Redtree Times

Beheld— Now at West End Gallery

… I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love

For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith

But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:

So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

-T.S. Eliot, East Coker, The Four Quartets (1940)

“Whenever I read this passage from T.S. Eliot, I am inevitably moved by his words. The interesting thing is that while my response is always strong, my personal interpretation of it, how I relate it to my own experience and knowledge, sometimes varies wildly.

And I suppose that is much like looking at a work of art. The day, the moment, the circumstance and context in which we see it– these things and more often dictate our response and our relationship to art.“

I have been spending the morning looking at paintings that would satisfy the requirements for the painting to be given away at the Gallery Talk I will be giving at the West End Gallery next Saturday, November 1.

You wouldn’t think there would be requirements or rules for such a thing but there are.

First, it has to be a real painting, something I would proudly show. Not something that makes me go “Yikes!” when I come across it now like some experiment from the distant past that makes me wonder what I was thinking when I did that.

I have plenty of those and wouldn’t push them off on anyone.

The selected painting must also have to be substantial, not a tiny little piece. That means it has real value, yes. But more than that, it means that I dedicated a lot of time, effort, and maybe even a little thought in creating it. I say maybe for the thought part because sometimes thinking less works better for me when I am working.

The painting I choose also has to have meaning for me personally. It has to hurt to see it go. These are usually paintings that have spent a little more time with me here in the studio and, as a result, my relationship with them has evolved and changed a bit since they were created.

I found that especially true while going through a group of paintings that have been narrowed down to as the finalists for my choice. I wrote the two short paragraphs at the top that accompanied the beautiful words of T.S. Eliot several years ago, writing about how our perception of some art is not static and always the same. It changes because we change, the time changes, our mfood changes, our experience changes, etc.

Something we thought of in one way then can often strike us in a different way now. The feeling that was once so near the surface deepens as layers of personal meaning are added over time.

I still have to make the final choice. Maybe I’ll let you know tomorrow. Maybe not. Who knows? But rest assured it will meet my requirements, and it will be painting that will make me both happy and sad to give away.

The painting at the top, Beheld, is 12″ by 12″ on canvas. Note that it is not the painting to be given away. It is included in my current exhibit, Guiding Light, at the West End Gallery. The show is hanging until November 13.

A week from today, on Saturday, November 1 I will be giving away the aforementioned and still unchosen painting at my Gallery Talk at the West End Gallery, beginning at 11 AM.  As always, the Gallery Talk is free and open to everyone.

Here’s a song that has been stuck in my head in recent days. It’s Out With the Crow from a group called the Haunted Windchimes. Kind of Halloween-y, right?

Winter Wonder Moons— At West End Gallery

When the moon shines very brilliantly, a solitude and stillness seem to proceed from her that influence even crowded places full of life.

–Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1853)

If one moon can do that, can you imagine the effect of seven moons?

Maybe we need seven moons now more than ever?

This painting is titled Winter Wonder Moons and is 8″ by 10″ on canvas. It is included in my solo show, Guiding Light, which hangs at the West End Gallery until November 13.

And mark your calendars for next Saturday, November 1 when I will be giving a Gallery Talk at the West End Gallery, beginning at 11 AM. I am in the process of choosing a painting that will begiven away to someone in attendance at the end of the talk. It could be you! I will be announcing the prize painting in the next few days so keep an eye out here.

Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group.

–Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Maybe the way we view ourselves as being part of a group is the dividing line that separates us these days.

Some of us adhere to Carl Sagan’s view that throughout our history we have moved away from seeing ourselves as part of a single small group based on race, religion, occupation, wealth, or any number of other factors that are used to define us. It focuses on the commonalities that we share with others, both here on Earth and beyond.

This is an expansive and inclusive viewpoint.

On the other hand, there are those who deny this view of history and our humanity. They desire to become even more singular and narrow in their definitions.

It is exclusionary and limiting in its scope.

Those are seemingly pretty big differences to overcome. It can be frustrating, even depressing, to contemplate this division. But history shows that we do continue to progress forward. Perhaps slower than we would like and periodically with setbacks to this progress that will take time and effort to repair.

History also shows that the exclusionary factions may have their day in the sun but eventually succumb to the sheer numbers that make up the march of progress. 

I am still feeling poorly and wasn’t going to write anything this morning. However, I thought I might feel a bit better if I were to remind myself that history will usually self-correct, that darkness cannot last forever. I thought this painting, Witness to the Dawn, sort of summed up what I was thinking.

Hopeful and forward looking.  

This new painting is 10″ by20″ on canvas on canvas and is included in my solo exhibit, Guiding Light, now hanging at the West End Gallery in Corning, NY. The exhibit end Thursday, November 13.

Plus, on Saturday, November 1, there is also a GALLERY TALK taking place, beginning at 11 AM. Watch this space in the coming days for further details.

Here’s a song from Pearl Jam that also sums up a bit of what I am pulling from this painting. It’s called Just Breathe. I am also throwing in Willie Nelson’s take in the song from a number of years back, assisted by his son, Lukas.

Fiddler’s Moon— Now at West End Gallery

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I’m gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

—Leonard Cohen, Dance Me to the End of Love

Still a bit under the weather this morning. However, the force of habit of having done this nearly every morning for over seventeen years compelled me to post something this morning. I am featuring a painting, Fiddler’s Moon, from my current West End Gallery show along with a favorite song (of many) from Leonard Cohen, Dance Me to the End of Love.

I was torn between using the lyrics from the song as the opening for the blog or the poem, A Sign, from Walter de la Mare. I decided it was easier to simply use both, a snippet of the song lyrics at the top and the entire poem below, since there seems to be a common thread running through them about things coming to an end, all as the fiddler plays.

Fiddler’s Moon deserves more words than I am able to provide this morning. But then again, maybe saying less is more in this case. It speaks pretty well without any confusion I might add. It hangs at the West End Gallery as part of my annual solo show, this year titled Guiding Light. The show ends November 13, 2025, so try to get in to see it before things come to an end.

Also, there is a Gallery Talk accompanying the show which takes place on Saturday, November 1. It begins at 11 AM and will once again feature a drawing for one of my paintings. And perhaps some other stuff. I have an old electric can opener and a pair of slightly worn Reeboks, both from the 1990’s, that I might give away.

Well, probably not those things. But maybe other stuff. You never know.

Got to go. Thanks for your attention to this matter.

A Sign
by Walter de la Mare

How shall I know when the end of things is coming?
The dark swifts flitting, the drone-bees humming;
The fly on the window-pane bedazedly strumming;
Ice on the waterbrooks their clear chimes dumbing —
How shall I know that the end of things is coming?

The stars in their stations will shine glamorous in the black:
Emptiness, as ever, haunt the great Star Sack;
And Venus, proud and beautiful, go down to meet the day,
Pale in phosphorescence of the green sea spray —
How shall I know that the end of things is coming?

Head asleep on pillow; the peewits at their crying;
A strange face in dreams to my rapt phantasma sighing;
Silence beyond words of anguished passion;
Or stammering an answer in the tongue’s cold fashion —
How shall I know that the end of things is coming?

Haply on strange roads I shall be, the moorland’s peace around me;
Or counting up a fortune to which Destiny hath bound me;
Or — Vanity of Vanities — the honey of the Fair;
Or a greybeard, lost to memory, on the cobbles in my chair —
How shall I know that the end of things is coming?

The drummers will be drumming; the fiddlers at their thrumming;
Nuns at their beads; the mummers at their mumming;
Heaven’s solemn Seraph stoopt weary o’er his summing;
The palsied fingers plucking, the way-worn feet numbing —
And the end of things coming.

Night Magic— Now at West End Gallery

The appearance of things changes according to the emotions; and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.

–Kahlil Gibran, The Tempests (1920)

I had someone ask why some of my new paintings had several moons in the night sky. You would think I would have been prepared for that question, but since I honestly hadn’t given it a thought, the only answer I could muster was a simple one: Why not?

I’ve been thinking about that question a lot recently and still don’t have an answer that is any better than my first.

I just don’t know why they appear and why I find something in them that gratifies some part of me.

Maybe there really are multiple moons above us all the time that we cannot see?  Perhaps they are just a half dimension away and our scientific apparatus cannot yet detect them?

Maybe it is merely the magic of emotion and imagination. Perhaps it is a case where only those fully equipped with the finely tuned equipment of emotion and imagination set to the right frequency at just the right moment are treated to a night sky filled with several moons?

I don’t know.

I do know that those who see this as implausible or even crazy will never be fortunate enough to have the pleasure of seeing such a sight. They just don’t have the right equipment.

I was a bit under the weather last night and this morning and wasn’t on planning on writing anything. But the habit of doing this and the little bit of magic I see in this painting make me now feel a bit better. My equipment must be working okay even though my body is a little off. I find that reassuring.

Let me add one more little thing to this painting:

And that night the Council of Moons showed themselves in full and decreed to all that, by their power and that of the citizenry, every day and night thereafter shall be recognized as No Kings Day.

And peace and joy spread across the land…

To quote Yul Brynner in The Ten Commandments: So let it be written; so let it be done

Beguiled– Now at West End Gallery

I’ve seen the smiling of Fortune beguiling,
I’ve felt all its favours and found its decay;
Sweet was its blessing, kind its caressing,
But now it is fled, fled far, far away.

–Alison Cockburn, ‘The Flowers of the Forest’ (1765)

Just a short Thank You once more for the folks who came out in support of my show opening on Friday evening and to Jesse and Linda Gardner at the West End Gallery for all they have done for me over the past 30 years.

And thank you to every person who came out for yesterday’s No Kings rallies across the country. It is estimated that over 7 million concerned citizens hit the streets without any reports of arrests, violence, or major problems of any sort. This number doesn’t take into account those who participated in related protests around the world, most taking place around American embassies.

It was large and peaceful, and every single person did so for free, out of love and concern for their country. This reality stands in stark contrast to the ridiculous rhetoric from vacuous and vapid members of the GOP and the rightwing media that labeled the participants as either violent criminals and terrorists or paid partisans. 

With the desperation of these absurd claims, it is becoming crystal clear to more and more people that we are now in a race between an authoritarian regime on the verge of locking down control of this country and a growing and widening resistance seeking to prevent this.

Yesterday, was ample proof that resistance in the near future will be large and engaged.

Hope grows in such numbers.

Here’s this week’s Sunday Morning Music, from the one and only Ella Fitzgerald. This is her wonderful take on the Rodgers and Hart classic, Bewitched, Bothered, And Bewildered. It doesn’t get much better than this. It is paired with the new small piece at the top, Beguiled, from the West End Gallery show and a bit of verse from the Scottish poet/wit/hostess of the late 1700’s, Alison Cockburn.

Works for me…

There are two freedoms – the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where he is free to do what he ought.

–Charles Kingsley, Charles Kingsley: His Letters and Memories of His Life (1877)

On the morning after a show opening, I would normally simply thank everyone who came out the prior evening to see the new work and have an all too brief chat with me. I am doing that of course, for the folks who made it into the West End Gallery last night for the opening of Guiding Light.

I cannot be more appreciative for those folks, nor would I be anything less than effusive in my praise for them if I didn’t think that what is happening around the country today deserved attention here this morning.

Here and everywhere.

I am, of course, talking about the No Kings rallies that will be taking place all across the nation today. These peaceful gatherings of voices raised against the madness we are currently witnessing here in this country are vital shows of the strength and mass of opposing voices. It is important to show mass unity behind the rejection of those who seek to take away our freedoms and rights and who seek to exert control over our thoughts, words, and movements. To stand against those whose deepest desire is to make this country this a kingdom, dividing it into to baronies and duchies for their king’s wealthy enablers.

My own loosely formed credo has always been that I just want to be left alone and so long as others are not attacking or harming me or anyone else, I will leave them alone in return.

But when that pact is broken and others are attacked or harmed it is my duty, my obligation, and my responsibility to speak up. It is that simple– if I don’t stand for others, who will stand for me?

That is the price of freedom that must be paid.

If we can’t pay that price or are kept from doing so, we are no longer free.

As former Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas wrote in a dissenting opinion from 1952:

The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.

The millions that will be in the streets today are not terrorists nor are they partisans paid to be out there by nefarious organizations. Anyone with eyes and a handful of still operational brain cells understands that people will rise against tyranny on their own accord.

And fighting tyranny is truly on the table today. It is not opposition to the other party’s policies. It’s not about a matter of perspective or degree on any one issue.

It is black and white.

Decency versus indecency.

Compassion versus cruelty.

Unity versus division.

Justice versus the criminality of injustice.

Freedom versus subjugation.

Sorry to go on a rant this morning. However, it had to be said. I am sick of those who ignore or refuse to see what is clearly at hand.

If they aren’t willing to pay the price now, we will all pay dearly sooner rather than later.

Hit the streets, folks. Sing. Dance. Twerk in your frog costumes. Be strong but peaceful. Raise your voices on high.

That’s the cost of freedom.

Here’s song that you might want to keep in mind today from Crosby, Stills, and Nash.