The Beat Goes On— Soon at West End Gallery
The first vows exchanged by two beings of flesh and blood was at the foot of a rock that was crumbling into dust; they took as witness for their constancy a sky that is not the same for a single instant; everything changed in them and around them, and they believed their hearts free of vicissitudes. O children! always children!
–Denis Diderot, Jacques le Fataliste (1796)
This is a new piece from a group of small paintings that are headed to the West End Gallery for its annual Little Gems exhibit of small works. It was one of the first pieces I worked on for this new group. I wanted to play with color and form and silhouette.
I add silhouette because it is a big part of perception. That really becomes apparent the longer I live in the woods. Looking through the trees of the forest, especially this time of the year (winter– -4° this morning!) when the underbrush has died back, the fallen trees create strange dark silhouettes that sometimes make me stop in my tracks. There is a kind of primal response as, for a few moments, my imagination sees them as lurking dark creatures.
But all the time my brain is weighing out things and I quickly deduce from gained knowledge the reality of what I am seeing. It is too big or small or the line that would be the creature’s back is somehow not right. The primal response retreats and I am left to relish that momentary burst of imagined perception. It also makes me wonder how many reports of Bigfoots (or is it Bigfeet?) and other strange creatures have been of something far different than what those witnesses have claimed they were.
As I say, our response to silhouette is an important aspect of how we interpret things. I think that’s why I am drawn to the silhouettes of city skylines. They tell a story of growth and change. Or during wartime, of destruction and change.
We often see skylines as constants, being able to identify cities by landmark buildings. But around these few identifiable silhouettes, it is anything but constant. It is always changing as new building arise and old one come down. For example, the skylines of NYC from 1985, 2005, and 2025 are not the same.
Change is the only constancy.
That can be said for almost everything, not just skylines. The rates of change may vary but everything changes over time. Some things evolve for the better and we want them to be eternally that way. Some devolve for the worse and we can’t wait for even more change to come soon. Either way, it is our responsibility to adapt to these changes, good or bad, as they come.
Because changes will keep coming.
Like the old Sonny & Cher song from 1967 says, the beat goes on. That’s where I got the title for this Little Gem. There was also something both warm and cool in the colors that reminded me of the song’s famous bassline, suggested and played brilliantly by Carol Kaye. She was part of the famed Wrecking Crew, a group of L.A. session musicians who played on many of the hits of the 1960’s. Leon Russell and Glen Campbell, among many others, were alumni of the Wrecking Crew.
It is reported that Carol Kaye has played bass on an estimated 10,000 recordings in a career that spanned 65 years. I find that incredible. The beat truly does go on.
There’s more I could write about this Little Gem. But I am just going to leave it here with the Sonny & Cher tune.
And the beat goes on…
Redtree Times 