Howl– Now at West End Gallery
All hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence
And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its own sweet will is Heaven’s will;
She can, though every face should scowl
And every windy quarter howl
Or every bellows burst, be happy still.
–William Butler Yeats, A Prayer for My Daughter (1919)
I can see this new painting, Howl, as having two distinctly different interpretations. Probably more when the experience and perceptions of others are considered. But from my personal perspective, the first, which is how I initially viewed it, is as a howl of indignation and defiant resistance against the prevailing winds of injustice, cruelty, and indecency.
Obviously, that interpretation takes current events into account. However, such a howl is certainly applicable in all times and places. There’s never a shortage of injustice, cruelty, or indecency.
The other way of reading it comes from a poem, A Prayer for My Daughter, William Butler Yeats wrote days after his daughter was born in 1919 during the early days of the Irish War for Independence. It, too, takes the current events of its time into account. It is written with the hope that as his daughter can resist the winds of hatred and anger and that she is not pulled along with them. And with the hope that she recognizes that she will always have the choice to find strength and contentment within herself even as the winds of hatred and anger swirl around her.
That though times are ugly, the world surrounding us can still be beautiful and wondrous.
I can easily see both of these views in this painting. Both takes are really about resistance, about staying intact against the force that want to tear us apart. About staying true to ourselves and our humanity. About denying hatred and cruelty a place in ourselves.
It’s about holding our ground and issuing a howl. a bellow, a yawp borrowed from Whitman, that comes from the core of our being that says we will remain as we are and will not become that which we stand against.
Well, that’s what I see in it…
Howl is 8″ by 16″ on canvas and is part of my solo exhibit, Guiding Light, that opens next Friday, October 17 at the West End Gallery in Corning, NY. The show’s Opening Reception, which is free and open to all, runs from 5-7 PM on the 17th. The work for the show has been delivered and will be available for previews in the coming few days.
A Gallery Talk is also scheduled at the West End Gallery for Saturday, November 1, beginning at 11 AM. Keep an eye out here for more details.
Not sure if this song applies at all to the painting or words above. I just felt like hearing it this morning. This is Stand from REM.
Redtree Times 