday Morning Music, here’s a song that I have shared a few times over the years. It’s alive version of Darkness on the Face of the Earth from Willie Nelson with Emmylou Harris sitting in. He wrote the song in 1962 and it was originally released that year by Hawkshaw Hawkins, who was a big country star at the time. He died in the same plane crash in 1963 that killed Patsy Cline. Nelson released the version on which this performance is based on his 1998 album, Teatro. Great album.

Eclipse is a 2″ by 4″ piece on paper that is now at the West End Gallery for their annual Little Gems show, opening February 7.

Read Full Post »

King of the Night Forest

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on January 25, 2025| 3 Comments »

King of the Night Forest — At West End Gallery

The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.

–John Muir, July 1890

I have mentioned that one of the things I like best about doing work for the annual Little Gems exhibit at the West End Gallery is that I get to work on new themes and directions. The smaller format is ideal for exploring new things– different color combinations, compositions, elements, etc. Over the 31 editions of  this show, some once new things have become regular visitors to my work where others have been limited to their one and only appearance.

This year’s show has one distinctly different entry– actually, two paintings of the same sort– to the body of my work. I very much enjoyed working on these and found myself looking at them constantly after they were done. If that means they will become part of my regular rotation for years to come or are simply a one-time entry for this time remains to be seen.

Some of my favorite themes had limited lifespans within the body of my work. Of course, I always reserve the right to revisit these themes in the future so they may not be really finished within the body of my work. Just paused. For example, my popular Archaeology series flourished for a year or two then moved to a place within my body of work where it shows itself every few years. And even then, it only appears in a handful of new pieces, maybe only two or three.

Sometimes, it simply depends on what I need to see in the work for myself. This work starts off as being explicitly for myself. While I might be pleased if others take to them, it doesn’t really matter to me so long as they spark some sort of excitement within me that can I carry with me into my other work.

There are two distinct pieces from this show that fall into this category. I don’t know where they fit yet or if they will become regular visitors. Or maybe they will become regulars that will never be shown outside my studio. Work for me alone.

The jury is still out on this new work. I like these new pieces a lot. They excite me, both in the process and in the way they carry their own different story and mythology. Maybe I need that new mythos right now in order to make sense of the bizarreness of what I see unfolding here recently. It leaves me feeling me more alone than ever and even more unmoored, as though the past I thought I knew and relied on was no more. 

Kind of like that feeling of which George Orwell wrote in 1984:

He felt as though he were wandering in the forests of the sea bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was the monster. He was alone. The past was dead, the future was unimaginable.

Maybe I simply needed to see something different, something with its own reality, its own history and mythology. This work seems to fit that bill. Whether it remains it another question. I could see them effectively translated as much larger work– 4′ by 4′, for example. It would make for a dramatic and bold statement. But whether I go that route is unknown right now.

The first of these paintings is shown above. It is a little over 6″ by 6″ on paper and I call it King of the Night Forest. The title came from when I used to walk in the dark down to my home from my first studio that was up in the woods. I often did that walk without a flashlight or without any visible lights to guide me and found that the forest took on a whole different character in that darkness. Every sensation, every sound, every smell was magnified as I felt my way down the hill with my feet. Where I could peer deep into the forest during the day, I was now met with a deep blanket of opaque blackness.

The imagination could run wild. Maybe there were eyes watching from just beyond that wall of darkness? Maybe some being I didn’t recognize who only came out when the dimension of blackness. Maybe a whole civilization that lived in a dimension just a shade beyond our own, so near that in those dark moments when I found myself rubbing up against their dimension they could observe me. Maybe they were wondering what sort of strange beast was moving their space.

Perhaps one of those times it was the King of the Night Forest watching me slowly make my way in the blackness. 

I began these faces because they allow me to use pattern and color in their making. It really doesn’t feel much different to me than the process I often use in creating some of my landscapes that incorporate more colors, shapes, and patterns than is typical for my work. It is only the form and the narrative that emerges that is different. 

Where it goes from here, I don’t know. For now, it satisfies something with me that was in need of something new.

This painting, King of the Night Forest, and the other which I will show here in the coming days are available at the West End Gallery as part of this year’s Little Gems exhibit. The show officially opens Friday, February 7 but the work is now in the gallery and available for previews. 

I didn’t have a song in mind for this painting but right now, I feel like hearing Patti Smith and her 1978 collaboration with Bruce Springsteen, Because the Night.

Maybe it fits. If not here, maybe in the Night Forest.

Read Full Post »

Of the Empire/ Mary Oliver

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on January 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The Blue Moon Calls– At West End Gallery

Of The Empire

We will be known as a culture that feared death
and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity
for the few and cared little for the penury of the
many. We will be known as a culture that taught
and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke
little if at all about the quality of life for
people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All
the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a
commodity. And they will say that this structure
was held together politically, which it was, and
they will say also that our politics was no more
than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of
the heart, and that the heart, in those days,
was small, and hard, and full of meanness.

–Mary Oliver, Red Bird (2008)

The question is: When the collective heart of a people has become small, and hard, and full of meanness, can a person keep their own heart from becoming the same?

Or maybe it should be: Is the condition of the collective heart, now small, and hard, and full of meanness, terminal? Can it ever be reversed so that one day in the future it will be said that we were a people whose heart was large, and soft, and filled with warmth and kindness?

Of course, only time will reveal the answers to these questions.

Time is, after all, the ultimate revelator.

On that note, here’s one of my all-time favorite songs, The Revelator, from Gillian Welch. When I worked in my first and much more rustic studio (no phone, TV, internet, or other distraction) up in the woods in the early 2000’s, this song was in heavy rotation on my playlist.

I imagine most of you know who Mary Oliver (1935-2019) was but for those of you not familiar, she was perhaps the best known and bestselling contemporary American poet in recent times. I have featured her work, including her best-known poem Wild Geese, several times in the past.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »