The Call of Wonder– At Principle Gallery One Week from Today!
That conflict between the reach for the divine and the lure of earthly things was to be the central problem of the Middle Ages.
–Barbara W. Tuchman, A Distant Mirror (1978)
Historian Barbara Tuchman wrote in A Distant Mirror about the late Middle Ages of 14th century Europe when the western world was in upheaval with wars, the Black Death, a Papal Schism, and all sorts of misery in every direction. She found many parallels in the 20th century that matched the chaos of what she called the Calamitous 14th Century, as she subtitled her book. Tuchman died in 1989, but I am relatively certain she would find even more parallels to calamity in the 21st century thus far.
I am not going to go into that here. Instead, I am focusing on the single line above from her book about the conflict between our desires for the spiritual and the material. She cites it as the central problem in the Middle Ages. Has it ever went away?
It is this conflict that I see in this new painting, The Call of Wonder, which will be in my solo show, Entanglement, that opens a week from today at the Principle Gallery. We are often lured to find answers to nagging questions we might have about our place and purpose in the universe while, at the same time, the need to find earthly sustenance– food, a roof over our heads, safety, bodily health, etc.– remains a necessity.
It is a narrow path that runs between deep desire and earthly responsibility, one I have been walking most of my life, especially the last 30 years as an artist. There is always the desire to delve deeper with my work but the need to meet the necessities of life has sometimes tempered my wanderings. I have sometimes felt as though I have held back a little in reserve. Stayed close to home, as this painting might imply.
I think this show is a step further up the path toward that desire to know and express more.
And that is the appeal I am finding in this painting right now. Oh, there’s a lot more to its appeal beyond that personal revelation. The colors in it jump out at me with their depth and saturation, as do the forms of the field and the sky. It has a strong visual impact in its color and composition, at least to my eye.
Just taking it in with quick glance, I am reminded of a close up of a flower with the path being a bending stem emerging from the Red Roofed house which serves as a flowerpot upward toward the moon which acts as its flower.
Or maybe the moon is the head on the dancing stick figure that the path makes.
Who knows?
It’s one of those pieces that holds many interpretations, many stories. And I like that.
The Call of Wonder is 16″ by 20″ on canvas and is included in my solo exhibit, Entanglement, that opens one week from today, Friday, June 13, at the Principle Gallery. I will at the Opening Reception for the show from 6-8:30 PM.
Next Saturday, June 14, I will also be giving a Painting Demonstration at the gallery. The demo, my first there, should run from 11 AM until 1 PM or thereabouts.
Redtree Times 